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
Savannah, Ga., has not escaped the fury of the southern gale. The city
suffered severely in 1881, the waters rushing into the streets and
causing the death of four hundred persons by drowning. Four million
dollars, it was said, was the amount of the damage to property. In 1893
Savannah was visited by another cyclone and forty persons were killed.
This time the property damage was $7,000.000.
Havana, Cuba, and the West Indies were visited by a destructive
hurricane in September, 1888. One thousand persons were killed and
hundreds of head of cattle were killed. The loss was $7,000,000.
Sabine Pass, which is the dividing line between Texas and Louisiana, was
swept by a terrific storm in October, 1886. The population of the town
was about four hundred. Of these one hundred and twenty-six perished and
90 per cent. of the deaths was caused by drowning. Four houses escaped
injury.
The coast of Mexico was devastated for three days in the fall of 1889 by
a destructive cyclone, which first struck the coast of Campeachy. There
was a drenching rain which played havoc along the peninsula for miles.
The wind was so furious in the city of Carmen it uprooted trees,
depositing them upon houses which they crushed. All the shipping in the
harbor was wrecked. Twelve foreign barks were wrecked. Some were thrown
high and dry on the beach, while others were submerged. Two steamships,
many schooners and many smaller craft were wrecked. There was great loss
of life.
A hurricane from the West Indies, which swept up the Atlantic coast, did
great damage to Savannah, Ga., on Tuesday, September 30, 1896. Wind blew
at a velocity of seventy-five miles an hour for an hour and a half.
Hardly a building escaped, and thousands of houses were unroofed. The
damage was $1,000,000, and twenty-two persons were killed. The roof of
the United States Pension Office was blown off. Railroad stations,
churches, theatres and the Bonaventure Cemetery were ruined, monuments
being overturned.
The hurricane started from the West Indies. It went from Brunswick, Ga.,
to Savannah; thence it plunged through and into Pennsylvania, where the
damage done was tremendous. The large railroad bridge over the
Susquehanna River was wrecked.
HARDEST STORM FOR MANY YEARS.
One of the worst cyclonic storms of recent years was that on August 29,
1893, which carried havoc and destruction even into our own city,
although this city escaped its utmost fury, although there came tales of
shipwrecks at sea. It was a West Indian hurricane that originated in the
West Indies on August 25, and reached our shores at Savannah, Ga., two
days later. The storm passed through North and South Carolina, Virginia
and West Virginia and into the southwestern part of Pennsylvania.