U.S. CITIES HIT BY HURRICANE: NO CASUALTIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 October 1949, Page 5

U.S. CITIES HIT BY HURRICANE: NO CASUALTIES

NEW YORK, October 4 (Rec. 10 a.m.).—A tropical hurricane. hit Houston, Texas, today and drove 50,000 persons from their homes in ten cities as it roared northwards out of the Gulf of Mexico. Residents of Houston cowered m the basements of their homes or in public shelters as the storm screamed overhead. Rain driven by wind gusts of up to 100 miles an hour swept the area in horizontal sheets. Power and telephone lines were knocked down throughout the area and large sections of Houston were blacked out as light poles and power-lines fell under the storm’s fury. No casualties are reported. As the storm swept inland it hit many towns, including the large city of Galveston. The storm swirled in a circle over a radius of 50 miles. At Galveston the hurricane threw a big tide over the city’s seawall, flooding two Federal housing projects and 100 private homes. The tide hit the west end of the seawall, which was erected after the hurricane in 1900. The hurricane in that year hurled a tidal wave over the city and killed 6000 persons.