Established primarily for the saving of life and property of the public from the perils of the sea, the Coast Guard is not infrequently itself the victim of serious disaster through the ravages of storm and flood. Probably the most notable instances of the kind in the history of the service have been caused by the tropical hurricanes which occasionally visit the coasts of the United States. The most disastrous of these storms in recent years, so far as concerns the service, swept the Gulf coast on the 16th of August, 15, entirely destroying the Velasco, San Luis, and Galveston stations, with practically all their equipment, and claiming the lives of two members of the crew of the Velasco station and of four members of the San Luis station crew. Several members of the families of the Coast Guardsmen and a number of persons who had sought refuge at the stations also perished.
Upon occurrence of these hurricanes, the crews of stations within the storm area have been accustomed, under extreme conditions, to man their larger boats at the beginning of the flood, taking with them such refugees as have sought protection, in the hope of surviving the storm, riding at such available mooring as seemed to offer the best holding ground. The predicament of the crews during these trying occasions ,an well be imagined. Driven from their stations by the rise of water, there is nothing else for them to do, on the low, flat beaches of the country, but to take to their boats, make them fast as best they can, and trust to good fortune to bring them through the storm. The story of the storm of 1915 is practically a repetition of the incidents of former hurricanes occurring in the Gulf coast.
Upon this occasion a total of 21 persons, members of the crew of the Velasco station and refugees, sought safety in the Coast Guard boats belonging to the station. At the height of the storm the station was carried away by wind and flood, and both boats, which were moored to the building, were capsized, resulting in the drowning of sixteen persons. Surfmen Christian P. Oddershede and Theodore Gust, and the wife and daughter of Keeper Steinhart, were among those who lost their lives. Two of the surviving members of the crew and a young woman who was with the party, all having life preserves, floating d about in the waters of the Gulf for 20 hours, finally drifting ashore on Galveston Island, some 25 miles to the eastward of the station.
At the San Luis station,on the west end of Galveston Island, the crew and others also took to the lifeboats in the same manner. Four members of the crew, Surfmen Edward Boetger, W. J. Cochran, Jerome C. Maddox, and Maraus Olsen, perished, following the overturning of their boat which, as in the former case, was caused by the collapse of the station building. The wife of Surfman Krouse, the wife and child of Surfman Boetger, and a camper named Richard Hanson were also drowned. The surviving members of the station crew, badly cut and bruised, reached land 18 or 20 miles distant from the station after drifting in the Gulf for periods varying from 24 to 46 hours.
No loss of life occurred at the Galveston station. On the contrary, it appears that in the early hours of the hurricane the station crew effected the rescue of 18 people.
| Name | Rating | Duty Station | Date |
| Boetger, E. | Surfman | STA San Luis, TX | 8/16/1915 |
| Cochran, W. J. | Surfman | STA San Luis, TX | 8/16/1915 |
| Maddox, J. C. | Surfman | STA San Luis, TX | 8/16/1915 |
| Olsen, M. | Surfman | STA San Luis, TX | 8/16/1915 |
| Gust, T. | Surfman | Sta Velasco, TX | 8/16/1915 |
| Oddershede, C. P. | Surfman | Sta Velasco, TX | 8/16/1915 |