Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-09-14
in STORMS TRACK.
Ii: Richard Waterman, q This
City. Saw One End q the
Texas Disaster.
Writes Of His Thrilling Expert
snces in an Interesting
Way.

DIR. Richard Waterman, son Of Moses
Waterman. OF the Times Republican,
recently located at sealy Tex. q point
about 100 miles northwest OF Galveston,
within the recent storm region, and had
q thrilling experience as stated in the
subjoined letter to his father under date
of the 11th:
No doubt before this the Associated
Press dispatches have appraised you of
the fact that southeast Texas passed
thru one Of the worst storms in It's his
tory Saturday and Sunday and that
millions OF dollars worth OF property
was destroyed and hundreds of lives
We're lost. The violence OF the storm
was confined to a radius of 100 miles
from the gulf and all thru that area the
damage was more or less great Sealy
was quite fortunate inasmuch as no
Lives were lost, tho there are numbers
| of buildings totally Destroyer and many
more damaged. 1t truly was terrible
storm. It commenced here about noon
Saturday and reached climax about
a. m. Sunday. During the worst part
LOT the storm the wind blew at The rate
4 of seventy or eighty miles an hour and.
y
| IL clock. but 1t was Impossible to
sleep. My room is in the north end OF
the wing of the hotel. up stairs, and to-
reach 1t have to go out on gallery
along the east side. lay in bed wa tch-
Ing the storm out my west window and.
saw the windmill and tank go over and
also the windmill in the next yard. The
wind kept increasing in violence and
ey S,c lroH OF n o11J
fully. ! was imprisoned, didn't dare to
go out Of my room. for the wind would
have swept me of the gallery the min
ute I stepped out BY 1880 Il was ex-
pecting the hotel to go over any min
ute. so / concluded I'd better put on.
| some clothes so as to be protected in
case I had to get out. got up and
started to dress, when crash! 1t!
sounded to me as If some one had
dumped load Of bricks on the roof.
My north window was broken and the.
rain came in in gusts. I thought surely
the building was doomed then, SO 1
ran to the east window and looked out.
Then saw what had happened. The
Santa Fe depot. a long, marrow build
ling just across the street. was demol-!
ished and the wind had just scattered.
the debris ali over the street. It was the
flying timbers which had struck the
walls Of my room that had made the
crash. The window was broken. the
| gallery railing torn OF. there were big
dents in the door and Misunderstanding
and there were big 2x6 roof timbers ly-
| ing on the gallery. Then thought I
surely was in for it. but as couldn't
1 get out stood at the window watching
and waiting. The storm had spent IT..
self then and in half hour the wind
/ had gone down 50 that l could get out.
1 As my room was no longer habitable.
4 broken glass and water all over 1t, i
went down stairs to see what was going
| on. All the other inmates OF the house
/ were down stairs. l had been the only
one up in the wing Went out and
walked around and found things all
torn to pieces. Roofs were of and gall
lleries blown down. The depot was a to.
Ital wreck came down to the ONCE
and found no damage. A building just
across the street used as q. butcher shop
was q mass OF ruins The next day the
town was Q sight. Trees. fences and
outbuildings we're all down. The new
Catholic church, nearly finished, to cost
$4,000. was total wreck The opera
house, costing $500. was raced to the
ground. a lodge hall in the east part
OF town suffered the same fate. Num-
bers Of other houses were partially
wrecked and 1t 10 Impossible to estimate
the damage even here. Six empty
freight cars on the Katy side track
were blown out OF train and a single
stock car on the Santa Fe side track
was blown out on the main line and ran
to- Wallis. about fifteen miles. and
Handed against . house. Telegraph and
telephone service was destroyed and
nothing could be learned from sur
rounding towns until yesterday, and
the reports are even yet meag ger. Gals
weston was almost totally destroyed.
| From the reports from other places It
seems that Sealy was touched rather
Tightly. II truly was . terrible storm
and It means the ruin of thousand Of
people In the path Of the storm. who
ARE left without any thing; They, are
making up relief committee here to 80
TO Gsfvsston 70 help take care Of the
dead and woundsd aad = . posgtble 4
my o. Z 81