Hurricane in America.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XXII, Issue 3067, 12 January 1894, Page 2

Hurricane in America.

A TERRIBLE BTOHM.

MOBK fHJOT A THOUSAND LITE B LOIT. From Latest American files we learn that at least 1,000 persons lost their lives Id the great storm which devastated the Gulf States, and it is feared that the casualties may reach the appalling total of 2,000 when all the ; details havo been received from places that have not yet reported. disaster said :— From every direction came accounts of doeens, scores, and hundreds, who were suddenly caught by the water and drowned before as. sistance could reach them. Excepting only the Johnstown horror, this is undoubtedly the greatest disaster in the JJnited States since the war. In the Bayou Cook district alone it is believed that 500 to 700 people 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. Hundreds who escaped death in the raging flood are now in danger of starvation unless aid comes , immediately, and in the isolated districts many have already succumbed to hunger and exposure. -f THE TJNBURIED DEAD. A fearful stench arises from the carcasses of animals that were drowned by thousand*, and pestilence may be added to the already *pp*JUi>g catastrophe. One repon says that over 2,000 were killed and nearly 5,000,000 . dols. worth of property was demolished. Ther* r mWr has been anything approximating it since the country was settled. More than half the population of the devastated region if>, : ;ij^£4 Everything is wrecked and th» survivors**- with, out food) shelter, or clothing. Ovsr 70 others are reported lost in tht hogs and at various places. Ovef 120 ishing vessels in the golf were filhing when the storm broke over Goinere, Not a Word has been heard from them or their occupants since. '■ . ••?■ On Grand Park eight persons were killed. Near Burras the bodies of three little girl*, evidently sisters, were found lying together, horribly mangled by a barbed wire fence, fl^iwt wfcich they,ha4 Ifnen thrown by the force of the wind. A man, his wife, and two children went on board a schooner outside of Bayou Cook The schooner^fas wrecked and the husband and children drowned. The woman lashed herself to a broken mast and floated jaf the angry^ea all night Shrirls rescued in the morning by a passing vessel. Matthew Weerteez and Dominie Mirgodicb, sailors, werw rescued by one of the loggers. The story they tell of the disaster at Grand Isle 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 10 p.m. the wind shifted to the Bouth-west. These men lived on the west side of the island, and, far out at sea, as the flashes of lightning illuminated the dark new, mammoth waves ;c«juld be seen travelling with wonderful rapidity toward the island, accompanied by a" noise like thunder. On came the terrible things, growing larger momentarily. " A TEBBIBIK NIGH* . The island was wrapped in si umjber. The men were too frightened td go their homes and remained in thel>oat during the terrible night. Horrified, they watched the tidal wave approach the? islani felt' it struck. - Then all was darkness, and the island, mi far as the eye could reach, was covered with water. After the next flash of lightning the two fishermen found themselves far off to the north of the island aod, looking about, contd see nothing but « sheet of water, the island having totally r disappeared. At Gould sboro as the wind increased in severity it^picked up roofs as though they had been shaved from rafters with a gfegt fenjfej; then? the buHdi|gs begai % rock vipfsjtly, and one by one they were torn to pieces, crashing down upon ,and kill* rapidly drifting away with the terrible rent sweeping across the land. The shrieks and groans of the unfortunates were heart-reiiduig. •Aft^r the house in which :.tC- man named Schurtz resided was swept away he clung to the floating debris until he saw a light twinkling in a house not far away. He swam to it, an 4 was admitted. He had* hardly entered, however, when the structure went to pieces, and of those in it Schurtz, a lady, and child escaped, Sohurtz succeeded -, in getting . the wpm4ni ian4 baby irito W jfcrfee,? where they remained all night, high waves continually dashing over them, the wind blowing a hurricane, and the rain falling in}torrente T flflwill never be accuraij^' known liow many lives wereldBtl The population of Cheniere was about 1,400, and $chui4z thinks that at least 1,000 are. missing. ; SCENES OF DEATH. When dayligb >ro^e^ the picture of desolation 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, and facet slashed out of all humao form.