Author Lucy Davila Hakemack didn’t set out to write a novel about the Great Storm of 1900, the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. She simply wanted to understand more about the hurricane that nearly erased Galveston from the map.
The deeper she dug into newspaper accounts, survivors’ letters, and the archives at the Rosenberg Library, the more she realized the storm’s best-known stories weren’t the only ones worth telling.
Hidden among the headlines were teachers, servants, soldiers, children, and ordinary citizens whose courage had been largely forgotten. Those discoveries became Remembering the Storm.
The historical novel blends fact and fiction as a young teacher’s dreams collide with the hurricane that claimed an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 lives on Sept. 8, 1900. While the characters’ personal journeys are imagined, the people, places, and events surrounding them are rooted in years of research and Hakemack’s lifelong affection for Galveston.
Before she ever wrote a novel, Hakemack spent decades in education - first as a teacher, then as a counselor and principal. She wrote curriculum for Houston ISD and the Southern Baptist Convention and completed her doctoral dissertation at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Years earlier, fellow teachers encouraged her to publish a Christmas puppet show she created for her students, but family, graduate school, and a demanding career took priority.
“I had always wanted to become a writer, being an avid reader, but other duties like being a mother, teacher, counselor, and principal took precedence,” Hakemack said.
Retirement in 2019 finally gave her the chance to pursue that dream. She published her children’s book Harry’s Christmas before turning to a story that had quietly stayed with her ever since reading Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm, a retirement gift from one of her teachers.
Growing up in Houston, Galveston was woven into family life. “My father took us every other Sunday so he could go fishing,” she said. “I learned how to fish in Galveston and play in the warm waters.”
She also remembers the grand homes lining Broadway. “I used to envision myself growing up like a princess in one of those beautiful homes. That was a dream that was not likely to happen while growing up in poverty in the Houston Heights.”
As an adult, she joined Galveston’s historical community, volunteering during the Historic Homes Tour. Those experiences deepened her appreciation for a city that was once the commercial center of Texas before the hurricane altered its future.
Long before the storm, Galveston ranked among the nation’s busiest ports and was considered one of the South’s wealthiest cities. The hurricane changed that overnight, destroying thousands of homes and businesses.
Yet the city refused to disappear. Residents rebuilt, constructed the massive seawall, and raised much of the island several feet - an engineering achievement that remains remarkable today.
Hakemack wanted to understand not only what happened during the storm, but how people lived before it and persevered afterward.
That meant repeated research trips from her home in San Antonio to Galveston, where she spent long hours in the Rosenberg Library archives reading letters, newspaper accounts, and survivor stories.
“There was no backing for this project. I supplied the gas, lodging, and food during those trips for my research,” she said.
She also visited museums, historic buildings, and neighborhoods that appear in the novel. One discovery stayed with her.
During her research, Hakemack became particularly interested in the African Americans whose acts of heroism during the storm received little attention. Eventually she uncovered the story of Eliza Williams, who rescued her employer and the woman’s daughter, and Daniel Ransom, a Black man credited with saving 42 lives.
“I searched for others and found the list of the dead where the African Americans were only listed by a number or first name and the letter c, colored,” Hakemack said.
That discovery shaped the novel. She wanted readers to meet people whose contributions had largely disappeared from the historical record.
Ellie McLean grew directly from history. She is based largely on Alice Block, a Galveston teacher who survived the hurricane and later wrote a remarkable letter describing how she floated on wreckage while helping save her parents.
“I chose to make Ellie a strong, outspoken woman, like me when it comes to justice and the rights of the underdog,” Hakemack said.
The novel also explores the limitations women faced in 1900, when strict Victorian expectations shaped daily life and married women were barred from continuing their teaching careers.
Although Remembering the Storm includes a romance between Ellie and a young soldier named Jim, Hakemack said she worked to keep that relationship true to its time. Courtships often moved quickly, but propriety governed every meeting, and public displays of affection simply weren’t acceptable.
Like every historical novelist, she eventually reached the point where she had to leave fascinating stories behind.
“My editor made me cut out many stories that were real due to the length of the novel,” she said, including additional material about famed Galveston architect Nicholas Clayton.
What remained, however, reflects the people she most wanted readers to remember: overlooked heroes, the nuns who tried to save children at the island orphanage, Captain Goudge and his boat rescues, and the volunteers and Red Cross workers who helped the city begin again.
One aspect of the storm’s aftermath continues to surprise her. Dr. Isaac Cline, the chief U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologist in Galveston during the 1900 hurricane, remains one of the storm’s most debated figures.
“The thing that surprised me the most about Galveston after this horrific storm is that the survivors never place blame on Dr. Isaac Cline,” Hakemack said. “The people simply picked and started over.”
That determination is the thread running through the novel. When readers close the final page, Hakemack hopes they come away with the conviction that we should never give up after disaster strikes.
“I believe we can be as resilient as the people of Galveston who wanted everyone to know that things can be rebuilt. The lives that were lost cannot be replaced but always remembered.”
For Hakemack, publishing the novel fulfills a dream that has been decades in the making, but she hopes readers remember something even more enduring.
“I sought to honor the memory of those who died and those that lived after the 1900 storm of Galveston,” she said. “Their stories keep inspiring us to pursue our dreams and never stop living the life God has given each of us.”
For readers who want to explore the lives she worked so hard to honor, Remembering the Storm is available online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and at Galveston Bookshop (317 23rd St.) and Then & Now Bookshop (2118 A Postoffice St.). The novel is priced at $22.99 for the paperback and $34.99 for the hardcover, with a Kindle edition also available.