论文部分内容阅读
When they awoke on the morning of September 8, 1900, the 38,000 residents of Galveston, Texas were unaware that this day would be their city's last. They had no idea that before the day was done, 8,000 of their fellow citizens would perish with the city. The culprit2 was a hurricane. The storm swept in oft" the Gulf of Mexico packing winds up to 135 mph--a category 4 storm in modern terminology. The storm propelled3 a fifteen-foot surge of water before it, easily swamping the 8.7-foot-high island that Galveston called home. Together, the wind and the water destroyed everything in their path and created the worst natural disaster in America's history.
There was little warning and no defense. In the early morning, high tides flooded some of the inland streets. Yet, this was not unusual in a city that barely rose above sea level. Heavy swells began to appear, but the mostly blue sky prompted a confidence that nothing out of the ordinary was about to occur. Most residents reasoned that even if a storm was on its way, they had weathered storms before. As a relative of one victim later recalled: "Mama didn't want to leave. She'd been through it before and wasn't worried. It had never been that bad." However, Galveston had never seen a storm like this one.
By mid-morning rain clouds took over the sky and the wind began to pick up. By mid-afternoon the hurricane hit with an intensity that only increased as darkness descended. The storm made its exit during the early morning hours of the next day; the total devastation it left in its wake revealed only with the rising sun. The bodies of the storm's victims littered4 a landscape strewn5 with debris in which few buildings remained standing.
1900年9月8日，得克萨斯州加尔维斯顿市的38，000居民清早醒来时，对他们所生活的这座城市将遭遇灭顶之灾毫无所知。他们也不知道，在这一天同这座城市一起消亡的还将有8，000名市民同胞。罪魁祸首是一场飓风。风暴越过墨西哥湾席卷而入，风速达到135英里每小时——按照现代的划分方法为四级风暴。风暴掀起15英尺的排头浪，轻而易举地吞噬了海拔8.7英尺的加尔维斯顿市所在的岛屿。狂风和海浪交织在一起，所到之处，一切尽毁，造成了美国历史上最严重的自然灾害。
加尔维斯顿的居民基本没得到什么警报，也没采取任何的防护措施。高高的潮水一大早就涌入市内的部分街道。对于一座海拔几乎与海平面持平的城市来说，这其实也属正常。汹涌的波浪开始出现，但是天空大体上还保持着蔚蓝，让人们坚信不会发生什么超乎寻常的事情。大部分人认为，风暴要来就来吧，他们又不是没经历过。一名遇难者的亲属后来回忆道：“妈妈不想离开；她以前经历过风暴，所以并不担心，以往的风暴都没这么严重。”然而加尔维斯顿这一天经历的风暴比之前任何一次都要严重得多。
上午过半时，雨云遮盖了整个天空，狂风开始加速。下午过半时，城市渐渐陷入黑暗，飓风逐渐增强。风暴在第二天凌晨停止，太阳冉冉升起时，呈现出大灾之后满目疮夷的景象。到处横陈着遇难者的尸体，散落着破瓦残砾，偶尔可见依然耸立的建筑物。
The city immediately began the task of clearing up the wreckage and rebuilding. To bolster its defenses, the city actually raised its buildings by as much as 1"7 feet by pumping sand beneath their foundations. A thick, sturdy seawall was then built along the island's ocean front. But Galveston was never the same; once the busiest port in Texas, with the promise of becoming the "New York of the South," the storm convinced shippers to move north to Houston's safer harbor.
Milton Elford was a young man living in Galveston with his mother, father and a young nephew, Dwight. Milton was the only one of his family to survive the storm. He described his experience in a letter to his brothers in North Dakota7. We join his story as the rising water and intensity of the storm persuade the family to leave their home for a sturdier brick house across the street:
"We left our house about 4 o'clock thinking we would be safer in a larger house, not dreaming that even that house would be washed away. We went across the street to a fine large house, built on a brick foundation high off the ground. About 5 it grew worse and began to break up the fence, and the wreckage of other houses was coming against us.
城市马上开始清理和重建工作。为了增强抵御风暴的能力，重建时往地基下注入沙子将建筑物抬高了17英尺，并沿着整座岛屿的海岸线修建了牢固的海堤。但是加尔维斯顿再也回不到从前了；她曾经是得州最繁忙的港口，本来有望发展成为“南方纽约”，但这场恶劣的风暴使发货商们开始将目光转向北部休斯敦更加安全的港口。
年轻人弥尔顿·埃尔福德和父母还有年轻的侄子德怀特一起生活在加尔维斯顿。风暴过后，弥尔顿成了整个家庭唯一的幸存者。他在给北达科他州的兄弟写信时曾经描述过这段经历。我们一起来听听弥尔顿的讲述。市区内洪水水位升高，风暴强度逐步增加，于是全家人准备离开家，转移到街对面的一幢更加坚固的砖房里面。故事就从这里说起：
“我们大约4点钟离开家。当时的想法是，搬到大一些的房子里会更安全，但做梦也没有想到连那座房子都会被冲走。我们穿过街道来到一幢不错的大房子里，房子地基由砖块筑起，高出地面不少。大约5点钟，状况越来越糟，房子的围栏开始被冲毁，其他房子的残骸向我们漂来。
We had arranged that if the house showed signs of breaking up, I would take the lead and Pa would come next, with Dwight and Ma next. In this way I could make a safe place to walk, as we would have to depend on floating debris for rafts.
There were about fifteen or sixteen in the house besides ourselves. They were confident the house would stand anything; if not for that we would probably have left on rafts before the house went down. We all gathered in one room; all at once the house went from its foundation and the water came in waist-deep, and we all made a break for the door, but could not get it open. We then smashed out the window and I led the way.
我们本来的安排是：如果房子出现倒塌的迹象，我会冲在前面带领大家逃出去，爸爸紧跟在我后边，然后是德怀特和妈妈。这样我可以在前边开路，因为我们很有可能要用漂浮的房屋残骸做筏子。
除了我们一家人，房子里还有十五六个人。他们都坚信这座房子可以抵御住一切灾难，要不是他们这么有信心，我们很可能会在房子倒塌之前就坐木筏离开那里了。我们都集中在同一个房间里，突然间房子与地基连接处断裂，齐腰深的水涌了进来。我们都试图撞开门，但是却打不开。于是我们敲碎窗户，我在前面带头往外冲。
I had only got part way out when the house fell on us. I was hit on the head with something and it knocked me out and into the water head first. I do not know how long I was down, as I must have been stunned. I came up and got hold of some wreckage on the other side of the house. I could see one man on some wreckage to my left and another on my right. I went back to the door that we could not open. It was broken in, and I could go part way in, as one side of the ceiling was not within four or five feet, I think, of water. There was not a thing in sight.
I went back and got on the other side but no one ever came up that I could see. We must all have gone down the same time, but I cannot tell whether they come up.
我还没有完全走出来，房子就塌了。我的脑袋被什么东西给砸了一下，被撞到窗外，头朝下栽入水中。当时我肯定是被击晕了，也不知道自己倒下了多久。我爬起来，抓住倒在房子另外一侧的残骸。我可以看到我的左右各有一人，也都靠着房子的残骸。我返回到那扇之前没打开的门边，门已经被从外边毁坏了。有一边屋顶还未被四五英尺深的积水没过，我走到那里就过 不去了。那里空无一物，什么都看不见。
我返回来，上到房子的另外一侧，但没看到任何人。我们肯定是被同时击倒，我却弄不清楚他们有没有爬起来。
I then started to leave by partly running and swimming from one lot of debris to another. The street was full of tops and sides of houses and the air was full of flying boards. I think I gained about a block on the debris in this way, and got in the shelter of some buildings, but they were fast going down, and I was afraid of getting buried.
Just then, the part I was on started down the street, and I stuck my head and shoulders in an old tool chest that was lying in the debris that I was on. I could hardly hold this down on its side from being blown away, but that is what saved my life again.
When the water went down about 3 a.m., I was about five blocks from where I started. My head was bruised and legs and hands cut a little, which I did not find until Monday and then I could hardly get my hat on.
...As soon as it was light enough, I went back to the location of the house, and not a sign of it could be found and not a sign of any house within two blocks, where before there was scarcely a vacant lot.
I then went to the city hall to see the chief of police, to get some help to recover the corpses, thinking, I guess, that I was the only one in that fix."
然后我开始连游带跑地从一堆破瓦残砾逃到另外一堆。街上到处都是坍塌的房顶和墙壁，空中满是乱飞的木板。我就这样在这些瓦砾堆上大概前行了有一个街区，进入到几幢楼里躲避。但是那里也很快开始塌陷，我很害怕会被埋在下边。
就在那时，我所在的那堆破瓦残砾开始沿街向前漂流，瓦砾堆上有个旧工具箱，我把头和肩膀卡在里面。我几乎无法按住工具箱，无法阻止它被大水冲走，但正因为如此，我才又一次得救。
大约凌晨3点时，水位开始下降，那时我已经从那座房子漂出五个街区了。直到周一我才发现，自己腿和手被划破了一些小口子，头上满是瘀伤，肿得连帽子都快戴不上了。
……等飓风减弱到安垒程度时，我马上返回到那座大房子原来所在的位置，却发现房子早已不见了踪影，甚至在两个街区范围内都找不到任何房子的存在。而这个地区在风暴之前想找块空地都是很难的。
我于是去市政厅找警察长，希望他们能够帮助我找回家人的尸体。我猜想自己大概是那座房子中唯一的幸存者。”
There was little warning and no defense. In the early morning, high tides flooded some of the inland streets. Yet, this was not unusual in a city that barely rose above sea level. Heavy swells began to appear, but the mostly blue sky prompted a confidence that nothing out of the ordinary was about to occur. Most residents reasoned that even if a storm was on its way, they had weathered storms before. As a relative of one victim later recalled: "Mama didn't want to leave. She'd been through it before and wasn't worried. It had never been that bad." However, Galveston had never seen a storm like this one.
By mid-morning rain clouds took over the sky and the wind began to pick up. By mid-afternoon the hurricane hit with an intensity that only increased as darkness descended. The storm made its exit during the early morning hours of the next day; the total devastation it left in its wake revealed only with the rising sun. The bodies of the storm's victims littered4 a landscape strewn5 with debris in which few buildings remained standing.
1900年9月8日，得克萨斯州加尔维斯顿市的38，000居民清早醒来时，对他们所生活的这座城市将遭遇灭顶之灾毫无所知。他们也不知道，在这一天同这座城市一起消亡的还将有8，000名市民同胞。罪魁祸首是一场飓风。风暴越过墨西哥湾席卷而入，风速达到135英里每小时——按照现代的划分方法为四级风暴。风暴掀起15英尺的排头浪，轻而易举地吞噬了海拔8.7英尺的加尔维斯顿市所在的岛屿。狂风和海浪交织在一起，所到之处，一切尽毁，造成了美国历史上最严重的自然灾害。
加尔维斯顿的居民基本没得到什么警报，也没采取任何的防护措施。高高的潮水一大早就涌入市内的部分街道。对于一座海拔几乎与海平面持平的城市来说，这其实也属正常。汹涌的波浪开始出现，但是天空大体上还保持着蔚蓝，让人们坚信不会发生什么超乎寻常的事情。大部分人认为，风暴要来就来吧，他们又不是没经历过。一名遇难者的亲属后来回忆道：“妈妈不想离开；她以前经历过风暴，所以并不担心，以往的风暴都没这么严重。”然而加尔维斯顿这一天经历的风暴比之前任何一次都要严重得多。
上午过半时，雨云遮盖了整个天空，狂风开始加速。下午过半时，城市渐渐陷入黑暗，飓风逐渐增强。风暴在第二天凌晨停止，太阳冉冉升起时，呈现出大灾之后满目疮夷的景象。到处横陈着遇难者的尸体，散落着破瓦残砾，偶尔可见依然耸立的建筑物。
The city immediately began the task of clearing up the wreckage and rebuilding. To bolster its defenses, the city actually raised its buildings by as much as 1"7 feet by pumping sand beneath their foundations. A thick, sturdy seawall was then built along the island's ocean front. But Galveston was never the same; once the busiest port in Texas, with the promise of becoming the "New York of the South," the storm convinced shippers to move north to Houston's safer harbor.
Milton Elford was a young man living in Galveston with his mother, father and a young nephew, Dwight. Milton was the only one of his family to survive the storm. He described his experience in a letter to his brothers in North Dakota7. We join his story as the rising water and intensity of the storm persuade the family to leave their home for a sturdier brick house across the street:
"We left our house about 4 o'clock thinking we would be safer in a larger house, not dreaming that even that house would be washed away. We went across the street to a fine large house, built on a brick foundation high off the ground. About 5 it grew worse and began to break up the fence, and the wreckage of other houses was coming against us.
城市马上开始清理和重建工作。为了增强抵御风暴的能力，重建时往地基下注入沙子将建筑物抬高了17英尺，并沿着整座岛屿的海岸线修建了牢固的海堤。但是加尔维斯顿再也回不到从前了；她曾经是得州最繁忙的港口，本来有望发展成为“南方纽约”，但这场恶劣的风暴使发货商们开始将目光转向北部休斯敦更加安全的港口。
年轻人弥尔顿·埃尔福德和父母还有年轻的侄子德怀特一起生活在加尔维斯顿。风暴过后，弥尔顿成了整个家庭唯一的幸存者。他在给北达科他州的兄弟写信时曾经描述过这段经历。我们一起来听听弥尔顿的讲述。市区内洪水水位升高，风暴强度逐步增加，于是全家人准备离开家，转移到街对面的一幢更加坚固的砖房里面。故事就从这里说起：
“我们大约4点钟离开家。当时的想法是，搬到大一些的房子里会更安全，但做梦也没有想到连那座房子都会被冲走。我们穿过街道来到一幢不错的大房子里，房子地基由砖块筑起，高出地面不少。大约5点钟，状况越来越糟，房子的围栏开始被冲毁，其他房子的残骸向我们漂来。
We had arranged that if the house showed signs of breaking up, I would take the lead and Pa would come next, with Dwight and Ma next. In this way I could make a safe place to walk, as we would have to depend on floating debris for rafts.
There were about fifteen or sixteen in the house besides ourselves. They were confident the house would stand anything; if not for that we would probably have left on rafts before the house went down. We all gathered in one room; all at once the house went from its foundation and the water came in waist-deep, and we all made a break for the door, but could not get it open. We then smashed out the window and I led the way.
我们本来的安排是：如果房子出现倒塌的迹象，我会冲在前面带领大家逃出去，爸爸紧跟在我后边，然后是德怀特和妈妈。这样我可以在前边开路，因为我们很有可能要用漂浮的房屋残骸做筏子。
除了我们一家人，房子里还有十五六个人。他们都坚信这座房子可以抵御住一切灾难，要不是他们这么有信心，我们很可能会在房子倒塌之前就坐木筏离开那里了。我们都集中在同一个房间里，突然间房子与地基连接处断裂，齐腰深的水涌了进来。我们都试图撞开门，但是却打不开。于是我们敲碎窗户，我在前面带头往外冲。
I had only got part way out when the house fell on us. I was hit on the head with something and it knocked me out and into the water head first. I do not know how long I was down, as I must have been stunned. I came up and got hold of some wreckage on the other side of the house. I could see one man on some wreckage to my left and another on my right. I went back to the door that we could not open. It was broken in, and I could go part way in, as one side of the ceiling was not within four or five feet, I think, of water. There was not a thing in sight.
I went back and got on the other side but no one ever came up that I could see. We must all have gone down the same time, but I cannot tell whether they come up.
我还没有完全走出来，房子就塌了。我的脑袋被什么东西给砸了一下，被撞到窗外，头朝下栽入水中。当时我肯定是被击晕了，也不知道自己倒下了多久。我爬起来，抓住倒在房子另外一侧的残骸。我可以看到我的左右各有一人，也都靠着房子的残骸。我返回到那扇之前没打开的门边，门已经被从外边毁坏了。有一边屋顶还未被四五英尺深的积水没过，我走到那里就过 不去了。那里空无一物，什么都看不见。
我返回来，上到房子的另外一侧，但没看到任何人。我们肯定是被同时击倒，我却弄不清楚他们有没有爬起来。
I then started to leave by partly running and swimming from one lot of debris to another. The street was full of tops and sides of houses and the air was full of flying boards. I think I gained about a block on the debris in this way, and got in the shelter of some buildings, but they were fast going down, and I was afraid of getting buried.
Just then, the part I was on started down the street, and I stuck my head and shoulders in an old tool chest that was lying in the debris that I was on. I could hardly hold this down on its side from being blown away, but that is what saved my life again.
When the water went down about 3 a.m., I was about five blocks from where I started. My head was bruised and legs and hands cut a little, which I did not find until Monday and then I could hardly get my hat on.
...As soon as it was light enough, I went back to the location of the house, and not a sign of it could be found and not a sign of any house within two blocks, where before there was scarcely a vacant lot.
I then went to the city hall to see the chief of police, to get some help to recover the corpses, thinking, I guess, that I was the only one in that fix."
然后我开始连游带跑地从一堆破瓦残砾逃到另外一堆。街上到处都是坍塌的房顶和墙壁，空中满是乱飞的木板。我就这样在这些瓦砾堆上大概前行了有一个街区，进入到几幢楼里躲避。但是那里也很快开始塌陷，我很害怕会被埋在下边。
就在那时，我所在的那堆破瓦残砾开始沿街向前漂流，瓦砾堆上有个旧工具箱，我把头和肩膀卡在里面。我几乎无法按住工具箱，无法阻止它被大水冲走，但正因为如此，我才又一次得救。
大约凌晨3点时，水位开始下降，那时我已经从那座房子漂出五个街区了。直到周一我才发现，自己腿和手被划破了一些小口子，头上满是瘀伤，肿得连帽子都快戴不上了。
……等飓风减弱到安垒程度时，我马上返回到那座大房子原来所在的位置，却发现房子早已不见了踪影，甚至在两个街区范围内都找不到任何房子的存在。而这个地区在风暴之前想找块空地都是很难的。
我于是去市政厅找警察长，希望他们能够帮助我找回家人的尸体。我猜想自己大概是那座房子中唯一的幸存者。”