Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-09-11

Houston. Texas. Sept. 1O.--Richard
paper man. and day correspondent of
reached Houston to-day after terrible
count of the disaster at Galveston:
One OF the most awful tragedies of
The city is in ruins and the dead will
the city. having been commissioned by
get in touch with the outside world an
Houston was the nearest point at
could be found, the wires, as well as he
the Gulf of Mexico, being wrecked. w
noon yesterday, the people were organi
distribution of food and all necessary
The wreck of Galveston was broug
no words can adequately describe its in
city into raging sea. The Weather /,
tanned velocity of eighty four miles Il
blew away, so 1T is impossible to tell w
The storm began at o'clock Satur
storm had been raging in the Gulf and
first came from the north and was in di
Gulf. While the storm in the Gulf Pill
city, the north wind piled the water fl
city.
About noon it became evident that
the city was going to he visited with
disaster. Hundreds of residences along
the beach front were hurriedly aban-
doned, the families fleeing to dwellings
in higher portions of the city. Every
home was opened to the refugees. black
or white. The winds were rising CON
stantly, and it rained in torrents. The
wind was so fierce 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, portions of buildings,
telegraph poles and walls were falling
and the noise OF the wind and the
crashing of the buildings were terri
flying in the extreme. The wind and
waters rose steadily from dark until
Las o'clock Sunday morning. During
all this time the people of Galveston
were like rats In traps The highest
portion of the city was four to five feet
under water, while in the great ma
jority OF cases the streets were sub
g merged TO a depth of ten feet. To
leave n house was to drown: to remain
was To court death in the wreckace
Such night OF agony has seldom
been equalled. Without apparent rea-
son the waters suddenly began to sub
side at 1s45 a. m. Within twenty
minutes they had gone down two feet
practically free of the waters. In the
meantime the wind had vcercd to the
southeast.
Very few If any buildings escaped
injury. There is hardly Il habitable
dry house in the city. When the pco-
pie who had escaped death went out
ut daylight to view the work OF the
tempest and the floods they saw the
most horrible sights imaginable. In
the three blocks from Avenue to
Avenue p. in fremont street. I saw
eight bodies. Four corpses were in one
yard.
MANY BLOCKS RUINED.
The whole Of the business front for
three blocks in from the Gulf was
stripped of every vestiEe of habitation,
the dwellings. the great bathing cstab-
lishments, the Olympia and every
structure having been either carried
out to sea or it's ruins piled in a pyra-
mid far into the town according to the
vagaries of the tempest. The first hur-
ried glance over the city showed that
the largest structures. supposed 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 infirmary.
together with the attendants. only
eight are understood to have been
saved.
The Old Woman's Home, on Roscn-
DcTS AVENUE, COlidpSeu, ana lne ltOSen-
berg school house is a mass of wreck
age. 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
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 ISL
and, but it seems impossible that it
could have withstood the hurricane. If
1t fell all the inmates were no doubt
lost. for there was no aid within a
nile.
The bay front from cpd to end is in
ruins. Nothing but plinS and the
wreck of great warehouses remain.
The elevators lost all their upper
works and their stocks are damaged
by water.
The life saving station at Fort
Point was carried away, the crew be-
ing swept across the bay fourteen
miles to Texas City I saw Captain
Haines yesterday and he told me that
his wife and one of the crew We're
drowned.
a MASS OF wRECKAGE.
The shore at Texas City contains
enough wreckage to rebuild a city
Eight persons who were swept across
the bay during the storm were pick