The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-10-23
GREAT cArasTRoPHEs.
CniamiIies Which Have Afflicted sections
Of the TniIed states.

ffom ASsif9s weekly
The greatest eonhagrations which the
United States has ever had were the one
in Chicago in ISL. In which $50 5000 OF
property was destroyed: the fire in Bos-
ton in 1S7z. in which the damage was
go, Co. coo: and the blaze In New York in
ISIS. in which go warehouses were de-
stroyed. and the damage was s30.0e.Sc0
As the population OF New York al that
time was only about s5o.Ooo. or about like
that OF Newark y. J., now, the loss was
severer proportionately than one many
times larger would be in 1860 Chicago
fire, though-and Chicago had q p0pula-
ton of only a little over 10000 at the
time-vas the most destructive which ever
occurred anywhere in the world. with the
possibly exception OF that In Moscow in
lSl2. ChicagOs certainly exceeded the
damage at the confiagration in London,
which Is called the Great Fire, which oc-
Cured In 1866
JohnstOwn. Pa. in 1889 furnished the
most destructive of the floods Johns-
towns being from a bursting reservoir)
OF the United States until that at Calves
ton on September 9. 1890 The property
loss at Johnstown was approximately So
90, 900. and the loss of life was 2.l59. The
destruction at Galveston was over 500 In
life and about $50 000,O0O in property. The
bursting Of a reservoir in Mil River VAL
ley in Massachusetts, in 1874 destroyed
several little villages and drowned 80 per-
sons. Floods on the Mississippi have fire.
quently destroyed from s.. 000. 900 10 N0000,-
900 of property at a time, and more than
once drowned from !, 600 TO 1900 people.
The most destructive tornado which
ever hit large city in the United States
was that which destroyed 400 lives and
SIC, coo in property in 81. Louis in 1896.
Louisville. the second largest city ever
struck in the United States by a tornado.
lost 100 lives and s. zoo 900 of property in
1880. A tornado Favaged the coast Of
Georgia and South Carolina in 1898 which
destroyed LEGO lives and 100000 Of prop
erty. The most remarkable collection OF
tornadOes which ever visited the United
States at any one time was on February
8. 1854 which afflicted Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Missis-
sippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois.
sixty distinct storms being traced on that
day in those States. in which loo per-
sons were killed and 1900 buildings de-
Charleston, S. C.. in 1856 had the sever
est earthquake ever experienced in city
of the United States. in which the de-
SLFNcuOn OF lie was UIlN anu AiidI Oh
property 100000. New Madrid, No, and
the lower Mississippi Valley had a series
of earthquake shocks in 1911 which de-
stroyed many villages, but the aggregate
losses were not as great. owing TO the re-
giOn being sparsely peOpled, and most of
it having no people at all, as in Charles
ton.
The coast of the Atlantic and of the
Gulf of Mexico has had many hurricanes
and a few tidal waves, but none of them
approached in destructiveness that which
has Just occurred at Galveston. With
characteristic American courage, elias
ITCHY. and adaptability. however. the af-
flicted communities quickly recovered
from the effects of these disasters. New
York more than doubled in population in
the fifteen years Immediately following
its great fire in 1895 Chicago has five
times as many inhabitants now as it had
at the time of its confagratiOn in 1871.
Before the embers of BOstOn's fire Of a
year later were put out the property
owners of the burned district were offered
more for the land which was covered
than was asked a day earlier for the land
and the buildings which were upon it, A
new and greater Galveston is already ris-
ing on the ruins of the old. This is the
American way.