The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-09-11
!! THOUSANDS LOST
in AWFUL STORM.
Death and Destruction
Followed In Wake.
MILLIONS THE COST.
Huge Vessels Caught Up By Waters
And Left High and Dry.
GALVESTON, A WRECKED CITY.
Terrible Loss DC Life and Property
Caused BY Tidal Wave Dead
Found On Every Hand
Ships Carried Far
Iniana-Appcals
For Aid.
GALVESTON, A WRECKED CITY.

& HOUSTON, TEXAS, September 10
Richard S. Pilane, well known Calves
ton newspaper man and day correspondent
Of the Associated Press in that city. who
reached Houston to-day after a terrible
experience, gives the following account Of
the disaster at Galveston:
One of the most awful tragedies of mod
ern times has visited Geiveston. The city
is in ruins, and the dead will number prob
ably one thousand. Houston was the near
est point at which working telegraph in
struments could be found, the wires, as
we'll as nearly all the building between
here and the Gulf of Mexico being
wrecked. When I left Galveston shortly
before noon yesterday the people were or
gantzing for the promt burial of the dead,
distribution of food and all necessary work
after period of disaster.
WIND BLEW EIGHTY-FOUR MILES.
The wreck of Galveston was brought
about by a tempest so terrible that no
words can adequately describe its intensity,
ard by a flood which turned the city into
raging sea. The Weather Bureau records
show that the wind attained velocity of
eishty-four miles an hour, when the meas
uring instrument blew away, so it is impos-
sible to tell what was the maximum
ne SlOEin began o cIOchE SATURDAY
morning. Previous to that a great storm
had been raging in the Gulf, and the tide
was very high. The wind at first came
from the north, and was in direct Oppos-
ton to the force from the Gulf. While
the storm in the Gulf piled the water up
the beach side of the city, the north wind
piled the water from the bay on to the bay
part of the city
About noon it became evident that the
10 he 1-isif Tod wifi,
Hundreds Of residences along the beach
front were hurriedly abandoned, the fa!ni-
lies fleeing to dwellings in higher portions
of the city. Every home was opened TO the
refugees, black or white. The winds were
rising constantly and it rained in torrents.
The rain cut like knife.
LIKE RATS IN TRAPS.
By o'clock the waters of the Gulf and
Bay met, and by dark the entire city was
submerged. The flooding of the electric
light plant and the gas plant left the clts
in darkness. TO go upon the street was
to court DEATH The wind was then at cy-
cIonfc velocity. roofs cisterns, portions OF
buildings. telegraph poles and walls We're
falling. The noise Of the wind and the
crashing of the buildings were terrifying III
tha extreme The wind and waters rose
steadily from dark until Lao O'Clock sun
dav morning. During all this time 'he
people of Galveston were like rats III traps. DPS
The highets portion of the city was itne t.a
e,re.tar majority of cases the streets were
enhmersed to a depth of ten teet. 10
,aave house was to drown. 10 REMAIN
1-as 20 court death in the wreckase.
S,cb a night of agony has seldom osei'
,n11a!led Without apparent reasoa
waters suddenly began to suoslue a. ,og
M Within twenty minutes tiies 1,.
gone down two feet and before oas w
+ba streets were practically free OF tne
wa ters In the nleantlme tue "iiio ny
yeered to the southeast
CORPsEs FILLED THE STREETS.
Very few. if any, buildings escaped in
inrv There is hardly a habitable dry
house in the city. When the people who
bad escaped death went out at daylight
to view the work of the tempest and the
floods they saw the most horrible SShts
ina einable. In the three blocks from
Avenue N, to Avenue P, in fremont
Streets. I saw eight bodies. Four cor
,,ses were in one yard. The whole OF the
ollf was stripped Of every vestige Of
habitation, the dwellings, the great bath
ING establishments. the Olympia and every
structure having been either carried out
TO sea or its ruins piled in a pyramid far
into the town according to the vagaries
of the tempest.
The first hurried glance over the city
showed that the largest structures, sup
posed to be the most substantially built,
suffered the greatest.
CRUSHED To DEATH.
The Orphans: Home, fell like a house
of cards How many dead children and
refugees are in the ruins could not be as
certained OF the sick in ST.. Mary's in
Urinary. together with the attendants. only
eight are understood to have been saved.
The Old Woman's Home, and the Rosan
berg School -house is a mass of wreckage
The Ball High School is but an empty
shell. crushed and broken. Every church
in the city with possibly one or two ex-
cepticrs, is in ruins
At the forts nearly all the soldiers are
reported dead. they having been in tenn
porary quarters, which gave them no pro-
a1 on