Is there something particularly harrowing about having a successful professional basketball franchise during the 21st century? Rent.com may think so. In their recent list of the "Top 10 Haunted Cities", the only Texas city they deemed ghoulish enough to make the cutting board was San Antonio. What gives? There is a sprawling graveyard of reasons why Houston deserves this damned distinction. Here are the five most mercilessly macabre:
5. Galveston Hurricane of 1900 Hell hath no fury like a woman with the meteorological power to unleash 135 mph winds and eliminate 20 percent of the population of your metropolitan neighbor. The deadliest natural disaster in U.S. History produced more than 8,000 fatalities and provoked the entire island--which is so inextricably linked to Houston's identity--to be mechanically elevated 17 feet. Looking over the towering seawall and seeing how subsequent hurricanes have pummeled the city, it's a eerie reminder of the thousands that were buried at sea and, upon washing ashore, burned on funeral pyres.
