Signal-Copiahan. (Hazlehurst, Copiah County, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1886-10-21
TERRIBLE GULF STORM.
Destruction OF Sabine City aud John
sons Bayou.
Over Two Hundred People and Nearly 10000
Cattle Drowned.

Over Two Hundred People and Nearly 10000
Cattle Drowned.
Probably the mos. terrific aud dis
astrous storm that ever visited the
Southern country swept over The Cult
of Mexico last week, which literally
wiped out Sabine City on the coast o
Texas. and Jolnson's Bayou, in Lou
isiana, doing immense damage to ship
ping and crops. and cntailnp fear
ful l,ss Of life aud property. over
two Hundred persons and nearly ten
thousand cattle were drowned. The
storm commenced ON Tuesday night
and ragged with undated fury for
three days. Sabine City numbered iOO
inhabitants and of these l27 were
drowned. OF all the houses only IL
remain standing. At Johnson's Bay
ou rs were drowned. After the storm
ahatcd the relief boat Lamar was sent
to the place, and the scene which met
the relief party beggars description,
The dead bodies of human beings, cat
tie and birds were strcwn along the
coast. and the stencil arising was aw-
fnl. lIcartrcnding tales were told by
those who survived. Children were
torn from mothers arms and drowned,
husbands and wives were driven as
sundcr, and in many instances entire
families were swept away. From dis'
patches TO the Times Democrat, we
extract as follows:
SABINE CRY.
The sight here presented to view
WAS deplorable. The little town is
total wreck. Few buildings are left,
aud they are very few, and are twisted
and ila,tcncd into all manner of shapes.
Some ARE completely upset and re-
moved from their former positions
Geo To- 1000 yards. There is no, one
inhabitable home in the place. Not
even the sign OF u store building could
Il, found and not a dollars worth of
goods wax saved 10y all the merchants
combined.
Capt. Hyatt's residence has not ~
much Us u fence post left. The Jetty
Company's sh pways, wlarves of the
por, and every vcstige of property is
gone.
All ,ho houses looking from the Pass
toward the lighthouse are completely
zone, save the liic.saving station,
which il badly wrecked. he light
house break is swep, away aud the
tower is crooked and seriously dam
aged. !
The schooner Silas lies out OH land
some four hundred yards distant, and
is total wreck. The iron tug Fowler
il belched near MuHkctc Point, hut
will he saved.
The railroad for six or eight miles
is a twisted mass of iron lnd splinters.
The steamer found the remaining in
habitants suffering for food and water.
and from the nights terrible exposure,
Int systematically began AT once the
work of relieving them.
The people lost every hing, except
the clothes they had on their bodies.
Houses were carried three miles in
land on top of the waves. The gale
was tho Srvcrcs' ever known III that
section. and the rise of the water re-
semhlcs Il tidal wave.
JOHNSON BAYOU,
the p0stoilce name Of which IL Rad
ford. numbered | 200 inhabitants. To-
day cighty-.ive of that number are
counted with the dead. Forty at their
bodies have been recovered and con
sigucd 20 graves in the Shell Reef,
while the dccomposing 'corpscs of the
remaining forty-iive liz fostering in the
marshes.
On the morning of Tuesday laSt hap
pincss and content was the lot of the
people. At : o'clock that evening the
storm descended upon them. Every
body took to their homes and waited
the fate which they foresaw was doom
ell to be theirs. The waters, rising
with the wind, swept through the low
cr storic. of the buildings. driving the
aihigltrd people in the attics and mp
ON the roofs. BY 10 o'clock the first
ridge. twelve feet above the SEA level,
was ten feet under water. House after
house fell in, or was awept away, eth
CT burying the doomed people in The
debris or hurting them into kissing
waves. The cotton mill and stores
next succumbed, and Radford and
Jolnson's Bayou were destroyed ~
il an invading army had done the
work. Ii was night of terror. Pe0-
pie could only cling to each other, and
pray for mercy and for the souls of
those whose dcspuiring shricks rang on
their ears. For twelve hours the storm
ragged over the settlements, and then
there came a lull. The storm passed
away and the survivors gathered. on
elevated points, viewing the scene of
desolation around them.
The houses that stood the action Of
the storm were completely Quilted.
There was no food or drink, the salt
water having invaded everything.
Then there began u search for the
dead, and those whose bodies lay pin
ioned 10y the ruins of houses were
speedily recovered. rom ont of the
marshes more corpses were taken and
likewise buried.
The surviving women and children
We're taken 10 Beaumont. Texas, and
the men remained to gather and bury
the dead. The town will be abandon
ed forever.