Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1886 — CHARLESTON’S WOE. [ARTICLE]

CHARLESTON’S WOE.

The South Carolina City Wrecked by Violent Earthquake Shocks. Not a Hundred Houses Left Intact, and Scores of Persons Buried in the Ruins. Fires Add Terror to the Scene—Fearful Sufferings of the People—A Survivor’s Narrative. The Business Portion of Summerville, S. C., Wrecked, and Many Persons Killed. A terrible earthquake shock at Charleston, S. C„ on the evening of Tuesday, the 31st ult„ was followed at brief intervals by several others of less force. The first shock came from the southeast, and struck the city at 9:55 p. no., Tuesday. During the twenty-four hours following, there were ten distinct shocks, but they were only the subsiding of the earth-waves. The disaster was wrought by the first. Its force may be inferred from the fact that the whole area of country between the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi River, as far to the north as Milwaukee, felt its power to a greater dr lesser degree. Charleston, however, was the special victim of this elemental destruction. The city is substantially in ruins. Two-thirds of its houses are uninhabitable. What stores are left are closed, as their owners dare not go to them. Churches and other public buildings are in ruins. Railroads and telegraph lines are torn up and destroyed. Between fifty and sixty lives are believed to have been lost, and many people were maimed by falling buildings and by jumping from the windows of houses. Fires broke out and added to the horrors of the scene. The loss of property is roughly estimated at 510,000,009. Two-thirds of the houses of the doomed city are rendered uninhabitable, being wrecked either totally or partially. The approach of the quake, says a Charleston dispatch, was heralded by the usual rumbling sound, resembling distant thunder. Then, as it gradually approached, the earth quivered and heaved, and in a few seconds it had passed, the sound dying out in the distance. The city is a complete wreck. St. Michael’s Church and St. Philip’s Church, two of the most historic churches in the city, are in ruins, as also the Hibernian Hall, the police stations, and many other public buildings. Three or four fires started in as many sections with the first shock of the earthquake, and the city was soon illumined with flame, thus leading all to believe what was left by the earthquake would be devoured by fire. Hardly a house in the city escaped injury, and many are so shaken and cracked that a blow would bring them to the ground. The shock was severe at Summerville and Mount Pleasant and on Sullivan’s Island, but no loss of life is reported there. Fissures in the earth are noticed from which a fine sand, apparently from a great depth, exudes. A sulphurous smell is very noticealAe. The city is wrapped in gloom and business is entirely suspended. People generally remain in the streets, in tents and under improvised shelters, and will camp out to-night, fearing another shock. Not even during General Quincy A. Gilmore’s bombardment of the city has there ever been such a deplorable state of affairs here. The city is literally in ruins, and the people are living in open squares and public parks. There is a great rush to the railroad depots to get away, but owing to the earthquakes notrains have been able to be dispatched; from the city. It is impossible to depict the ruin and desolation that prevails here. Not a single place of business in the city is open save a drug-store, which is busy preparing prescriptions for the wounded. It is impossible also to give any correct estimate of the killed and wounded, as bodies are constantly being disinterred from the debris of the wrecked houses. Many of the dead are lying unburied, these being of the poorer classes of colored people, who await burial by the county. There are not a half dozen tents in the city, and the women and children are experiencing great privationsin consequence, Summerville, twenty-two miles from Charleston, was nearly destroyed by the earthquake. Many persons were killed and hundreds rendered homeless. The whole business portion, of the town was badly wrecked.