Show tad bom adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE ll 11 LIKE KE YOURSELF Fl 1 tropic hurricane by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter H HELLO ELLO we EVERYBODY have had a lot of stories boys and girls about people who have had close shaves and gotten out of them by some fast action or some quick thinking or by some herculean feat of strength they were great stories every doggone one of them but sometimes I 1 think that men in action dont get half the scare that people do who have to sit quietly and watch death creep up on them while they are powerless to do anything about it that Is the sort of yarn we have today fellow adventurers the story of tom brady of new york city the story of how he sat helpless in a strange land among strange people while chaos gripped the world and threatened to tumble it in ruins upon his head the story in short of a tropical hurricane tom had never seen a hurricane for years in his role as traveling man tom brady had been journeying through the tropical islands of the caribbean sea selling goods and looking over the country he had heard plenty about the hurricanes they have down there he had seen wrecked houses uprooted trees plenty of the evidences a tropical tornado leaves in its destructive wake he had seen the natives kneeling in the churches praying tor for divine protection against the dread wind storms they had learned to fear but up to the time this story opens september 11 1928 tom had never been caught in a hurricane tom was in the city af of roseau on the little british island of dominica on september 11 1928 he had been there tor for about ten days and was owl zv A roofs went flying off houses just about ready to move on he had his sample trunks all packed and in the custom house bouse and was waiting for a steamer due that day which wis was to take him to st lucia another small island in the windward group then what happened storm warnings barometer falling no steamer that day nor for foi a few days to come torn tom was going to see that hurricane now he get out of it the hotel tom was stopping at was a frame structure they said it was safe said it had stood up under other storms but tom had his doubts nevertheless it was the safest place to be found in roseau so it as hobsons choice for tom along about sundown rain and wind began coming in short fitful gusts at 8 the cannon at the tort fort the only means the police had of advising the natives that the storm was headed beaded their way boomed out its ominous warning get ready board up your windows take shelter then the wind began rising slowly steadily relentlessly havoc wreaked wrecked by the fierce storm all through the night lightning flashes ripped the black skies while the wind rose and the rain increased the colored natives were screaming now and chanting prayers in the streets everywhere people were scrambling about boarding up their houses as best they could no one slept that night no one wanted to at 5 a m the cannon on the fort boomed again this time with a message of tar far more evil portent than the first its It upon us and on its heels the fury of the storm lashing and tearing carving its pith path of havoc and destruction from the seawall to the farthest limits of the town the seawall was the first to go its solid concrete bulk running the length of the town crumbled like ashes under the force of the sea that battered against it the custom house jetty the belle jetty the fish market by the seawall were wrecked by the fury of the wind and carried away on the reeling lashing tide that was momentarily getting higher and higher roofs went flying off houses sheets of tin went sailing through the air went scraping and clattering down the streets the tops of palm trees snapped off as if they had been match stems coconuts went winging and bounding in all directions like a barrage of cannon balls in his hotel a block and a halt half from the seawall tom brady watched the waterfront coming up the street the gallery on the side of the hotel he was in was ripped off and carried away shutters were torn from their fastenings the rain was coming in the wind blew all the furniture against the opposite wall he found out what fear was downstairs they were lifting a huge wooden trap door and putting the women and the servants in the cellar they were expecting the roof to go next and in those moments tom brady found out what it was to be afraid they say a drowning man sees his whole life pass before him before he be dies tom saw just that there all alone a thousand miles away from home on a strange island among strange people he thought out his own obituary he prayed and he ashamed of it ahe he promised the lord hed be a better man if he was spared this time and he meant it every doggone word of it at the time still the tempest raged A church eesle came crashing down death ruin destruction were all about him tom himself was literally thrown about the room by the sickening impact of the blow from time to time the wind would shift strike the hotel from another angle then the men in that room would board up the windows again and be safe for a time in all tom was boarded up for 23 hours the worst 23 hours he ever spent in his life and it the danger that bothered him so much as the inactivity the uncertainty the terrible nerve rack ing sensation of waiting waiting to be washed away by the ocean or buried alive under a falling roof it was the next morning at 4 a in when the storm finally passed over the town was a shambles the streets full of debris the houses in ruins tom took some pictures and thanked god he was alive he says 1 I went to church religiously for about tour four or five sundays after that and then like a good many more of us not being scared any more I 1 started to miss again like a good many more of us is right service |