Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1914-192?, 1920-01-09

| ~ accessible ana with reports from
all available points Of observation tab
ulated and recorded on the weather
map, the weather bureau fOretold
many hours in advance the peril that
threatened the Gulf coast. Thus the
people were forearmed.
1t will be recalled that storm warn
ings were displayed regularly on the
south Florida coast since Monday
morning. How accurate the weather
bureaus forecasts had been is shown
by the press dispatches dated Wednes-
day night, September 10: Lower
Florida was paralyzed today Ms re-
suit of the violent hurricane that pass
ed over that section last night. Not
a house in this city (Key West) es-
capped damage; 800 frame buildings
practically were RACED, two church
edifices wrecked, and five retail stores
overturned. The damage Is estimated
at more than S2000O00 Shipping of
the coast met with disaster Several
small vessels were sunk and others
we're driven to the reefs"
BY this time the weather bureau. in
It's fight to keep destruction and death
at the minimum, was able to act with
more definiteness, even though there
was no adequate means Of ascertain
ing atmospheric conditions In the CEN
ter area of the Gulf of Mexico. The
report of September II, flashed over
the wires from Washington. read:
"The tropical storm Is apparently CEN
trail tonight In the Gulf of Mexico
with latitude q degrees and longitude
So degrees. Absence Of reports for
bid the definite location Of the storm
center, and Il is therefore impossible
at this time to state the portion Of
the mainland that It will first reach.
although II Is fairly probable that
II will be west Of the Mississippi river.
Storm warnings are displayed from
the Louisiana coast eastward to CEN
trail Florida and on the northwest
coat of Texas"
While the hurricane was moving on
its northwestward course additional
news, brief but vivid, filtered In from
points in its wake. September II the
Associated Press representative wired:
"Nine members of the Ward line
steamer Corydon crew of &c men
were brought to this port this after
noon by the schooner Island Home.
They had been adrift on an upturned
lifeboat. without food and water for
three days. One of the crew, accord
ing to their story, had become crazed,
from suffering and privatlon Wednes-
day night, and sprang overheard"
In these hours the thoughts Of the
chief forecaster instinctively turned to
Galveston, which In the past had suf-
fered terribly from similar storms.
Dispatches from that city indicated
that the tide was rising rapidly. Wa
ter was flooding the low places on the
island and people were fleeing the
city. A 30-mile northeast storm was
blowing. But for the weather bureaus
timely warnings which had reached
Galveston before the gale struck the
city, millions Of tons of cargo and
scores of ships would have put to sea
and would have been lost.
In the next "a hours the storm burst
upon the Texas coast in full fury.
While the papers the next few days
were filed with accounts Of the dam
age and death caused by the hurricane
the fact of greatest significance, and
which the public has come to take al
most as matter Of course, only par
italy realizing the skill and RESPONSE
bility involved, was that the weather
bureau had been able to anticipate
this storm long enough In advance to
prevent loss that probably would
have totaled thousands of lives and
millions of dollars in shipping.