The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-10-04
Many Towns SHsp! Away by The
Great Gulf Storm.
THE WORST is NOT YET KNOWN.
The Destruction Of Property 10 Enorm-
ous-A Terrible Story Told By
Lone and tagged Fisherman-Of .
Col. ny Of 500 on'y 80 Escaped.

has passed, and although the wires still
are down. bits Of intelligence continue to
come in from various parts which impart
the information that the loss Of life. to say
nothing Of the destruction of property. is
tremendous. From Bayou Cook 1t is re-
ported that the settlements OF the fisher
men have been completely demolished.
and that the loss OF life has reached the
appalling figure Of 250
Grand Isle, a summer resort lying In the
gulf. dirsctly In the path OF the storm, is
said TO have been utterly destroyed, and
II Is known that the loss of life Is large.
Many people were there spending the
early autumn season. The hotels and the
two long rows of cottages which consti'
tuted the resort are said TO be no more,
and it il feared that the loss Of life at this
point will be very great.
In the parish of Plaquemine. the villages
of Bomhemia and Shellbeach were wiped
out. and at least four lives lost in each
place.
On both sides Of the river the sugar, rye
and orange crops suffered greatly, and on
the west side the loss Of life Is reported to
have been very great. 1t will be some
wrought will be known. but 1t Is feared
here that the grand total will pale into
insignifcance the number OF deaths re.
ported from the storm which recently de-
vastated the Atlantic coast.
A lone and ragged fisherman from
Bayou Cook came to the Socola canal,
opposite Pointe a la Hache, yesterday.
and reported that Of the 300 people who
composed the colony but 80 had succeeded
in escaping the fury Of the elements. The
fishermen had all retired Sunday night,
as usual, and though the wind was blow.
ing pretty hard, there was no forerunner
of the terrible catastrophe that followed.
AS the night grew apace, the wind In
creased in velocity, and the water rose
with startling rapidity, and before the un-
fortunates, who had no possible means o.
escape. had time to grasp some floating
object, they were overwhelmed with the
awful might aud found their fate in
watery graves.
He had clung to a tree throughout the
night. and when morning dawned the
scene Of wreckage that spread before his
view was simply terrible. or the many
little cabins which had sheltered the pros
porous colony the night before barely one
was standing. OF the 300 or more human
beings who inhabited them, but tenth of
the num.er lived to tell Of the night of ex-
periences filed with horror. He describes
the visitation as in the nature OF n tidal
wave, which swept everything before it.
While nothing definite was received
from Grand Isle, there was general im-
preston at Point la Hache that dire dis
aster had occurred there, and 1t was even
reported that the water had swept over
the island, carrying everything before it
in its awful fury, and much concern was
felt for the safety OF the two or three hun
dred inhabitants who were known to have
been there. The report also says that the
big hotel had been blown away.
Report has it also that the settlements
at Chenier Amsnanda, which Is directly
across the bay from Grand Isle, had baen
the scene OF a terrible loss Of life, but this
also lacked confirmation. No communi-
cation was possible with thes, points, and
1t will be several days before the extent of
the calamity there is made known. 1t
was also reported that several casualties
had occurred in the neighborhood Of Fort
Jackson, but there was no way Of getting
at the particulars.
The greatest damage by this storm on
the left bank Of the river from New Or.
leans to the gulf is to the crops, and espe-
cially rice, which suffered severely.
The orange crop Of Plaquemine is ruined
to the extent Of quarter Of a million
dollars.
The Louisville and Nashville railroad is
covered up. A mile Of its track at En-
glish Lookout has been wrecked.
Pensacola's Dose.
PENSACOLA, Fla, Oct. 4-The most de-
structive storm that Pensacola has ex-
perienced in 20 years began at o'clock
Monday morning and ragged with increased
fury until late hour Monday evening.
The storm had been brewing since Satur-
day. The wind reached a velocity of 66
miles an hour. The rain fell in torrents
and was swept Ia binding sheets through
the streets. No loss of life has been re-
ported, but upon every street uprooted
trees and roofless buildings testify to the
storms force.
On Baylen street wharf large building
used for smoking fish was blown into the
bay. II was stored with cured fish and