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[Illustration: IN MEMORIAM OF GALVESTON’S DEAD SEPTEMBER 8TH 1900]
[Illustration:
RICHARD SPILLANE
EDITOR OF THE “GALVESTON TRIBUNE” AND ASSOCIATED PRESS CORRESPONDENT,
WHO WAS CHOSEN BY THE MAYOR AND CITIZENS’ COMMITTEE TO SEIZE ANY
VESSEL IN THE HARBOR AND CONVEY TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD THE NEWS OF THE
GREAT DISASTER]
THE GREAT
GALVESTON DISASTER
CONTAINING A
Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern
Times
INCLUDING
VIVID DESCRIPTIONS OF THE HURRICANE AND TERRIBLE RUSH OF WATERS; IMMENSE
DESTRUCTION OF DWELLINGS, BUSINESS HOUSES, CHURCHES, AND LOSS OF
THOUSANDS OF HUMAN LIVES
THRILLING TALES OF HEROIC DEEDS; PANIC-STRICKEN MULTITUDES AND
HEART-RENDING SCENES OF AGONY; FRANTIC EFFORTS TO ESCAPE A HORRIBLE
FATE; SEPARATION OF LOVED ONES, ETC., ETC.
Narrow Escapes from the Jaws of Death
TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS OF THE SURVIVORS; VANDALS PLUNDERING BODIES OF THE
DEAD; WONDERFUL EXHIBITIONS OF POPULAR SYMPATHY; MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
SENT FOR THE RELIEF OF THE STRICKEN SUFFERERS
BY PAUL LESTER
Author of “Life in the Southwest,” Etc., Etc.
With an Introduction by
RICHARD SPILLANE
Editor “Galveston Tribune” and Associated Press Correspondent
PROFUSELY EMBELLISHED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE
DISASTER
Entered According to Act of Congress, in the Year 1900, by
Horace C. Fry
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREFACE.
Thousands of men, women and children swept to sudden death. Millions of
dollars worth of property destroyed. Scenes of suffering and desolation
that beggar description. Heroic efforts to save human life. The world
shocked by the appalling news. Such is the thrilling story of the
Galveston flood, and in this volume it is told with wonderful power and
effect.
There have been many disasters by storm and flood in modern times, but
none to equal this. In the brief space of twelve hours more persons lost
their lives than were killed during a year of the war between the
British and the Boers or during a year and a half of our war in the
Philippines.
The calamity came suddenly. Galveston was not aware of its impending
fate. News of an approaching cyclone produced no alarm. Suddenly word
was sent that the hurricane was bending from its usual course and might
strike the city. Even then there was no sudden fear, no hurrying to
escape, no thought of swift destruction. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, the city waked up to the awful fact that it was to be
engulfed by a tidal wave, and buried in the flood of waters.
The news of the overwhelming disaster came as a shock to people
everywhere. Bulletin boards in all our cities were surrounded by eager
crowds to obtain the latest reports. Many who had friends in the
stricken city were kept in suspense respecting their fate. With bated
breath was the terrible calamity talked about, and in every part of our
country committees of relief were immediately formed. The magnitude of
the disaster grew from day to-day. Every fresh report added to the
intelligence already received, and it was made clear that a large part
of the city of Galveston, with its inhabitants, had been swept out of
existence.
This work furnishes a striking description of a great city of the dead.
It depicts the terrible scenes that followed the calamity, the fate that
overtook the victims, and the agony of the living. It tells of the
heroic efforts of the survivors to save their homes and families, and
recover from the terrible blow.
It tells of a thousand of the dead towed out and buried at sea and of
many hundreds cremated on shore; of the vandals who rushed in to strip
lifeless bodies, unterrified by the scenes of horror on every hand; of
United States soldiers shooting the robbers on sight and putting an end
to their horrible sacrilege.
The story of the appalling horror, the oncoming of the cyclone, the
rising waters threatening the city, the inhabitants overtaken by the
flood and cut off from escape, thousands hurried to death, chaos
everywhere, recovery of bodies ravaged by thieves, all this is vividly
told in this volume.
The work contains thrilling stories by eye-witnesses. In this volume the
survivors speak for themselves. They tell of the sudden danger that
paralyzed thousands and made them helpless against the onslaught of the
tempest.
They tell of separation from those who were attempting to afford relief
and how futile all efforts were against the fury of the waves. They tell
how their homes and places of business, their hospitals, school-houses
and churches were swept away as in a moment.
There were splendid examples of courage and heroism. The graphic
description of the great disaster contained in this book thrills the
reader. Amidst the alarm, the threatening death, the overwhelming flood,
he sees how nobly men struggled to save their families and their
fortunes. He seems to ride on the crest of the waves and witness with
his own eyes the terrible tragedy.
Our Government at Washington was quick to come to the rescue. It ordered
tents to be provided and issued rations by the tens of thousands for the
survivors. The chords of sympathy which make all men akin vibrated
through every part of the civilized world.
Thousands of helping hands were stretched out toward Galveston. Millions
of dollars were given for the relief of the sufferers. This volume is a
complete and authentic account of the great calamity told by the
survivors.
[Illustration]
Introduction
BY RICHARD SPILLANE.
[RICHARD SPILLANE, editor of the “Galveston Tribune,” was chosen by the
Mayor and Citizens’ Committee to seize any vessel in the harbor and make
his way as best he could to such point as he could reach, so as to get
in touch with the outside world, tell the story of the tragedy and
appeal to mankind for help. He crossed the bay during a squall, the
little boat in which he sailed being in imminent danger of swamping,
having been stove in during the hurricane. He reached Texas City after a
perilous trip, then made his way over the flooded prairie to Lamarque,
where he found a rail road hand-car. With this hand-car he managed to
reach League City, where he met a train coming from Houston to learn
what fate had befallen Galveston. On this train he reached Houston,
where after sending messages to President McKinley and Governor Sayers,
he gave the news in detail to the newspapers of the nation.]
In the world’s great tragedies, that of Galveston stands remarkable. In
no other case in history was a disaster met with such courage and
fortitude; in no other case in history were the people of the whole
world so responsive to the call for help for the helpless.
There prevails a belief that Galveston is subject to severe storms. That
is a mistake. There have been heavy blows, and there have been times
when the waters of the bay and the Gulf met in the city’s streets, but
the storm of September 8, 1900, is without parallel. The best proof of
this statement is furnished by the old Spanish charts of three hundred
years ago. They contain as landmarks of Galveston Island the sign of
three great trees—oaks—that stood three hundred years ago in what is
known as Lafitte’s grove, twelve miles down Galveston Island from the
city. These oaks withstood the storms of three centuries. They were
felled by the fury of the storm of September 8.
The storm of September 8th did not, as has been supposed, come upon the
city without warning. The same storm, less ferocious perhaps, had swept
along the South Atlantic coast several days before. It had its origin in
that breeding place of hurricanes, the West Indies, and, after swirling
along the Florida and Carolina shores, doubled on its tracks, entered
the Gulf, came racing westward and developing greater strength with each
hour, and centered all its energies upon the Texas coast near Galveston.
On September 7th there was official warning of the approach of a severe
storm, but no one expected such a tempest as was destined to devastate
the city. Such warning as was given was rather addressed to mariners
about to go to sea than to those living on shore.
Simultaneously with the approach of the hurricane was a great wind from
the north, known locally as a “Norther.” This developed at Galveston
about 2 A. M., on September 8th. The approaching hurricane from the east
and southeast had been driving a great wall of water toward the shore at
Galveston. The tremendous wind storm from the north acted as a counter
force or check to the hurricane element.
The north wind blew the water from Galveston Bay on the one side of the
city and the storm in the Gulf hurled its battalions of waves upon the
beach side of the city.
Early in the day the battle between these two contending forces offered
a magnificent spectacle to a student of scenery of nature. As long as
the north wind held strong the city was safe. While the winds dashed
great volumes of water over the wharves and flooded some streets in the
business portion of the city and the waters of the Gulf on the other
side of the city encroached upon the streets near the beach there was no
particular fear of serious consequences, but about noon the barometer,
which had been very low, suddenly began to drop at a rate that presaged
a storm of tremendous violence.
Following this came the warning that the wind would, before many hours,
change from the north to the southeast and to the fury of the wall of
water being driven upon Galveston by the approaching hurricane would be
added all the tremendous force of the wind that had previously acted as
a partial check to the Gulf storm.
To those who previously had no fear, the certainty that the wind would
change came as the first real note of warning. With the first shifting
of the wind the waters of the Gulf swept over the city. Houses near the
beach began to crumble and collapse, their timbers being picked up by
the wind and waves and thrown in a long line of battering rams against
the structures. Men, women and children fled from their homes and sought
safety in higher portions of the city, or in buildings more strongly
built. Some were taken out in boats, some in wagons, some waded through
the waters, but the flood rose so rapidly that the approach of night
found many hundreds battling in the waters, unable to reach places of
safety. The air was full of missiles.
The wind tore slates from roofs and carried them along like wafers. A
person struck by one of these, driven with the fearful violence of the
storm, was certain to be maimed, if not killed outright. The waves, with
each succeeding sweep of the in-rushing tide, brought a greater volume
of wreckage as house after house toppled and fell into the waters. So
tremendous was the roar of the storm that all other sounds were dwarfed
and drowned. During the eight hours from 4 P. M. until midnight, the
hurricane raged with a fury greater than words can describe. What height
the winds reached will never be known. The wind gauge at the weather
bureau recorded an average of 84 miles an hour for five consecutive
minutes, and then the instruments were carried away. That was before the
storm had become really serious. The belief, as expressed by the
observer, that the wind averaged between 110 and 120 miles an hour, is
as good information as is obtainable.
Nothing so exemplified the impotency of man as the storm. Massive
buildings were crushed like egg shells, great timbers were carried
through the air as though they were of no weight, and the winds and the
waves swept everything before them until their appetite for destruction
was satiated and their force spent.
A remarkable feature about the storm is the disparity in the depth of
water in different portions of the city, and the undoubted fact that the
waters subsided on the north side of the city hours before they did on
the south side.
These peculiarities are explained by the topography of the island.
Broadway, which marks the center, or middle of the city, proper, is on
the ridge, from which the land slopes on one side, toward the bay and on
the other, toward the Gulf. The waters from the Gulf passed over this
ridge and swept on toward the bay during the most furious stages of the
storm, but the full energies of wind and water were directed upon that
portion of the city between the Gulf and the Broadway Ridge. Of the
lives lost in the city, 90 per cent. were in the district named.
How many lives were sacrificed to the Storm King will never be known.
The census taken in June showed that Galveston had a population of
38,000. Outside the city limits on Galveston Island there were 1,600
persons living. The dead in the city exceeded 5000. Of the 1600 living
outside the city limits, 1200 were lost. This frightful mortality—75 per
cent.—outside the city is explained by the fact that most of the people
there lived in frail structures and had no places of comparative safety
to take refuge in. In the mainland district swept by the storm, at least
100 persons perished. It is safe, therefore, to state that at least 7000
lives were lost.
Of the property damage no estimate can be considered accurate. The
estimates range from $25,000,000 to $50,000,000.
Of marvelous escapes from death, of acts of supreme heroism, of devotion
and courage beyond parallel, the storm developed many instances. In some
cases whole families were blotted out, in others the strong perished and
the weak survived. Of the various branches of one family, 42 were
killed, while in one household 13 out of a total of 15 were lost.
Such a scene of desolation as met the eyes of the people of Galveston
when day dawned Sunday, September 9, has rarely been witnessed on earth.
Fifteen hundred acres of the city had been swept clear of every
habitation. Every street was choked with ruins, while the sea, not
content with tearing away a great strip along the beach front, had piled
the wreckage in one great long mass from city end to city end. Beneath
these masses of broken buildings, in the streets, in the yards, in fence
corners, in cisterns, in the bay, far out across the waters on the
mainland shores, everywhere, in fact, were corpses. Galveston was a
veritable charnel-house. To bury the dead was a physical impossibility.
Added to the horror of so many corpses was the presence of carcasses of
thousands of horses, cattle, dogs and other domestic animals.
To a people upon whom such a terrible calamity had been visited, now
devolved a duty the like of which a civilized people had never been
called to perform. To protect the living the dead had to be gotten rid
of with all speed, for with corpses on every side, with carcasses by the
thousands, and with a severe tropic sun to hasten decomposition,
pestilence in its most terrible form threatened the living if the dead
were not removed.
The tumbrels that rumbled over Paris streets with the gruesome burdens
that came from Robespierre’s abattoir had little work compared with the
carts and wagons of Galveston in the days that followed the awful storm.
It was at first determined to bury the dead at sea, but the procession
of the dead seemed neverending, and the cargoes that were taken to the
deep and cast upon the waters came back with the tides and littered the
shores. Then it was decided to burn the dead.
Ye who know not the horror of those days, who took no part in the
saddest spectacle that man ever witnessed, may well shed tears of
sympathy for those whose human tenement blazed on the funeral pyre in
street or avenue, or whose requiem was sung by the waves that had
brought death—but shed tears, too, for the brave men who faced this most
gruesome duty with a Spartan courage the world has never known before.
The dead past has buried its dead.
For a week Galveston was under martial law. There was no disorder. There
was some robbing of the dead by ghouls. This was checked by a punishment
swift and sure.
The city rose from its ruins as if by magic. Street after street was
cleared of debris. A small army of men worked from early morn until the
shadows of night descended, to lift the city from its burden of
wreckage. Then, when danger of epidemic seemed passed, attention was
turned to commerce. The bay was strewn with stranded vessels. Monster
ocean steamers weighing thousands of tons had been picked up like toys,
driven across the lowlands, and thrown far from their moorings. One big
steamship was hurled through three bridges, another, weighing 4,000
tons, was carried twenty-two miles from deep water, and dashed against a
bayou bluff in another county.
The great wharves and warehouses along the bay front were a mass of
splintered, broken timbers.
But the mighty energy of man worked wonders. Marvelous to say, under
such conditions, a bridge 2⅛ miles long was built across the bay within
seven days and Galveston, which had been cut off from the world, was
once more in active touch with all the marts of trade and commerce. An
undaunted people strove as only an indomitable people can strive, to
rehabilitate the city.
The signs of the cripple are still upon the city, but every hour brings
nearer the day when the crutches will be thrown away and Galveston,
which by nature and by man was chosen as the entrepot for the great
West, will rise to a loftier destiny and a more enduring commercial
prosperity than seemed possible before she was tried in the crucible of
disaster. Longfellow says:
Our lot is the common lot of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
The dark and dreary days were crowded into Galveston’s life with horror
unspeakable. It is an inexorable law of nature that after the storm
comes the radiance of a glorious sunshine.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
First News of the Great Calamity—Galveston Almost Totally
Destroyed by Wind and Waves—Thousands Swept to Instant Death 17
CHAPTER II.
The Tale of Destruction Grows—A Night of Horrors—Sufferings of the
Survivors—Relief Measures by the National Government 29
CHAPTER III.
Incidents of the Awful Hurricane—Unparalleled Atrocities by
Lawless Hordes—Earnest Appeals for Help 42
CHAPTER IV.
The Cry of Distress in the Wrecked City—Negro Vandals Shot
Down—Progress of the Relief Work—Strict Military Rules 61
CHAPTER V.
Vivid Pictures of Suffering in Every Street and House—The Gulf
City a Ghastly Mass of Ruins—The Sea Giving Up its Dead—Supplies
Pouring in from Every Quarter 86
CHAPTER VI.
Two Survivors Give Harrowing Details of the Awful
Disaster—Hundreds Eager to Get out of Galveston—Cleaning up the
Wreckage 107
CHAPTER VII.
Not a House in Galveston Escaped Damage—Young and Old, Rich and
Poor, Hurried to a Watery Grave—Citizens With Guns Guarding the
Living and the Dead 129
CHAPTER VIII.
Fears of Pestilence—Searching Parties Clearing away the Ruins and
Cremating the Dead—Distracted Crowds Waiting to Leave the
City—Wonderful Escapes 146
CHAPTER IX.
Story of a Brave Hero—A Vast Army of Helpless Victims—Scenes that
Shock the Beholders—Our Nation Rises to the Occasion 167
CHAPTER X.
Details of the Overwhelming Tragedy—The Whole City Caught in the
Death Trap—Personal Experiences of Those Who Escaped—First
Reports More than Confirmed 191
CHAPTER XI
Galveston Calamity—One of the Greatest Known to History—Many
Thousands Maimed and Wounded—Few Heeded the Threatening
Hurricane—The Doomed City Turned to Chaos 212
CHAPTER XII
Thrilling Narratives by Eye-witnesses—Path of the Storms Fury
Through Galveston—Massive Heaps of Rubbish—Huge Buildings Swept
into the Gulf 234
CHAPTER XIII
Refugees Continue the Terrible Story—Rigid Military Patrol—The
City in Darkness at Night—Hungry and Ragged Throngs 257
CHAPTER XIV.
Dead Babes Floating in the Water—Sharp Crack of Soldiers’
Rifles—Tears Mingle With the Flood—Doctors and Nurses for the
Sick and Dying 273
CHAPTER XV.
Family in a Tree-top All Night—Rescue of the Perishing—Railroad
Trains Hurrying Forward With Relief—Pathetic Scenes in the
Desolate City 293
CHAPTER XVI.
Startling Havoc Made by the Angry Storm—Vessels Far Out on the
Prairie—Urgent Call for Millions of Dollars—Tangled Wires and
Mountains of Wreckage 318
CHAPTER XVII.
Governor Sayres Revises His Estimate of Those Lost and Makes it
12,000—A Multitude of the Destitute—Abundant Supplies and Vast
Work of Distribution 340
CHAPTER XVIII.
An Island of Desolation—Crumbling Walls—Faces White With
Agony—Tales of Dismay and Death—Curious Sights 360
CHAPTER XIX.
Thousands Died in Their Efforts to Save Others—Houses and Humans
Beings Floating on the Tide—An Army of Orphans—Greatest
Catastrophe in our History 371
CHAPTER XX.
The Storm’s Murderous Fury—People Stunned by the Staggering
Blow—Heroic Measures to Avert Pestilence—Thrilling Story of the
Ursuline Convent 391
CHAPTER XXI.
Unparalleled Bombardment of Waves—Wonderful Courage Shown by the
Survivors—Letter from Clara Barton 416
CHAPTER XXII.
Galveston Storm Stories—Fierce Battles with Surging Waves—Vivid
Accounts from Fortunate Survivors—A City of Sorrow 440
CHAPTER XXIII.
Heroic Incidents—Arrival of Relief Trains—Hospitals for the
Injured—Loud Call for Skilled Labor 461
CHAPTER XXIV.
One Hero Rescues Over Two Hundred—Traveler Caught in the Rush of
Water—Report of a Government Official—How the Great Storm
Started 477
CHAPTER XXV.
Storms of Great Violence Around Galveston—Wrecked Cities and Vast
Destruction of Property—Appalling Sacrifice of Life 497
Imprisoned by the Storm 509
Names of the Victims of the Great Galveston Horror 517
[Illustration:
HOTEL GRAND AND ITS ENVIRONS—GALVESTON]
[Illustration:
BRINGING THE INJURED TO THE HOSPITAL FOR TREATMENT]
CHAPTER I.
First News of the Great Calamity—Galveston Almost Totally Destroyed by
Winds and Waves. Thousands Swept to Instant Death.
The first news of the appalling calamity that fell like a thunderbolt on
Galveston came in the following despatch from the Governor of Texas:
“Information has just reached me that about 3000 lives have been lost in
Galveston, with enormous destruction of property. No information from
other points.
“JOSEPH D. SAYRES, Governor.”
This despatch was dated at Austin, Texas, September 9th. Further
intelligence was awaited with great anxiety in all parts of the country.
The worst was feared, and all the fears were more than realized. Later
intelligence showed that the West Indian storm which reached the Gulf
coast on the morning of September 8th, wrought awful havoc in Texas.
Reports were conflicting, but it was known that an appalling disaster
had befallen the city of Galveston, where, it was reported, a thousand
or more lives had been blotted out and a tremendous property damage
incurred. Meagre reports from Sabine Pass and Port Arthur also indicated
a heavy loss of life.
Among those who brought tidings from the stricken city of Galveston was
James C. Timmins, who resides in Houston, and who is the General
Superintendent of the National Compress Company. After Mr. Spillane he
was one of the first to reach Houston with news of the great disaster
which had befallen that city, and after all he reported it was evident
that the magnitude of the disaster remained to be told.
After remaining through the hurricane on Saturday, the 8th, he departed
from Galveston on a schooner and came across the bay to Morgan’s Point,
where he caught a train for Houston. The hurricane, Mr. Timmins said,
was the worst ever known.
The estimate made by citizens of Galveston was that four thousand
houses, most of them residences, were destroyed, and that at least one
thousand people had been drowned, killed or were missing. Business
houses were also destroyed. These estimates, it was learned afterward,
were far below the actual facts.
The city, Mr. Timmins averred, was a complete wreck, so far as he could
see from the water front and from the Tremont Hotel. Water was blown
over the island by the hurricane, the wind blowing at the rate of eighty
miles an hour straight from the Gulf and forcing the sea water before it
in big waves. The gale was a steady one, the heart of it striking the
city about 5 o’clock in the evening and continuing without intermission
until midnight, when it abated somewhat, although it continued to blow
all night.
WORST HURRICANE EVER KNOWN.
The water extended across the island. Mr. Timmins said it was three feet
deep in the rotunda of the Tremont Hotel, and was six feet deep in
Market street. Along the water front the damage was very great. The
roofs had been blown from all the elevators, and the sheds along the
wharves were either wrecked or had lost their sides and were of no
protection to the contents.
Most of the small sailing craft were wrecked, and were either piled up
on the wharves or floating bottom side up in the bay. There was a small
steamship ashore three miles north of Pelican Island, but Mr. Timmins
could not distinguish her name. She was flying a British flag. Another
big vessel had been driven ashore at Virginia Point, and still another
was aground at Texas City. At the south point of Houston Island an
unknown ship lay in a helpless condition.
The lightship that marks Galveston bar was hard and fast aground at
Bolivar Point. Mr. Timmins and the men with him on the schooner rescued
two sailors from the Middle Bay who had been many hours in the water.
These men were foreigners, and he could gain no information from them.
A wreck of a vessel which looked like a large steam tug was observed
just before the party landed. In the bay the carcasses of nearly two
hundred horses and mules were seen, but no human body was visible.
The scenes during the storm could not be described. Women and children
were crowded into the Tremont Hotel, where he was seeking shelter, and
all night these unfortunates were bemoaning their losses of kindred and
fortune. They were grouped about the stairways and in the galleries and
rooms of the hotel. What was occurring in other parts of the city could
only be conjectured.
The city of Galveston was now entirely submerged and cut off from
communication. The boats were gone, the railroads could not be operated,
and the water was so high people could not walk out by way of the bridge
across the bay, even were the bridge standing.
Provisions were badly needed, as a great majority of the people lost all
they had. The water works’ power house was wrecked, and a water famine
was threatened, as the cisterns were all ruined by the overflow of salt
water. This was regarded as the most serious problem to be faced. The
city was in darkness, the electric plant having been ruined.
BODIES FLOATING IN THE BAY.
There was no way of estimating the property damage. The east end portion
of the city, which was the residence district was practically wiped out
of existence. On the west end, which faces the gulf on another portion
of the island, much havoc was done. The beach was swept clean, the
bath-houses were destroyed, and many of the residences were total
wrecks.
Among the passengers who arrived at Houston on a relief train from
Galveston was Ben Dew, an attache of the Southern Pacific. Dew had been
at Virginia Point for several hours, and said that he saw 100 to 150
dead bodies floating out on the beach at that place.
Conductor Powers reported that twenty-five corpses had been recovered by
the life-saving crew, many of them women; that the crew had reported
that many bodies were floating, and that they were using every endeavor
to get them all out of the water. The water swept across the island, and
it is presumed that most of these were Galveston people, though none of
them had been identified.
LOST WIFE AND SIX CHILDREN.
One of the refugees who came in on the relief train and who had a sad
experience was S. W. Clinton, an engineer at the fertilizing plant at
the Galveston stock yards. Mr. Clinton’s family consisted of his wife
and six children. When his house was washed away he managed to get two
of his little boys safely to a raft, and with them he drifted helplessly
about. His raft collided with wreckage of every description and was
split in two, and he was forced to witness the drowning of his sons,
being unable to help them in any way. Mr. Clinton says parts of the city
were seething masses of water.
From an eye-witness of the vast devastation we are able to give the
following graphic account:
“The storm that raged along the coast of Texas was the most disastrous
that has ever visited this section. The wires are down, and there is no
way of finding out just what has happened, but enough is known to make
it certain that there has been great loss of life and destruction of
property all along the coast and for a hundred miles inland. Every town
that is reached reports one or more dead, and the property damage is so
great that there is no way of computing it accurately.
“Galveston remains isolated. The Houston Post and the Associated Press
made efforts to get special trains and tugs to-day with which to reach
the island city. The railroad companies declined to risk their
locomotives.
“It is known that the railroad bridges across the bay at Galveston are
either wrecked or are likely to be destroyed with the weight of a train
on them; the approaches to the wagon bridge are gone and it is rendered
useless. The bridge of the Galveston, Houston and Northern Railroad is
standing, but the drawbridges over Clear creek and at Edgewater are
gone, and the road cannot get trains through to utilize the bridge
across the bay.
“Sabine Pass has not been heard from to-day (September 9th). The last
news was received from there yesterday morning, and at that time the
water was surrounding the old town at the pass, and the wind was rising
and the waves coming high. From the new town, which is some distance
back, the water had reached the depot and was running through the
streets. The people were leaving for the high country, known as the
Black Ridge, and it is believed that all escaped. Two bodies have been
brought in from Seabrooke, on Galveston Bay, and seventeen persons are
missing there.
“In Houston the property damage is great, a conservative estimate
placing it at $250,000. The Merchants’ and Planters’ Oil Mill was
wrecked, entailing a loss of $40,000. The Dickson Car Wheel Works
suffered to the extent of $16,000. The big Masonic Temple, which is the
property of the Grand Lodge of the State, was partly wrecked. Nearly
every church in the city was damaged. The First Baptist, Southern
Methodist and Trinity Methodist, the latter a negro church, will have to
be rebuilt before they can be used again. Many business houses were
unroofed.
MANY TOWNS DEMOLISHED.
“The residence portion of the town presents a dilapidated appearance,
but the damage in this part of the city has not been so great as in some
others. The streets are almost impassable because of the litter of shade
trees, fences, telephone wires and poles. Much damage was done to window
glass and furniture. Many narrow escapes are recorded.
“Another train has left here for Galveston, making the third to-day. The
two preceding ones have not been heard from, as all wires are
prostrated.
“Meagre reports are arriving here from the country between Houston and
Galveston, along the line of the Santa Fe Railroad. The tornado was the
most destructive in the history of the State.
“The town of Alvin was practically demolished. Hitchcock suffered
severely from the storm, while the little town of Alta Loma is reported
without a house standing. The town of Pearl has lost one-half of its
buildings.
“L. B. Carlton, the president of the Business League of Alvin, and a
prominent merchant there, reports that not a building is left standing
in the town, either residence or business. Stocks of goods and house
furniture are ruined, and crops are a total loss. Alvin is a town of
about 1200 inhabitants.
SANTA FE TRAIN BLOWN FROM THE TRACK.
“The Santa Fe train which left here at 7.55 Saturday night, the 8th, was
wrecked at a point about two miles north of Alvin. The train was running
slowly when it encountered the heavy storm. It is reported that the
train was literally lifted from the track.”
A thrilling story was told by two men who floated across from Galveston
to the mainland. It came in the form of a telegram received at Dallas
from Houston:
“Relief train just returned. They could not get closer than six miles of
Virginia Point, where the prairie was covered with lumber, debris,
pianos, trunks, and dead bodies. Two hundred corpses were counted from
the train. A large steamer is stranded two miles this side of Virginia
Point, as though thrown up by a tidal wave. Nothing can be seen of
Galveston.
“Two men were picked up who floated across to the mainland, who say they
estimate the loss of life up to the time they left at 2000.”
The above message was addressed to Superintendent Felton, Dallas, and
comes from Mr. Vaughn, manager of the Western Union office at Houston.
The Missouri, Kansas and Texas north bound “flyer” was reported wrecked
near Sayers.
The office of the Western Union Telegraph Company at St. Louis was
besieged with thousands of inquiries as to the extent and result of the
terrible storm that cut off Galveston from communication with the rest
of the world. Rumors of the most direful nature come from that part of
Texas, some of them even intimating that Galveston had been entirely
wrecked and that the bay was covered with the dead bodies of its
residents. Nothing definite, however, could be learned, as the Gulf city
was entirely isolated, not even railroad trains being able to reach it.
All the telegraph wires to Galveston were gone south of Houston, and to
accentuate the serious condition of affairs the cable lines between
Galveston and Tampico and Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, were severed; at least
no communication over them was possible.
The Western Union had a large number of telegraph operators and linemen
waiting at Houston to go to Galveston, but it was impossible to get them
there. San Antonio was being reached by El Paso, in the extreme
southwestern portion of the State, a procedure made necessary by the
prevailing storm.
WATER BLOWN COMPLETELY OVER THE CITY.
Mr. Joyce, another refugee from Galveston, made the following statement:
“The wind was blowing Saturday afternoon and night at about seventy-five
miles an hour, blowing the water in the Gulf and completely covering the
city. The people of Galveston did not think it was much at first and
kept within their homes, consequently when the wind began blowing as it
did and the water dashed against the houses, completely demolishing
them, many lives were lost. I have no idea how many were killed, but
think there will be several thousand deaths reported, besides many
people whom we will know nothing about.
“I was in the storm which struck Galveston in 1875, but that one, bad as
it was, was nothing in comparison with Saturday’s.”
The following account of Galveston will be of interest to readers in
connection with the great disaster that has ruined that once prosperous
and thriving city.
Galveston is situated on an island extending east and west for twenty
seven miles, and is seven miles in its greatest width north and south.
No city could be in greater danger from such a horrible visitation as
has now come to Galveston. In no part of the city, with its former
38,000 population, is it more than six feet above the sea level.
The flat condition not only points to the desperate situation of the
people at such a time as this, but their danger may be considered
emphasized when it is known that exactly where the city is built the
island is only one and one-quarter miles wide.
On the bay, or north side of the city, is the commercial section, with
wharves stretching along for nearly two miles, lined with sheds and
large storage houses. Then, in that portion of Galveston, there are
three elevators, one of 1,500,000 bushels capacity, one of 1,000,000 and
the third of 750,000.
A BRIDGE TWO MILES LONG.
The island from the north side is connected with the mainland by
railroad bridges and the longest wagon bridge in the world, the latter
nearly two miles in length. In 1872 the entire east end of the city was
swept away by the tidal wave that followed a terrific storm that swept
the Gulf coast for three days. Then the eastern land, on which buildings
stood, was literally torn away. The work of replacing it has since been
going on, and Fort Point, that guards the entrance to the harbor, has
since been built, and on its parapets are mounted some of the heaviest
coast defense ordnance used by the government. By the force of the storm
of 1872 six entire blocks of the city were swept away.
It is on the south side of the city, beginning within fifty yards of the
medium Gulf tide, that the wealthy residence portion of the city is
located, and which was the first part of Galveston to be stricken by the
full force of the storm and flood. All of the eastern end of the city
was washed away, and in this quarter, between Broadway and I street,
some of the handsomest and most expensive residence establishments are
located. There was located there one home, which alone cost the owner
over $1,000,000. Most of the residences are of frame, but there are many
of stone and brick. In the extreme eastern end of the city there are
many of what we call raised cottages. They are built on piling, and
stand from eight to ten feet from the ground as a precaution against
floods, it being possible for the water to sweep under them.
Any protection that has ever been provided for the Gulf side of the city
has been two stone breakwaters, but many times, with ordinary storms
coming in from the Gulf, the high tidewater has been hurled over the low
stone walls right to the very doors of the residences. From Virginia
Point, six miles from Galveston, in ordinary conditions of the
atmosphere, the city can be plainly seen. If it is true that Galveston
cannot be now seen from the Point, then the conditions of the people in
the city must be indescribably horrible. In short, a large part of the
city is obliterated and has disappeared.
VAST AMOUNT OF MONEY INVESTED.
Many millions of dollars are invested in the wholesale and retail
business of the city. On Strand street alone there are ten blocks of
business establishments that represent an invested capital of
$127,000,000. Market street is the heavy retail street, and there, in
the heart of the flooded district, the losses cannot but reach away into
the millions. The fact, as indicated by the despatches, that water is
standing six feet deep in the Tremont Hotel, furnishes startling
evidence to me that Galveston has been, indeed, dreadfully visited. The
hotel is in almost exactly the centre of the city. Two years ago
Galveston did the heaviest shipping business in cotton and grain of any
Southern city. When I was at home two shiploads of cattle were leaving
the port on an average every week.
Dr. H. C. Frankenfeld, forecast official of the Weather Bureau, gave an
account of the West India hurricane that travelled through Texas. The
first sign of the storm was noticed August 30 near the Windward Islands,
about latitude 15 degrees north, longitude 63 degrees west. On the
morning of August 31 it was still in the same latitude, but had moved
westward to about longitude 67 degrees, or about 200 miles south of the
island of Porto Rico. At that time, however, it had not assumed a very
definite storm formation. It was central in the Caribbean Sea on the
morning of September 1st, evidently about two hundred miles south of
Santo Domingo City.
It had reached a point somewhere to the southwest, and not very far from
Jamaica, by September 2d. The morning of September 3d found it about 175
miles south of the middle of Cuba. It had moved northwestward to
latitude 21 degrees and longitude 81 degrees by September 4th. Up to
this time the storm had not developed any destructive force but had
caused heavy rains, particularly at Santiago, Cuba, where 12.58 inches
of rain fell in twenty-four hours.
OMINOUS PROGRESS OF THE STORM.
On the morning of the fifth, the storm centre had passed over Cuba and
had become central between Havana and Key West. High winds occurred over
Cuba during the night of the fourth. By the morning of the sixth the
storm centre was a short distance northwest of Key West, Fla., and the
high winds had commenced over Southern Florida, forty-eight miles an
hour from the east being reported from Jupiter, and forty miles from the
N. E. from Key West. At this time it became a question as to whether the
storm would recurve and pass up along the Atlantic coast, a most natural
presumption judging from the barometric conditions over the eastern
portion of the United States, or whether it would continue northwesterly
over the Gulf of Mexico.
Advisory messages were sent as early as September 1st to Key West and
the Bahama Islands, giving warning of the approach of the storm and
advising caution to all shipping. The warnings were supplemented by
others on the second, third, and fourth, giving more detailed
information, and were gradually extended along the Gulf coast as far as
Galveston and the Atlantic coast to Norfolk.
On the afternoon of the fourth the first storm warnings were issued to
all ports in Florida from Cedar Keys to Jupiter. On the fifth they were
extended to Hatteras, and advisory messages issued along the coast as
far as Boston. Hurricane warnings were also ordered displayed on the
night of the fifth from Cedar Keys to Savannah. On the fifth storm
warnings were also ordered displayed on the Gulf coast from Pensacola,
Fla., to Port Eads, La. During the sixth barometric conditions over the
eastern portion of the United States so far changed as to prevent the
movement of the storm along the Atlantic coast, and it therefore
continued northwest over the Gulf of Mexico.
On the morning of the seventh it was apparently central south of the
Louisiana coast, about longitude 28, latitude 89. At this time storm
signals were ordered up on the North Texas coast, and during the day
were extended along the entire coast. On the morning of the eighth the
storm was nearing the Texas coast, and was apparently central at about
latitude 28, longitude 94. The last report received from Galveston,
dated 3.40 P. M., September 8, showed a barometric pressure of 29.22
inches, with a wind of forty-two miles an hour, northeast, indicating
that the centre of the storm was quite close to that city.
ALWAYS IN DANGER DURING A HURRICANE.
At this time the heavy sea from the southeast was constantly rising and
already covered the streets of about half the city. Up to Sunday morning
no reports were received from southern Texas, but the barometer at Fort
Worth gave some indications that the storm was passing into the southern
portion of the State. An observation taken at San Antonio at 11 o’clock,
but not received until half-past five, indicated that the centre of the
storm had passed a short distance east of the place, and had then turned
in the northward.
Situated as Galveston is, with much of the shore but a few feet above
the mean high water, there is so scant a margin of safety that, as was
the case on the South Carolina Sea Islands on August 27, 1893, and among
the bayous of Louisiana in October of the same year, any abnormal tide
means death and destruction. Sabine Pass is a mere sand spit, and
Galveston Island itself is but a few feet above the ocean level at the
best, and is but three feet above high tide in many places. As the great
storm wave raised by the cyclonic winds of the average hurricane may
easily have a crest of from eight to nine feet, for a city such as
Galveston this would be most ominous.
Such a fate as an inundation during the prevalence of a hurricane has
been forecast for the island city, whose population according to the new
census is 37,789, many of whom live under conditions that invite loss of
life in case of a tidal overflow. And yet, though such a disaster has
been foreseen and forecast, the inertia of one’s adherence to normal
life and duties is such that even in the face of specific warning it is
not likely any number would flee to the mainland. On September 8th, for
instance, the Weather Bureau, which had not lost track of the storm,
very correctly pointed out that the hurricane was moving northwestward
slowly, towards the Texas coast, Port Eads, La., giving a wind velocity
of fifty-six miles an hour. Storm warnings were ordered for the eastern
Texas and middle Gulf region, and high winds were specifically forecast
for the coast of eastern Texas. More the Bureau could not do, but it
looks as if its warnings were in vain.
THE FATEFUL WINDS GATHERING FORCE.
Unfortunately for Galveston, the slow movement of the hurricane was an
additional menace, since this meant the longer pounding of the vertical
winds of high velocities. As most readers know, the hurricane is a storm
which has two entirely distinct motions. It is a great cyclonic whirl in
which the winds blow into and about the centre at great velocities,
while its motion along its track may be comparatively slow.
In the present case it took the hurricane four days to cross the Gulf
from Key West to Galveston, which was at a rate of about twelve and
one-half miles an hour. Its rotary winds, however, even a hundred miles
from the centre on Friday, were raging at a rate of over fifty miles,
and as the vortex passed directly and slowly over Galveston, the
buffeting of the winds beginning on Friday evening and continuing far
into Saturday, must have been terrific. Moreover, as the whole of
Galveston is built up of frame houses without cellars on uncertain
foundations, the evil possibilities must be obvious.