The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1900-09-13
GALVESTON, TEX,
STORM STRICKEN.
GULF CITY DEVASTATED BY VINO
AND FLOOD.
Three Thousand to Five Thousand
Persons Perish-Ten Millions in
Property Destroyed-The City in
Darkness and Ruins-Sad Havoc
Wrought by West Indian Storm.
AID NEEDED FOR STRICKEN AND HELP
LESS PEOPLE.

One OF the most awful tragedies Oi
modern times has visited Galveston. The
city is in ruins and the dead is estimated
at from 3 900 to 1000. while the property
loss runs away up into the millions OF
dollars.
Richard Spillane, we'll known Calves
ton newspaper man, and day cores
pOndent OF the Associated Press in that
city. gives the following account of the
disaster:
BLEW OVER 81 MILES AN HOUR.
The wreck Of Galveston was brought
about by a tempest so terrible that no
words can adequately describe it's inten-
sity, and by food which turned the city
into a 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 it
is impossible to tell what the maximum
was.
The storm began at O'Clock Saturday
morning. Previous to that a great storm
had been raging in the Gulf, and the tide
was very high The wind at first came
from the North, and was in direct opposi-
ton to the force from the Gulf. While
the storm in the Gulf piled the water up
on the beach side OF the city, the North
wind piled the water from the bay on the
bay part of the city.
About noon it became evident that the
city was going to be visited with disaster.
Hundreds of residences along the beach
front We're hurriedly abandoned, the
families fleeing to dwellings in higherpOr
tons OF the city Every home was open
ed to the refugees, black or white. The
winds We're rising constantly and it rain
ed in torrents The wind was so fierce
that the rain cut like Il knife.
LIKE RATS IN A TRAP.
BY 3 O'Clock the waters Of the Gulf and
the bay met and by dark the entire city
was submerged. The flooding of the cleo
trio light plant and the gas plants left
the city in darkness To go upon the
streets was to court death The wind
was then at cyclonc velocity. roofs, els
terms, portions OF buildings, telegraph
poles and walls were falling and the
noise of the wind and the crashing of
the buildings We're terrifying in the ex-
treme The wind and the waters rose
steadily from dark until 40 clock Sun
day morning. During all this time the
people OF Galveston We're like rats in a
trap. The highest portion OF the city
was four to five feet under water, while
in great ma iority OF cases the streets
We're submerged to a depth of ten feet
To leave a house was to drown. To
remain was to court death in the wreck
age.
Such night of agony has seldom been
equalled Without apparent reason the
waters suddenly began to subside at 40
a. III. Within twenty minutes they had
gone down two feet and before daylight
the streets We're practically free of the
waters. In the meantime the wind had
veered to the South East
SCENES OF HORROR.
Very few if any buildings escaped in
Jury. There is hardly habitable dry
house in the city. When the people who
had escaped death went out at daylight
to view the tempest and the flood, 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 We're i'll one yard.
The whole of the business front for
three blocks from the Gulf was stripped
| Of every vestige of habitation, the dwell
ings. the great bathing establishments,
the Olympia and every structure having
| been either carried out to sea or it's ruins
| piled in a pyramid far into the town, ac-
cOrding to the vagraries OF the tempest.
! The first hurried glance over the city
| showed that the largest structures, sup
| posed to be the most substantially built
suffered the greatest.
THE DESTRUCTION IN DETAIL.
The Orphans Home, Twenty-frst
street and Avenue NJ, fell like a house of
cards. How many dead children and
| refugees are in the ruins could not be as
| certained.
| OF the sick in st. Mary's Infirmary, 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 wreckage
| The Ball High School is but an empty
| shell. crushed and broken. Every church
i'll the city, with possibly one or two ex-
ceptions, is in ruins. At the forts nearly
all the soldiers are reported dead, they
having been in temporary quarters which
gave them no protection against the
/ tempest or the 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. Ii it fell all the
inmates We're no doubt lost, for there
was no aid within a mile
| The bay front from end to end is in
ruins. Nothing but piling and the wreck
OF great warehouses remain. The eleva-
! tors 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 fourteen miles to Texas
! CITY. | saw CAPTAIN Haines Yesterday