Show tad af CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES L OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF 1 tropic hurricane by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter H HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY we 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 thatis is the sort of yarn we have today y fellow ow 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 toni 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 sellin selling 9 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 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 of roseau on the little british island of dominica on september 11 1928 he had been there for about ten days and was I 1 MIS I 1 nl A 0 roofs went flying off houses just about ready to move on he had his sample trunks all packed and in the custom house and was waiting for a steamer due that day which 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 a few days to come 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 was hobsons choice for tom along about sundown rain and wind began coming in short fitful gusts at 8 the cannon at the fort the only means the police had of advising the natives that the storm was headed 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 far more evil portent than the first its upon us and on its heels the fury of the storm lashing and tearing carving its 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 runn running ing 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 coco cocoa nuts went winging and bounding in all directions like a barr barrage a ge of cannon balls I 1 in his hotel a block and a half from the seawall T tom orn 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 his whole life pass before him before they say a drowning man sees he dies tom saw just that there au alone a thousand miles away irom from people he thought ow out home on a strange island among strange his own obituary he prayed and he ashamed of it 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 steeple came crashing down dox ii t brally himself was death him tom ruin destruction were all about thrown about the room by the sickening impact of the blow from time tune 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 for 23 hours h r t the he worst 23 or a time in all tom was boarded up worst hours he ever spent in his life and it the danger that bothered rack him terrible nerve FO 0 o much as the inactivity the uncertainty the the ocean or ing ie sensation of waiting waiting to be washed away by buried alive under a falling roof it was the next morning at 4 1 a i m when the storm finally e finale n passed aorl full of debs debris the houses os over aver streets the town shambles the was a alive he H god he was III ruins tom took some pictures a and nd thanked after 1 four or five sundays ays ys I went to church religiously for flor about that bein being g scared da any more at and then like a good many more of us not started parted to miss again like a good many more of us is right copyright service ice |