Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-05-15
HOW A QUAKE FEELS.
oTTuMWA YOUNG WOMAN VIVID.
LY DESCRIBES SENSATIONS
DURING FRISCO SHOCK

Tells OF Sights and Occurrences Coin
cident with the Seismic Disturbance
on the Pacific coast-The Method of
Dispensing Food and Rations.
Many of the terrible scenes expert
enced in the recent San Francisco
earthquake and the few days of disas-
ter which followed are interestingly re-
counted in an interview given Cour-
Ter representative by Miss Mabel AN
derson, who with her brother, Charles
Anderson, were in the stricken city.
Miss Anderson, being an observing
young woman, took the opportunity of
witnessing all of the catastrophe posi-
BILE. For this reason her account of the
calamity which follows, is complete
| and in detail
Miss Anderson's Story.
"As the vibrations of the earthquake
awakened me at 5:13 o'clock my first
though was, They told me that they
never had cyclones here Well,
would like to know what this is if it
| isn't cyclone l Immediately jumped
from my bed. My window was wide
open and there was no breeze Then
I realized that it was an earthquake.
| AS the pictures rocked to and fro /
sank to the floor in terror, not know
ing what. moment the walls and all
would cave in and crush me.
CAS- soon as the first great shock
was over / fastened to my brothers
| room and he was coming toward mine.
All of the people in the house rushed
to the hall in their night clothes. One
of the men said, Get shoes and get out
Of here at once and as we went back
to our rooms another shock was felt.
"The seven in our fiat dressed as
hurriedly as people SO terrified could
and then ran out into the middle of
the streets. Such sights as met the
| eyes! Houses were down, people were
screaming and crying, fires here and
there made it already look as though
the city was ablaze.'
"My brother and ] and the others
in the fiat decided to get our wraps and
hats and go out and see what effect
the quake had had upon. the city. We
went down Fell street to Fillmore
street, then down Hays street to La
guna, then on Grove street around the
beautiful st. Ignatius church.
City Hall Wrecked.
"At the foot of Grove street was the
city hall and hall of Justice, totally
wrecked. Only the iron frame stood
to show where once had been that
beautiful building. We went around
to Mechanics Pavilion and there we
all offered our services but no help
was needed at that time.
Such sights as met our eyes can
never be blotted from my memory.
The Mechanics Pavilion had been turn
ed into an emergency hospital. Here
wagon load after wagon load of peo-
pie, injured in the ruins, were brought
all cut or torn to pieces, with faces
and limbs half covered with blood. 1t
is horrible to tell about, but the moan
ings and groanings of the sufferers adj
ded to the CHASTITY sights made it al
most unbearable to experience.
Automobiles and all kinds of con-
veyances brought mattresses, cots,
medicines, sheets and other necessi-
ties. From here we saw the blaze
in the Mission. We walked down
Market to Sixth street and out to the
Mission, which was all afire. While
we were watching the fire another
shock was felt, SO we decided to go
home and pack our valuable belongings
and go to Alamo park, about a block
and a half from where we lived
ION our way home we found that
what had appeared to be small blaze
on Laguna street, had spread until it
covered an area of two blocks 1t was
finally extinguished but not until ev-
erything in those two blocks were in
ashes.
The City Of Flames.
when we returned to our fiat on
the top of a hill, the whole city was
seen to be in flames. We took our
belongings and fastened to the Alamo
Square This point being very high,
we had an excellent view of the whole
city.
cat this time we saw a new fire
start on McAflister street, few blocks
below us, which I am told on reliable
information was caused by a woman,
who, never thinking that the chimneys
were. useless, made fire to make
some tea. She and a stubborn French
man, who must needs build fire to
start to work as usual in his laundry,
wrought terrible destruction.
cat this time my brother Charles
and myself decided to start out our
selves, leaving our friends with our
baggage in the park. We thought we
would work together and offer our as
sistance wherever it seemed to be
needed. Such sights as we saw on that
journey, hope l shall never see again.
st. Ignatlus Church Destroyed.
"The fire that had started on Meal
lister street, had spread beyond con-
troll. The beautiful ST. 1gnatius church,
the pride of the whole city, covering
one square block, was sacrificed to the
demon flames.
''The fire raging south of Market
street swept to Market. up to Octavia
street and met the other fire at st.
Ignatius church. 1t was terrible to see