The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-24
A HEAVY RAIN FALL
ADDS TO FLIGHT OF SAN FRAN
 CIsCO's sHELTERLEss.
Downpour Aggravates the Already Cn- sanitary Condition of the Camps and win Cause Many Cases
 0f Pneumonia.

San Francisco, April 23.--A drencn' ing rain fell upon San Francisco las night. From midnight until o'clock it poured and drizsled at intervals while a high wind added Q melanchol, accompaniment. whistling and signing about the ruins of the buildings IT the burned district. Five days ago when the fire catastrophe was in fts infancy. this downpour would have been regarded as a mercy and God send.
 This morning it could be regarded in no other light than as an additional calamity. It meant indescribable sui fering to the tens of thousands of peo- pie camped on the hills and in the parks and open places of the city. Few of these were provided for waterproof covering. For the most part their only protection from tho wet was thin cow ering of shooting tackled upon impro- vised tent poles. Through this water poured as through a sieve, wetting the bedding and soaking the ground upon which they lay, When 1t Is understood that thousands upon thousands of del icateiy nurtured women and infants In arms and old and feeble people were in this plight, nothing need be added to describe the misery of their condi- tion. The downpour has aggravated the already unsanitary condition of the camps and will doubtless add great numbers of pneumonia cases to those already crowding the regular and tenn porary hospitals Of the city.
 What could be done was done by the guards in charge of the camps to re- lieve the distress Whenever covering could be had for the women md the children 1t was taken advantage of They were used .n the chilly and cheer less churches, garage and barnes and those who had been fortunate enough to save their homes were called upon to take care of these unfortunates With few exceptions these people re- sponded readily to the new call made upon them and when they did not the butt ends of rides quickly forced away through the inhospitality doors
 While storm has added to the difficult ties ofthe situation and especially those having in charge the care of the sick the sanitation of the city and the hous- ing of the homeless. 1t has been spur to even greater efforts to bring order out of the chaos prevailing. Regular shelter tents were provided as we'll as cots, standing on the ground. It is realized that these provisions are in- perative: as much SO as the providing of food. After the several hours of clear weather there was another pre- cipitation at p. m. and again at o'clock the fall was resumed and con tinued | intervals throughout the day of individual instances of suffering the number is legion, but one will tell ths story of them all.
 About 1 o'clock when the rain hat been falling heavily for an hour middle aged man, white faced in hi' distress and fatigue. appeared at thu head4uarters of the general committee He had walked two miles from hi camping place in the park 10 mak' an appeal for his suffering wife ant little ones. As he told of their dis tress the tears swelied upon hts eye and coursed down his checks.
 Thy were, he said, without covering other than a sheeting overhead ant were lying on the ground on a gull and blanket which of his household bedding were all he had managed tt save. These had quickly been soaked and while unwilling to complain on hi own account he had been unable t' listen to the walls of his little one' and had tramped all the way from hi camping place to the committee head quarters in the forlorn hope that hs might find some means of getting hi' family under shelter.