The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-09-11

then at cyclone velocity. roofs. cisterns
portions OF buildings. telegraph poles and
walls were falling and the noise of the
wind and the crushing OF the buildings
were terrifying in the extreme.
The wind and water rose steadily from
dark until i;i5 O'Clock Sunday morning
During all this time the people OF Gal
weston were like rats in traps The high
est portion OF the city was four to Ave
feet under water while IN the great ma
jority Of cases the streets were submerged
to a depth OF cen feet. To leave a house
was to drown. To remain was 20 cour;
death in the wreckage.
Such a night OF agony has seldom been
cqualled. Without apparent reason the
water suddenly began to subside at i:is
=. m. Within twenty minutes they had gone
down two feet ana before daylight the
streets were practically free Of the food
waters. In the meantime the wind had
veered to she southeast.
Death and Destruction.
Very few 4 any buildings escaped in
jury. There is hardly a habitable dry
house in the city. When the people who
had escaped death went out az daylight
20 view the work OF the tempest and the
floods they saw the most horrible sights
imaginable. In the three blocks from Ave-
niue n to Avenue p. in fremont street. I
saw eight bodies. Four oorpses we're IN
one yard.
The whole OF the business front for
three blocks IN from the Gulf was stripped
Of every vestige OF habltaton. 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. ae-
cording 20 the vagarles OF the tempest
The FIRST hurried glance over the city
showed shat the largest structures. sup
posed to be the most substantially built.
suffered the most.
The Orphans Home. Twenty-nrst street
and Avenue n. fell like a,shouse Of cards.
How many dead children and refugees are
In the ruins could not he ascertained
or the sick In ST. Mary's Innrmary. to-
ge,her with the attendants. only eight are
understood to have been saved
The Old women's Home on Rosenberg
avenue collapsed. and 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.
soldiers ReBorted Dead.
At the forts nearby an the soldiers are
reported dead. they having been in tenn
porary quarters. which gave them no
protection against the tempest or the
lood.
No report has been received from the
Catholic Orphan Asylum down the island.
but II seems impossible that Il could have
withstood the hurricane. II It fell all the
inmates we're no doubt lost. for there was
no aid within mile,
The bay front from end to end is in
ruins. Nothing hut piling and the wreck
Of great warehouses remain. The elevators
lost all their. supor-works and their stocks
are damaged by water.
The nfe-saving station at Fort Point
was carried away. the crew being swept
across the bay fourteen miles to Texas
City. ! saw Capt. Haiues yesterday. and
no tod me that his wife and one OF bis
crew were drowned.
The shore az Texas City contains enough
wrecksge to rebuild a city. Eigh, persons
who we're swept across the bay during
the storm were picked up there alive.
Five eorpses were also picked up. There
were three fatalities In Texas City. In
addition 20 the living and the dead. which
the storm cast up az Texas City. caskets
and collins from one OF the cemeteries in
Galveston were being hshed out OF the
water there yesterday
Digging out the Dead.
In the business portion Of the city two
large brick buildings. one occupied BY
Knapp Bros. and the other by the Cot
ton Exchange saloon. collapsed. In the
Cotton Exchange saloon there were about
fifteen persons. Most OF them escaped.
Up to the time left Galveston three