Milford chronicle., 1926-09-24
THE FLORIDA HURRICANE

THE FLORIDA HURRICANE
The storm which has devastated
the State of Florida and brought
property loss to the entire Gulf
Coast region, will be recorded as one
of the great calamities and most de-
structive hurricanes, that has fallen
upon the United States for more
than twenty-five years. The great
storm of 1900 which destroyed Cal
weston, Texas, is the only hurricane
of anywhere equal magnitude. The
gripping reports that have drifted
in of the Florida storm in the past
few days, have held the people in
intense sympathy for the destruc-
ton of property as well as loss of
life. The New York Times in an
editorial last week told the story in
a compact form and comparison of
the two greatest storms recorded in
the history Of the United States, as
follows:
The disaster that has befallen cit
les and towns of the South Florida
Atlantic Coast, Pensacola on the
Gulf Coast, and Mobile, Ala, is in
many features like the havoc
wrought by the tropical storm in
the Galveston region on September
SO. 1900. The maximum velocity of
the wird was about the same, I2O
miles al hour. AS in the case Of Gal
weston, though not so overwhelming
ly, Miami was flooded from the sea.
The worst at Galveston was not
known for several days, since tele-
graph and telephone lines, as well as
railroads connecting with the main
land, were dead The truth will be
learned sooner from Biami, as air
planes can be used for observation
and to get the figures of casualties.
The total of deaths at Galveston and
other coast and interior towns was
finally put at 5000, including an in
definite number missing who We're
carried out to a set sepulchre or
shrouded in sand hills heaped up by
the waves.
Communication with Galveston,
nowhere more than few feet above
the Gulf, was cut off for two days. 1t
was then reported that hundreds of
buildings had collapsed or been un-
dermined and swept into the bay.
Before the waters subsidized every
part of city none too substantially
built was submerged. The first man
out brought word that Galveston
was "a complete wreck" There were
the most poignant stories Of orphan
asylums and hospitals destroyed
with most of their inmates. Ships at
anchor were driven ashore, or float
ed bottom-up in the surges. Calves
ton Bar Lightship was piled up at
Bolivar Point. A majority of the
people lost all they had and were
homeless. At night the city was in
darkness, as the electric lighting
plant had been destroyed. In the
height of the storm nobody could be
on the streets and live. The uproar
of the elements was deafening.
Hundreds of bodies were burned" /"
said The Houston Post, cor drowned
in the sea, or buried in the sand, so
that there was no trace of them" 1t
printed the names of 2,701 dead.
Property loss was indefinitely be-
tween $1O,OOO,OOO and $2O.OOO,OOO.
The Galveston hurricane was the
worst ever reported up till that time
in the United States by the Weather
Bureau.
If the people of Florida had not
had notice of the approach of a hur-
ricane from northeast of st. kits, !"
the casualties might have greatly ex-
ceeded those recorded in Galveston.
Towns that had sprung up near by,
Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Red
lands, Moore Haven and Clewiston,
were flooded and devastated. Settle
ments built on filled-in swamp lands
suffer no one yet knows to what ex-
tent. But the first reports may be
the worst, as in the presence of
such a catastrophe the widest rum
ors are accepted as fact. Miami itself
was in many residential areas and in
the main business district a we'll
built modern city. But there were
many fiimsy houses between and
among imposing buildings; and it
may be true that $4,000 persons are
homeless and seeking relief. From
day to day casualties and property
losses will have to be revised. That
there is much privation in Miami the
aid already furnished by West Palm
Beach shows.
President Coolidge's appeal to the
people Of the United States to con-
tribute to the needs of the destitute
will meet with a ready response.
Five days after the Galveston disas-
ter Governor Sayers of Texas had
received $3,OOO,OOO from this coun-
try. The American colony in Paris