Читать книгу The Great Galveston Disaster - Paul Lester - Страница 102

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Savannah, Ga., has not escaped the fury of the southern gale. The city suffered severely in 1881, the waters rushing into the streets and causing the death of four hundred persons by drowning. Four million dollars, it was said, was the amount of the damage to property. In 1893 Savannah was visited by another cyclone and forty persons were killed. This time the property damage was $7,000.000.

Havana, Cuba, and the West Indies were visited by a destructive hurricane in September, 1888. One thousand persons were killed and hundreds of head of cattle were killed. The loss was $7,000,000.

Sabine Pass, which is the dividing line between Texas and Louisiana, was swept by a terrific storm in October, 1886. The population of the town was about four hundred. Of these one hundred and twenty-six perished and 90 per cent. of the deaths was caused by drowning. Four houses escaped injury.

The coast of Mexico was devastated for three days in the fall of 1889 by a destructive cyclone, which first struck the coast of Campeachy. There was a drenching rain which played havoc along the peninsula for miles. The wind was so furious in the city of Carmen it uprooted trees, depositing them upon houses which they crushed. All the shipping in the harbor was wrecked. Twelve foreign barks were wrecked. Some were thrown high and dry on the beach, while others were submerged. Two steamships, many schooners and many smaller craft were wrecked. There was great loss of life.

A hurricane from the West Indies, which swept up the Atlantic coast, did great damage to Savannah, Ga., on Tuesday, September 30, 1896. Wind blew at a velocity of seventy-five miles an hour for an hour and a half. Hardly a building escaped, and thousands of houses were unroofed. The damage was $1,000,000, and twenty-two persons were killed. The roof of the United States Pension Office was blown off. Railroad stations, churches, theatres and the Bonaventure Cemetery were ruined, monuments being overturned.

The hurricane started from the West Indies. It went from Brunswick, Ga., to Savannah; thence it plunged through and into Pennsylvania, where the damage done was tremendous. The large railroad bridge over the Susquehanna River was wrecked.