The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-09-23
INDIANOLA.
The Horrors of the Storm.
Falling Houses and Roar of Waters
Statement of an Eye Witness.

We are indebted to Mr.. W. D. Kelly, who
was in Indianola during the late storm, for the
following particulars concerning the disaster
| I left Indianola Monday last, at O'Clock
P. NJ, where I had been during the gale
From my point of view, the following was
what saw:
| Wednesday afternoon, the 18th, was 8
cloudy day with pleasant breeze blowing and
the sky gave no token of the approach Of
high wind. The citizens pursued their avo
cations, little needing the dire disasteri await
ing them. The sun set in q leaden.c olored
cloud and darkness of the most intense kind
followed. After nightfall, the wind increased
from the northeast and the swell in the bay
became higher and by daylight Thursday, it
was blowing about twenty-five miles an hour.
This, however, occasioned no alarm in the
town until the news was generally circulated
that the water had encroached on the front
and was one foot deep in the streets nearest
| the bay.
AS the news spread the citizens seemed to
| appreciate a further rise, tor many of the
merchants commenced to carry their goods
up to the second floor, and to take other pre-
cautionary steps. Thursday at 10 A. NJ. it
was blowing fearfully, the water still coming
in higher, and in two hours rose six feet,
sabmerging most of the town. The alarm
spread like wildfire. Those who had boats
were plying about in the waves taking women
and children to places of fancied security.
Families were sent up to the highest portions
of the dwellings, household goods we're con-
fusedly hurried into garrets, and the whole
town was one scene of terror.
There were no means of leaving the town,
and so all had to secure themselves as best
they could. Midnight Thursday heavy
current set in, running through the town, and
then commenced the dull crash on all sides of
falling houses. The water by this time had
reached point covering the whole place
fully six feet.
Looking out, nothing could be seen, except
house tops and the white foam on the heavy
rollers. With every crash, above the scream
ing of the wind and the roar of waters, could
b. heard the wall of despair from drowning
women and children.
Frantically clinging to the remnants of the
wrecks mothers with children in their arms
vainly implored for help when all around
were unable to render any. The scene beg
CARED description. Strong men, overcome
with emotion, wept like children, and some
wanted to rush forth to certain death rather
than suff5r to see the victims perishing before
their eyes whilst they were powerless to rem
der assistance. Not an eye was closed that
night in Indianola. The loud splash and
cracking of timbers proclaimed another house
gone, and the sound was echoed by piercing
screams.i
About daylight Friday morning the wind
iulled and the water fell as rapidly as it had
risen, and by noon it was possible for people
to get about in the higher portions of the
town.
The severity of the damage done was then
fully appreciated. Not a house in the place but
what showed evidence of the gale. Squares
completely vacant, stores and houses having
been carried off by the current, leaving only
the Foundation to mark the spot where
once they stood.
AFTER THE STORM.
As soon as the citizens were able to get
out they set to work relieving those still in
peril Those confined in the upper stories of
dangerous buildings were taken out, and the
corpses caught by falling timbers removed.
1t was sad work and nobly did the people
respond to the call for duty. 1t was then that
the most heart-rending scenes were met Here
q little girl, almost nude, wading in the water
in search OF father, mother and sisters, whose
bodies lay bleaching on the sands miles dis
tant; there old men, pale with emotion. look
ing for their grandchildren, whose prattling
voices we're forever stilled by the treacherous
waters.
No pen could portray the sad picture of
Friday at Indianola A town of three thou
sand inhabitants under water for twelve
hours, with two hundred and fifty of their
number suddenly stricken down, could not
but tear-stain the paper and make the hand
of the chronicler tremble.
SATURDAY MORNING.
The work of gathering up what was left of
the wreck occupied all. Fires were lit in the
streets, built with the debris of the buildings,
and each individual was perforce his own
cook. Little knots stood around the fires dis
cussing the disaster, and there was on all
sides visible sadness and grief beyond the
power of tears to alleviate.
A rumor spread through the town that
some two miles back, where most of the
bodies had been washed, there were some six
Mezicans despoiling the dead. Those who
saw them, reported that in their greed for
jewelry, they had cut off fingers from corpses
and slit the ears to secure rings 1t was but
a short time before small company OF
volunteers was formed, and in few hours
they returned, having killed seven of the
brutes whilst at their hellish work The
stencil from the dead by this time had become
almost unbearable. Those who had been
caught beneath falling buildings had COM
menced to purify, and the whole air had the
smell of q charnel house.
As the flood had extended some ten miles
in shore, where there were some three thou
sand head Of cattle awaiting transportation,
numbers of the herds were drowned and their
carcasses added to the nauseating stencil.
THE WIND.
According to the last register made by the
lniesometer in the Signal Observatory before |
it fell, Thursday night the rate of the wind
was lightweight miles per hour. and the
citizens say it increased to fully one hundred |
during the night. The barometer fell as low
Is 1886 inches, the lowest known at Indi-
inoa.
al do not think, says Mr.. Kelly, that there
IS a person in Indianola who thinks the
Town will be rebuilt. All who can get away |
are hurrying to Victoria, and those who can
not as yet will do so as soon as possible. You
IAN rest assured that Indianola is town no
more. Through the main street the current
has cut gulch some fifteen feet in depth,
md the place is now divided by it. Every
house shows that it has passed through q
,rucial test, and l am sorry to say there are
put few standing. 1t is impossible for me to
ell you, sir, what the damage is. Nobody
AN as vet but it is enough to say town was