The morning call., 1893-10-06
THE LOUISIANA DISASTER.

The devastating tidal wave on the Louis
lana coast was not, as the newspapers
say, so unparalleled that nothing approx
mating to it had ever been known before"
Several similar catastrophes are on record,
three or four of them within this century.
graphic and thrilling account of one of
them was given by Lafcadio Hearn In
"Chta"; others were described in that
valuable but deceased periodical. ''De
Bows Review" Their cause is explained
with more or less lucidty by meteor
ologists. They must not be confounded
with the tidal waves" of the Bay of
Fundy or the Hoogley. The rise and fall of
the tide in the Gulf of Mexico is not much
over two feet They are simply the effect
of hurricanes upon body of water abut-
ting on low coast the force of the wave
being in proportion to the velocity of the
hurricane, which Is sometimes 40 miles an
hour.
West of the promontory which contains
the mouths of the Mississippi, the littoral
Of the four counties, PlaQuemines. JEFF
ferson. La Fourche and Terrebonne. lies
almost on level with the guilt, and is cut
up by bayous and creeks which penetrate,
by winding and devious courses. far into the
interior. From time immemorial the gulf
winds and currents have rolled toward the
shore banks of sand which have become
islands. OF these the number is large;
they spread from the eastern rim OF Bara-
taria Bay to Last Island off the extreme
southern cape of Terrsbonne. They offer
resistance enough to the northward rush OF
a wave travelling from the gulf to convert
- .,to g aEar
ing through the channels between the
islands, strike the main shore with terrific
force. aud when they encounter shore
which is tall enough to repel them they
invade the bayous with a wave which is
sometimes fifteen feet high, and Of course
destroys everything in its path.
On this, as on some previous occa sions.
the chief scene of the disaster was Bara-
taria Bay. some thirty miles from the
passes. A hundred years ago the mouth
Of that bay was partially closed by an ISL
and called in the ungrammatical patois of
the Creoles Grand Terre. This was the
home of the smuggler pirate Laftte. In
course of time periodical hurricanes. ac-
companied by tidal waves. gnawed off por-
tions of the island, so that now sharks
swim where Lafitte's buccaneers pitched
their tents. They created other islands,
to one of which the name of Grand Isle
has been given. Portions of these islands
are inhabited and grow vegetables for the
New Orleans market, while on the wind
ings of the bayois on the mainland gar
dens have been planted in the ooze, and
oranges and pomegranates raised in a
region which used to be sacred to the
water snake, the turtle and the alligator.
In one bayou an oyster bed was planted
many years ago; it now supplies New Or
leans with oysters.
1t is easy TO conceive the havoc wrought
by a fiGteen-foot tidal wave in such local
ity. Houses, huts, fences, chmneys
would all be swept away in an hour; men,
women, children. pigs and poultry would
all be drowned without hope OF salvation.
The bayous are scene of marine activity.
Sailing craft of every rig and small steam
ers ply between the city and the gulf shore.
Every such vessel would be driven from
her moorings and thrown into the swamp;
no anchors would hold against such a
mighty force. On Grand Isle few years
ago a fashionable waterlng-piace was
founded with hotels. cottages and casino !;
it Is easy to fancy how these buildings
would topple over into the seething
waters and their screaming tenants be
whrled hither and thither in the wreck.
One can understand the dispatch which
states that the features of the dead are so
mutllated as to be unrecognzable.
The population of the shores Of Bara-
taria Bay was mixed. There were Of
course negroes among them and Amsri-
cans. But the SPOT seemed TO have been
attractive to Europeans. Italians and
Austrians had colonies there, and there
were still some remaining descendants of
the old French creoles and Spaniards.