The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-03
Terrific Storm Sweeps the South
Atlantic Coast.
ISLANDS ARE SUBMERGED
FEARED THAT THE LOSS OF LIFE
IS HEAVY.
Water Driven Shorewards Resembled
a Tidal Wave = Entire Country
About Savannah Is Lake-Great
Damage to Shipping-Many Peo-
pie Rescued From Death.

Savannah, Ca, Oct. 2.-For IL hours.
from o'clock this morning until
O'Clock tonight, Savannah has been In
the grasp of a West Indian tornado.
During that time the wind blew stead
ily trom 30 to 20 miles an hour. While
the city escaped with comparatively
little damage, the loss of property
among the sea islands OF the Georgia
and South Carolina coasts is pelleVed
to be heavy.
For miles in every direction around
Savannah the lowlandS along the nv
ers are submerged. Only one fatality
has SO far been reoorted-the drown
ing of a negro while attempting 10
reach the land from small island near
Thunderbolt-but heavy loss of life Is
feared on the South Carolina sea
islands, where such fearful loss of life
occurred during the great tidal storm
OF 1893 The conditions now are SINH
lar to those during that storm. Owing
to the submerged country and the lso-
lated location of the islands, no news
Car be had from them until the water
subsidies.
Fer eight miles north of Savannah
the entire country is a lake, with only
the hummocks visible. AT noon the
water was eight feet above the highest
tide. Driven on shore by the northeast
storm, it filled up on the Islands, swept
over banks and dams, carrying away
the remnant Of the rice croo that was
left by the August storm and had not
been gathered and wiping out farm
crops. The loss to rice growers alone
win be from $4,000 to $4,000. OF the
entire rice crop along the Savannah
river. valued at $25O0OO, all but about
10 per cent was lost in this and the
preceding storm.
SHIPPING DAMAGED.
The damage to shipping is consider
able. The schooner Governor Ames,
which was on her way to sea with a
cargo of 10000 feet of lumber, went
adrift in the harbor, but was secured
safely. The wharves at the quarantine
station at the entrance to the river
here were partially carried away.
Four vessels which were at anchor
at the station We're torn from their
moorings and driven into the marshes.
No news has been received from Ty-
bee since early in the morning, and
nothing is known of the damage there.
Some suburbs of Savannah, all the boat
houses on the banks and hundreds of
small boats were carried away.
The extent to which the railroads
suffered is not fully known. The naval
stores ard cotton and lumber yards of
the Plant system are submerged, and
the tracks of the Central Railroad OF
Georgia, and Georgia & Alabama rail-
road around the city are covered. The
north-bound express on the f. c. & P.
r. r., due here from Florida at noon,
has not arrived. Telegraph wires, eX-
cept one wire over the Western Union
lines, are down and the condition of the
railroad tracks is unknown. The tele-
phone, police. light and fire alarm
wires are down, and tho city is in
darkness. evts.-
MANY PEOPLE RESCUED.
On Hutchinson's island, opposite Sa-
vannah, and separating the city from
the South Carolina, shore, there were
many negro families rescued by boats
from the revenue steamers Tybee and
Boutwell,. One man, with a child in
his arms holding the little child above
his shoulders, started to cross the dam
with the water up to his body. His
wife, with another &c Q i, stood in the
window of their house, the floor Of
which was already flooded by the ris-
ing water, and watched her husband
feel his way, step by step, along the
top of the treacherous dam, one false
step from which, or a caving bank
would throw him into a swift moving
current. Finally he was sighted from
boat was put in, and after half an
hours effort the man was rescued. Up
wards of a hundred people were
brought from the island to the city in
boats.
All day rescuing parties were at
work. Tonight the wind has subsidized,
but the water, which receded with the
ebb of the tide during the afternoon,
has again risen. Considerable anxiety
is felt for shipping at sea. The steamer
for New York, and the
steamer d. H. Miller, for Baltimore,
went TO sea Saturday night. The City
of Macon was due this morning from
New York, but has not yet arrived, and
the City of Augusta sailed from New
York Friday, and was due here to-
night.
The extent of the storm is unknown. !
and until telegraphic communication
IS restored or news is received from the |
country between Savannah and jack |
over which the heaviest part |
Of the storm passed. the full extent of |
the damage cannot be told.