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Show ADVENTURERS CLUB I 3 HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! Vjf "Tropic Hurricane" By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter HELLO 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 think that men in action don't 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 jour-neying 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 for divine protection pro-tection against the dread wind storms they had learned to fear. a 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 Roofs Went Flying OS 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 couldn't 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 Hobson's choice for Tom. Along about sundown, rain and wind began coming in short, fitful gusts. At 8 o'clock, 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 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 scream-ing 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. "It's upon us!" And on Its heels, the fury of the storm, lashing and tearingcarving tear-ingcarving 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, 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 Coco-nuts went winging and bounding in all directions, like a barrage of cannon balls. In his hotel, a block and a 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 I 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 ex-pecting 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 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 isn't ashamed of it He promised the Lord he'd be a better man if he was spared this time and be meant It every doggone word of it at the time. Still the tempest raged. A church steeple 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 wasn't the danger that bothered him so much as the inactivity the uncertainty. The terrible nerve-racking 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. m., 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 ays: "I went to church religiously for about four or five Sundays after that and then, like a good many more of us, not being scared any more, I started to miss again." Like a good many more of us is rightl Copyright WNU Service. |