CHAPTER I.
First News of the Great Calamity—Galveston Almost Totally Destroyed by Winds and Waves. Thousands Swept to Instant Death.
The first news of the appalling calamity that fell like a thunderbolt on Galveston came in the following despatch from the Governor of Texas:
“Information has just reached me that about 3000 lives have been lost in Galveston, with enormous destruction of property. No information from other points.
“JOSEPH D. SAYRES, Governor.”
This despatch was dated at Austin, Texas, September 9th. Further intelligence was awaited with great anxiety in all parts of the country. The worst was feared, and all the fears were more than realized. Later intelligence showed that the West Indian storm which reached the Gulf coast on the morning of September 8th, wrought awful havoc in Texas. Reports were conflicting, but it was known that an appalling disaster had befallen the city of Galveston, where, it was reported, a thousand or more lives had been blotted out and a tremendous property damage incurred. Meagre reports from Sabine Pass and Port Arthur also indicated a heavy loss of life.
Among those who brought tidings from the stricken city of Galveston was James C. Timmins, who resides in Houston, and who is the General Superintendent of the National Compress Company. After Mr. Spillane he was one of the first to reach Houston with news of the great disaster which had befallen that city, and after all he reported it was evident that the magnitude of the disaster remained to be told.
After remaining through the hurricane on Saturday, the 8th, he departed from Galveston on a schooner and came across the bay to Morgan’s Point, where he caught a train for Houston. The hurricane, Mr. Timmins said, was the worst ever known.
The estimate made by citizens of Galveston was that four thousand houses, most of them residences, were destroyed, and that at least one thousand people had been drowned, killed or were missing. Business houses were also destroyed. These estimates, it was learned afterward, were far below the actual facts.
The city, Mr. Timmins averred, was a complete wreck, so far as he could see from the water front and from the Tremont Hotel. Water was blown over the island by the hurricane, the wind blowing at the rate of eighty miles an hour straight from the Gulf and forcing the sea water before it in big waves. The gale was a steady one, the heart of it striking the city about 5 o’clock in the evening and continuing without intermission until midnight, when it abated somewhat, although it continued to blow all night.
WORST HURRICANE EVER KNOWN.
The water extended across the island. Mr. Timmins said it was three feet deep in the rotunda of the Tremont Hotel, and was six feet deep in Market street. Along the water front the damage was very great. The roofs had been blown from all the elevators, and the sheds along the wharves were either wrecked or had lost their sides and were of no protection to the contents.
Most of the small sailing craft were wrecked, and were either piled up on the wharves or floating bottom side up in the bay. There was a small steamship ashore three miles north of Pelican Island, but Mr. Timmins could not distinguish her name. She was flying a British flag. Another big vessel had been driven ashore at Virginia Point, and still another was aground at Texas City. At the south point of Houston Island an unknown ship lay in a helpless condition.
The lightship that marks Galveston bar was hard and fast aground at Bolivar Point. Mr. Timmins and the men with him on the schooner rescued two sailors from the Middle Bay who had been many hours in the water. These men were foreigners, and he could gain no information from them.
A wreck of a vessel which looked like a large steam tug was observed just before the party landed. In the bay the carcasses of nearly two hundred horses and mules were seen, but no human body was visible.
The scenes during the storm could not be described. Women and children were crowded into the Tremont Hotel, where he was seeking shelter, and all night these unfortunates were bemoaning their losses of kindred and fortune. They were grouped about the stairways and in the galleries and rooms of the hotel. What was occurring in other parts of the city could only be conjectured.
The city of Galveston was now entirely submerged and cut off from communication. The boats were gone, the railroads could not be operated, and the water was so high people could not walk out by way of the bridge across the bay, even were the bridge standing.
Provisions were badly needed, as a great majority of the people lost all they had. The water works’ power house was wrecked, and a water famine was threatened, as the cisterns were all ruined by the overflow of salt water. This was regarded as the most serious problem to be faced. The city was in darkness, the electric plant having been ruined.
BODIES FLOATING IN THE BAY.
There was no way of estimating the property damage. The east end portion of the city, which was the residence district was practically wiped out of existence. On the west end, which faces the gulf on another portion of the island, much havoc was done. The beach was swept clean, the bath-houses were destroyed, and many of the residences were total wrecks.
Among the passengers who arrived at Houston on a relief train from Galveston was Ben Dew, an attache of the Southern Pacific. Dew had been at Virginia Point for several hours, and said that he saw 100 to 150 dead bodies floating out on the beach at that place.
Conductor Powers reported that twenty-five corpses had been recovered by the life-saving crew, many of them women; that the crew had reported that many bodies were floating, and that they were using every endeavor to get them all out of the water. The water swept across the island, and it is presumed that most of these were Galveston people, though none of them had been identified.
LOST WIFE AND SIX CHILDREN.
One of the refugees who came in on the relief train and who had a sad experience was S. W. Clinton, an engineer at the fertilizing plant at the Galveston stock yards. Mr. Clinton’s family consisted of his wife and six children. When his house was washed away he managed to get two of his little boys safely to a raft, and with them he drifted helplessly about. His raft collided with wreckage of every description and was split in two, and he was forced to witness the drowning of his sons, being unable to help them in any way. Mr. Clinton says parts of the city were seething masses of water.
From an eye-witness of the vast devastation we are able to give the following graphic account:
“The storm that raged along the coast of Texas was the most disastrous that has ever visited this section. The wires are down, and there is no way of finding out just what has happened, but enough is known to make it certain that there has been great loss of life and destruction of property all along the coast and for a hundred miles inland. Every town that is reached reports one or more dead, and the property damage is so great that there is no way of computing it accurately.
“Galveston remains isolated. The Houston Post and the Associated Press made efforts to get special trains and tugs to-day with which to reach the island city. The railroad companies declined to risk their locomotives.
“It is known that the railroad bridges across the bay at Galveston are either wrecked or are likely to be destroyed with the weight of a train on them; the approaches to the wagon bridge are gone and it is rendered useless. The bridge of the Galveston, Houston and Northern Railroad is standing, but the drawbridges over Clear creek and at Edgewater are gone, and the road cannot get trains through to utilize the bridge across the bay.
“Sabine Pass has not been heard from to-day (September 9th). The last news was received from there yesterday morning, and at that time the water was surrounding the old town at the pass, and the wind was rising and the waves coming high. From the new town, which is some distance back, the water had reached the depot and was running through the streets. The people were leaving for the high country, known as the Black Ridge, and it is believed that all escaped. Two bodies have been brought in from Seabrooke, on Galveston Bay, and seventeen persons are missing there.
“In Houston the property damage is great, a conservative estimate placing it at $250,000. The Merchants’ and Planters’ Oil Mill was wrecked, entailing a loss of $40,000. The Dickson Car Wheel Works suffered to the extent of $16,000. The big Masonic Temple, which is the property of the Grand Lodge of the State, was partly wrecked. Nearly every church in the city was damaged. The First Baptist, Southern Methodist and Trinity Methodist, the latter a negro church, will have to be rebuilt before they can be used again. Many business houses were unroofed.
MANY TOWNS DEMOLISHED.
“The residence portion of the town presents a dilapidated appearance, but the damage in this part of the city has not been so great as in some others. The streets are almost impassable because of the litter of shade trees, fences, telephone wires and poles. Much damage was done to window glass and furniture. Many narrow escapes are recorded.
“Another train has left here for Galveston, making the third to-day. The two preceding ones have not been heard from, as all wires are prostrated.
“Meagre reports are arriving here from the country between Houston and Galveston, along the line of the Santa Fe Railroad. The tornado was the most destructive in the history of the State.
“The town of Alvin was practically demolished. Hitchcock suffered severely from the storm, while the little town of Alta Loma is reported without a house standing. The town of Pearl has lost one-half of its buildings.
“L. B. Carlton, the president of the Business League of Alvin, and a prominent merchant there, reports that not a building is left standing in the town, either residence or business. Stocks of goods and house furniture are ruined, and crops are a total loss. Alvin is a town of about 1200 inhabitants.
SANTA FE TRAIN BLOWN FROM THE TRACK.
“The Santa Fe train which left here at 7.55 Saturday night, the 8th, was wrecked at a point about two miles north of Alvin. The train was running slowly when it encountered the heavy storm. It is reported that the train was literally lifted from the track.”
A thrilling story was told by two men who floated across from Galveston to the mainland. It came in the form of a telegram received at Dallas from Houston:
“Relief train just returned. They could not get closer than six miles of Virginia Point, where the prairie was covered with lumber, debris, pianos, trunks, and dead bodies. Two hundred corpses were counted from the train. A large steamer is stranded two miles this side of Virginia Point, as though thrown up by a tidal wave. Nothing can be seen of Galveston.
“Two men were picked up who floated across to the mainland, who say they estimate the loss of life up to the time they left at 2000.”
The above message was addressed to Superintendent Felton, Dallas, and comes from Mr. Vaughn, manager of the Western Union office at Houston. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas north bound “flyer” was reported wrecked near Sayers.
The office of the Western Union Telegraph Company at St. Louis was besieged with thousands of inquiries as to the extent and result of the terrible storm that cut off Galveston from communication with the rest of the world. Rumors of the most direful nature come from that part of Texas, some of them even intimating that Galveston had been entirely wrecked and that the bay was covered with the dead bodies of its residents. Nothing definite, however, could be learned, as the Gulf city was entirely isolated, not even railroad trains being able to reach it. All the telegraph wires to Galveston were gone south of Houston, and to accentuate the serious condition of affairs the cable lines between Galveston and Tampico and Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, were severed; at least no communication over them was possible.
The Western Union had a large number of telegraph operators and linemen waiting at Houston to go to Galveston, but it was impossible to get them there. San Antonio was being reached by El Paso, in the extreme southwestern portion of the State, a procedure made necessary by the prevailing storm.
WATER BLOWN COMPLETELY OVER THE CITY.
Mr. Joyce, another refugee from Galveston, made the following statement:
“The wind was blowing Saturday afternoon and night at about seventy-five miles an hour, blowing the water in the Gulf and completely covering the city. The people of Galveston did not think it was much at first and kept within their homes, consequently when the wind began blowing as it did and the water dashed against the houses, completely demolishing them, many lives were lost. I have no idea how many were killed, but think there will be several thousand deaths reported, besides many people whom we will know nothing about.
“I was in the storm which struck Galveston in 1875, but that one, bad as it was, was nothing in comparison with Saturday’s.”
The following account of Galveston will be of interest to readers in connection with the great disaster that has ruined that once prosperous and thriving city.
Galveston is situated on an island extending east and west for twenty seven miles, and is seven miles in its greatest width north and south. No city could be in greater danger from such a horrible visitation as has now come to Galveston. In no part of the city, with its former 38,000 population, is it more than six feet above the sea level.
The flat condition not only points to the desperate situation of the people at such a time as this, but their danger may be considered emphasized when it is known that exactly where the city is built the island is only one and one-quarter miles wide.
On the bay, or north side of the city, is the commercial section, with wharves stretching along for nearly two miles, lined with sheds and large storage houses. Then, in that portion of Galveston, there are three elevators, one of 1,500,000 bushels capacity, one of 1,000,000 and the third of 750,000.
A BRIDGE TWO MILES LONG.
The island from the north side is connected with the mainland by railroad bridges and the longest wagon bridge in the world, the latter nearly two miles in length. In 1872 the entire east end of the city was swept away by the tidal wave that followed a terrific storm that swept the Gulf coast for three days. Then the eastern land, on which buildings stood, was literally torn away. The work of replacing it has since been going on, and Fort Point, that guards the entrance to the harbor, has since been built, and on its parapets are mounted some of the heaviest coast defense ordnance used by the government. By the force of the storm of 1872 six entire blocks of the city were swept away.
It is on the south side of the city, beginning within fifty yards of the medium Gulf tide, that the wealthy residence portion of the city is located, and which was the first part of Galveston to be stricken by the full force of the storm and flood. All of the eastern end of the city was washed away, and in this quarter, between Broadway and I street, some of the handsomest and most expensive residence establishments are located. There was located there one home, which alone cost the owner over $1,000,000. Most of the residences are of frame, but there are many of stone and brick. In the extreme eastern end of the city there are many of what we call raised cottages. They are built on piling, and stand from eight to ten feet from the ground as a precaution against floods, it being possible for the water to sweep under them.
Any protection that has ever been provided for the Gulf side of the city has been two stone breakwaters, but many times, with ordinary storms coming in from the Gulf, the high tidewater has been hurled over the low stone walls right to the very doors of the residences. From Virginia Point, six miles from Galveston, in ordinary conditions of the atmosphere, the city can be plainly seen. If it is true that Galveston cannot be now seen from the Point, then the conditions of the people in the city must be indescribably horrible. In short, a large part of the city is obliterated and has disappeared.
VAST AMOUNT OF MONEY INVESTED.
Many millions of dollars are invested in the wholesale and retail business of the city. On Strand street alone there are ten blocks of business establishments that represent an invested capital of $127,000,000. Market street is the heavy retail street, and there, in the heart of the flooded district, the losses cannot but reach away into the millions. The fact, as indicated by the despatches, that water is standing six feet deep in the Tremont Hotel, furnishes startling evidence to me that Galveston has been, indeed, dreadfully visited. The hotel is in almost exactly the centre of the city. Two years ago Galveston did the heaviest shipping business in cotton and grain of any Southern city. When I was at home two shiploads of cattle were leaving the port on an average every week.
Dr. H. C. Frankenfeld, forecast official of the Weather Bureau, gave an account of the West India hurricane that travelled through Texas. The first sign of the storm was noticed August 30 near the Windward Islands, about latitude 15 degrees north, longitude 63 degrees west. On the morning of August 31 it was still in the same latitude, but had moved westward to about longitude 67 degrees, or about 200 miles south of the island of Porto Rico. At that time, however, it had not assumed a very definite storm formation. It was central in the Caribbean Sea on the morning of September 1st, evidently about two hundred miles south of Santo Domingo City.
It had reached a point somewhere to the southwest, and not very far from Jamaica, by September 2d. The morning of September 3d found it about 175 miles south of the middle of Cuba. It had moved northwestward to latitude 21 degrees and longitude 81 degrees by September 4th. Up to this time the storm had not developed any destructive force but had caused heavy rains, particularly at Santiago, Cuba, where 12.58 inches of rain fell in twenty-four hours.
OMINOUS PROGRESS OF THE STORM.
On the morning of the fifth, the storm centre had passed over Cuba and had become central between Havana and Key West. High winds occurred over Cuba during the night of the fourth. By the morning of the sixth the storm centre was a short distance northwest of Key West, Fla., and the high winds had commenced over Southern Florida, forty-eight miles an hour from the east being reported from Jupiter, and forty miles from the N. E. from Key West. At this time it became a question as to whether the storm would recurve and pass up along the Atlantic coast, a most natural presumption judging from the barometric conditions over the eastern portion of the United States, or whether it would continue northwesterly over the Gulf of Mexico.
Advisory messages were sent as early as September 1st to Key West and the Bahama Islands, giving warning of the approach of the storm and advising caution to all shipping. The warnings were supplemented by others on the second, third, and fourth, giving more detailed information, and were gradually extended along the Gulf coast as far as Galveston and the Atlantic coast to Norfolk.
On the afternoon of the fourth the first storm warnings were issued to all ports in Florida from Cedar Keys to Jupiter. On the fifth they were extended to Hatteras, and advisory messages issued along the coast as far as Boston. Hurricane warnings were also ordered displayed on the night of the fifth from Cedar Keys to Savannah. On the fifth storm warnings were also ordered displayed on the Gulf coast from Pensacola, Fla., to Port Eads, La. During the sixth barometric conditions over the eastern portion of the United States so far changed as to prevent the movement of the storm along the Atlantic coast, and it therefore continued northwest over the Gulf of Mexico.
On the morning of the seventh it was apparently central south of the Louisiana coast, about longitude 28, latitude 89. At this time storm signals were ordered up on the North Texas coast, and during the day were extended along the entire coast. On the morning of the eighth the storm was nearing the Texas coast, and was apparently central at about latitude 28, longitude 94. The last report received from Galveston, dated 3.40 P. M., September 8, showed a barometric pressure of 29.22 inches, with a wind of forty-two miles an hour, northeast, indicating that the centre of the storm was quite close to that city.
ALWAYS IN DANGER DURING A HURRICANE.
At this time the heavy sea from the southeast was constantly rising and already covered the streets of about half the city. Up to Sunday morning no reports were received from southern Texas, but the barometer at Fort Worth gave some indications that the storm was passing into the southern portion of the State. An observation taken at San Antonio at 11 o’clock, but not received until half-past five, indicated that the centre of the storm had passed a short distance east of the place, and had then turned in the northward.
Situated as Galveston is, with much of the shore but a few feet above the mean high water, there is so scant a margin of safety that, as was the case on the South Carolina Sea Islands on August 27, 1893, and among the bayous of Louisiana in October of the same year, any abnormal tide means death and destruction. Sabine Pass is a mere sand spit, and Galveston Island itself is but a few feet above the ocean level at the best, and is but three feet above high tide in many places. As the great storm wave raised by the cyclonic winds of the average hurricane may easily have a crest of from eight to nine feet, for a city such as Galveston this would be most ominous.
Such a fate as an inundation during the prevalence of a hurricane has been forecast for the island city, whose population according to the new census is 37,789, many of whom live under conditions that invite loss of life in case of a tidal overflow. And yet, though such a disaster has been foreseen and forecast, the inertia of one’s adherence to normal life and duties is such that even in the face of specific warning it is not likely any number would flee to the mainland. On September 8th, for instance, the Weather Bureau, which had not lost track of the storm, very correctly pointed out that the hurricane was moving northwestward slowly, towards the Texas coast, Port Eads, La., giving a wind velocity of fifty-six miles an hour. Storm warnings were ordered for the eastern Texas and middle Gulf region, and high winds were specifically forecast for the coast of eastern Texas. More the Bureau could not do, but it looks as if its warnings were in vain.
THE FATEFUL WINDS GATHERING FORCE.
Unfortunately for Galveston, the slow movement of the hurricane was an additional menace, since this meant the longer pounding of the vertical winds of high velocities. As most readers know, the hurricane is a storm which has two entirely distinct motions. It is a great cyclonic whirl in which the winds blow into and about the centre at great velocities, while its motion along its track may be comparatively slow.
In the present case it took the hurricane four days to cross the Gulf from Key West to Galveston, which was at a rate of about twelve and one-half miles an hour. Its rotary winds, however, even a hundred miles from the centre on Friday, were raging at a rate of over fifty miles, and as the vortex passed directly and slowly over Galveston, the buffeting of the winds beginning on Friday evening and continuing far into Saturday, must have been terrific. Moreover, as the whole of Galveston is built up of frame houses without cellars on uncertain foundations, the evil possibilities must be obvious.