In which Moominmama follows the pirates and survives a (minor) Galveston storm...

Last night, the Moominhouse shook like it was possessed while the sky rumbled, cracked and flickered like a bad lightbulb. Then a firehose of water dumped on us, leaving a splash pool under the open window by the door. Fortunately, it was over in 30 minutes. 

The island of Galveston, Texas is defined by its storms -- and by a cast of miscreants including pirates, bootleggers and gamblers. Galveston is the first place Moominmama has seen to boast of its historic red light district and background as a Mafia town.

The first Westerner to settle here was reportedly the pirate and smuggler Jean Lafitte, after he and his fleet were chased out of Barataria Bay and New Orleans. The site of his Galveston home, called the Maison Rouge, is proudly marked on Harborside Drive.

Galveston is a long sausage of an island on the Gulf south of Houston. The inland side holds the port, and the Gulf side remains a huge expanse of beach with a seawall and stone piers operating as breakers. Moominmama, camped near Stewart Beach, managed to get in a swim -- in this case with the wind speed only 14 mph. Epic body surfing!

The seawall dates back to the early 1900s after the Great Storm, a hurricane and flood that took the lives of somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 people. This included a community of orphans and nuns who roped everyone together to protect the young ones from washing away, per my tour guide, Angelo. Tragically, a few of the Sisters succumbed to the waves and dragged in the rest so they all perished.

After the flood, Galveston erected the seawall. The community also dredged the harbor and used the soil to build up other sections of the island. Still, periodic storms continue to flood the island.

More recently, Hurricane Ike struck Galveston in 2008, and many establishments proudly mark the water levels on their walls from the various major storms. 

Angelo was 8-years-old when Ike hit and remembers the bottom level of his home filled with water. The bottom level of that house is now on pilings with breakaway walls. The ground level is used only as a garage and storage, with the rest of the home safely above, he says. But most folks just rebuilt as before. They buy flood and wind insurance, Angelo says, and just accept the crazy weather. 

Which isn't to say they lack for imagination around here! After Hurricane Ike, many of the old oak trees on the island were killed by the salt water.

Post-disaster, federal officials started to cut these down. The then-mayor objected, hired a local artist to sculpt the broken tree in his own yard and encouraged other residents to do the same.

FEMA backed off and now Galveston has a fascinating collection of sculptures, including the one above where a dead branch has been carved in the shape of a pelican. 

The base of the same tree, at right, holds a carved egret and turtle as well as other birds, a frog and several ladybugs on the backside. Each of the broken branches is carved into a different type of pelican.

The tree below is actually carved from the shattered bits of a Japanese Yew tree. The artist chose to recreate native Galveston plants and flowers so you can see the shape of palms and the ubiquitous yellow sand flowers.

The amazing thing about this carving is that the grey weathered wood that remained behind the sculpture eventually sprouted new greenery so this carving is now part of a live tree.

Galveston has been cultivating its arts scene for some time now that tourism has taken the place of piracy, prostitution and gambling! 

But in one of its prior heydays, Frank Sinatra and other stars of 40s and 50s performed regularly at the Balinese Room Pier. The were hired by the local Maceo brothers until the Texas Rangers finally raided the private club and broke up the illegal gambling business that powered the local economy in 1957.

Hurricane Ike laid waste to the pier itself, washing away the latest investor's efforts to recreate the nightclub along with shops and other attractions. The land is now for sale.

Most of the oldest buildings are located on the port side of the island, which is a bit of a hike but perfectly walkable from the seawall.

This is where you can buy seafood fresh off the boats and where an 1877 tall ship called the Elissa is available to tour for a fee. It's also the location of a museum aboard an offshore drilling rig!

The Ocean Star no longer drills for oil and gas in the Gulf as it was only built to stand in about 200 feet of water. Drilling rigs now can float on the surface and manage drilling in thousands of feet, far out into the oceans. Since 1938, Moominmama learned, more than 56,000 wells have been drilled in the Gulf and 27,200 miles of active oil and gas pipelines remain.

Nor surprisingly, this museum is sponsored by a wide array of fossil fuel companies and affiliated industries. They take this opportunity to brag about their industry pioneers who sought "to understand and tame the forces of nature to benefit us all." Really?

But I don't get to feel too self-righteous as the Moominhouse doesn't tow itself. I may have a hybrid vehicle and solar panels but it takes gas to travel.

Still, I remain astonished that we've located so much of our country's oil and chemical industry in a part of the country, so vulnerable to bad weather and the intensifying effects of climate change. 

I don't suppose we want these industries off Lake Ontario or the NH Seacoast! 

But many folks here, mostly people of color, have paid a price in terms of air and water pollution. In New Orleans, they are fighting (so far successfully) against the addition of a proposed Formosa plastics plant. I won't look at gasoline or plastic quite the same again.

I can't leave you with the oil rig as the final image for this post, though I will share this orange pod, which reportedly fits 28 people and is how one would escape should disaster strike on a drilling rig. No thanks.

Galveston's architecture is a fascinating mishmash of styles, eras and states of (dis)repair, probably a function of frequent rebuilding. Alfred Hitchcock reportedly was inspired to write the screenplay for Psycho while visiting. 

I don't know if this house will survive the next major storm, but it's a nicer way to end this week's adventures. Did I mention they love their ghost stories here too?