The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1900-09-20
AWFUL SCENES OF WRECK.
An Eyewitness Describes the Hor.
rors of the Flood and Storm.

Houston, Texas. Special.-Richard
Spillane, well-known Galveston
newspaper man, and day correspon-
dent Of the Associated Press in that
city, reached Houston Monday, after a
terrible experience. He gives the fol-
lowing account OF the disaster at Gal
weston:
"One of the most awful tragedies OF
modern times has visited Galveston.
The city Is in ruins and the dead will
number 1000. l am just from the city,
having been commissioned by the may
or and citizens committee to get in
touch with the outside world and ap-
peal for help. Houston was the near
est point at which working telegraph
instruments could be found, the
wires, as we'll as nearly all the build
ings between here and the Gulf OF
Mexico being wrecked. When l left
Galveston shortly before noon Sunday
the people were organizing for the
prompt burial Of the dead, distribution
of food and all necessary work after
period of disaster. The wreck OF
Galveston was brought about by
tempest so terrible that no words can
adequately describe its intensity, and
by a 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 was the
maximum.
The storm began at 2 o'clock Satur-
day 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 into the bay part
Of the city. About noon 1t became evil
dent that the city was going to be
visited with disaster. Hundreds OK
residences along the beach front were
hurriedly abandoned, the families fee
ing 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
thet the rain cut like a 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 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, portions OF buildings,
telegraph poles and walls were falling,
and the noise of the wind and the
crashing of the buildings were terrify-
ing in the extreme. The wind and wa
ters rose steadily from dark until 1:45
o'clock, Sunday morning. During all
this time the people OF Galveston were
like rats in traps. The highest potion
of the city was four to five feet under
water, while in the great majority Of
cases the streets were submerged to a
depth of ten feet. To leave house
was to drown. To. remain was to
court death in the wreckage.
"Such a night of agony has seldom
been equalled. Without apparent rea-
son the waters suddenly began to sub
side at 1:45 a. m. Within 90 minutes
they had gone down two feet and be-
fore daylight the streets were practf-
cally free of the food waters. In the
meantime the wind had vesred to the
southeast.
VERY few II 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 tenn
pest and the floods, they saw the mcst
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 whole Of the business front
for three blocks in from the Gulf was
stripped of every Vestige Of habitation.
the dwellings, the great bathing es-
adjustments, the Olympia and every
structure having been either carried
out to sea, or its ruins piled in pyra-
mid far into the town, according to the
vagaries of the tempest
"The first hurried glance over the
city showed that the largest structures
supposed to be the most substantially
built suffered the most.
"The bay front from end to end Is
In ruins. Nothing but pillng and the
wreck OF great warehouses remain. The
elevators lost all their super works ard
their stocks were damaged by water.
The life-saving station at Fort Point
,yoe carried away. the crew being swept