Great Falls weekly tribune., 1896-10-09
Ruin AND DEATH
After Scenes of the Great Storm
That Visited Florida Last
Tuesday.
WORST IS NOT YET KNOWN
Many Human Victims of the Flood
and Vast Destruction of
Property.

Keys is place of deeolation and death.
Forty-eight hours ago it was thriving
town of 1000 inhabitants. Today many
of the people are corpses, ecores of 9TH
ers are injured, and there are but few
houses left standing. Twenty bodies
have been recovered but few have been
identified, so mutllated were they by the
falling timbers. Many of the bodies
were dug out of the mud, in which they
were buried by the mighty tidal wave
that swept over the town Tuesday morn
ing, The town is situated at the mouth
of the Suwannee river on number of
small keys, connected by number of
bridges. 1t had no protection, going to
pieces when the hurricane, with a
velocity of so miles an hour, came roar
ing from the gulf The storm struck
the place about $3.50 Tuesday morning
and continued for several hours
Though warning had been given, nothing
indicated a blow of unusual severity
Up to II o'clock the night WIS calm and
quiet. At that hour a moderate breeze
sprang up from the eastward, increasing
gradually until a S0-mile wind was
blowing. About a, m. it blew q per-
feet tornado, and suddenly changed to
the southwest, bringing in a perfect
deluge of water, the tide rising two feet
higher than in the memorable gale of
1894, which was at the time said to be
the worst storm on record. At O'Clock
an im mense tidal wave came in from the
south, carrying destruction with it.
Boats and Wharves were hurled upon
the shore, and breaking into frag
mente, covered the streets with wreckage
and rendered them almost impossible.
While the torrent of water wac rush
ing through every open space it could
take the strongest man off his feet. 1t
was this tidal wave that caused the
principal loss of life, many houses be-
ing swept from their foundations and
the inmates drowned
OF the 90 bodies recovered, II are
white and eight colored. OF the whites,
six belonged to the Whitson family
mother, four children, and young lady
visitor. The other four white victims
are men and have not been identified.
OF the eight negroes, only one has been
| identified.
The loss of life at Cedar Keys proper
was nothing in comparison with the
number of spongers and fishermen who
were drowned. The Mary Eliza came il
this morning dismasted. She reported
that at dark, Monday night, nearly 100
vessels were anchored on the sponge bar
below Cedar Keys and that all of them
but about 20 were lost. These boats
carried from four to ten men each and
loss of life was great. Eight bodies have
already been washed ashore. The schoon-
or Rosalia was sunk and eight of her
crew drowned.
The handsome Methodist Episcopal
church, south, Cedar Keys high school
building, Christian church and three
colored churches, Suwannee ice factory,
Wolfe' cedar mill and Eagle Pencil com
pary's mills, also large lumber mill of
V. I. Herlong and the planning nil! of
George W. Meyer g. Sone, and scores Of
private residences were wrecked by the
wind and waves; some of the handsomest
and apparently most substantial build
ings are damaged beyond repair. Reli-
able news of the storm from the west
ern part of Levy and Alachue counties
has just reached Jacksonville. Not lees
than 200 families are left destitute, all
their houses, fencing and crops are
totally destroyed, and what they hRd
gathered was blown away with the
buildings.