The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1900-09-13

I Ine city tne next wins piled the water
from the bay on to the hay part Of the
city.
About noon II became evident that
the city was going to be visited with
disaster Hundreds of residences along
the beach front were hurricdiy aban-
doned, the families fleeing to dwellings,
In higher portions OF the city. Every
home was orened to the refugees. black
or white. The winds were rising con-
stantly and it rained in torrents. The
wind was so fierce that the rain cut
like knife
BY o'clock the waters OF the gulf
and bay met, and by dark the entire
city was submerged. The flooding of
the electric light plant and the gas
gas plants left the city In darkness.
To go upon the streets was to court
death. The wind was then at cyClonic
velocity. Roofs, cisterns, portions Of
buildings, telegraph poles and walls
were falling, and the noise Of the wind
and the crashing Of the buildings were
terrifvir g. The wind
and waters rose sleauiiy from DARK UT-
til 1:45 o'clock Sunday morning.
Galveston were like rats in traps. The
highest portions of the city was four
to five feet under water, while in the
great majority OF cases the streets
were submerged to depth of ten feet.
To leave a house was to drown. To
remain was to court death in the
wreckage. Such a night Of agony has
seldom been equaled. Without appar-
ent reason the waters suddenly began
to subside at las a. m. Within 20
minutes they had gone down two feet,
and before daylight the streets were
practically freed of the food waters.
In the meantime the wind had veered
to the southeast
Very few If any buildings escaped
injury. There is hardly a habitable
dry house in the city. When the peo-
pie who had escaped death went out
at daylight to view the work of the
tempest 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.
The first hurried glance over the city
showed that the largest structures.
supposed to be the most substantially
built suffered the greatest. The Or
phans' Home, Twenty-iirst and Avenue
NJ, fell like a house Of cards. How
many dead children and refugees are
in the ruins could not be ascertained.
OF the sick in st. Marys lnfrmary, to-
gether with the attendants. only eight
are understood to have been saved.
The Old WOman's Home, on Rosen-
berg avenue. collapsed, and the Rosen-
berg school house is a mass of wreck
age. The Ball high schoO! is but an
empty wall, crushed and broken. Ev-
cry church in the city with possibly one
or two exceptions is in ruins
At the fort nearly all the soldiers
are reported dead, they having been in
temporary quarters. which gave them
no protection against the tempest or
the flood.
At military headquarters, depart
ment Of Texas, at San Antonio, the in
formation is that Of 120 men stationed
at Fort San Jacinto. Galveston, only
Is escaped. Further information is
that the captain in command is among
tut ISltul. wi. y. INODtIls,
adjutant general, department of Tex
as, is In Galveston on tour of in
spection. II is not known If he is
among the small number at the fort
who escaped.
No report has been received from the
Catholic Orphan asylum, down the ISL
and. but 1t seems impossible that it
could have withstood the hurricane.
II II fell all the inmates were no dosbt
lost, for there was no aid within mile.
The bay front from end to end is in
ruins. Nothing but piling and the
wreck or great warehouses remain.
The elevators lost all their upper
works., and their stocks are damaged
by water.
The life saving station at Fort Point
was carried away, the crew being
swept across the bay IA miles to
Texas City. I saw Capt. Haines, and he
told me his wife and one child and one
OF the crew were drowned
The shore at Texas City contains
enough wreckage to rebuild a city.
Eight persons whom we're swept across
the bay during the storm were picked