People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1893 — HUNDREDS LOST. [ARTICLE]

HUNDREDS LOST.

Appalling Extent of the Recent Storm In tfae South—Tho Death List a Very Large One—Ruin in North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida—The East Suffers Also. Richnond, Va., Aug. 30.—‘‘Five hundred persons are reported to have been drowned on the Sea islands.” That was the startling news contained in a dispatch received late Tuesday night by the Atlantic Coast line from Florence, 6. C. The Sea islands skirt the coasts of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Floiida. No verification has since been received. The dispatch continued: “The storm carried the water from the rivers into the Atlantic coast line sheds at Charleston, S. C., to the depth ot 6 feet, and in Meeting street, in the center of Charleston, the water was 2 feet deep A four-masted schooner was forced into the railroad shed by the rushing waters. Streets are filled with debris. Many dead seabirds are strewn about All the phosphate works about the city have been demolished. The roof of every third house in the city is gone Eight lives are said to have been lost It was also rumored that there had been great loss of life on Sullivan’s island, report placing the number in the hundreds, but as all communication was cut off there was no means of verifying tfle report” Augusta, Ga., Aug. 30. —A special to the Chronicle from Port Royal, S. C„ brings the startling information that fully 100 lives have been lost at Port Royal, at Beaufort and neighboring points by drowning during the storm. Over twenty-five were seen by the correspondent, and his information regarding the others was received from reliable sources. Of the 100 persons killed and drowned only six were white, the others being negroes. The negroes were so frightened and terror-stricken that many were killed and drowned by not leaving their cabins to seek places of safety. Twenty persons were drowned on Paris island. No news has been received from St. Helena, 4 miles from Beaufort It is believed fully twenty-five lives were lost between Port Royal and Sea Brook, all negroes. Every house in Beaufort and Port Royal was damaged to some extent and a number of barges and craft were wrecked and blown ashore. The Coosaw Mining company loses $50,000. The total losses are estimated in the neighborhood of $500,000. Savannah, Ga., Aug. 30. —The list of fatalities as the result of Sunday’s storm is rapidly increasing. Fifteen people are known to have been drowned during the storm and more are missing.- l> It is difficult to give an estimate of the damage done by the storm. To buildings, SIOO,OOO would cover the injury done; vessels wrecked, $150,000; damage to railroads leading out of the city, $100,000; damage to the rice crop, $200,000. Interior tributary to Savannah damage will probably amount to $1,000,000 or more, as the cotton crop over a wide territory has suffered severely, and in many turpentine districts at least one-fourth of the trees are destroyed. « Atlanta, Ga., Aug. 30 —During the storm at Sullivan’s island, S. C., A Bryan and wife were drowned and E. Pollard was killed. Fifteen houses on the island were damaged. A special dispatch from Blackville, S. C., says several buildings in that town were crushed, mill dams were washed away, country roads are impassable, the cotton crop terribly damaged and tobacco yet to be harvested, totally devastated. In Waynesboro, Ga., the storm did great damage to the cotton crop, and fences were blown down. Reports from southern counties say that the storm was very severe there, doing great damage to houses and cotton crops. No casualties have been reported.

Wilmington, N. C., Aug. 30. The three-masted schooner Three Sisters, ■with cargo of lumber, from Savannah, Ga., for Philadelphia, Pa., was wrecked and abandoned off Cape Fear the night of August 28. Capt. Simpson and Mate Heede were drowned. Baltimore, Md., Aug. 30.—Not since the big flood of 1868 has such a deluge of water invaded Baltimore as that of Monday night. The rain fell intorrents. It was almost a cloudburst. Men rowed’ around in boats from store to store in the lower part of the city, carrying merchants and clerks to their places of business and removing valuable goods and books. The streets resembled lagoons instead of business thoroughfares. The wharves were completely submerged, if not destroyed. Streetcars moved along Pratt street with water running over their floors. Several pungies and schooners were washed out on the basin and now lie high and dry on the street beds. At I*he foot of Commerce street the large flour warehouses of Gambrill & Co. and other firms were flooded and thousands of barrels of flour damaged. The Baltimore & Ohio railroad warehouses and freight houses at the foot of Spear’s wharf also suffered to the extent of thousands of dollars. New York, Aug. 30. —The violent storm which swept over the city and the surrounding country from midnight till 8 o’clock Tuesday morning had its origin in a cyclone that arose in the West ludies and then swept along the Atlantic coast in a northeasterly direction. It swept over Florida on Sunday, had its storm center well inland, and reached out in every directioa for a distanco of more than 1,500 miles. The tide was higher than any since 1878, and hundreds of acres of corn and tomatoes have been ruined. At Salem, N. J., all the fruit remaining on the trees from the last blow is off, and the outlook :or the farmers is a dark one. The corn crop is ruined.