Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-07-23
GREAT SEA WALLS SAVED
GALVESTON FROM WAVES
Continued from Page One

| announce that trains Will be run into the
! city before noon today.
| A dispatch from Sabine Pass says the
/ gale caused record breaking tides there.
| but no serious damage was done in that
vicinity The streets were flooded but
the waters receded rapidly. Other small
coast towns report that the floods have
subsidized with minor damage.
COST 100000 TO BUILD.
/ Finished but four years ago, at a cost
of 100000 by the government and the
| county of Galveston, he sea wall, a gi-
I gantic mass of marble and concrete
! standing II feet high and II feet thick
! at the base and gradually sloping at the
top, yesterday successfully withstood the
onslaught of the raging gulf as wave
after wave was hurled against it only
to be thrown back, crested and white into
! the churning breakers and undertow.
| Whether or not this mass of construc-
ton was damaged by the action of the
waters can only be told when the waters
of the gulf finally fall back to normal.
Constructed on piling driven deep into the
ground, it was thought impregnable to
the action of the gulf, but the piling Is
driven into sand only. Should the sand
have seeped away, a million more will
have to be expended In filling In.
WALL SERVED ITS PURPOSE.
! The sea wall served It's purpose and
had II not been for the high waters in
the back bay forcing water back through
the sewers into the streets. Galveston
would have been dry behind the fort
ress Of rock, encircling the city on the
south and east.
Galveston beach will have to be rebuilt
When the sea wall was constructed the
encircling band of concrete and steel
was laid to the rear of the bath HOUSES
and below the beach stretched out 100
| feet to the water. Between the water
line and the wall were the two bath
houses, Murdocks and the Breakers, each
constructed in recent years at a cost of
| $25, 900 each. They were swept away and
scattered to the ten-mile length of CAL
weston island, a mass OF wreckage. A
mile to the west and at the end of the
sea wall boulevard, unscratched, stands
the new surf bath house completed this
year at a cost of $4,000. Standing on
piling driven as deep as those supporting
| the sea wall, this new hotei and resort
! successfully withstood the onslaught of
the gulf and today is the only thing
standing between the water line and the
wall.
PILE DRIVERS WORKED ALL NIGHT
Working throughout the night by the
light of lanterns, pile drivers worked at
each end of the mile trestle spanning
Galveston bay between the island and the
mainland, and by midday today the
breach caused by a drifting barge will
have been repaired and traffic resumed
to the island. Until this is repaired CAL
weston will be separated from the main
land, DIS 1t is the only bridge over the
bay and no tug captain will attempt to
cross the rolling bay with ferry barge.
Tarpons fishing pier, where the only
loss of life so far reported occurred, is
at he Of q
which threads its way straight into the
deep waters of the gulf. Sweeping the
hotel from the summit of the rocks, ten
persons were tossed into the water and
drowned.
SEARCH FOR BODIES.
All night long boats large enough to
venture out on the turbulent waters of
the bay searched for the bodies of the
dead, but as dawn broke, the boats re-
turned to their ships empty-handed. Like
the storm of 1900, the bodies probably
have been swept out to sea to be dis
gorged days later when the waters have
Gained and the tide returns its victims.
Reports up and down the gulf shore
show that Galveston was the center of
the disturbance for which warnings were
posted in Galveston Sunday. for mariners
The nearest threatened loss of life was
at Roll Over, Copeland and Patten
300 people from Beaumont and surround
ing cities camped out for the summer, but
all are reported safe.
People on Gulf Shore
Not Yet Heard From
BEAUMONT, Tex. July 22-There are
four or five hundred people, mostly wo-
men and children OF this city, living in
hotels, cottages and tents along the gulf
and no word OF any character has beer
received from them.
Gulf Coast Storm
Has Drifted Westward
LOUISVILLE, Ky, July 22.-The wealth
er bureau in its report today says of yes
terdays storm at Galveston:
The storm centered at Galveston yes
terday has drifted westward to the mid
! die Rio Grande valley, decreasing in en-
ergy. The wind velocity at Galveston
this morning is is miles per hour. Copi-
Gus rains are attending the gulf storm.
Full Details of Storms
Damage Not Known
NEW ORLEANS, July 22.-The full toll
of life and property exacted by the hur-
ricane which swept the western gulf coast
yesterday may be several days In the
counting. Leveling telegraph wires and
destroying other means OF communica-
tion with the outside world, the hurri-
cane swept along the gulf bordering shore
from points In Cameron Parish, La, to
almost the southwestern extremity of
Texas.
AS far as can now be ascertained, the
storm vented it's fiercest force upon the
city of Galveston. There the practically
impregnable sea wall kept back the on
rushing waters of the gulf. forced many
feet high by the driving northeast wind
and sending their spray over the sea-
guarding battlements of the city. Reports
received from there indicate that the loss
of life is confined to the ten unfortunates
caught in the gale off Tarpon pier The
property damage as first totaled will
hardly exceed 100000
That loss OF life and property damage
have been caused at other points along
the Texas coast and possibly in in Cam
eron Parish La, is the belief now en-
tertained. The restoration of wire COM
munication with many places along the
coast today was followed by reassuring
news, but other points, 1T was impossible
to get in touch with, and 1t is feared
that serious results may have been ex-
perienced in the latter. In Matagorda
county, about 70 miles southwest of Gal
weston, 1t is reported that several lives
have been lost, but at an early hour to-
day a confirmation of this report was