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

FLOATING BODIES IN THE BAY.

“As to the loss of life in Galveston, I can’t figure it. We counted ninety-three floating bodies on our way from the wharf to Texas City. The prairies across the bay this side of Galveston are covered with piles of cotton and wreckage of all descriptions—dead bodies and the like.

“I got to Galveston at 10 o’clock Saturday morning. My wife and I took a car and started to the beach. The water was rather high and we thought we would have a jolly good time splashing around. When we got within five blocks of the beach the motorman stopped his car and said that he could go no further. We came back downtown and got on another car. This time we could get within but seven blocks of the beach. This shows you how fast the water was rising.

“We got back to the Santa Fe ticket office about 11.30 o’clock. I made up my mind that I wanted to go over to the general offices, but the water was in all the streets and I waited awhile, hoping it would get lower. But at noon it was between knee and hip deep in front of the Santa Fe ticket office. At 2 o’clock my wife and I waded into the Washington Hotel.

“From that time on the wind grew stronger. At 5 o’clock the water was six feet deep in the lower floor of the Washington Hotel. Why, it covered the telephone box in the office. The wind blew not less than ninety-five miles an hour from then until 9.30 o’clock.

“The first rise came from the bay, and the bay rise lasted until about 8 P. M. Then the tide from the Gulf met the rise from the bay and forced it back. That’s when we had our highest water. And I want to say to you right now that but for those two forces meeting there wouldn’t be a stick left on Galveston Island to-day.

“About 9 o’clock the water commenced to fall rapidly, and at 10 o’clock the wind had subsided fully 50 per cent. The damage had all been done. At daylight we got out and went down to the beach. From the beach back for four or five blocks it was just as clean as this floor. Up and down the island there was wreckage as high as this ceiling. This had something to do with breaking the force of the water. And that wreckage was full of dead bodies. The only way to get rid of it is to burn it with the bodies in it, for they can never be taken out.