Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1900-09-14

winds and the crashing of the buildings
were terrifying IN the extreme. The Hind
and waters rose steadily from dark until
! As o'clock Sunday morning. During all
this time the people OF Galveston were
like rats I'm traps. The highest portion
of the city was four 20 five feet under wa
ter, while in the great majority OF cases
the streets were submerged TO depth
of ten feet. To leave a house was 10
drown To remain was 10 court death In
the wreckage.
Night of Agony.
"Such a night Of agony has seldom been
equaled. Without apparent reason the wa
tiers suddenly began 10 subside at i. 40 a.
m Within 20 minutes they had gone down
two feet and before daylight the streets
were practically freed of the Hood waters.
In the meantime the wind had veered 10
the southeast. Very few If any buildings
escaped injury. There Is hardly habita-
BILE dry house in the city. When the peo-
pie who had escaped death went out at
daylight 10 view the work OF the tempest
and the floods they saw the most horrible
sights imaginable. In the three blocks
from Avenue y 10 Avenue II, I'm fremont
street, | saw eight bodies. Four corpses
were in one yard
The whole of the business front for
three blocks in from the gulf was stripped
of every vestige OF habtation, the dwell
ings, the great bathing establishments, the
Olympia and every structure having been
either carried out TO sea or its ruins piled
In "A pyramid far into the town, accord
ing TO the vagaries of the tempest.
Great Buildings Wrecked.
"'rhe first hurried glance over the city
showed that the largest structures, sup
posed TO be the most substantially built
suffered the greatest The orphans home
Twenty-first street and Avenue Nj, Tell IKE
a house of cards. How many dead chill
nd in the ruins could
not be ascertained. or the sick In st. Mary s
infirmary together with the attendants,
only eight are understood 10 have been
saved. The old woman's home, on Rosen-
berg avenue, collapsed, the Rosenberg
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 exceptions,
Is in ruins.
AT the forts nearly all the soldiers are
reported dead, tNey having been In tenn
porary quarters which gave them no pro-
lection against the tempest or the flood.
shipping Damaged.
Eight ocean steamers were torn from
their moorings and stranded in the bay.
The Kendall Castle was carried over the
flats from the Thirty-third street wharf to
Texas City, and lies in the wreckage of
the Inman pier. The Norwegian steamer
Gyller is stranded between Texas City and
Virginia Point An ocean liner was swirled
around through the West bay, crashed
through the bay bridges and is now lying
in eight feet Of water near the wreckage
OF the railroad bridges. The steamship
Taunton was carried across Pelican Point
and is stranded about ten miles up East
bay The Mallory steamer Alamo was torn
from her wharf and dashed upon Pelican
flats. Down the channel TO the Jetties two
other ocean steamships lie grounded. Some
schooners. barges and smaller craft are
strewn bottom side up along the slips OF the
piers The tug Louise. of the Houston Di-
rect Navigation company, is also a wreck.