Omaha daily bee., 1916-08-19
HURRICANE HITS
GULF COAST and
WIRES ARE Down
Wind Reaches Velocity Of Sew
enty Miles Per + De-
stroying P~ sssN
GUAR weERs ARE HIT
Military Camp in Brownsville
Wrecked and Soldiers Are
Forced to Flee.
NO FATALITIES REPORTED

Dallas, Tex, Aug. l8.-Telegraph
companies at o'clock tonight re-
ported that all wires to Corpus
Christi and Brownsville had failed at
6 o'clock owing to the gulf coast
storm. Chances of picking up wires
during the night, they said were re-
mote.
Corpus Christi, Tex, Aug. 49,
The local weather bureau says the
center of the West Indian storm
probably will strike here about mid
night tonight.
The office issued warnings, prepar-
ing residents for the crest of the
storm at midnight tonight, saying that
at twelve-mile wind could be ex-
pected.
At a o'clock this afternoon the wind
had reached a velocity of seventy
miles an hour and was carrying every
thing movable before it. A heavy sea
was running in Corpus Christi bay.
In the north beach portion of the city,
scores of summer cottages were de-
molished.
Strikes Military Camp.
San Antonio, Tex, Aug. ia ter
rifle and destructive wind, according
to this report has wrought havoc in
Brownsville, and in the military camp.
Those troops which took refuge in
the court house were the Illinois,
Iowa and Virginia regiments. They
took two days rations. All wires to
Brownsville are down and commune
cation except over the army wireless
is impossible.
United States soldiers and National
Guardsmen stationed at Fort Brown
have been driven from their quarters
and have taken refuge in the city hall
and other public buildings at Browns
vile, on account of the gulf coast
storm which is stirling that section
tonight, according to meager reports
received over the army wireless at
Fort Sam Houston from Fort Brown.
Ell Paso Camp Flooded.
Ell Paso, Tex, Aug. 1S.-One SOL
dier was killed and thousands of
other encampted in and near Ell
Paso suffered great discomfort as
result of heavy rains which fell
throughout the night. A hot sun
today began to dry the camps. During
the all-night storm Private Charles
Johnston, headquarters company,
Seventh United States infantry of
Chouteau, Mont, was killed in his
tent at Fort Bliss by lightning. Other
soldiers nearby were stunned. Water
ran through the camps of the Massa-
chusetts, Pennsylvania, South Caro-
lima and Michigan National Guard
camps, practically inundating some
tents and ran three feet deep in
some of the company streets Of the
Thirty-first Michigan infantry.
Making Predictions.
Galveston, Tex, Aug. l8.-Indica-
tions today were that the trop-
ical disturbance which came into the
Gulf of Mexico through the Yucca
tan channel Wednesday night would
go inland near the mouth of the Rio
Grande or on the lower Texas coast.
The 7 o'clock reports from the gulf
coast weather bureau stations showed
Brownsville with the lowest barome-
ter on the coast, 29.70 with the wind
blowing twenty miles an hour from
the north.
Brownsville, Tex, Aug. l8.-Should
the tropical hurricane strike the Tex
as coast near the mouth of the Rio
Grande there would be no danger to
the military forces encamped in this
vicinity, it was pointed out by the To-
cal weather bureau today. Soldiers
camps are we'll inland. The lower
Texas coast is protected by a natural
breakwater in the form of Padre and
Mustang islands.
Summer residents on Padre Island
beach opposite Point Isabel, twenty
two miles northeast of here, were re-
moved to the mainland TODAY by
crew of the United States coast guard
station at Brazos island, on receipt of
news of the tropical storm approach
ing the gulf from the West Indies.
All fishing vessels also were drawn
into Isabel harbor. Barometers here
registered 29.5O at 10 a. m.,- fall