Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1897 — SWEPT BY A GALE. [ARTICLE]

SWEPT BY A GALE.

Raia and Death Along the Coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Death and disaster by flood and storm swept the Texas coast Sunday night. The towns of Port Arthur, Sabine Pass, and Sabine were inundated. The estimates of deaths in those places vary from eight to forty. The towns named were cut off from railroad communication because of the flood, and from telegraphic communication by reason of the blowing down of the wires. To the west of Sabine the towns and ranches and -farms along the coast for forty miles have been devastated. In the Town of Winnie only two houses remain standing. To the south of Galveston there is known to have been a great rise in the water as far as Corpus Christi. To get a comprehensive understanding of how the disaster happened it is necessary to explain the geography of the country. The towns of Sabine, Port Arthur, and Sabine Pass are in Jefferson County, the soqtheasternmost county in Texas. The entire county is practically low prairie. The towijs of Sabine and of Sabine Pass are on the banks of a short, deep stream that connects Sabine Lake with the gulf. Port Arthur is on the west bank of Sabine Lake. Sabine Lake is fifteen miles long, about five miles wide, apd is fed by two large rivers, the Sabine ahd the Neches. The lake is shallow, being generally from five to eight feet deep, and the land bordering upon it has little elevation. For two days, Friday and Saturday, the wind had been blowing heavily from the southwest, driving the waters of the gulf up into the lake and its estuaries. On Sunday this southwest wind increased to a gale and the water poured in from the sea at a great rate. Suddenly Sunday night the wind swung around to the north and developed into one of the fiercest blows that has been experienced thereabouts in years. The winds whipped the waters back from the rivers and drove them toward the lake, and the waters of the lake were driven against the waters that Were rushing in from the gulf. The

meeting of these two great forces of water made a bank of water which had to find an outlet. Unable to stay within the natural channels the waters broke out over the lands and swept along in mighty waves. Wherever these great, angry waves met an obstacle it was washed aside as if it were of paper. Withir a few hours the level of the waters in the territory within a radius of six miles ol Sabine Pass had risen eight feet. To add to the terrors of the situation, it rained in torrents. The force of the wind was in itself sufficient to dismantle any fiail structure. The people of the three towns,. Sabine, Sabine Pass and Port Arthur, were practically in a trap, threatened from within and without. Wreck and devastation were wrought by the wind and death by drowning was in the flood. Part Arthur is a town of about 1,000 to 1,200 people and has probably 300 houses, many of which are substantial structures. The Gulf railway owns a magnificent SIO,OOO building, and the principal hotel is a costly structure of seventyfive rooms. Port Arthur is the southern terminal of the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf railroad, and is situated sixteen miles inland from Sabine City. In 1886 a wave swept over Sabine City, covering that place with six feet of water, destroying many houses and causing several deaths. Great distress was caused, and there were many narrow and thrilling escapes.