Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-10-22
VICTIMS OF A DBLUGB.
OVER SIXTY LIVES LOST IN TEXAS.
THE TOWN OF SABINE PASS SWEPT
AWAY-GREAT SEA WALLS
DRAGGED DOWN-THE GULF IN
AN ANGRY MOOD.

] =
communication with Sabine Pass
as the wires are all down, but an
engine arrived here tonight over
the East Texas Railway. Two
citizens who rowed in a small boat
across an expanse of tossing waters,
a distance of several miles from
the town of Sabine to the railroad
track, came in on the engine, and
gave a heart-rending account of the
deluge. They say the water began
to invade the town from the Gulf
and the lake together about two
o'clock Tuesday afternoon, and rose
with unprecedented rapidity. The
citizens of the doomed place did
not realize the imminent danger
until it was too late to escape
When safety by fight was recog-
nized az being out OF the question,
the people gathered in the upper
stories and on the top of houses
The water kept rising, and between
three and four o'clock the smaller
houses began to yield to the resist
less force of the water which not
only moved them from their foun.
dations, but turned them over on
their sides. A little later the larger
houses began to give way, and
death by drowning seemed in
store for every person in the place.
With the yielding Of the smaller
houses several persons who had re-
mained in them were drowned, and
when the residences and business
places began to crumble the fatali-
ties increased. The following is a
complete list of the drowned;
Miss Mahala Chambers, James
Vondy and family of six, the wife
of Otto Brown and two children,
Homer King, wife and child, Mrs.
Junker and son, Mrs. P0meroy and
family of five, Mrs. Stewart, a
daughter and son, a man by the
name of Wilson, Mrs. Arthur Nc.
Reynolds, Mrs. Mcdonald, daugh-
ter and grandson, Frank Mulligan
and family, Columbus Martin and
family, and about twenty-five col
ored persons, whose names could
not be learned.
The above list comprises over
fifty human victims of the storm,
among them some of the leading
families of the place. There are
others, and many of them doubt.
less drowned without any one liv.
ing knowing anything of 1t. 1t is
feared that whole families, in diff
ferent places, have been swept away
without leaving a vestige Of their
fate. 1t is SAID that the situation
during the latter part of the after
noon, beggared description. The
manifestation Of terror and agony
by the people looking face to face
at death, and realizing that there
was no escape; the dying cries of
women audible, but rendered al
most noiseless by the roar of the
mad sea; the hoarse voices of
pallid men trying to save those
dear to them-all combined, made
a scene too horrible to be described.
The loss of property along the
Cameron parish Gulf Coast, and
for some distance west of Sabine
Pass, was fearful. The mail boat
from Cameron parish reports that
the water at Calcasieu Pass was
eight feet deep at the lighthouse,
and that the entire country east
and west was submerged Tuesday
night, drowning thousands of cattle
and running crops.
A despatch from Orange, Texas
saws: Details of the destruction by
the storm at Sabine Pass and John
sons Bayou come IN slowly. Two
brothers named POmeroy werC
picked up by the schooner Andrew
Baden, in Sabine Lake. They hat
been in the water thirty.six hours
clinging to their capsized yawl.-
Their mother and sister, and Mrs
Captain Junker, her son and
little girl of the party, were lost
The POmerOys report that fiftl
lives we're lost at the Porter House
where the people had collected a.
the best place Of safety. IL wen
to pieces at nine o'clock. Man.
persons are missing. Still create
loss is reported from johnson
Bayou. Whole families were swep
away. Not a house was left stand
ing within FIVE miles of the lake
Parties were organized last night
and left Oh the steamers Lamar an,
Emily T., with provisions and bed
ding.
The latest reports places tn
number of lives at Sabine at owe
sixty.
SEA WALLS WASHED DOWN.
NEW ORLEANS, October H.
special from Port Eads says: 18Th
total extent of the damage OF
casie1ed by the late storm is NC
known, but it has been widesprea
from the jetties to POlnte a
Hache. The wind had been fDes
Saturday night, was blowing haT
all day Sunday, and on Monday il
! creased to a hurricane. There wer
/. A.,n nnI a-half feet of wafnr