The Great Galveston Disaster, Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Page: 420
xiv, 17-536 p. : front., plates ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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420 WONDERFUL COURAGE OF SURVIVORS.
with an eve to storms. The new ones were built in book times.
One young fellow told me that his house, the one il which he was
born, had stood the storm of 1875 and every storm since that time
without a quiver.
'' And it would have stood this one had it not been for one
thing,' he said. 'That thing was the outward flow of the tide
when the storm was over. The water rushed back to the sea like
a torrent. It fell over a foot and a half in fifteen minutes, and as
it went out it swept many a house from its foundations.' This
flow, running like a torrent, swept across the island, and yet there
was not left a single evidence in the way of excavations of its
going.
"FOUNDED ON A ROCK."
" Attention was attracted to the house of Mr. J. H. Hawley, the
brother of Congressman Hawley. He bought the property from
an engineer who lived in Galveston some time about the flood of.
'96. He said he would build him a house which would stand. He
placed the foundations on an iron fence two feet in the ground.
This foundation was of brick. In this foundation he placed the
railing of the iron fence running up three feet. At the top he
placed filagree brick work. His house was braced well and the
timbers were heavy and well put together. The storm did not
phase it.
"The fence acted as a barrier to timbers from the houses which
had been destroyed. It kept away the battering rams with which
the waves assaulted all places. When the night's horrors were
at an end the house stood intact. Even the cistern, which was on
piling, stood the test and was uninjured. Now the Galveston
people begin to consider the question of whether much was not
their fault in that their structures were not of the kind that should
have been built, when storms were sure to come.
" It is just such things as this that give them hope. As I have
said, I despaired of the town when I walked among the dead bodies
and saw the destruction on every side. But like the rest I got
over this depression. I caught the infection of the new life when
it came. I know that I speak the truth when I say that the life
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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/m1/478/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .