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 DeLester, Paul
Philosophy
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 De
Lester, Paul
Floods -- Texas -- Galveston -- History -- 20th century; Galveston (Tex.) -- History -- 20th century; Hurricanes -- Texas -- Galveston -- History -- 20th century
“The cotton mills, the bagging factory, the gas works, the electric
light works and nearly all the industrial establishments of the city are
either wrecked or crippled. The flood left a slime about one inch deep
over the whole city, and unless fast progress is made in burying corpses
and carcasses of animals there is danger of pestilence. Some of the
stories of the escapes are miraculous. William Nisbett, a cotton man,
was buried in the ruins of the Cotton Exchange saloon, and when dug out
in the morning had no further injury than a few bruised fingers.
“Dr. S. O. Young, Secretary of the Cotton Exchange, was knocked
senseless when his house collapsed, but was revived by the water, and
was carried ten blocks by the hurricane. A woman who had just given
birth to a child was carried from her home to a house a block distant,
the men who were carrying her having to hold her high above heads, as
the water was five feet deep when she was moved.
“Many stories were current of houses falling and inmates escaping.
Clarence N. Ousley, editor of the Evening Tribune, had his family and
the families of two neighbors in his house when the lower half crumbled
and the upper part slipped down into the water. No one in the house was
hurt.
“The Mistrot House, in the West End, was turned into a hospital. All of
the regular hospitals of the city were unavailable. Of the new Southern
Pacific Works little remains but the piling. Half a million feet of
lumber was carried away, and Engineer Boschke says, as far as the
company is concerned, it might as well start over again.
EIGHT OCEAN STEAMERS STRANDED.
“Eight ocean steamers were torn from their moorings and stranded in the
bay. The Kendall Castle was carried over the flats at Thirty-third
street wharf to Texas City, and lies in the wreckage of the Inman pier.
The Norwegian steamer Gyller is stranded between Texas City and Virginia
Point. An ocean liner was swirled around through the west bay, crashed
through the bay bridges, and is now lying in a few feet of water near
the wreckage of the railroad bridges.
“The steamship Taunton was carried across Pelican Point and is stranded
about ten miles up the east bay. The Mallory steamer Alamo was torn from
her wharf and dashed upon Pelican flats, and against the bow of the
British steamer Red Cross, which had previously been hurled there. The
stern of the Alamo is stove in and the bow of the Red Cross is crushed.
Down the channel to the jetties two other ocean steamships lie grounded.
Some schooners, barges and smaller craft are strewn bottom side up along
the slips of the piers. The tug Louise, of the Houston Direct Navigation
Company, is also a wreck.
“It will take a week to tabulate the dead and the missing and to get
anything near an approximate idea of the monetary loss. It is safe to
assume that one-half the property of the city is wiped out, and that
one-half of the residents have to face absolute poverty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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