The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1900-09-13
DEATH LIST GROWS.
Every Hour Brings News of
Fresh Horrors From Texas.
CORPSES LINE CALvESTON'S STREETS
The city IL still Flooded-vcsscls
blown Far Beyond High Water
Mnrk-Whole Families Are
Wiped Out of Existence.

Mnrk-WhoIe Families Are
Wiped Ont of Existence.
HOUSTON, Sept. 12.-Richard Spill.
lane, well known Galveston newspa.
per man, who reached Houston after a
terrible experience, gives the following
account of the disaster at Galveston:
The city Is in ruins, and the dead
will number probably 5000. | am just
from the city. having been commissioned
by the mayor and citizens committee to
get in touch with the outside world and
appeal for help. Houston was the near
est point at which working telegraph
instruments could be found, the wires as
well A. nearly NIL the buildings between
here and the gulf of Mexico being
wrecked.
when I left Galveston. the people
were organizing for the prompt burial Of
the dead. distribution Of food and all nec-
essary work after a period Of disaster.
The wreck Of Galveston was brought
about by a tempest SO terrible that no
words can adequately describe its in
tensity and by a food which turned the
city into a raging sea. The weather
bureau records show that the wind at
tanned a velocity Of "a miles an hour
when the measuring instrument blew
away, so II 10 impossible to tell what
was the maximum. 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 Arst cane from the north
and was In direct opposition to the force
from the gulf. While the storm In the
gulf piled the water up ~ the beach side
Of the city the north wind piled the wa.
ter from the bay on to the bay part Of
the city.
About noon 1t became evident that the
city was going to be visited with disas-
ter. Hundreds Of residences along the
beach front were hurrisdly abandoned.
the families heeing to dwellings In high
er portions Of the city. Every home was
opened to the refugees. black or white.
The winds were rising constantly, and
II rained In torrents. The wind was 30
fierce that &he rain cut like knife.
by . o'clock the waters Of the bay
aAd snlf 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 20 upon the
streets was to court death. The wind
was then at cyclonic 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 were terrifying in the extreme.
The wind and waters rose steadily from
dark until :45 o'cleck Sunday morning.
During all this time the people Of Gal
weston were like rats IN traps. The high
est portion Of the city was four to Ave
feet under water. while In the great ma
jority of cases the streets were sub
merged to u depth Of ten feet To leave
q house was to drown. To remain was
to court death In the wreekags. Such 4
night Of agony has seldom been squaled.
Without apparent reason the waters
suddenly began to subside at I .45 a. m.
Within 20 minutes they had gone down
two feet, and before daylight the streets
were practically freed Of the food wa
ters. In the meantime the wind had
vsered to the southeast.
VERY few II any buildings escaped in
jury. There is hardly a habitable dry
house In the city. When the people who
had escaped death went out at daylight
10 view the work Of the tempest and the
floods. they saw the most horrible sight,
imaginable. In the three blocks from
Avenue N to Avenue P In fremont
street I saw eight bodies. Four eorpses
were IN one yard.
'The whole Of the business front for
three blocks In from the gulf was strip
ped Of every vestise Of habitation, the
dwellings, the great bathing establi
ments, the Olympia and every structure
having been either carried out to sea or
its ruins piled in a pyramid far into the
town, according to the vagaries Of the
tempest.
no ArAk iaA 81 - ~:s
showed that the largest structures, sup
posed to be the most substantially built,
suffered the greatest.
street and Avenue NJ, fell like house Of
refugees are In the ruins could not be
ascertained.
"Of the sick in st. Mary's infirmary,
together with the attendants, only eight
are understood to have been saved.
The Old Woman's home, on Rosenberg
avenue, collapsed, and the Rosenberg
schoolhouse Is IA 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 excep-
tions, 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.
mo report has been received from the
Catholic Orphan asylum down the Is
land, but II seems impossible that it could
have withstood the hurricane. II it fell.
all the inmates were no doubt lost, for
there was no aid within a milo.
"The bay front from end to end is in
ruins. Nothing but piling and the wreck
of great warehouses remain. The ele-
vators lost all their superworks, and their
stocks are damaged by water.
"The life saving station at Fort Point
was carried away the crew being swept
across the bay II miles to Texas City.
81 saw Captain Haines, and he told me
that his wife and one Of his crew were
drowned.
'"The shore at Texas City contains
enough wreckage to rebuild city. Eight
persons who were swept across the bay
during the storm We're picked up there
alive. Five corpses We're also picked
up. There were three fatalities in Texas
City. In addition to the living and the