The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-30
FATE AGAINST
PENSACOLA
Rain Turns Streets Into
River.
BY. WILL II. sHEEHAN.

Pensacola, Fla, Sept. 29-- Especially
Today was Pensacola's day of gloom.
While she was busy setting her house
in order, a cloudburst broke over the
city and IN the seven inches of rain
that fell she was flooded as she had
never been flooded before.
Her list of dead increased from
twenty-one previously reported, to
twenty-six The latest dead are: a
linAman named Lewis from Quifport;
two Greeks drowned at Bagdad. and two
unidentified white men found In the bay.
The misfortune of the clondburst came
at most inopportune time. The city
was practically sunroofed.
BY actual count, only seven stores in
the city were covered when the cloud
burst broke this morning. The in
teresta of the city suffered from the
record breaking rain today even more
than they suffered from the havoc of
the storm when 1t was at its height.
Wednesday morning.
The damage done by this great rain,
that came when there was hardly
store in the city with roof, VIII
amount to hundreds of thousands OF
dollars. Pensacola merchants folded
their hands today and contemplating
the havoc wrought by the rain. felt
that for some peculiar reason, the city
was the chosen prey 81 the elements
From, six until nine o'clock this morn
ing no less than seven inches OF rain
fell in the city. Never in her history
has Pensacola had such rain as fell
today.
The torrents of rain that flooded Long
FOLLOW the old waterway to the west or
the city, broke though Its retaining
bounds and overran Palafox street. rms
street, in a few moments. was turned
ant n A.
ron block having worth thousands OF
dollars were ripped UP and thrown
aside, , ryo.a,
In front of the Escambia Hotel =
great hole was washed In the street
and six men had the greatest ditncufty
I'm reseuing a cab horse that feil IN IL
before he was drowned. The water
was over his head.
The section of the city around the
louisville and Nashville DEPOT was
flooded all morning. Passengers VINO
took the noon train had to get 70 the
DEPOT in boats and RATS Pedestrians
who were unfortunate enough to loose
their footing had to be dragged out OF
water holes by their companions. Near
yates. where Long Hollow empties
into the bay. several houses were un-
dermined and DESTROYED. but no lives
are reported to have been lost.
Loss BY Retailers.
The greatest monetary loss, how
ever, was in the retail district along
Palafox street. Thursday had been
day of sunshine, The merchants and
their clerks had taken advantage of the
sunshine to recover their stocks from
the water and move them from the
6ampness left by the storm of early
Wednesday morning.
There had been no time to repair
the roofs destroyed by the hurricane.
Frl 1xyfn S~4 he SIR
lightly rolled up or spread out in area
ways. The cloudburst, with its record
breaking fall of rain-soaked AMI
drenched anew the goods that had been
partially recovered and 1t inflicted more
damage to retail merchants than the
storm itself had brought.
Today Pensacola is drenched, bed
raggled and discouraged. drummer
at one of the local hotels said; There
is not place in the city dry enough to
strike a match on" The death list
grows. but. fortunately, it does not
grow as rapidly as the well-informed
thought it would.
The more experienced sailors pre-
dicted that from the bay and from the
wrecked water front bodies were GER
tain to be recovered, where they We're
not expected
The body of Iineman named Lewis
was found in the bay by a launch this
+
Street.
No one knew he had been drowned.
How he came to his death will ever re-
main a mystery Where he was when
The storm broke nobody knows The
memory of. whatever horrors he suf-
fered died with him when he was over
whelmed with the angry waters of the
bay.
His body, swollen and bruised by the
drift and wreckage of the BAY was
found and brought ashore and living
man knows no more of his death. He
came to Pensacola a week ago from
Gulfport. His people and his antece-
dents were not known.
Loss of OIL Barge Crew.
Beaten and broken by the storm, the
Standard Oil tug Astral, steamed into
Pensacola today at noon. She brought
the terrible news that the Standard Oil
barge No. 80. was. with nine men aboard
her. either anoat. helpless on the gulf,