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 Stuart Mill · en
Early in the forenoon the waves were leaping at times over the trestle
work of the street railway along the beach front, making it impossible
to operate the cars around the belt, as the water would have burned out
the motors. The cars were therefore operated between town and the Gulf
on the double tracks of either side of the belt line. A little later in
the forenoon the waves undermined the track at Twenty-fourth street and
avenue R. They washed under the little Midway houses on the south side
of avenue R, which were built on piling, and in places carried away the
sidewalks in front of the buildings, which were not thus supported.
THE ANGER OF THE SEA.
The platform which supported the photograph gallery at the Pagoda bath
house was washed away. This was not a part of the original structure,
and was not as strongly built as the remainder of the bath house. The
bath house proper and its pier, extending out to sea, were not at that
time (Saturday noon) disturbed by the waves, although the high rollers
at times dashed so near the flooring of this and the other bath houses
that it looked like a rise of a few inches would punch up the flooring.
The scene at the beach was grand. The sea in its anger was a sight
beautiful, though awe-inspiring, to behold. Notwithstanding the wind and
the driving rain, thousands of people went to the beach to behold the
maddened sea, and the street cars were kept quite busy. Down town,
during the early morning, when the rain was not so heavy, there seemed
no apparent necessity for getting into rainy day garb to make this trip
to the beach, and many people went out in their best bibs and tuckers,
to their sorrow. Well dressed men and women disembarked from the cars at
the beach and picked their way amid swirling pools of water and the
spent waves to get into midway and to pass along to places where a good
view of the sea might be obtained.
For a few minutes they succeeded in keeping feet and bodies reasonably
dry, but using umbrellas counted for naught, and were soon turned wrong
side out or ripped into ribbons, and their owners getting partially wet,
abandoned themselves to the inevitable and went around seeing the
sights, caring not for the weather, nor worrying about their good duds.
Some people, with abundant foresight, appeared on the scene in bathing
suits, and, of course, they were right in it from the jump.
At Twenty-fifth street the big waves rolled up the shelving beach,
crossed the street railway tracks, leaving the water impounded behind
the embankment. These waters backed up in the ditches and the low places
of the street as far as avenue N, and the supply being ever replenished,
both from the sea and from the clouds, there was no opportunity for this
water to run off.
IMPOSSIBLE TO NAVIGATE.