The vessel had been carried for miles in that short period. And there is nothing unreasonable in the story. The wind gauge at the office of the Weather Bureau showed eighty-seven miles an hour when it went out of business. They believe it blew 100 miles an hour after that. The people, before their houses fell about their ears, nailed up their window shutters and doors because no door latch and no windowpane ever made could stand the strength of the wind. Every one knew that once the wind entered the house, that moment the walls would be blown in every direction. No one fought against the water. It was the wind they put their feeble efforts against. It will be remembered that the storm began to become serious early in the afternoon, and hence no one had undressed for bed when the climax came. The female survivors, or at least those who were upon the waters, came out naked. I asked a lady whether it was the waves or the flying timbers that did it. She said it was the wind. “Why, on the raft with me and my baby was a colored woman. The raft seemed to me to be the ceiling of a house because it was white. We had to lie as flat on it as we could without placing our faces in the water. The colored woman became tired and raised in a half-sitting posture. The moment she did it the wind stripped her of every stitch of clothing.” CLOTHES TORN TO SHREDS. The men, too, were deprived in a great measure of their clothes, but not to the extent of the women. Their clothes were torn from them now and then by the wreckage, but nearly all the corpses had on some garment. The reason of this was probably that the women’s apparel was of weaker texture. People ask why the people did not move when the storm came from unsafe houses to safe houses. The answer is twofold. In the first place, death was on them before they realized their danger. The Galveston mind had for years been firmly convinced that Galveston Island and Galveston houses could weather any storm. An illustration of this confidence is in order. A woman who lived at one of the numerous corner groceries said the water was almost to her neck before she left her place. She waded to the house of a near neighbor, where many of the people in the locality had assembled, because all thought it a perfectly safe house, as it proved itself to be. Here, she said, they chatted and even joked as the building rocked in the hands of the storm. When the people saw that their lives were in danger, it was then too late to try for other houses. They remained where they were till the buildings either fell and parts were being torn away and they were assured that they would soon fall.