The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1909-07-30
GALVESTON is AGAIN STORM
SWEPT

big storm has swept that city for the
past few days. The tidal wave which
struck the city is said to have been
as severe as the one which some
years ago laid the city in waste.
The report says, in part;
Ten dead is the total number of
lives lost so far as is known, in the
hurricane which swept over the Gulf
of Mexico and struck Galveston Wed.
nesday morning, and continued until
after midday. While the city of Gal
weston was held safe against the fury
of the storm by the new 100000 sea
wall, far out on the gulf, on Tarpon
fishing pier, seven miles from the
city, where the storm whipped over
the jetty into the bay, ten persons
were washed from the rocky promon-
tories into the gulf. Boats are search
ing the bay for the bodies, but so far
have been unsuccessful.
Those drowned were members of a
fishing party and employees of the Tar
pom pier, marooned on the jetty
Boats were sent to their assistance,
and it was learned that the house in
which they. had sought refuge had
been washed away.
While it is impossible to get an ac-
curate list of the dead, owing to the
fact that the register has always been
kept at the pier, the best information
obtainable is as follows:
Capt. Bettison and wife.
Edward Lewis.
c. H. Daily, circulation manager
Galveston Tribune, formerly of Chi
cago, and four negroes.
The others are unknown.
Mans strength and skill were pit
ted against the fury of the elements
Wednesday, and man won, when the
city of Galveston, safely entrenched
behind her impregnable seventeen
foot sea wall, withstood, with compar-
atively trifiing loss, a tidal wave and
hurricane equal in intensity and de-
structive force to the one which de-
stroyed the city on September s,
1900.
In Galveston and vicinity not a sin
gle life is believed to have been sac
rificed. but the material loss is
thought to be quite extensive. The
hurricane swept the entire gulf coast
with an intensity and viciousness that
has seldom been equalled in a coun-
try where destructive storms are not
unusual. 1t had its origin on the At
lantic coast and swinging westward
and southwark, devastating the entire
gulf coast, even as far south as Mat
agorda Bay. That some lives were
lost and that much property was de-
strCyed is the general belief With
wires down and railroad communica-
ton destroyed, the exact loss is i'm
possible to estimate.
The hurricane struck Galveston
about II o'clock Wednesday morning.
The wind, attaining a velocity of near
~ seventy miles an hour, whipped the
treacherous waters of the Mexican
gulf into q fury of destruction. With
the pent-up anger Of ten years of
hate, the waves bIndly assaulted the
grim parapets of stone which man
had builded to restrain its attacks. In
vain it hurled its thousands of tons
Of water upon the splendid breast
works. Only a feeble burst of spray
and a little water reached its object
i've, and the beleaguered city lay calm
and safe behind the wall.
As a result Of damage to the bridge
that connects Galveston with the
mainland, communication by rail has
been cut off. Crews are at work on
the bridge, but il is not probable that
trains will be allowed 10 90 over the
structure until Saturday. Tug boats
are carrying passengers, mail and
freight across the bay to Galveston.
As far as could be ascertained the
damage by the storm is as follows:
The Breakers and Murdocks bath
houses, $4,000; beach and fishing
pier, $4,000; private fishing pier,
$4,000: Pettison's fishing pier, $4,000;
Tarpon pier, $4,000; buildings along
the lower section of the island, $4,000;
damage to unfinished boulevard, S15,-
600; United States government and
state property, $4,000.
A dispatch from Beaumont says:
A passenger train on the Gulf and In
.terstate road went TO High Island and
returned. The track below High Is
land is submerged, and the entire pc
ninsular from Galveston City to the
gulf is covered with water.
Tug boats brought 200 persons, al
IL.