Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1901 — STORM IN THE SOIITH [ARTICLE]

STORM IN THE SOIITH

Devastating Tidal Wave Sweeps the Gulf Coast. LIFE REPORTED LOST. New Orleans and Mobile Flooded and Other Points Isolated. Many Gulf State* Are Swept aad a Heavy Loa. of Life and Property la Feared—Ship* Destroyed and House* Carried Away—Resort* Alon* the Coast Wiped Out by Angry Element* Greatest Flood Since 1803. Tremendous storms on the Gulf of Mexico sent a devastating tidal wave careening along the entire water front of the Gulf States, sweeping away lives and property, backing up the rivers, inundating thousands of acres of low land and isolating important points. The damage to property is extremely heavy, and it is feared that the loss of life will be appalling. Communication was cut off with districts where the chances for fatalities ■were greatest. Mobile, Ala., Thursday night was completely isolated. Great damage has been done there along the water front, and in the lower part of the city. What loss of life there has been in Mobile can only be conjectured. At 4:30 o’clock in the afternoon the Western Union Telegraph offie* there was abandoned. About that time there was three feet of water in ths operator's room. The Associated Press operator mad* his way to she operating-room in a boat, lie took a position on top of the switchboard several feet above the flooded office and succeeded in detaching his wire from its place on the board. Then by dint of labor and through contortion o* the body he sent the following message: “Am on top of the switchboard here with a lineman. The water is over three feet deep in this room, and it is still rising. The wind is blowing at the rate of fifty miles an hour, and we look fo'» worse-things to-night. The business district Is deserted ”

Here the wire failed, and nothing more could be gotten from the plucky fellow, though repeated efforts were made. A report from Mobile received over a railroad wire in the afternoon said that the mill of the Dixie Lumber Company was carried away and several employe* were killed. In and near New Orleans vast stretches of lund are under wate’ - , there is much suffering among the poor In the flooded district*, and along th* Mississippi River. Reports from points in Alabama and Texas show that a hurricane of unusual fury devastated an immense strip of country. It sfa* regarded a* probable, from the nature of the bulletins, that not only have railroad and factory properties been extensively damaged ad'll traffic crippled, but that hundreds of people have been drowned. It is also feared that thousands of acres of ric* fields have been laid low by the wind or covered deeply by the water. There was a general tie-up along several branches of railroad lines, the Louisvill* and Nashville being particularly hard hit. Shipping interests were also imperiled, and ttfere were many stories that a number of ships had gone down, all on board being lost. Heavy Lot* of Life. The storm which swept the gulf coast from Pensacola and moving westward during Wednesday and Thursday prostrated telegraph and telephone wires to such an extent that new* from the outlying section was hard to get. The greatest fears were entertained for the safety of the people living at Port Eads, which is at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and for the ships that started for sea just before the storm began. The wire* to Port Eads were prostrated Tuesday night at 8 o’clock. The storm which swept that section is described as a regular tidal wave, similar to the one which resulted in such awful loss of life in 189 Q. The house of a man named Cobden, half a mile above the quarantine station, wag swept aw*y, and the fifteen members of the family, including nine children, were drowned. The quarantine buildings were badly damaged, but no one injured.

The government boat General Reese is believed to have been lost. Capt. O'Brien’s house was swept away, but he was on the boat which was believed to be outside. The pile driver nt Port Eads was sunk. The steamboat Buras was driven ashore near the lighthouse, and later it was reported that she had sunk. Her crew were said to have been saved. The-tugboat Velasco went down to Pass I’Outre. which Is the eastern mouth of the river, with two barges. When last seen ahe Lad her decks awash and is believed to hare gone down. Twenty people were on board. There are numerous reports of Individ* net casualties all along the rlyer from Bums down to the Passes.'' There is serious apprehension concerning the Cheniere Caminada and Grand Isle sections, on the South Txmlsiana coast, west of the Mississippi River, where 2,000 lives were lost in 1803 by the tidal wnve. Up to this writing no word has been received from that section, which is largely inhabited by fishermen, mostly Chinese and Malays. Up to Wednesday midnight everything seemed to be safe at the Mississippi coast towns, Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Biloxi, Mississippi City and Ocean Springs. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad <s blocked off beyond Chef Menteur, thirty miles from New Orleans. The big steel bridge there is safe, but beyond there are several washout* an the road. The New Orleans and Northeastern Road Is blocked by washouts, and Its big trestle over Lake Pontchartrain has bee* shaken by ths heavy seas breaking against it.