Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-08-31
coAMo SPRINGS PORTO AGO.

CoAMo, August is, 1899.
| ]. d. Carpenter Dear Editor:sI win try and
write short letter. telling you of some of the
happenings and my experience in Porto Rico.
The experience have just passed through has
been stamped on my mind never to be forgotten.
/ have often read in papers OF the tornado and
cyclone, and their fatalities. but this was my
first experience.
The storm commenced on Tuesday morning,
the Sth inst about three o'clock with rain and
wind, as the time rolled by until eight O'Clock it
increased TO a hurricane, and commenced TO
move things about very much like cyclone. 1t
continued to blow aud rain until after 2o'clock.
At that time every shade tree aud ornamental
bush on the lawn was mashed or cut down by
the flying corrugated iron of which the roofs
we're made There is not building in these
parts that is not torn down, or left total wreck.
Coamo Hotel Jared better than any house 10 this
locality, only having ihe roof blown away. To
be sure the furniture was damaged to q great
extent The beds and bedding was pretty much
all saved, but saturated with water. and was
laid in the sun and dried out. and saved. Where
glue was used 10 furniture it has fallen to
pieces. Trees all around have their limbs crushed
to the ground, if not blown up by the roots. The
and bare their trees being stripped Of leaves and
limbs. The poor natives were stripped Of their
homes not having one shack left,all blown away.
Mr. Hanes, the manager of the Hotel, allowed
them to find the best quarters they could in the
hotel, though they were wet ones. Mr.. Hanes and
your correspondent took quarters under the
front steps, which are of cement and did not
leak. Our quarters large enough for two
rocking chairs where we staid and slept the best
we could in our wet clothes. We had not dry
stitch on us for nearly forty-eight hours, and
both have escape any bad effects,
good part Of the passage way to the baths
were blown down; the bath rooms. tubs, and the
whole building was filed with mud more than a
foot deep; the water rose to the caves inside and
out, damaging the furniture beyond repair.
There were many coeoanut tree, and cocoanut
palms, nearly all Frustrated. All trees not
Frustrated of limbs are stripped; scene of DESC
lstion and destruction is on every hand. The
pipes to the second-class baths are broken off. in
those we drove plugs to stop the waste of water
the irst-class pipes are intact. Mr. Hanes and
your correspondent, with four or five helpers,
with difficulty managed to clean q way to one or
two rooms and clean them so we could take our
baths And your correspondent took one yes
terday to make up for lost time. With the excep-
tion of broken pipes, the second class one was
not damaged, for the reason they stand higher
than the frstclass do.
The Coamo river raised to double the depth it
has ever before been. washed out and upset
brick wall eight feet high and eighteen inches
in thickness; fioated trees down as thick as my
body 1t was raging torrent. Your cores
pendent, manager Of the agricultural depart
ment, had all his crops swept from the face of
the earth; hardly plant not even a hill to
mark the place where 1t stood. had a prom is
ing cucumber patch, vines two feet long, squash.
citron and W atermeons, all Trimmed and dressed
up and ready to make nice show; corn, string |
beans and lima beans coming through and
several small seeds, all swept from their beds, or
rows. call it clean sweep. A picket fence
along front the road, some hundred and fifty |
yards long, posts fourteen inches square, and six
feet high, was dem olished posts broken off like
ppe stems. q forgot to say those posts were of
brick and cemenD The rails were built in the
posts. Our hotel clerk w. w. Costa, who vent |
TO Coamo City to buy provisions for the day was |
caught in that city and could not get home that |
day. But being concerned about our welfare. |
forced his way through the angry river Coamo |
wading and swimming. succeeded in reaching, |
home more like drowned rat than anything |
could compare him to, with nothing but shit,
trousers and stockings: both wagons smashed |
up in Coamo. We were all glad to see him |
alive. Coamo City is a miserable wreck There |
are some houses standing. but the largest part |
of the town was of small houses and poorly |
built; they went TO the wind. The city of Ponce |
Jared still worse, while not so much of the town
was destroyed, the river changed its course, ran
through the town, and filed it with mud 1t is |
giving hundreds of natives employment to clean
up the town.
haYe not heard of any fatalities so far, but |
at the Plua. the port, there was an extension, a
small town or settlement was entirely swept out |
to sea with the inhabitants to the number of
about one hundred and twenty-five souls. The |
Puerto Rico Co. sustained but little loss If any,
at Ponce. I have not heard much from San |
Jsan think there was not SO much damage |
San Isabel was nearly swept away and many
other small towns on the coast. The main crops, |
coffee and sugar. Jared very badly. the coffee is
for the most part destroyed, while the sugar |
cane has been beaten down, and may recover in |
great measure. Banana and and other tropi- |
cal fruits have been wholly destroyed. especially
in these parts, the stalks are beaten worse than
any cornfield your readers have ever laid eyes |
on. How much damage has been done on the |
rest of the Islaod. cannot say. Telegraph COM
munications have been cut off and the mails |
have been very slow and Irregular, but suppose |
the whole Island has been more or less damaged |
Your correspondent will remember the eighth |
of August, eighteen hundred and ninety mine, as
long as he lives
Very respectfully yours Sc,