The Great Galveston Disaster, Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Page: 112
xiv, 17-536 p. : front., plates ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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112 HARROWING DETAILS OF THE DISASTER.
accounts of the situation in the city. The bulk of the news is
gleaned from refugees who are fleeing to Houston. A few railroad
men have penetrated into the desolated city and returned
with fragmentary accounts of the perils that menace the living,
and the gruesome work that is being carried on day and night
to ward off the contagion that is threatened by the hundreds of
corpses that lie corrupting under the hot sun.
" It will be days before a fairly accurate estimate of the loss of
life can be made. Arrivals from Galveston to-night tell that
citizens are laboring unceasingly at disposing of the dead in order
that the living may not suffer.
"To graves beneath the blue waters of the Gulf the Read are
being consigned as fast as they can be loaded upon barges and
towed to sea. There is no other way. The city must be rid of
them. No more than a tithe of the bodies can be interred. So
soaked is the ground that trenches fill with water as fast as the
shovel can lift the earth.
FIERCE HEAT ADDS TO THE HORROR.
"There is need of laborers in the city. The remnants of the
fire department and police force, both of which organizations contributed
many victims to the storm, are doing heroic work. Their
efforts are supplemented by the citizens. Hordes of negroes, kin,
many of them, to the unspeakable creatures who preyed upon the
dead in their hunger for loot, have been commandeered and forced
to lend their strength in delving in the ruins for corpses. Sternfaced
men with shot guns and rifles stand over them and keep
them to their toil. It is heartbreaking work but it is necessary.
" Since the storm blew itself away the weather has been semitropical.
For four days the sun has sent d6wn its fiercest darts.
The result may be imagined. Over the city hangs the nauseating
stench of decomposing flesh. Besides the humans there are
thousands of carcasses of domestic animals scattered through the
devastated portions of the city. Galveston is in need of everything
that charity and compassion can suggest. But above all the city
requires disinfectants.
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The Great Galveston Disaster, Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times (Book)
This book covers the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the United States' deadliest natural disaster. It includes accounts from survivors and eyewitnesses, and photos of the devastation.
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Lester, Paul. The Great Galveston Disaster, Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times, book, 1900~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth26719/m1/135/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.