Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-11
A NIGHT Of HORROR
Awful Experience Of Galveston Peo-
pie During lie Storm.
PENNED IN By & & :: TIE WATERS
To Go Out in the Darkness Meant
Death.
50 ~.
WAITING FOR. THE DAWN

WAITING FOR. THE DAWN
Richard Spillane, q well-known Galveston
newspaper man. and correspondent of the
Associated Press in that city. who reached
Houston yesterday after terrible expert
ence, gives the following account Of the dis
aster at Galveston:
lone Of the most awful tragedies Of mod
is In ruins and the dead will number proba-
bly, LOCO. I am just from the city, having
been commissioned by the mayor and citi-
zens' committee to get in touch with the
outside world and appeal for help. Hous-
ton 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 I left Galveston shortly before
noon yesterday the people were organizing
for the prompt burial of the dead, distri-
button OF food and all necessary work after
period of disaster.
THE wreck of Galveston was brought
about by a tempest SO terrible that no
words can adequately describe its fnten-
sity, and by a flood which turned the city
records show that the wind attained a
velocity of eighty-four miles an hour, when
the measuring instrument blew away, so 1t
is impossible to tell what was the maxi
mum.
1.-The storm began at o'clock Saturday
morning. Previous to 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 opposition
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 Of
the city.
Disaster Seemed Imminent.
about noon 1T became evident that the
city was going to be visited with disaster.
Hundreds of residences along the beach
front were hurriedly abandoned, the fami
lies fleeing to dwellings In higher portions
of the city. Every home was opened to the
refugees, black or white. The winds were
rising constantly. and 1t rained in torrents.
The wind was so fierce that the rain cut
like knife.
BY 3 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 cy
clontc velocity, roofs, cisterns, portions OF
buildings. telegraph poles and walls were
falling. and the noise of the wind and the
the extreme. The wind and waters rose
steadily from dark until i 40 o'clock Sun
day morning.
The Entire City Under Water.
During all this time the people of Gal
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
jority of cases the streets were submerged
to depth of ten feet. To leave house
was to drown: to Ilremain was to court
death in the wreckage.
Such a night of agony has seldom been
euualed. Without apparent reason the wa
ters suddenly began TO subside at ! 40 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 habtable dry
house in the city. When the people 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,
1 saw eight bodies. Four corpses were in
one yard.
1.-The whole of the business front for
three blocks in 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 pyramid far into the town, &C
cording to the vagaries of the tempest
Wreck of Public Institutions.
1.-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, 21st street and Avenue M, fell like
house of cards. How many dead children
be ascertained OF the sick In ST. Marys
Infirmary together with the attendants.
only eight are understood to have been
saved.
1.-THE Old Woman'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.
AT the forts nearly all the soldiers are
reported dead, they having been in Tempo
rary quarters, which gave them no pro-
lection against the tempest or the flood
mo report has been received from the
Catholic Orphan Asylum, down the Island,
but it seems impossible that 1t could have
withstood the hurricane If it fell all the
inmates were no doubt lost, for there was
no aid within a mile.
1.-The bay front from end to end IS in
ruins. Nothing but piling and the wreck
of great warehouses remains. The eeva-
tors lost all their SuperWorks and their
stocks are damaged by water.
1.-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 and
he told me that his wife and one of his
crew were drowned.
Beach Strewn With Wreckage
1.-THE shores at Texas City contain
enough wreckage to rebuild a city. Eight
persons who were swept across the bay
during the storm were picked up there
alive. Five corpses Were also picked up.
There were three fatalities in Texas City.
In addition to the living and the dead
which the storm cast UP at Texas City
caskets and collins from one OF the ceme-
teries at Galveston were being fished out
of the water there yesterday.
I'm the business portion of the city two
large brick buildings, one occupied by
Knapp Bros. and the other by the Cotton
Exchange saloon collapsed. In the Cot
ton Exchange saloon there were about fif-
teen persons Most of them escaped
up to the time L left Galveston three
dead had been taken from the ruins They
STANLEY G. Spencer, q manager of the