The Washington herald., 1906-10-09
WRITES OF MOBILE STORM
Mr.. Drago, Wholesale Grain Mer.
chant, Says Loss Is Not Overrated.
Gives Graphic Description of Con-
ditiOn of City During and Since
the Recent Hurricane.

The following Is a copy of letter OF
Mr.. Drago, a wholesale grain merchant
Of Mobile. to his aunt, a well-known
Washington lady.
Wei, I suppose you have heard about
the storm. can't describe it. nor could
you realize It. The waves dashed across
Royal street from the river. and the wa
ter was six and One-half feet over Com
merce street. Our stock Of goods is al
most total loss. We viii probably
save 5000
The town is wrecked There is not a
whole building in the city. not wooden
fence; great massive oaks. sycamores,
chinas line the streets. and electric wires
every way you turn. The town IS in
darkness. We are burning lamps and
candles; every available man is doing pO-
lice duty. and also the local militia. You
cannot see one block for the trees across
the street. There has never been a sight
one-tenth as bad as there is here now. In
the business district it is something
awful; the streets are piled up with rot
/ ten provisions, rotten grain. and wet dry
goods. boots, and shoes, and everything
else imaginable. The streets are ankle
/ deep with nasty soft mud from the river.
l though the fire department is trying TO
clean il, but can make but little headWay.
/ No one can imagine the prevailing condi-
I tions here. Our store is red hot from
heated grain. sour and rotten. We can
/ not stay in II but for a few minutes at a
time.
Il had the experience Of my lifetime
/ the night Of the Storm I left the store
at $50 D. m. a strong northeast wind
! blowing; it ragged from the northeast from
1 II D. ID. until $50 a. m At Il.30 p. m.
all lights went out over the town. our
| house rocked like cradle we sitting up
| in the dark: but it felt strong. The wind
/ increased and beloved. We heard one
of our large china trees go down, a few
minutes later a fence; then another tree
! in front OF our house, which fell against
the front OF il: bricks few down the
chimney, and rain and SCOT beat out over
/ the mating. and bricks. toe. At
O'Clock the northeast wind was bowling
Fand screeching, and we could hear trees
cracking, wires beating the house and
all kinds of terrible calamitous noises
| from until s. The house shook every
minute Chairs moved. and We thought
surely the house would fall over We
started to get out, but there was no other
place 70 go There was more danger out
side, and, besides. the sidewalks. back
yards and every place was blocked of by
falling trees. At daylight-5:3O o'clock
we could see the gray dawn. Broad street
was three feet high with rain water and
| IL still pouring down. You could see the
great destruction. The wind lulled for
| fifteen minutes. blew from the east, then
southeast then it was simply he'll until
! S o'clock. Ii blew az ii never blew be-
fore. It came in gusts about ten seconds
apart. but il came with a vengeance.
You could hear era shes Of fences, trees
It sounded like demons. You could hear
the awful demoniacal gusts coming. howl
ing, screeching, and moaning a few sec
onds before they struck the house: then
another house shaking. Wardrobes and
beds moving the joists cracking for a
few seconds-the suspense over-then an
other Just such experience. Maybe a 1T
tie worse, maybe not quite so bad as the
last one.
Our firm has suffered almost total loss.
Our creditors mostly due from saw mill
and turpentine firms) resources are en-
tirely destToyed-every acre of timber
blown fat 10 the ground From all sec
tions come reports of absolute distress
The whole surrounding country is de-
Stroyed absolutely. Nearly all the coast
towns are wiped out OF existence. The
loss 10 Mobile can never be recovered.
Estimated damage to city property is two
and one-haH millions of dollars"