The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1909-09-24
Gulf Coast Swept by Storm

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velocity of sixty miles per hour at New
Orleans at 7 o'clock Monday night, the
West Indian hurricane, which struck the
Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf coast, left
in it's wake four dead at New Orleans
and perhaps others along the Gulf coast,
though no definite advices of mortality
in other sections have thus far been re-
ceived here.
The property loss in New Orleans will
exceed 100000. Many houses were I'M
rooted and frail buildings in numerous
instances were partially destroyed. As
all. wires are down, it is impossible to
ascertain the loss of life or property
along the Gulf coast.
At 4 o'clock Monday afternoon the
| city of New Orleans and the neighbor-
ing country were cut off from comnuni-
cation with the outside world by the de-
struction of telegraph and telephone con-
n%ection, but not until it had been made
known by fugitive messages and bulle-
tins that ali that coast country from a
point near Waveland, Miss, on through
the coast parishes, fronting Lake Borgne
and surrounding Lake Po%ntchartrain, and
on westwardly into Texas, had been
swept by a great wind storm from off
the Gulf of Mexico, accompanied by a
tidal wave and a backing-up of river
| and lake waters, that flooded great
stretches of country, causing immense
destruction of property and doubtless no
little loss of life.
The storm had been lowering off the
coast in the Gulf for two days. Monday
it struck inland, travelling in a north
westerly direction.
Backwater From Gulf.
So great was the force of the wind
that the waters of the Mississippi,
backed up from the Gulf 100 miles be-
low, rose 3 feet at the New Orleans levee.
The n~eighboring lakes were agitated till
they all overlooked, covering the ada
cent lowlands with an oceans expanse
of seething torrent. The Gulf waters
from Lake Borgne were added to the
volume of the flood, and when the latest
dispatches came out of New Orleans
there were outlying parts of that city
covered with water, while the cyclonic
winds had destroyed several buildings,
great and small, and had otherwise dam
aged property.
Early Storm Not the Worst.
The first onslaught of the gale at $50
o'clock Monday morning was not the
worst, nor did it give even a faint sug-
gestion of the more forceful attack that
was to come later. 1t did not injure the
wire service out cf New Orleans, excepe
along the Louisville & Nashville road.
But about 4 o'clock, when the second
great hurricane swept over the country,
all the wires went down. Not a single
avenue of communication with New Or
leans was left. The Illinois Central at
Memphis was in communication with Nc
Comb City as late as 7 o'clock, but after
that hour could get no further south
than Jackson. Between 4 and Z O'Clock
it was possible to get some information
over the wire from McComb City, but
this information was meager indeed. 1t
was learned that the Illinois Central
track between Kentwood, La, and Ken
ner, La, was pretty well washed out,
and that it was impossible to say when
it would be in condition for use again.
1t was also found that after 4 o'clock
communication over the wires on the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley road was
cut off south of VickNburg. 1t could
not be learned where the break in the
wires took place. Natchez was cut off,
though there was a telephone wire work
ing out of Natchez as late as s o'clock
at night. But it was ascertained that
the tracks of the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley south of Vicksburg were in pass
able shape, and therefore it was given
out by the Illinois Central management
at Memphis that the %northbound passen-
ger trains out of New Orleans, the
through Chicago train due in Memphis
at s o'clock this morning, and the Water
Valley accommodation would be run
out on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley
road by way of Baton Rouge, and the
Memphis train may be expected not
much short of schedule time this morn
ing.
Texas Cities Are Safe.
The Southern Texas cities, Galveston
and Houston, that might be considered
to be in danger from coast storms of
the severity of this one, have not been
troubled by the storm. From Houston
the information was conveyed that there
had been no communication with New
Orleans since noon. 1t is evident, there
fore, that the wires west of New Or
leans were slaughtered in the first of the
gales, which perhaps reached the Texas
State line about noon.
Cuban Storm Severe.
Havana-Telegraph wires and bridge.
between Havana and Pinar del Rio are
still down, and consequently it has been
impossible to ascertain the extent of
the damage wrought by the storm in
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