St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-07
GREATEST IN ALL HISTORY.
LAST DISASTER ON THE GULF COAST
WITHOUT PARALLEL.
STORIES FROM RIELEFPEoPLE
hundreds ofBodies Still Unburied
$50 People Buried In Less
Than a Hundred Graves-Aw-
full Horror of the Situation De-
picted--New Orleans Board of
Trade appeal.


picted--New Orleans Board of
Trade appeal.
NEW ORLEANS. Oct. 6.-The whole
| lower coast has been devastated by a
storm without parallel in history. The
historic gale OF 1856, which destroyed
Lost Island, while terrific, does not
compare with the last disaster.
On Cheniere Caminda it reached a
climax of horror. Cheniere is one of
that group of islands which extend
along the lower coast. and to which be-
long Grand Isle. Tambalier and Lost
Island. 1t was station for fishing
boats. Ii contained one town, Camin-
daville, of about 1,6O0 people, the ma
Jority fishermen. Sunday evening
there were 1,2OO dwellings within
its limits; today only % re-
main standing, and of these
not one is uninjured. The very ground
upon which they were built is torn and
rent. The pier has disappeared, and
| only heap of oyster shells marks the
SPOT where it stood. As one advanced
the foot sank in an OOZy slime that Gov
cred the paths. This was the relic CT
the seas which had for many hours COW
cred the island. Camindaville was re-
noWned for its luXurlant shade trees
and lovely gardens. Not leaf remains
| upon the branches, and the trees for the
most part are Frustrated upon the earth.
Paths have been obliterated. and the
reporter was obliged to scramble
through the bushes mounting the ac-
cumulated rubbish from
| RUINED HOMES.
Fields had formerly existed in con-
| siderable nUmharS aIOuU this nOrtiOn
of the front. but they had been blotted
from the face of the landscape. The
plants almost without exception had
been blown from the beds. and those
which the gale had spared were dead
and yellow.
The people. who came in parties of
two or three. passed silently by or
stopped moment TO shake hands and
mutter few words OF coincidence. Ii
was no unusual thing to see the great
rugged fishermen, brOnZed and hard
ened by life of almost constant expo
ure, embrace each other in tears. All
had shared in the losses of the storm.
Fathers and mothers are burying
their sons and daughters, and children
their dead pacents. As many as twelve
| people are placed in one grave. Hun
dredS of bodies are still unbuTied. Some
are under the wrecked buildings; others
are floating on the Bay of Caminda.
The brave little baud of grave dIggers
is exhausted. They have already buried
III the rude graves Oh the island $50 per-
sons, and their work is not ye: done. A
| ten-year-old son helped to bury his aged
| father and his elder sister in the same
| grave. There was no weeping even for
father or brother. The gloom and hOr-
rOr of the situation were too
| AWFUL, FOR TEARS. et.s.
In the house of l.. Terrebonne the
grave-diggers found his body and tha;
| of his wife and six children. The body
| of the husband and father was lying on
the kitchen floor. 1t was buried about
fifty yards from the wreck. The party
went to the front OF the house and
there found Mrs. Terrebonne'S body
clinging in her arms was babe. She
and her babe were buried in the same
grave with the father and husband.
| Near. where the mother was found were
| five other children, ranging from twelve
to four years. The eldest had met
! death by a big piece of lumber
falling and crushing his skull.
| They others were drowned. They
were taken out of the portion of the
| house that still stood and buried near
their parents. In the rear of the ISL
andS hundreds Of little mounds marked
the resting places of those who were
| killed in the terrible storm. There
were many other burial parties. Men,
women and children joined in the
search for the dead. With poles and
| hooks and ropes they drew the cOrpSeS
from the water. or dragged them from
| the debris that StrewS the land and
BURIED THEM.
| Those who took the most prominent
part in the burial of the dead were: V.
Dacoste, Felix BZani, Andrew Bizani
and his wife, Louis Broussard, the ma
! jority of the Lareau family, Andrew
Lewis, Edward Lewis, Henry Paul
Smith. Frederick Colan Jr.. his wife,
and Vito Marchi, besides many that
came from Bayou La Fourche. In
Nine. Ducra's house were found fully
fifty bodies all mangled in some man
ner, and could not be identified. They
were buried ten and fifteen i'll grave.
| Nine. L.. Cidioc and her daughter
Delphie were found many yards away
from their ruined home. They had
been drowned i'll one of the gulches in
an attempt TO reach the store of Mr..
! Valence. In their home were the bodies
of a son and daughter of Nine.
| Cidioc, drowned. The whole family
was inferred in the same grave. All
the members of the BiZani family eX-
cept Felix and Andrew were killed.
Arthur BiZani. Leo Paul, their wives
and children, with numerous cousins,
auuts and other relatives, were all
| drowned in the homestead of the family.
| This family consisted of twenty-five
! people. The bodies were dragged out
| and were buried in the west center of
| the island III three graves Thomas
LorlO was killed by falling tree:
| FlOrestine BrouSSard. the wife of Louis
Broussard, and two children, were
| drowned. In the Broussard house,
Ferdinand Broussard, Bernard Brous-
sard, Regina BrOussard and Bernardo
Broussard were discovered, all of them
drowned. Hundreds of bodies have
been found since Monday morning and
they were buried without prayer, and
| the chilling wind signing through the
leafless trees over their unmarked
graves is the only dirge for the dead.
The Picayune'S relief steamer, the
Emme McSweeny, returned at an early
hour this morning from Grand Island
and Cheniere. Houses were lifted from
their foundations and thrown several
| hundred feet. The Grand Isle hotel,
with its contents, valued at $500 is
The following was telegraphed to the
commercial exchanges at Chicago, st.
Louis. Cincinnati, Kansas City, New
| 1OIh, OOStOIl, baltimore,
Pittsburg, Minneapolis, st. Paul, Omahi,
and other places:
Office of the Board of Trade, Limited,
| New Orleans, Oct. 6, 1S93.-A terrible
disaster has destroyed majority Of the
inhabitants of the islands and marshes
adjacent to this city, and the survivors
| are left penniless, their stock, houses.
boats and means of liyllhood gone and
they are in dire distress.
The people OF Louisiana will bury the
dead and feed the starving, but appeal
to generous public to assist IN contri-
buttons which will enable thousands of
deserving people TO again follow their
avocations and support their families.
Subscriptions of every character will he
thankfully received and distributed Is
the executive committee of the boardlsf
trade, acting jointly with committees of
| other commercial bodies.
JOHN N. PARKER JR., PRESIDENT