The Great Galveston Disaster / Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Including Vivid Descriptions of the Hurricane and Terrible Rush of Waters; Immense Destruction of Dwellings, Business Houses, Churches, and Loss of Thousands of Human Lives; Thrilling Tales of Heroic Deeds; Panic-Stricken Multitudes and Heart-Rending Scenes of Agony; Frantic Efforts to Escape a Horrible Fate; Separation of Loved Ones, etc., etc.; Narrow Escapes from the Jaws of Death; Terrible Sufferings of the Survivors; Vandals Plundering Bodies of the Dead; Wonderful Exhibitions of Popular Sympathy; Millions of Dollars Sent for the Relief of the Stricken Sufferers

by Paul Lester

DIRECTION OF THE STORM.

It is not at all remarkable that of all the statements in regard to the details of this storm no two persons can be found who agree on the direction of the wind and the currents. All agree that the most terrible blows which the town received came from the point of the compass which may be spoken of as between northeast and east. There are those who declare that first the wind was almost from the north. Then it veered till it was almost east, and then settled down to its herculean efforts from a point between the two; and yet there are others who say that it came from all directions at different times and prove it by the loss of windows in their houses.

These waves came in from the Gulf. They filled the bay. The water chased across the island, met the waves and then it seems there was a battle between the two elements. For the currents ran criss-cross. They went down one street, up another street and across lots. They seized a house here and placed it there. They seized a house there and placed it here. Men were carried to sea. Men were carried down the island. Men were carried across the bay by it. No chart can be even dreamed of their peculiarities. The wind lashed the water and it fled. That was all there was in it, and it fled in every direction, carrying on its bosom a shrieking people. It carried too, houses whole, houses in halves, houses in kindling wood.

The winds dipped and seized the debris and hurled it on. The air was filled with missiles of every kind. The water held them and threw them from wave to wave. The winds grasped them as they were thrown and hurled them further. Stoves, bath tubs, sewing machines, slates from roofs—these were as light in the hand of the two giants, wind and water, now in their fury, as the common match would be in the hand of the strong man.

From the northeast it is generally conceded the storm came. Galveston island runs nearly east and west. So it will be seen that it had a clean sweep from end to end of it. The streets are numbered across the island. They are lettered as they run with the island, east and west. For instance, the street running east and west nearest the bay is A street. Then there is B, and so on toward the Gulf. P and Q streets may be said to be two-thirds across the island, that is to say, they are three-quarters of a mile from the bay and a quarter of a mile from the Gulf. This is not an accurate statement and is only given to illustrate. Between Q street and the Gulf were hundreds and hundreds of houses. While many were fine mansions, the great majority of them were the houses of the poor.