The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-10-02
IN TIE STORMS TRACK
Fearful Tales of Death and
Desolation from
Cedar Keys.
POTOMAC FLOOD SUBSIDIES
No More Bodies-in the Washing
ton Ruins-Na National Gene
teries Damaged.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla, Oct. q, 1885,
Cedar Keys is a place of desolation and
death. Monday it was thriving town of
I5u0 inhabitants. Today many of the
people are .corpses, scores of others in
Jured and there are but few houses left
standing.
twenty corpses have been recovered. Ii
IS known that many persons have been
Killed. OF those recovered but few have
been identified, so multilated were they
Dy railing timbers
The storm struck the place at $3.50
9s'elocK es on Tuesday morning and con-
tlnled for several hours
At four A. M it blew a perfect tornado
s ana suddenly changed 10 southeast
bilhglng IN a deluge of water, the tide
r1sihg s1siI Two fset higher than in the memoir
apie gale OF 1884, which was at the time
sald 10 be the seyerest storm on record
At seven O'Clock an immense tidal wave
came Sam IN from the south, carrying destruc-
ton with It. Boats wharves and small
houses were hurled from the shore and
breaking into fragments covered the
street. with wreckage and rendered them
inlp,a.ssable, u. l,i while the torrents of water
rushing through every open space wouId
take the strongest man OFF his feet. #
was tnis tidal wave that caused the prin-
cipai loss of life, many houses being
sMspl from their foundations and in
Of the twenty bodies recovered twelve
are Whsle and eight colored. of the whites
sx peiong TO the Whitson family. a
Toar enlldren and young woman
visitor. me other four white victims are
aa, niel, ana nave not been identified. OF the
has been Identified
Most of the victims were buried deem
IN mud by the tidal wave. and MANY IF
cred e ieSos-
,,55 Deplorable p as is the loss of life in ce.
dSr r. Keys proper, 1t is as nothing in COM
parison with the number of spongers and
1snermen who were drowned The Mary
liza sponging schooner, reached Ce-
daE asr,. Keys Yesterday and reports that at
i aai \ AdohGay might nearly one hundred
vessels were anchored on the snonga IA =
Just below Cedar Keys, and that nearIy,
every one OF them was sunk by the hurri-
AS these vessels carried from, fonr -
ts4 men each the loss of life is horribie
lo contemplate. 1t is posss sble thar s,,1sa59S-
81 tnes vessels were blown into the (IlIff
altl all;l hode out the hurricane, but the Mary
Eilza captain thinks by far the greater
crews "isAi tiie.l
He says there was not one chance IN 4
e,,onsahd e,o Tor such frail craft to live IN
ssent down the coast a
mines returned to Cedar keys late
sterday afternoon and reported findine
ne cofpses Of eight men washed ashore
"a
ssssel, and the crews Of most of The
her vessels undoubtedly have met a
inllar fate. Four men reached Cedar
- ts1s IN "a dingy They were a part OF
tse crew OF the schooner Resale and re-
PORT the vessel sunk and eight Of their
9lIpsnlees drowned. The schooner Cert
5ASse Is afsmasted and abandoned fifteen
mites south Of Cedar Keys. The Mallory
= tast in the Suawanee River swamps.
IAe steamers Belle of Suawanee and g.
D. Owens were both wrecked in the
auawanee River. The Owens is fast in
The river swamps, while the Belle steam
ed slowly yesterday afternoon into Cedar
Keys with both smokestacks and all up
per works gone
In Cedar Keys those who escaped Death
mad a terrible experience when the tidal
wave came and overwhelmed the houses
Many of the inmates fioated in the water
clinging to pieces of timber. They were
ouffeted by wind and wave and many
are still unaecounted for.