The Washington weekly post., 1900-09-11
STORY OF AN AWFUL NIGHT.
Complete Accent of the Disaster that Has
Befalicu Galveston.


ane. 4 well-known Galveston newspaper
man, and correspondent of the Associated
Press IL that city, who reached Houston
to-day, after terrible experience. gives
the following account Of the disaster at
Galveston:
.One of the most awful tragedies OF
modern times has VISITED Galveston. The
city IL in ruins and he dead will number
probably one thoEsand. I am just from
the city. having been commissioned b.
the mayor and citizens committee TO get
In touch with the outside world and ap
peal for help. Houston was the nearest
point at which working telegraph instru-
ments could be found, the wires. as well
s nearly all the buildings between here
and the Gulf OF Mexico being wrecked.
When / left Galveston shortly before
noon yesterday. the people were organiz-
Ing 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 tempest 50 terrible that no
words can adequately describe its inten-
slty, and by a food which turned the
city into a raging sea. The Weather Bu-
reau records show that the wind attained
velocity of eighty-four miles an hour,
when the measuring instrument blew
away, so it is impossible to tell what was
the maximum.
Tidal Waves frem Both sides.
The storm began at 2 o'clock Saturday
morning. Previous 10 that 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
upon the beach side of the city, the north
wind piled the water from the bay onto
the bay part CT the city.
About noon ii became evident that the
city was going to be visited with disaster
Hundreds Of residences along the Deacn
front were hurriedly abandoned, the fami-
lies fleeing to dwellings in higher po--
tons of the city. Every home was open
cd 10 the refugees black or white The
winds were rising constantly, and it rain
ed in torrents. The wind was so ierce
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 plants left the
city in darkness. To go upon the streets
was to court death. The wind was then
at cyclonic velocity, roofs. cisterns. por-
tons Of buildings. telegraph poles, and
walls were falling, and the noise OF the
wind and the crashing of the buildings
were terrifying in the extreme. The wind
and waters rose steadily from dark until
Las o'clock Sunday morning.
The Entire City Under Water.
During all this time the people Of Cal
weston were like rats in traps The high
est portion of the city was four to five
feet under water, while In the great ma
jCrity Of cases the streets were submerg-
cd to a 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 apparent reason the
waters suddenly began to suhside at l:4J
a. m. Within twenty minutes they had
gone down two feet, and before daylight
the streets were practically freed of the
flood waters. In the meantime the wind
had veered to the southeast
Very few, if any. buildings escaped In
jury. There is hardly d habitable. drv
house In the city When the people who
had escaped death went out at daylight
10 view the work of the tempest and the
I
| imaginable. In the three blocks from
Avenue n to Avenue P, in 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 habitation, the dwell
! II gs, 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, ac-
/ cording 10 the vagaries of the tempest.
Wreck of Public Institutions.
! "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-first street 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. Mary's Infrmary, together
| with the attendants. only eight are un-
| derstOod to have been saved.
| "The Old Woman's Home. on Rosenberg
| avenue, collapsed and the Rosenberg
| school house is a mass of wreckage. The
| BAN 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 having been in
temporary quarters. which gave them no
| protection against the tempest or the
| food
| mo report has been received from the
| Catholic orphan Asylum, down the ISL
and, but ii seems impossible that 1t could
| have withstood the hurricane If il fell
| all the inmates were no doubt lost, for
/ there was no aid within a mile.
THE bay front from end 10 end is in
| ruins Nothing but piling and the wreck
! Of great warehouses remain. The eleya.