The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-09-11
ASSOCIATED PRESS CORRESPOND
EMF LEFT GALVESTON ON
SUNDAY MORNING
OVER 1000 WERE THEN DEAD
ENTIRE ISLAND WAS SUBMERGED
UNDER FIVE TO TEN FEET
OF WATER
CITY A MASS OF wREcKAGE
Waves Driven by the Hurricane Had
Wiped Out Everything for
Distance of Three Blocks
From the Dock Line.


HOUSTON. Tex, Sept. 1O-Richard
Spillans, well known Galveston news
paper man, and day correspondent of the
associated Press in that city, who reached
Houston today after a terrible experience.
gives the following account of the dfsas.
ter at Galveston:
one of the most awful tragedies OF
modern times has visited Galveston. The
city Is IN ruins, and the dead will number
prooably one thousand. I am just from
the city, having been commissioned by the
mayor and citizens committee, to get in
touch with the outside world. and appeal
for help Houston was the nearest. point
at which working telegraph instruments
could be found, the wires, as well as
nearly all the buildings, between here and
the Gulf of Mexico being wrecked
When 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 disaster
The wreck of Galveston was brought
about by a tempest so terrible that no
words can adequately describe its inten.,
sity, and by flood which turned the city
into raging sea- The weather bureau
records show that the wind attained a
velocity of "a miles an hour, when the
measuring instrument blew away, so 1t
is impossible to tell what was the maxi
mum.
''The storm began at 2 o'clock Saturday
morning. Previous to that great storm
hod hoa 17or {o no
was very high. The wind at first came
from the north, and was in direct oppo-
sition 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
the bay part of the city.
HOMES ABANDONED.
! About noon it became evident that the
city was going to be visited with disaster
Hundreds of residences along the beach
front were abandoned, the families fleeing
to dwellings in higher portions Of the city.
Every house was opened to the refugees,
black or white. The winds were rising
constantly, and it rained in torrents. The
wind was SO fierce that the rain cut like
a knife.
''By o'clock the waters of the gulf and
bay met, and the entire city was SUBJ
merged. The flooding of the electric light
plant and the gas plants left the city in
darkness. To go upon the streets was
to court death. The wind was then cy-
clonic in velocity, roofs, cisterns, por-
tons OF buildings, telegraph poles and
walls were falling, and the noise Of the,
winds and the crushing of the buildings
were terrifying in the extreme. The wind
and water rose steadily from dark until
n:45 o'clock Sunday morning. During all
this time the people Of Galveston were
like rats in traps. The highest portion
of the city was four to five feet under
water, while In the great majority Of
cases the streets were submerged to q
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 1:4B
a. m. Within twenty minutes they had
gone down two feet and before daylight
the streets were pretty free Of the flood
veered to the southwest. !
VERY few, If any, buildings escaped
injury. There is hardly a habitable, dry
house In the city. When the people who
had escaped death went out at daylight
to view the work Of the tenn est and the
floods they saw the most horrible sights
imaginable. In the three blocks from
Avenue N to Avenue P, in fremont
street, saw eight bodies Four corpses
were In one yard.
1.-THE whole of the business front for
three blocks In from the Gull was STRIP
ped of every vestige of habitation. the
dwellings, the great bathing establi h
ments, the Olympic and every structure
having been either carried out to sea or its
ruins piled in a pyramid far into the town
according the vagaries of the tempest
LIKE HOUSES OF CARDS.
THE 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-frst street and Avenue NJ
fell like house of cards. How many
dead children and refugees are In ii
ruins could not be ascertained.
"Of the sick in St.Mary's infirmary and
attendants, only eight are unde stood to
have been saved. The old womans home.
on Rosenberg avenue, collapsed, the r s.
enberg school house is a mass of wreck
age. 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, they havirg bsen in
temporary quar- ters which gave them no
protection against the tempest or TIE
flood.
No report has been received from the
Catholic orphan asylum down the Island.
but it seems Impossible that it could have
withstood the hurricane. If it fell all the
inmates were no doubt lost, for tnere
was no add within mile.
The bay front from end to end is in
ruins. Nothing but piling and the wreck
of great warehouses remain. The ele-
vators lost all their superworks and their
stocks are damaged by water.
''The life saving station at Fort Point
was carried away, the crew being swept I
across the bay fourteen miles to Texas
City I saw Capt. Haines yesterday and
he told me that his wife and ore of his
crew were drowned. The shore at Texas