September 9, 1900
Galveston May Be Wiped Out By the Storm
Fear that the Island City Has Met with Great Disaster.
All Telegraph Wires Down
At last accounts the surf was breaking over the beach and entering houses in the town.
DALLAS, TEX., Sept. 8. – All Texas is in the keenest state of doubt and uncertainty tonight concerning the fate of Galveston Island and city. There is a suspicion that an awful calamity rests behind the lack of information from the Gulf coast. It is rumored here that immense destruction has befallen Galveston and other places.
It is said the bridges leading from the mainland to the island have been swept away by the rolling up of the water in the bay. The bridges are four in number, three for railroads uses and one the Galveston Country public wagon and pedestrian bridge. It seems hardly credible that all these bridges could be swept away without the city suffering tremendously in the loss of buildings, general property, and lives.
Not a wire is working into Galveston, either telegraph or telephone, and as all bridges carried wires, the fears that all these structures are gone is strengthened.
The Postal Telegraph Company started out a repair train from Houston, but it proceeded only a few miles before it had to stop because of storm obstructions and had to return to Houston without making an improvement in the service.
This morning the surf was breaking over the beach from East Broadway in Galveston, around the foot of Twenty-fourth Street, and water crept in several blocks, and in low places had crept up the streets a dozen blocks.
At noon the wind veered to the east, and the water on both the bay and gulf was rising and growing more boisterous.
September 10, 1900
Great Disaster at Galveston
Deaths May Be Over 2,600 - 4,000 Houses Ruined.
A HEAVY PROPERTY LOSS
Storm Forced Hugh Waves Over the Island.
Water Six Feet Deep in the Streets - Many Smaller Towns Inland Wrecked - Relief Needed Urgently
… Reports are conflicting, but it is known that an appalling disaster had befallen the City of Galveston, where, it is reported, two thousand or more lives have been blotted out and a tremendous property damage incurred.
Conditions as Galveston
A report from an authentic source was received here this morning concerning the conditions at Galveston. The lower portion of the city was then all under water, and the waves were making rapid inroads toward the centre of the city through the sand banks which border the island proper. The citizens were all huddled together at the highest points in the centre of the town, and consternation and fear reigned almost to the point of madness.
The troops were called out, but even then is was with difficulty that the people could be made to control themselves. The railroad bridges have been washed away. It is feared that the city is washed away for the most part, and a large part of the population washed to death by wave and tide.
First Definite News
The estimate made by citizens of Galveston were that 4,000 houses, most of them residences, have been destroyed, and that at least 2,000 people have been drowned, killed, or are missing. Some business houses were destroyed, but most of them stood, though badly damaged.
It was reported that the Orphan Asylum and both the hospitals were destroyed, and if this proves true the loss of life will be great, as these institutions were generally crowded, as they were substantial buildings, the chances are that many had taken refuge in them.
Most of the small sailing crafts were wrecked, and were either piled up on the wharves or floating bottom side up on the bay. There is a small steamship ashore three miles north of Pelican Island …
In the bay the carcasses of nearly 200 horses and mules were seen, but no human body was visible.
The City of Galveston, he says, is now entirely submerged and cut off from communication. The boats are gone, the railroads cannot be operated, and the water so high that people cannot walk out by way of the bridge across the bay, even should that bridge be standing.
A relief train sent out tonight, the third, returned unsuccessful. It 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.
September 11, 1900
Cotton Market Agitated
Liverpool Reports and Galveston Storm Have Marked Effect.
Two Failures Are Announced
September Closes 90 Points Advance – Excitement at Opening Unprecedented in Local History.
The effects of a further advance of 16 to 29 points in the Liverpool cotton market, greatly accentuated by the news of the Galveston storm, produced an activity of speculation and an intensity of excitement of the floor of the New York Cotton Exchange yesterday, which many old time traders declared to be without parallel in the history of the Exchange.
Fluctuations in the process were wild and irregular, and at one time were 100 points, or 1 cent a pound, above Saturday’s closing quotations. It was estimated that 1,250.000 bales of cotton changed hands during the day. This is 130,000 bales more than ever before recorded for a single day’s transactions.
…
Reports from Central Texas were vague and disquieting, and were followed by the receipt of dispatches from the South stating that there was enormous demand for spot cotton at an advance of one-half cent a pound, which intensified the bull movement. The market continued to broaden until it got beyond the control of the bulls. In the absence of better information, estimates based on meager reports placed the damage to the Texas crop at 750,000 to 1,000,000 bales of cotton, but little attention was given to these estimates.
September 11, 1900
Chief Moore on the Storm
First news from Galveston just received by train, which could get no closer to the bay shore than six miles, where the prairie was strewn with debris and dead bodies. About 200 corpses counted from train. Large steamship stranded two miles inland. Nothing could be seen from Galveston. Loss of life and property undoubtedly most appalling. Weather clear and bright here with gentle southeast wind.
"I fear." said Chief Moore, "that we have not yet begun to get any idea of the loss of life, but not only Galveston, but along the Gulf Coast generally. The telegram from Mr. Vaughan indicated that the waters from the Gulf encroached six miles inward. The sudden passage of the storm permitted. I am afraid, this water to recede rapidly, and in such case no one can estimate the damage to life and property done. I heartily trust my fears are groundless."
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From: Everything New Orleans. www.Nola.com
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