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 — John Shaqi
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
Railroad communication was cut off shortly afternoon, the track being
washed out; wire facilities completely failed at 3 o’clock, and
Galveston was isolated from the world. The wind momentarily increased in
velocity, while the waters rapidly rose and the night drew on with
dreaded apprehension depicted in the face of every one.
Already hundreds and thousands were bravely struggling with their
families against the mad waves and fierce wind for places of refuge. The
public school buildings, court house, hotels, in fact any place that
offered apparently a safe refuge from the elements, became crowded to
their utmost. Two minutes of 6.30 P. M., just before the anemometer blew
away the wind had reached the frightful velocity of 100 miles an hour.
Buildings that had hitherto stood tumbled and crashed, carrying death
and destruction to hundreds of people. Roofs whistled through the air,
windows were driven in with a crash or shattered by flying slate,
telegraph, telephone and electric light poles, with their masses of
wires, were snapped off like pipe stems, and water communications were
broken.
What velocity the wind attained after the anemometer blew off is purely
a matter of speculation. The lowest point touched by the barometer in
the press correspondents’ office, which was filled by frightened men and
women, was 28.04½; this was about 7.30 P. M. It then began to rise very
slowly, and by 10 P. M. had reached 28.09, the wind gradually subsiding,
and by midnight the storm had passed. The water, which had reached a
depth of eight feet on the strand at 10 P. M, began to ebb and ran out
very rapidly, and by 5 P. M. the crown of the street was free of water.
Thus passed out one of the most frightful and destructive storms which
has ever devastated the coast of Texas.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS.
The city is filled with destitute, bereft and homeless people, while in
the improvised morgues are the rigid forms of hundreds. Whole families
are side by side.
The city beach in the southwestern part of the city was under ten feet
of water, and the barracks there are destroyed, the soldiers having a
marvelous escape from drowning. Many substantial residences in the
western and southwestern part of the city were destroyed, and the death
list from there will be large.
A heavy mortality list is expected among the residents down the island
and adjacent to the coast on the mainland, as both were deeply flooded,
and the houses were to a great extent insecure. The heaviest losers by
the storm will be the Galveston Wharf Company, the Southern Pacific
Railway Company, and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company,
and the Texas Lone Star Flouring Company.
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