Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1900-09-13
DEATH AND RUIN
IN GALVESTON.
Estimate That Fifteen Hundred Lives
Were Lost in the Storm.

uVku nVpb III bhO btNAMs
IN APPEAL FOR NATIONAL AID.
In Response to application of Governor
Sayers Teu Thousand Tents and
Fifty Thousand RatiOns
Are Ordered to Be
Sent TO the Striek-
en- City.
Houston, Tex, Sep. 1O.-Rchard Spill
lane, well known Galveston newspaper
man, and day correspondent of the AS
sociated Press in that city, who reached
Houston today after terrible experience,
gives the following account of the destruc'
ton at Galveston:
One of the most awful tragedies of mod
ern times has visited Galveston. The
city is in ruins, and the dead will number
,000 l am just from the city, having
been commissioned by the mayor and the
citizens TO get in touch with the outside
world and appeal for help. Houston was
the nearest point at which working tele-
graph instruments could be found, the
wires as well as nearly all the buildings
between here and the Gulf of Mexico be-
ing wrecked.
When l left Galveston shortly before
noon yesterday, the people were organ
izing for the prompt burial of the dead,
distribution of food, and all necessary
work after a period of destruction.
THE DESTROYING TEMPEST.
The wreck of Galveston was brought
about by tempest so terrible that no
words can adequately describe its intensi-
ty, and by flood which turned the city
into a raging sea. The Weather Bureau
records show that the wind attained ve-
locity of eighty-fOur miles an hour, when
the measuring instrument blew away,
so it ia impossible to tell what was the
maximum.
The storm began at 2 o'clock 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 opposl-
ton to the force from the gulf. While
the storm in the gulf piled the water upon
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
city was going to be visited with destruc'
ton. Hundreds of residences along the
beach front were huTiedly abandoned,
the families 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
ralned in torrents.
The wind was go fierce that the rain cut
like a knife.
By 3 o'clock the waters of the gulf and
bay met, and by dark the entire city was
The flooding Of the electric
light plant and the gas plant left the city
in darkness.
To 20 upon the streets was to court
death. The wind was then at cyclonic
velocity, roofs, clsterns, portions of build
ings, telegraph poles and walls were fall
ling, and the noise of the wind and crash
ing of the buildings were terrifying in the
extreme.
The wind and waters rose steadily from
dark until l:45 Sunday morning. During
all this time the people of Galveston were
like rats in trap. The highest portion
of the city was four to five feet under wat
er, while in the great majority Of cases
the streets were submerged to depth OF
ten feet. To leave a house was to drown.
To remain was to court death IN the
wreckage.
Such night of agony has seldom been
equalled. Without apparent reason the
waters suddenly began to subside at lao
a. ID. Within twenty minutes they had
gone down two feet, and before daylight
the streets were practically free of the
flooded waters. In the meantime the
wind had yeered to the southeast.
CONTINUED on Fourth Page.)