Connecticut western news., 1886-10-20
THE SABINE PASS DISASTER.
9-ss3Ne Fifty Lives Known to Be Lost and the List Incomplete.

the List Incomplete.
 GALVESTON, Tex, Oct. 14.-The following account of tho great disaster at Sabine Pass has been received at Beaumont: ''Our town was in b state of intense excitement tonight at news just received from Sabine Pass It is news of terrible loss of life and destruction of property ill that place from the high water. We have no telegraphic communication with Sabine Pass as the wires are all down, but an engine arrived herce tonight over the East Texas Railway, that left there about o'clock Two citizens, who rowed in a small boat across an expanse .of tossing waters, distance of several miles from the town of Sabine, to the railroad track, came in on an engine and gave heartrending account of the affair. They say that the waters began to invade the town from the Gulf and the lake together about 3 o'clock on Tuesday Afternoon and rose with unprecedented rapid ity. The citizens of the doomed place did not realize the imminent danger until 1t was too late too escape. When safety by flight was recognized us being out of the question people betook themselves to houses and adjudged themselves safe. The water kept rising, and between and o'clock the smaller houses be- gan to yield to the resistess force of the waves, which not only moved them from their foundas tions but turned them over on their sides and tops. 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 remained ill them were drowned, and when the residences and business places began to crumble the fatality began to double:
 Among the people who are lost are some of the leading families of the place. Many are probably lost whose fate may never be known because of their obscurity and lack of family connections. In some cases it is feared that entire families fan have been wiped out of exist ence. The situation during the latter part of the afternoon is described as having been tef- rible beyond description. There were the ter TOT and agony of people brought face to face with death and seeing no way of escape; the dying cries of women rising at times above the mad roar of the watere, that at times made the sharpest screams inau6ible; the hoarse voices of men trying to save the lives dearest to them, the pallid faces in which despair had written itself in unmistakable ways.
 The Sabine and East Texas Railway runs from Beaumont thirty miles northwest to Sa- bine Pass, and is the only rail communication This road runs around the west bank of Lake Sabine aR it enters the town, and it is this por- tion of the railway that is completely destroyed Cars cannot approach nearer than six miles of the town.
 Thus it will be seen that the doomed town was located in a swamp, with the Gulf on the south and the lake on the north, while to the west for miles extended low marsh which is separated from the town by fertile ridge some five miles wide, which is densely popula-. ted with thrifty farmers. The inhabitants of this ridge are regarded as safe.
 Three years ago while the government works were in progress, the town contained about five hundred inhabitants and did a t1ourlshlng trade in lumber, alligator hides, oysters, and fruit. Since the cessation of the work on the government improvement the town has rapidly decreased in population. The town at the time it was overwhelmed be the flood is not supposed to have contained more than ono hundred inhabitants.
 Sabine Pass has weathered many severe storm, and its final destruction is due to the combined efforts of the clements. It was en. gulfed from three directions at she same time. The river ill front received the full force of the tumultuous waves of the Gulf of Mexico, driven inland by the terrific hurricane which entered the Gulf last Saturday. At the same hour that these hurricane waves broke on the coast of Texas one of the scverest northwestern gales ever experinced ill Texas set in. While the offshore gale in q measure checked and operated as safeguard against the encroach- ment of the hurricane, as was tho case at Gal weston and the lower coast, at Sabine Pass it drove the waters out of engorged Lake Sabine gulfward, and then being met by the incoming tidal wave, the seething waters wrecked and swallowed up the ill-fated town and its inhab- itants.
 LAKE CHARLES, La., Get IA, 1SS6.-The de- structiveness of the storm has been felt severely along the Cameron Parish Gulf coast, and
  sons Bayou. The entire families of several persons are said to be lost.
 Johnson's Bayou is a small stream running from Sabine Lake to the Gulf, and the sur rounding country is a low marsh with little firm land. When the waters of the lake rose and met the waters pouring in from the Gulf the whole section went under water in an in credibly short space of time. The people had little opportunity to save themselves.
 BEAUMONT, Texas, Oct. l5.-The first reports of the great disaster at Sabine Pass were not in the least exaggerated. The relief parties that went down as near Sabine as possible on the Sabine and East Texas Railway are yet there succoring tho destitute and the sick. The train could not get within twelve miles of the town, but over dozen towboats have been sent there and arc at work saving life and property.
 scene of devastation report that lO1 persons are missing, 90 of whom are known to have been drowned. Thirty five of the victims were white and 55 colored.
 From all the accounts gathered language could not exaggerate the state of affairs at Sa- bine Pass. Out of more than 15O houses ill the village, less than six remain standing and they are ruined. Wives and children were swept away and drowned in the presence of their husbands and fathers, who were power. less to save them. The waves broke against the lighthouse ill solid walls fifty feet high, tearing out the windows at the very top of the structure. Corpses have been picked up at d distance of thirty miles from the scene of the disaster.
 NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 15.-The loss on the Gulf coast of Louisiana and Texas from the storm of Tuesday night will prove infinitely greater than previously estimated The entire coast is very low and swampy, the highest lands not being more than two or three feet above high tide in the Gulf. AS the water rose ten to twelve feet over the highest tides known the entire coast from Morgan City to Calves ton under water from six to eight feet Very few people live on this coast, but there are, here and there on the bayous, small settle ments, and it is feared that great loss of life will be reported. Much damage was done on the Cameron coast. The settlement on Bayou Johnson was completely swept away, and the families of Afford Lambert, Marion Lukes George Schriever, Charles Blanchet, Radford Bevy, and two others, aggrcgating more thar twenty souls, were drowned. The heaviest loss of property is on cattle, thousands oi which feed on the Cameron swamps, tho best grazing ground in the State. The loss is be- lieved to be complete, as there was no higl land where the cattle could seek refuge. The total damage from the storm in Plaquemine parish is now placed at $500,000. It is feared that in the interior bayou county many lives have been lost. At the new canal settlement fifteen miles from quarantine station, all but two of the houses were washed away.