A TERRIBLE STORM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 267, 10 November 1893, Page 2

A TERRIBLE STORM.

MORE THAN A" THOUSAND LIVES LOST.

HUNDREDS OF BODIES UNBURIED,

From latesb American files, we learn- that at least 1,000 persona lost their lives in the great storm which devastated the Gulf States, and ib is feared thab bhe casualties may reach the appalling total of 2,000 when all the details have been received from places thab have nob yeb reported.

The press reports at the time of the disaster said : "From every direction come accounts of dozens, scores and even hundreds, who were suddenly caught by the water and drowned before assistance could reach them. Excepting only the Johnstown horror this is undoubtedly the greatest disaster in the United Sbates since the war. In the Bayou Cook district alone it is believed that 500 bo 700 peoplo perished. Whole families in some instances were obliterated, and in a number of cases from two to six members of a single household perished. Children were torn from their mothers' arms and swallowed by the remorseless flood, husbands and wives were separated in a moment never to see each other again, j Hundreds who escaped death in the raging flood are now in danger of starvation unless aid comes immediately, and in bhe isolated districts many have already succumbed to hunger and exposure. THE UNBURIED DEAD. A fearful stench arises from the carcases of animals that were drowned by thousands, and pestilence may be added to the already appalling catastrophe. One report says that over 2.000 were killed and nearly §5,000,000 worth of property was demolished. There never has been anything approximating it since the country was settled. More than half tho population in tho devastated region is dead. Everything is wrecked and tho survivors are without food, shelter or clothing. Over seventy others are reported losb in the bogs and ab various places. Over 120 ashing vessels in the gulf were fishing when the storm broke over Chienore. Not a word has been heard from them or their occupants since. Only one person was saved from the Oyster bayou catastrophe. He was found hanging by one hand to a post unconscious. He will die. The wife and children of Thomas Moryorich were lost at Bayou Cook. John Stock, an Italian boy, was instantly killed. Luke Detrovitch losb four daughters, his wife, and two sailors on Simon isle. There were eighteen inhabitants of the oyster camps, and sixteen were drownod. On Razor Island there was a camp of five men. All were drowned. On Bird Island about 150 people lived, and

ALL WBRK DROWNED,

On Grand Bank oighb persons were killed. Near Burras tho bodies of three little girls, evidently eiaters, were found lying together, horribly mangled by a barbed wire fence, against which they had been thrown by the force of the wind. A man, his wife and two children, wenb on board a schooner outside of Bayou Cook. The schooner was wrecked and tho husband and children drowned. The woman lashed herself to a broken mast and floated in the angry sea ail night. She was rescued in tho morning by a passing vessel and brought hero to-day.

Mabthew Weortzez and Dominie Mirgodich, sailors, were rescued by one of the luggers. The story they toll of the disaster ac Grande Ible is horrifying in the extreme. During the recital of the scenes of that terrible night they wept bitterly. They said the sea, raging all day, increased alarmingly toward night. About ten p.m. tho wind shitted to the south-west. These men lived on the west side of the island, and far out at sea, as the flashes of lightning illuminated the darkness, mammoth waves could be seen travelling with wonderful rapidity toward the island, accompanied by a noise like thunder. On came the terrible things, growing larger momentarily.

A TERRIBLE NIGHT.

The island was wrapped in slumber. The men were too frightened to go to their homes and remained in the- boab during the terrible nighb. Horrified, they watched the tidal wave approach the island till it struck. Thon all was darkness and the island, as far as the eye could reach, was covered with water. Tho next flash of lighting the bwo fishermen found themselves far off to the north of the island, and looking about could see nothing bub a sheet of water, the island haying totally disappeared.

At Gouldsboro as tho wind increased in severity it picked up roofs as though they had been shaved from rafters with a greab knife; then the buildings began to rock violently, and one by one they were torn to pieces, crashing down upon and killing the occupants, and then' rapidly drifting away with the terrible currenb sweeping across the laud. The shrieks and groans of the unfortunates wore heartrending.

After the house in which a man named Schurtz resided was swept away, he clung to the floating debris until he saw a light twinkling in a house nob far away. He swam bo ib and waa admitted, He had hardly entered, however, when the structure went to pieces and of those in ib, Schurtz, a lady and a child escaped. Schurtz succeeded in getting the woman and baby into a tree, where they remained all nighb, high waves continually dashing over them, the wind blowing a hurricane and the rain falling in torrents.

It will never be accurately known how many lives were lost). The population of Cheniere was about 1,400, and Schurtz thinks thab ab least 1,000 are missing.

SOKNEB OF DEATH,

When daylight broke tho picture of deBolation was awful to behold. Everywhere were merely foundations to mark where houses had stood. Everywhere were ghastly faces turned upward to the sky. Upon many were still the evidences of the terrible agony they suffered before death. There were broken arms and legs, bruised and battered bodies, faces slashed oub of all human form.

SUFFERINGS OF THE SDRVIVOR3,

Ab the time the above report was written ib was said that unless steps were immediately taken for relief ib was nob unlikely thab many would perish from starvation and thirsb. All the provisions on the island are swept away. Fresh water is scarce, not sufficient to relieve tho thirsb of the hundreds who are now without anything bo cab and scarcely anything to wear. Schurbz was one of a party of thirteen that came to the city on the lugger Good Mother. Each had a thrilling story to relate. Train crews arriving on the Grand Island road report the brack strewn with bodies, and a large number have been buried. The country is a scene of wreck and devastation. A passenger said that no less than eightyseven bodieß were seen along the road.