The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1900-09-10
GALVESTON LAID Low BY STORM
AND NOW COMPLETELY SUBMERGED
Thousands Of Lives Have Been Lost and the Damage to
Property Cannot be Estimated

buildings, the chances are that many had
taken refuge in them.
Water TX enc. Al Across the is'and
The water extended across the island.
Mr.. Timmins said 1t was three feet deep in
the rotunda of the fremont Hotel and was
six feet deep in Market street.
Along the water front the damage was
very great. The roofs had been blown from
all the elevators and the sheds along the
wharves were either wrecked or had lost
their sides, and were of no protection to
tn contents Most of the small sailing craft
were wrecked, and was either piled up on
the wharves or was floating bottom side
up in the bay. There is a small steamship
ashore three miles north of Pelican Island,
but her name iould not be distinguished
She was flying a British ftas. Another big
vessel had been driven ashore at Virginia
Int, and still another is aground at Texas
City. At the southern point of Houston
Island an unknown ship hes in a helpless
condition.
The lightship that marks Galveston bar
Is hard and fast aground at Bolivar Point.
Mr.. Timmins and the men with him on
the schooner rescued two sailors from mid
die bay who had been many hours in the
water. These men were foreigners and he
could gain no information from them
A wreck of vessel which looked like a
large steam tug was observed just before
the party landed In the bay the carcasses
of nearly 200 horses and mules were seen,
but no human bodis weru visible. The
scenes during the storm. Mr.. Timmins
said, could not be described. Women and
children were crowding into the fremont
Hotel, where he was seeking shelter, and
all night these unfortunates were bemoan-
ing their losses of kindred and fortune.
They were grouped about the stairways
and in the galleries and rooms of the ho-
tel What was occurring in other parts Of
the city he could only conjecture.
Entirely Submerged
The city of Galveston, he relates, is now
entirely submerged, and cut off from COM
munication. The boats are gone; the rail-
roads cannot be operated, and the water Is
SO high people cannot walk out by way
of the bridge across the bay even should
that bridge be standing. Provision will be
badly needed and a great majority of the
people lost all they had. The water works
powerhouse was wrecked, and water fam
Inc is threatened, as the cisterns were all
ruined by the overflow of salt water. This,
Mr. Timmins regards as the most serious
problem to be faced now. The city Is In
darkness, the electric plant being among
the institutions which has been ruined.
There is no way of estimating the prop
erty damage at present So far as he could
see or hear, Mr.. Timmins says, the east
end portion of the city, which Is the resi-
dence district, has been practically wiped
out of existence. On the west end, which
faces the gulf on another portion Of the
island, much havoc has occurred. The
beach has been swept olean the lighthouses
are destroyed and many Of the resadnces
are total wrecks.
Among the passengers who arrived here
on a relief train from Galveston, Ia Ben
w, Dew an attache of the Southern Pa
cifc. Dew had been at Virginia Point for
some hours and said that he saw 100 to 160
dead bodies floating out on the beach at
that place. Conductor Powers reported
that Is corpses had been recovered by the
life saving crew, many Of them women;
that the crew had reported that many 9TH
er bodies were floating and they were
using every endeavor to get them all out.
The water swept across the island and 1t
is presumed that most of these were Gal
weston people, though none of them have
been identified.
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