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Show LOSSOFLipPROPERTyApM Mast Disastrous Storm to History of kwM Synh Djatii, . ; Desolation and Distress in Galveston Texas. loss, of Life and Property Too Great to B2 Estimated Widespread Distress Follows the Storm. Waves Piled nigh Upon the Dneh by a Furious Gale Sibmrrti the En Mr City to XeeUi of ( to IS Feet, Washing Whole Blocks of Buildings Into tha Oair. Do- ( Mrojrlng Thousands of Homos and Canning Unnumbered Deaths Ugkt Water Craft Wislisd Inland Ten Mllas aad Large Sseasaevs Btraadad High oa tha Beaeau Tha storm that swept Galveston Sunday has proven to be one of the most awful tragedies of modern times. While the deal list may net be as large as at first anticipated, it is almost certain to reach 1,000, while the financial finan-cial ruin iB beyond comparison. No storm in American history has ever wrought such havoc, and GaWeaton Is in ruins. Large steamers and water crafts are stranded on tha sites of former large buildings which were the dweVlngs, establishments and every structure having been either carried car-ried out to sea or its ruins piled in a I pyminid far ioto the town, according to the vagaries of the tempest The rt hurried glaaseovsr the city showed that the largest structures, supposed to be the moat substantially built, suffered most The Orphans' home, Twenty-first and Avenue M, fell like a house of cards. How many dead children and refugees are la the ruins mown ana swept ont of existence. People of the stricken city are in actual want, as the salt water utterly ruined the water supply and greatly damaged the food. Every bridge to the mainland is destroyed and most all water crafts put out of service, so that the transportation of supplies, easily secured ia nearby cities, is a serious question; ' The secretary of war, by direction of the president, has ordered 40,000 rations ra-tions and 10,000 tents for the relief of sufferers to be forwarded from the nearest supply depot could not be ascertained. Of the sick in St Mary's infirmary, together with the attendants, only eight are understood to have been saved. The Old Women's home, oa Rosenberg Rosen-berg avenue, collapsed. The Rosenberg school house is a tnsss of wreckage. The Ball high sehool is but an empty shell, crushed and broken. Every church ia the city, with possibly one er two exceptions, is la ruins. At the forts nearly all the soldiers are reported dead, they having been in temporary quarters which rave them me wreck of Galveston was brought about by a tempest so terrible that no words can adequately describe its intensity, in-tensity, and by a flood which turned the city into a ragingsea. The weather bureau record shows that the wind attained at-tained a velocity of eighty-four miles Jour,V r the measuring instru-waVrso instru-waVrso it'is imposibie"to tell whatwas the maximum. The storm began about 2 o'clock Saturday morning. Previous to that a great storm bad been raging in the gulf and the tide was very high. The wind at first came from the north and was in direct opposition to the force no protection against the tempest or flood. The bay front from end to end is in ruins. Nothing but piling and the wreck of the great warehouses remain. The elevators lost all their superworks and their stocks are damaged by water. The life-saving station at Fort Point was carried away, the crew being swept across the bay fourteen miles to Texas City. The shore at Texas City eontains enough wreckage to rebuild a city. Eight persons who were swept across the bay during the storm were picked up there alive. Five corpses were also picked up. There were three fatalities in Texas City. In addition to the living and dead which the storm cast up at Texas City, caskets and coffins from one of the cemeteries at Galveston are being fished out of the water there. Of the new Southern Pacific works little remains but the piling. Half a million feet of lumber was carried away and Engineer Hoschke says that as far as the company is concerned it might as well start over again. Eight ocean steamers wrre torn from their moorings and stranded in the bay. It will take a week to tabulate the drd and missing and to get anything ...... s ut x "Hue me storm in the gulf piled the water upon the beach side of the city, the north wind piled the water from the bay onto the bay part of the city. About noon it became evident that the city was going to be visited with disaster. Hundreds of residences along the beach front were hurriedly abandoned, aban-doned, the families fleeing to dwellings in higher portions of the city. Every home was open to the refugees, black or white. The wind was rising constantly, con-stantly, and rain fell in torrents. The wind was so fierce that the rain cut like a knife. By 3 o'clock the waters of the gnlf and bay met, and by dark the entire city was submerged. The flooding of the electric light plant end the gas plant left the citv in darkneu. t near an approximate Idea of the loss. It is safe to assume that one-half of the property of the city is wiped out and that one-half of the residents will have to face absolute poverty. There are few buildings nt Texas City that do not tell of the storm. The hotel is a complete ruin. The office of lhe Texas City company has some of the walls standing with all of the upper walls stripped off. Nothing remains re-mains of the piers except the piling. The wreckage from Galveston litters the shore for miles and is a hundred yards or more wide. For ten miles inland from the shore it Is a common sight to see small craft such as steam launches, schooners and oyster sloops. Governor Sayers in an interview Baid: "I think it is the most deplorable deplor-able catastrophe in the history of America, and I feel that every DoaiiM. out into the streets was to court death. The wind was then at cyclonic velocity! roofs, cisterns, portions of buildings, telegraph poles and walls were falling,' and the noise of the wind and the crashing of the buildings was terrifying terrify-ing in the extreme. The wind and waters rose steadily from dark until 1:45 o'clock Sunday morning. During all this time the people of Galveston were like rats in a trap. The highest portion of the city was four to five feet under water, while in the great majority of cases the streets were submerged sub-merged to a depth of ten feet To leave a house was to drown. To re-main re-main was to court death in the wreckage. wreck-age. Such a night of agony has seldom -1 ,, ,Viiuut apparent reason rea-son the waters began to subside at 1:45 a. m. Within two miauter-they had gone down two feet and before daylight day-light the streets were practically freed of the flood waters. In the meantime the wind had veered to the southeast Very few, if any, buildings escaped injury. There is hardly a habitable house lo th. city. When the people who had escaped death went out at daylight to view the work of the tempest tem-pest and the floods, they saw the most horrible sights imaginable. The whole of the business front for I three blocks in from the gulf were stripped of every vestige of habitation, ! 1 aid should be lent to the sufferers in the hour of great need. Frominfor-I mation received I am led to think that hundreds of families have either lost their dear ones or have been bereft of their homeland the ease is one that will certainly appeal to every one I have taken active steps to raise relief for every one that can possibly be looked after. I have wired all the city Mayors and all the county Judges, asking them to secure all funds and provisions possible, and their replies are very gratifying." Some estimates place the nnmber -of lives lost as high as 6000, and very la. I place it below 1000. |
