Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-10-05
IT GROWS WORSE.
Latest News from Louisiana
FearfuIly Terrible.
PROBABLY 200 0PE0PLE PERISH
In the Storm Which Swept Over New
Orleans and Surrounding
Couiitry.
DAMAGE OF s5oo,ooo,ooo INFLICTED

Halfo wing Reports of the Disaster Ke-
cesved from the Survivors-Corpses Strew
tile Ground at Grand Isle Scenes OF
Horror on Every Side-1he Rapid APP
proach of Decomposition Renders
Necessary the Burial of the Bodies in
Long Trenches-The Force of the Wind
Something Terrifying-A Calamity That
win Live Long in the Memory of the Sur
vivors-Latest from Mobile.
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 5.-The latest re-
port says: Nearly 1000 people KILLED and
S5,0OO,0O0 worth OF property annihilated is
the appalling record of the great Gulf
storm in Louisiana. There has never
been anything approaching it since the |
country was settled. More than half the |
population in the region over which the |
hurricane swept are dead.
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 5.-There is only |
sadness in the news from Bayou Cook
and the various settlements that are trib- |
utary thereto. There has been frightful
loss of life throughout that section.
Houses have been blown to pieces and
smacks destroyed and wrecked. There
will never be any means of correctly esti-
mating the exact loss which humanity has
suffered. Many of the bodies have been
carried into the marshes and will never
be fonnd Perhaps some of these are still
living but without food to eat and water
to drink they will be likely to perish mn
| less assistance is sent them. Destitution
reigns in the stricken district, and the few
! stragglers who have found their way to
-;+I, lo
| tell tales of distress.
| The Death Roll Continues to Swell
Between 500 and 900 lives were lost by
| tie storm which struck the island about
Z o'clock Sunday evening. 1t was a south
east wind, changing to east, and increased
| in velocity Half an hour later it changed
| to north northwest and from this quarter
| it blew till O'Clock in the morning of
Monday. 1t then calmed off for a short
time. Captain Terrebone, aided by sew
eral residents of the island, proceeded to
help the unfortunates He succeete ed in
saving sixty persons Between 400 and
500 persons according to a roug h estimate,
have been saved out of population of
1900. The distress existing there is terri
BILE Those rescued have lost everything
but hfe. They are sorely in need of water,
food and clothing. One hundred and fifty
| dead bodies have been found and buried.
Railroad Track Strewn with Bodies.
Train crews arriving on the Grande
| Island road say that the track is strewn
with bodies and that large number
have already been buried. The country
is scene of wreck and devastation.
Eights-seven dead bodies We're seen along
the route. The population on Bayou Cook
consisting of nearly all white men, Italians
and Austrians. There We're few, if any
negroes in the settlement. Tony Negovitch
came directly from Bayou Cook. He said
that during the height of the storm he
saw his wife drown besides him, appealing
piteously for help. He was unable to ex-
tend her a helping hand. He witnessed
scores Of people yerish about him. He is
authority for the statement that eighty
seven bodies had been found. 1t is vari-
ously estimated that from 200 to 500 people
perished on Bayou Cook and in that
section of the country.
Will Probably Reach 1, 200.
4 The e'deaths'at other points all the way
from Bayou Cook to Grand Isle and Che.
Mere will swell the total to more than l,
200, according to the best information now
obtainable. At Grand bayou not less than
twenty-six perished. One of the saddest
sights witnessed by part of the survivors
was the bodies Of three women lashed to a
plank and being bumped about by the
waves. They were floating in Grand lake
which is the entrance to Grand Isle. A
log was floating between the bodies and &
form that appeared TO be that of a boy. II
is learned that on Rosario and Linior
islands the loss of life has been consider
able.
1t is learned here that Shell Beach wa.
visited by the storm and that twelve o.
thirteen persons lost their lives. No name.
are known except that of Martin Bonfacio
a fisherman, his wife and two children. 4
small island, st. Malo, just off Shell
Beach, is also reported to have been swep
by tidal wave. 1t had a population o
twenty-five souls and so far as is known
none was left to relate the story of th
disaster. EX-Congressman Dudley Cole
man and party succeeded in reaching
the city from Woreland, one of the Missis
sippi sound resorts. Mr.. Coleman say
that two schooners have been lost and tina
the crews of each, numbering altogethe
ten, lost their lives. These are the only ia
\ talities that are known to have occurred o.
j the Mississippi sound. Along Bayou Sene
4 there are many Cinnamon engaged in tn
occupation of drying schrimp. They wer
within the track of the storm and many O
them have probably perished.
Alfred Palci, an Italian, in relating tn
story Of the storm said tearfully that b
had lost all, but fortunately he saved hi
4 two children on his shoulders. His motf
q er tried to save a drowning child, but q
d she reached for the little one in the ma
r waters the wind increased and the littl
8 one was swept away from her outstretche
arm. In the boarding house of job
Il Richarif there were sixty-one people whe
q the storm came up and the house wa
completely wrecked. Colonel Danto
& and his wife were killed by falling tin
bers, while the others escaped uninjureC
DESTRUCTION AT CHENlERE.
ID Estimates Place the Loss of Lie at Eigf
Hundred.