Fears of Pestilence—Searching Parties Clearing Away the Ruins and
Cremating the Dead—Distracted Crowds Waiting to Leave the City—Wonderful
Escapes.
“The large force of men used in burying and cremating the exposed dead
scattered throughout the city are trying to complete that portion of
their work and are searching for the bodies of unfortunates lying
crushed beneath the mass of debris and wrecked buildings. Where the
debris lies in detached masses, it is fired, and the bodies therein
consumed.
“When adjacent property will be endangered by fire, the mass of ruins is
removed, the bodies are taken out and conveyed to a safe distance.
Around them is piled the debris and the whole is saturated with oil and
fired. It is quite impossible to identify the bodies as they are in all
stages of putrefaction.
“It is a gruesome and sad task. Some of the men engaged in this work
are, perhaps, unknowingly helping to destroy all that is mortal of some
loved one, who, a few days before, was the light of his home. The
ghastly pile may contain the body of his wife, mother, brother, or some
petted child; but in nearly every instance he knows it not.
“One pathetic incident occurred. A squad of men discovered in a wrecked
building five bodies, among whom one of the party recognized a brother.
All were in an advanced state of decomposition. They were all removed
and a funeral pyre was made. The living brother, with a wrench in his
heart, assisted, and with Spartan-like firmness stood by and saw his
brother’s body reduced to ashes.
“The appalling loss of life by the hurricane has benumbed the people and
virtually dried up the fountains of grief. Neighbor meets neighbor and,
with a hearty grasp of the hand, says “I hope all is well with you.” The
usual reply is, “I am sorry to say I am the only one left.”
“You hear of such incidents everywhere—on the street, in the stores,
around soda-fountains where crowds collect to quench their thirst, since
water is scarce and the saloons are closed for an indefinite time.
“Burial parties are organized at Virginia Point, Texas City, Port
Bolivar and down the island, and the bodies there are being buried as
rapidly as possible. Since something like order has come out of chaos a
stop has been put to the looting and desecration of bodies at Virginia
Point by the bands of ghouls that had terrorized that point, and they
have been dispersed.
MONEY CLINCHED IN DEATH GRIP.
“Where the bodies are beyond identification and effects and jewelry are
found, these are removed, and a memoranda taken for possible
identification at some time by any one who is seeking a lost relative or
friend.
“A party that was picking up bodies for burial found the corpse of a
nephew of Alderman John Wagner, eighteen years old, lodged in the forks
of a tall cedar tree, two miles from his wrecked home. Tightly clinched
in his right hand was $200, which his father had given him, with two
twenty dollar gold pieces, to hold while the father attempted to close a
door, which had blown open.
“At that moment the house went down and the whole family except the
father perished in the storm and flood. It would take volumes to record
the many heartrending incidents of this sort and the heroism displayed
during the fateful night of Saturday.
“The loss of life in this city is simply appalling. Every little town
within seventy-five miles of Galveston was wrecked and torn and people
were killed and wounded. The damage to property will aggregate millions
of dollars. The damage to property in and around Alvin, a thriving town
of two thousand people, where eleven people were killed and a number
wounded, is estimated at $300,000, and they send out an urgent appeal
for aid and relief supplies.”
“Captain Talfor, of the United States Engineer Corps, during the
hurricane was at Quintana, at the mouth of the Brazos River, where he
has been supervising government works. He stated to-day that the
barometer fell to 27.60, and the wind velocity was one hundred and
twenty miles an hour. Fifty-four houses were wrecked in Quintana, and
the debris piled up in the streets. Fortunately no lives were lost.
“The town of Velasco, three miles above, on the east side of the river,
was completely wrecked. Nine persons were killed, three in the hotel,
which was badly demolished. Angleton, the county seat, of Brazoria, ten
miles north of Velasco, was almost completely destroyed. Several lives
were lost and a number of persons were badly injured.
“The property loss in these three towns and the country adjacent will be
beyond the ability of the people to repair. Destitution stares them in
the face, and help is urgently needed there and in all other towns
within seventy-five miles of the city. The loss in proportion to
population and means is just as great and as keenly felt as the loss and
destruction in Galveston, and they should not be forgotten by the
generous public, which is responding with such noble promptness to
Galveston’s cry for help.
SOLID TRAINLOADS OF SUPPLIES.
“Supplies for the relief of Galveston’s sufferers are coming in from
every quarter as rapidly as the limited means of transportation here
will admit. Solid trainloads from the North and East are speeding
towards Galveston as fast as steam will bring them, while cities,
chambers of commerce and other commercial bodies in this country,
England and Continental Europe are subscribing thousands of dollars for
the sufferers from one of the greatest calamities of the century.
“The distribution of supplies here has not yet been put on a systematic
basis. There is one general relief committee, with sub-committees in
each ward. To these sub-committeemen sufferers must apply for relief,
and are categorically questioned as to the extent of their distress.
“If the answers are satisfactory, an order is issued for supplies. If he
is an able bodied man, although he may be houseless and may have lost
members of his family, or have some injured by the storm and needing
attention, he must perform labor before supplies are issued, and if he
refuses he is impressed and compelled to work.
“There are many so sadly injured or prostrated by the frightful
experience they have recently undergone that they are unable to apply
for relief, and would suffer from thirst and exposure unless housed, fed
and cared for by humane people who have been less unfortunate. No effort
thus far has been made by those in charge of relief affairs to hunt out
these poor creatures and care for them.
“And if they have male relatives, these are afraid to venture on the
streets for fear they will be impressed and put to work, and thus taken
away from those who need their constant care. The present method of
relief needs to be radically revised, or it will fail of its purpose and
defeat the object of those who are so generously contributing. Medical
relief is much better organized.
EXODUS SERIOUSLY HAMPERED.
“The Transportation Committee is handicapped in its efforts to get out
of the city the persons who are destitute by the lack of sufficient
boats and rail communication. The latter want will not be supplied for
many days. Present communication is by boat to Texas City, and then by
the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railway to Houston. Those who are
able to pay are charged half fare; those who are not are given free
transportation. Guards are stationed at Texas City to prevent the
curious from invading the city, eating up the limited food supply and
doing no good.
“The city in its present condition is not a healthy place for visitors.
It is full of fever and other disease breeding matter, and smells like a
charnel house. There is not a house of any character in the city but is
foul and ill smelling. Plenty of lime-water and disinfectant is urgently
needed here, or an epidemic will sweep through the city with hurricane
force.
“Thousands of men are cutting passageways through the streets, clearing
the sidewalks of the mass of debris, removing the sea slime from the
floors of buildings and washing them out, but this does not dispose of
it, and under the torrid sun it ferments and putrefies and the stench is
fearful.
“The water failed to materialize as promised and this aggravates the
situation. With a crippled fire department, the fire engines useless and
no water supply, a fire, if it should break out, would speedily wipe out
what remains of the city.
“It will be months before the business streets will be entirely cleared
of rubbish and repaved, and it will be years before the damage done by
the storm will be obliterated. It is impossible to conceive of the
widespread destruction unless it is actually seen.”
ANOTHER REPORT FROM GENERAL McKIBBEN.
Washington, D. C., Friday.—General McKibben on September 12, reported to
the War Department upon the conditions in Galveston as follows:—
“General conditions are improving every hour. Repairs to water works
will by to-morrow insure water supply for fire protection. Provisions of
all kinds are being received in large quantities. Enough are now en
route and at Houston to feed all destitute for thirty days.
“There is now no danger of suffering from lack of food or shelter. City
under perfect control, under charge of Committee of Safety. Loss of life
is probably greater than my conservative estimate of yesterday. Property
loss enormous; not an individual in the city has escaped some loss; in
thousands of cases it is total.
“To-day, in company with Colonel Robert and Captain Riche, I made an
inspection at Fort Crockett, and by tug of the fortifications at Forts
San Jacinto and Travis; with the exception of battery for two 4.7 rapid
fire guns, batteries may be considered non-existent. Captain Riche has
forwarded by wire this evening full report of conditions to Chief of
Engineers.
“I coincide in recommendation that all fortifications and ordnance
property be transferred to engineer officer here for salvage. Earnestly
recommend that Battery O, First Artillery, be ordered to Fort Sam
Houston for recuperation and equipment; officers and men are largely
destitute. At present a large number are injured and unfit for duty.
Impossible at present to furnish them with ordinary camp equipage,
clothing, as all transportation facilities are being utilized to bring
in food supplies.”
CAPTAIN RICHE’S REPORT.
“CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, ARMY, Washington, D. C.:
“Jetties sunk nearly to mean low tide level, but not seriously breached.
Channel at least as good as before; perhaps better. Twenty-five feet
certainly. Forts as follows: Fort Crockett—Two 15–pounder emplacements,
concrete all right, standing on piling water underneath. Battery for
eight mortars about like preceding. Mortars and carriages on hand
unmounted.
“Battery for two 10–inch guns about like preceding, both guns mounted
and in good shape. Shore line at Fort Crockett has moved back about six
hundred feet. Fort San Jacinto—Battery for eight 12–inch mortars badly
wrecked, magazines reported fallen in; mortars reported safe. No piling
was under this battery; some of the sand parapet left. Battery for two
10–inch guns badly wrecked. Central portion level, both gun platforms
down, guns leaning. No piling was under this battery.
“Battery for two 4.7–inch rapid fire guns, concrete standing upon
piling; both guns apparently all right. Battery for two 15–pounder guns,
concrete apparently all right, standing upon piling.
“Fort San Jacinto batteries could not be reached by land; inspection was
from a distance. Sand around these batteries seemed pretty well leveled
off to about two to three feet above mean low. Torpedo casemate, nothing
but concrete left and badly wrecked. Concrete portion of cable tank
left; cable in it probably safe. Part of coal wharf still standing.
“Everything else in vicinity gone. Some of the mine cases are down the
beach as far as Fort Crockett. Fort Travis—Battery for three
fifteen-pound guns, concrete intact, standing on piling, water
underneath. Battery for two eight-inch guns, concrete intact, except
eastern emplacement, which has cracked off; eastern gun down and twenty
feet from battery; western one all right; concrete standing on piling,
water underneath middle of battery. These batteries were inspected from
the channel.
“The shore line has moved back about one thousand feet, about on the
line of the rear of these batteries. All buildings and other structures
gone. Inspection was made with General McKibben. Recommendation was made
that all fortifications and property be transferred to the Engineer
Department; that for the present batteries be considered non-existent,
so that future work may be chargeable as original construction.
“Much ordnance can be saved if given prompt attention. Unless otherwise
instructed, I will take charge of these works at once and save all
possible. New projects for jetties and forts cannot be submitted for
several weeks, until definite detailed information is had. Further
recommendations will then be submitted as soon as possible. Galveston is
still a deep water port, and such a storm is not likely to reoccur for
years.”
ESTIMATES OF THE DEAD ARE TOO LOW.
Austin, Tex., Sept. 14—“I am thoroughly satisfied, after spending two
days in Galveston, that the estimate of 6000 dead is too conservative.
It will exceed that number. Nobody can even estimate or will ever know
within 1000 of how many lives were lost.”
This was the opinion of Assistant State Health Officer I. J. Jones, who
arrived at Austin directly from Galveston, where he was sent by Governor
Sayres to investigate the condition of the State quarantine station. Dr.
Jones made an inspection of the sanitary condition of the city, and in
his report said further:
“It was with the greatest difficulty that I reached Galveston. At the
quarantine situated in the Gulf, a mile and a half from the wharves, I
found things in a state of ruin. The quarantine warehouse and
disinfecting barge, just completed, are total wrecks, as is also the
quarantine wharf. A part of the quarantine residence is left standing,
but so badly damaged that it is not worth repairing.
AN OFFICER’S BRAVERY.
“Quarantine Officer Mayfield showed the greatest bravery and
self-sacrifice when the storm came on. He sent all of his employees and
his family, except two sons, who refused to leave him, to places of
safety. He remained in the quarantine house with his two devoted sons
throughout the terrible night. All of one wing of the house was taken
away and the floor of the remaining part was forced up and carried away
by the waters. Dr. Mayfield and his two sons spent the night on a
stairway leading from the upper floor to the attic.
“Despite this destruction of the station, the quarantine has never been
relaxed, and all vessels are promptly boarded upon arrival at Galveston.
There are now three vessels lying at quarantine. They brought cargoes to
be discharged at Galveston and had cargoes consigned to them. The
cargoes cannot be taken off except by lighter, and the vessels are
awaiting instructions from their owners. The Mallory Line Steamer
“Alamo” got in Wednesday, but was sent back to the bay, as she could not
discharge her cargo.
“The sanitary condition of the city is very bad. While there has been no
outbreak of sickness, every one expects that, and it is inevitable.
There is no organized effort being made to improve sanitary conditions.
Large quantities of lime have been ordered to the place, but I doubt if
anyone will be found to unload it from the vessels and attend to its
systematic distribution when it arrives.
“The stench is almost unbearable. It arises from piles of debris
containing the carcasses of human beings and animals. These carcasses
are being burned where such can be done with safety. But little of the
wreckage can be destroyed in this manner, however, owing to the danger
of starting a fire that will destroy what is left of the ill-fated city.
There is no water protection and should fire break out the destruction
of the city would soon be complete.
“When searching parties come across a human body it is hauled out into
an open space and wreckage piled over it. The pyre is then set on fire
and the body slowly consumed. The odor from these burning bodies is
horrible.
“The chairman of the Central Relief Committee at Galveston asked me to
make the announcement that the city wants all the skilled mechanics and
contractors with their tools that can be brought to Galveston. There is
some repair work now going on, but it is impossible to find men who will
work at that kind of business. Those now in Galveston who are not
engaged in relief work have their own private business to look after and
mechanics are not to be had.
“All mechanics will be paid regular wages and will be given employment
by private parties who desire to get their wrecked homes in habitable
shape as rapidly as possible. There are many fine houses which have only
the roof gone. These residences are finely furnished, and it is desired
that the necessary repairs be made quickly.
WELL ORGANIZED.
“The relief work is fairly well organized. Nothing has been
accomplished, except the distribution of food among the needy, and some
attempt at clothing them. I found no one who was hungry or thirsty.
About one-half of the city is totally wrecked, and many people are
living in houses that are badly wrecked. The houses that are only
slightly injured are full of people who are being well cared for. The
destitute are being removed from the city as rapidly as possible. It
will take three or four days yet before all who want to go have been
removed from the island city. A remarkably large number of horses
survived the storm, but there is no feed for them, and many of them will
soon die of starvation.
“In the city the dead bodies are being disposed of in every manner
possible. They are burying the dead found on the mainland. At one place
250 bodies were found and buried on Wednesday. There must be hundreds of
dead bodies back on the prairies that have not been found. It is
impossible to make a search there on account of the debris. There will
be many a skeleton of victims of the disaster found on the prairie in
the months and years to come.
“Bodies have been found as far back from the present mainland shore of
the bay as seven miles. That embraces a big territory which is covered
with rank grass, holes filled with water and piles of debris. It would
take an army to search this territory on the mainland.
THE GULF FULL OF BODIES.
“The waters of the Gulf and bay are still full of bodies, and they are
being constantly cast upon the beach. On my trip to and from the
quarantine station I passed a procession of bodies going seaward. I
counted fourteen of them on my trip from the station, and this
procession is kept up day and night. The captain of a ship who had just
reached quarantine informed me that he began to meet floating bodies
fifty miles from the port.
“As an illustration of how high the water got in the Gulf, a vessel
which was in port tried to get into the open sea when the storm came on.
It got out some distance and had to put back. It was dark and all the
landmarks had been obliterated. The course of the vessel could not be
determined, and she was being furiously driven in toward the island by
the wind. Before her course could be established she had actually run
over the top of the north jetty. As the vessel draws twenty-five feet of
water some idea can be obtained as to the height of the water in the
Gulf.”
They marry and are given in marriage. A wedding took place in Galveston.
It occurred at the Tremont Hotel. Ernest A. Mayo, a lawyer, and a
candidate for Prosecuting Attorney, was the bridegroom. Mrs. Bessie
Roberts was the bride. The engagement was of long standing. Both
suffered much from the storm. They decided that it was better to cast
their fortunes together. Friends approved. The ceremony took place on
Thursday, the 13th, five days after the flood.
Governor Sayres was advised on the fourteenth that a government vessel,
which was loaded with supplies at Texas City for the Galveston
sufferers, went aground shortly after leaving the wharf, and had not yet
been gotten off. It was found that vessels could not cross the bay at
that point, and thereafter they would be sent to some other point which
had a deeper channel connection with Galveston.
The estimates of immediate losses in the aggregate vary widely. It may
be said that none of them are below $20,000,000. The maximum, as given
by intelligent residents, including some members of the Citizens’
Committee, is $35,000,000. One of the Galveston business men sent to
Austin to confer personally with Governor Sayres on the work of relief,
inclined to the belief that the immediate losses might, without
exaggeration, be placed at $35,000,000.
In the indirect class are the losses which must be sustained through the
paralysis of business, the reduction of population, the stoppage of
industries, and the general disturbance of commercial relations, and
Galveston business men hesitate to form any conclusion as to what the
moral losses must be.
A REFUGEE’S TALE OF HORROR.
F. B. Campbell, who was in Galveston when the floods swept upon it, was
one of the first refugees to reach the North. He passed through
Pittsburg, six days after the disaster, on his way to Springfield,
Mass., which is his home. Mr. Campbell had his right arm fractured.
William E. Frear, a Philadelphia commercial traveller, who was with
Campbell in Galveston, accompanied him as far north as Cincinnati, and
went home on the express. Frear’s right ankle was sprained.
Campbell was a cotton broker and was overwhelmed at his boarding house
while at dinner. He reached a heap of wreckage by swimming through an
alley. Of the scene when he left, Campbell said:
“The last I saw of Galveston was a row of submerged buildings where a
thriving city stood. A waste of water spread in all directions. In the
sea were piles of wreckage and the carcasses of animals and the bodies
of hundreds of human beings. The salt marshes presented an indescribable
sight. Nude forms of human beings, that had been swept across the bay
were scattered everywhere. No man could count them without going insane.
It looked like a graveyard, where all the tenants of the tombs had been
exhumed and the corpses thrown to the winds.”
SOME WONDERFUL ESCAPES.
There were many wonderful incidents of the great storm. In the infirmary
at Houston was a boy whose name is Rutter. He was found on Monday
morning lying beside a truck on the land near the town of Hitchcock,
which is twenty miles to the northward of Galveston. This boy is only 12
years old. His story is that his father, mother and two children
remained in the house. There was a crash and the house went to pieces.
The boy says that he caught hold of a trunk when he found himself in the
water and floated off with it. He thinks the others were drowned. With
the trunk the boy floated. He had no idea of where it took him, but when
daylight came he was across the bay and out upon the still partially
submerged mainland.
When their home went to pieces the Stubbs family, husband, wife and two
children, climbed upon the roof of a house floating by. They felt
tolerably secure, when, without warning, the roof parted in two places.
Mr. and Mrs. Stubbs were separated and each carried a child. The parts
of the raft went different ways in the darkness. One of the children
fell off and disappeared, and not until some time Sunday was the family
reunited. Even the child was saved, having caught a table and clung to
it until it reached a place of safety.
One of the most remarkable escapes recorded during the flood was
reported to-day when news came that a United States battery man on duty
at the forts last week had been picked up on Morgan’s Point, injured but
alive. He had buffeted the waves for five days and lived through a
terrible experience. Morgan’s Point is thirty miles from Galveston.
Galveston, Tex., Sept. 14.—The local Board of Health through Dr. H. A.
West, its secretary, has made a demand that the work of clearing up the
dwelling houses be turned over to physicians. This work has been under
the direction of Adjutant General Scurry, and he has proved himself so
capable that the Relief Committee declined to make any division of
responsibility.
Notwithstanding the fact that the number of boats carrying passengers
between Texas City and Galveston has been largely increased, it was
impossible yesterday to leave the city after the early morning hours.
Yesterday the “Lawrence,” after jamming her nose into the mud, remained
aground all day. Her passengers were taken off in small sailboats, and
by noon a dozen of them heavily loaded started from Galveston to Texas
City.
INTENSE SUFFERING ON THE WATER.
The wind died away utterly and the boats could neither go on to Texas
City nor return to Galveston. None of them had more than a meager supply
of water, which was soon exhausted; the sun beat down with a merciless
severity. In a short time babies and young children became ill and in
many instances their mothers were also prostrated. There was absolutely
no relief to be had, as the tugs of Galveston Bay, which might have
given the sloops tow, are all made for deep sea work and draw too much
water to allow of their crossing the shallow channel.
Hour after hour the people on the boats, all of which were densely
packed, were compelled to broil in the torturing and blinding sun. A
slight breeze arising in the evening at 9 o’clock, the sailing craft
which had left Galveston at noon began to dump their passengers upon the
beach at Texas City. Owing to a delay in Houston trains it was fully
twenty hours after their start from Galveston that the people who left
there yesterday noon were able to move out from Texas City, which is
only eight miles away, and by the time the train had made a start for
Houston every woman in the crowd was ill through lack of food, exposure
and insufficient sleep.
In the long list of the dead of Galveston the family name of Labett
appears several times. Only a year or two ago five generations of the
Labetts were living at one time in Galveston.
The family nearly suffered the destruction of the family name in the
storm. A young man connected with one of the railroads was down town and
escaped. When the parties of searchers were organized and proceeded to
various parts of the city one of them came across this young Labett near
the ruins of his home all alone. He had made his way there and had found
the bodies of father and mother and other relatives. He had carried the
dead to a drift of sand, and there without a tool, with his bare hands
and a piece of board he was trying to scrape out gravel to bury the
bodies.
GALVESTON REFUGEES AT HOUSTON.
The “Post” of Houston prints a list of 2701 names of Galveston dead,
compiled from various sources, but believed to be authentic. There are
many bodies still in the ruins of Galveston and scattered along the
beach of the mainland and in the marshes.
About 1300 people arrived here from Galveston on the 13th. Four
buildings have been set apart for the benefit of refugees, but of the
3500 who have reached here so far not more than 800 remain in the public
charge, the remainder of them going to the homes of relatives and
friends.
MESSAGES FOR THE DEAD.
The following statement was made on Friday, the 14th; it was dated at
Dallas:
“Galveston is no longer shut off from wire communication with the
outside world. At 1.15 o’clock this afternoon the Postal Telegraph and
Cable Company received a bulletin from the storm-stricken city stating
that wire connection had been made across the bay by cable, and that
direct communication with the island city was resumed with two wires
working and that two more would be ready by to-morrow. A rush of
messages followed.
“The Western Union got in direct communication with Galveston this
afternoon, and soon that office was also crowded. Probably never before
has there been so much telegraphing to the dead. The headquarters of the
Western Union and Postal systems located in this city report that in
Dallas, Houston and Galveston are thousands of messages addressed to
persons who can never call for them or receive them.
“Some of the persons addressed are known to be dead, and there is no
doubt that hundreds of others are among the thousands of unknown and
unidentified victims of the storm whose bodies have been dumped into the
sea, consigned to unmarked graves or cremated in the great heaps that
sanitary necessity marked for the torch and the incinerating pyre.
“The insurance questions are beginning to receive serious attention.
Life insurance companies are going to be hit very hard. The question
that particularly engages the attention of representatives is whether
settlement shall be made without litigation. The general southwestern
agents for eight big insurance companies were interviewed to-day, and
they stated that all Dallas insurance men concur in the opinion that the
insurance policies against storm losses carried by Galvestonians will
not aggregate $10,000,000. They say there was absolutely no demand for
such insurance at Galveston.”
WHOLE FAMILY KILLED BY STORM.
Among those who were caught in the storm that devastated Galveston on
Sunday night were six persons who comprised the family of Peter E.
McKenna, a former resident of Philadelphia. According to news received
by their relatives in that city, all perished.
When word of the Texas disaster first came it was reported that the
entire family had been lost, but it later developed that a married
daughter, who lives in Omaha, Neb., was not visiting her parents, as was
first supposed, and therefore escaped the death that overtook her
relatives.
Peter E. McKenna, the head of the family, was well known in Philadelphia
during his youth. His father was one of the pioneers in the religious
press. The son followed the profession of his father, and after engaging
in the publication of newspapers and religious weeklies until 1862 he
sought fortune in the West.
[Illustration:
VIEW OF PIER 23, SHOWING VESSEL OVERTURNED BY THE GALE]
[Illustration:
HOUSE ON CENTRE STREET BETWEEN N AND N½ AVENUES BRACED UP BY A
FLOATING CISTERN]
[Illustration:
DESTRUCTION OF GALVESTON ORPHANS’ HOME]
[Illustration:
INTERIOR OF ST. PATRICK’S CHURCH WHICH WAS DEMOLISHED BY THE HURRICANE]
Galveston at the time was a growing city, and as it offered the
opportunities Mr. McKenna desired he settled there and devoted himself
to the upbuilding of newspapers. His success was of such a nature that
he made his permanent home in Galveston, and during the thirty-eight
years that have passed, was recognized as one of the most foremost
journalists in that city. Latterly he was connected with the Galveston
“Despatch” and also conducted a publishing house for himself.
Separated as he was by thousands of miles from the city of his birth,
Mr. McKenna was able to make only a few visits during the last
twenty-five years, but he kept up a constant correspondence with several
relatives. In these letters there was frequent mention of the fact that
the city was lower than the sea and open to the attacks of any storm
that might form in the Gulf of Mexico.
CLEARING THE WATER FRONT.
At a conference held at the office of the City Health Officer on Friday,
the 14th, it was decided to accept the offer of the Marine Hospital
Service, and establish a camp at Houston, where the destitute and
invalids can be sent. The physicians agreed that there were many
indigent persons in the city who should be removed. A message was sent
to the Surgeon General asking that the department furnish one thousand
tents, of four-berth capacity each; also seven hundred barrels of
disinfecting fluid.
Another important movement in the direction of sanitation was made by
the Health Department in calling for one hundred men with drays to clean
the streets. The idea is to district the city and start the drays to
remove all unsanitary matter from the streets.
STRANGE BURIAL PLACES AND GRAVES.
Although the work of disposing of the dead is being pushed, several
hundred bodies are still buried beneath the wreckage. Thirty-two sand
mounds marked with small boards, attract attention on the beach, near
Twenty-sixth street, and tell the story of where about seventy-five
bodies have been buried.
One of the greatest needs of the city now is disinfectants. The local
Committee on Correspondence drafted this general message to the country:
“Our most urgent present needs now are disinfectants, lime, cement,
gasoline stoves, gasoline, charcoal furnaces, and charcoal. Nearby towns
also may send bread. For the remainder of our wants money will be most
available because we can make purchases from time to time with more
discretion than miscellaneous contributors would exercise. We are
bringing order out of chaos and again offer our profound gratitude for
the assistance so far received.”
The first real attempt to clear away the great mass of debris piled
along the beach front for several miles was begun to-day. Advertisements
this morning asking for hundreds of men and boys were answered by a
multitude. It is hoped that a vigorous prosecution of the work will lead
to the early recovery of the bodies in the debris. That there are many
of them there is no shadow of doubt.
SEEKING FORMER RESIDENCES.
A correspondent walked along the beach for some distance to-day and the
stench was sickening. Everywhere little groups of men, women and
children, some poorly clad, were digging in the ruins of their homes for
what little household property they could save. In many cases, those
seeking their former residences were unable to find a single remnant of
them.
The exodus from the city was heavy to-day, and hundreds more were eager
to leave, but were unable to secure transportation. Along the bay front
there were scores of families with dejected faces, pleading to be taken
from the stricken city, where, in spite of every effort to restore
confidence, there is much depression.
J. C. Stewart, a builder, after a careful inspection of the grain
elevators and their contents, said the damage to the elevators was not
over two per cent. Mr. Bailey said he would put a large force of men to
work clearing up each of the wharves, and the company will be ready for
business within eight days. The wharves have been damaged very little
outside of the wreckage of the sheds. With the wreckage cleared away
Galveston will be in shape for beginning business.
SOUTHERN PACIFIC WILL REBUILD.
To a journal in New York the “Galveston News” sent the following
important statement:
“You ask the ‘News’ what is our estimate of Galveston’s future and what
the prospects are for building up the city. Briefly stated, the ‘News’
believes that inside of two years there will exist upon the island of
Galveston a city three times greater than the one that has just been
partially destroyed. The devastation has been great and the loss of life
terrible, but there is a hopefulness at the very time this answer is
being penned you that is surprising to those who witness it. That is not
a practical answer to your inquiries, however.
“The principal feature is this—The Southern Pacific company has ordered
a steel bridge built across the bay ten feet higher than the trestlework
on the late bridges. The company has ordered also a doubling up of
forces to continue and improve their wharves, and with this note of
encouragement from the great enterprise upon which so much depends the
whole situation is cleared up.
AN EXCELLENT PORT.
“Our wharves will be rebuilt, the sanitary condition of the city will be
perfected; streets will be laid with material superior to that
destroyed, new vigor and life will enter the community with the work of
construction, and the products of the twenty-one States and Territories
contiguous will pour through the port of Galveston.
“We have now, through the action of this storm, with all its
devastation, thirty feet of water on the bar, making this port the
equal, if not the superior, of all others on the American seaboard. The
island has stood the wrack of the greatest storm convulsion known in the
history of any latitude, and there is no longer a question of the
stability of the island’s foundation. If a wind velocity of one hundred
and twenty miles an hour and a water volume of fifteen feet in some
places upon the island did not have the effect of washing it away, then
there is no wash to it.
“Galveston island is still here, and here to stay, and it will be made
in a short time the most beautiful and progressive city in the
Southwest. This may be esteemed simply a hopeful view, but the
conditions existing warrant acceptance of the view to the fullest
extent.
“The ‘News’ will not deal with what is needed from a generous public to
the thousands of suffering people now left with us. The dead are at
rest. There are twenty thousand homeless people here, whose necessities
at this time are great indeed. Assistance is needed for them in the
immediate future. The great works of material and industrial energy will
take care of themselves by the attraction here presented for the
profitable employment of capital. We were dazed for a day or two, but
there is no gloom here now as to the future. Business has already been
resumed.”
PLAN TO PROTECT GALVESTON.
Can the city of Galveston, almost obliterated by the recent storm, be
protected from all future assaults by the Gulf?
Colonel Henry M. Robert, United States Corps of Engineers, and
divisional engineer of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, who is stationed
here at present, says that Galveston can be absolutely protected from
every storm by a sea wall built along the Gulf front.
Colonel Robert, during the late spring, while on a visit to Galveston,
suggested a comprehensive plan for the improvement, of that harbor,
which was hailed by the city and State as solving the problem of the
creation of a great port in Galveston Bay. This plan would also afford a
great measure of protection to the city from inundation on its northern
and southwestern sides should a strong wind from the Gulf pile up the
water on the shallow floors of Galveston and West bays.
Colonel Robert’s plan contemplates the construction of a great basin for
harbor purposes, as well as for dry docks, to the northwest of the city.
The basin would be formed by a retaining wall shutting out Galveston and
West bays, and by filling in the parts of the Gulf floor between this
retaining wall and the walls or shores of the basin.
The northern retaining wall would follow generally the line of the south
jetty, and a deep water channel of twenty-five to thirty feet would be
left between the new land and the city of Galveston, connecting the
channel formed by the jetties with the inner basin. Pelican Island would
be the backbone of the made land, and all of Pelican Flats would be
transformed into solid land, to be used for railway and docking
purposes.
THE PROJECT WAS APPROVED.
The plan also involved the extension of the jetty channel through
Galveston Bay and up Buffalo Bayou as far as Houston, more than sixty
miles distant, making the latter city an open seaport. Railways would
have, by means of the filled-in land, ready access to the city, and, in
addition, the port facilities of Galveston would be many times
increased, and a continuous sea channel be constructed from the Gulf to
Houston.
This project, as outlined by Colonel Robert, received the unqualified
approval of the various interests concerned in the development of
Galveston harbor, and steps had been taken to carry out the plan before
the onslaught of the recent storm swept away water lines and much of the
city itself. Colonel Robert now proposes an additional plan, simple and
inexpensive, for affording the fullest and most complete measure of
protection from all storms. This new plan is to construct a sea wall
along the Gulf front of the city.
It is estimated that the height of the waves in the recent storm, which
was the severest ever experienced on the Texas coast, was about ten to
twelve feet. Colonel Robert suggests that a wall at least twelve feet
above the beach, and running the entire length of the water front, or
about ten miles, be built immediately to barricade the city from the
Gulf. A height of twelve feet above the beach would give fourteen feet
above the water, and would, Colonel Robert thinks, afford ample
protection.
COST OF THE SEA WALL.
As to the expense of such a structure, it is thought by engineers that a
liberal estimate would be about $1,500,000 per mile. This wall, as
projected by Colonel Robert, would extend from a point on the south
jetty, where the latter crosses the Gulf front of the city, and would
follow the line of the beach, two or three feet above the water level,
until it reached the southwestern limit of the island, in the shallow
water of West Bay. At the latter point the danger from storms is not
serious.
At present the depth of water between the jetties is 26½ feet, and it is
thought that it will soon be thirty feet. The average depth of the
original channel across the twenty-five miles of Galveston Bay is about
twelve feet. It is proposed by Colonel Robert’s plan to increase this to
at least twenty-five feet. An additional and supplementary plan is to
extend the improvement, so as to create a system of coast channels that
will transform Galveston into a central port with a labyrinth of
waterways.
EXTENSIVE HARBOR IMPROVEMENT.
The magnitude of the plan for the improvement of the harbor of Galveston
may be imagined when it is observed that the inner basin, or harbor, is
to be about five miles long by three broad, that it may be approached by
a deep water channel accommodating ocean going vessels of the deepest
draught. The outlet into West Bay will not be so deep, as the bay itself
is navigable by light draught vessels only. The new land, formed on the
basis of Pelican Island and flats will be about four miles square.
Colonel Robert said that a survey will be made at once of the wrecked
forts and other military works at Galveston. A report received from that
place says that those portions of the works erected upon piling
withstood the storm. It is proposed to use piling entirely for similar
works in the future.