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

KNEW CYCLONE WAS COMING.

“For my own satisfaction, and at the request of my friends, I constructed a chart, outlining roughly the origin, development and probable course of the cyclone. From the Key West observation and the map of Tuesday I assumed that the center of disturbance was originally somewhere south of Cuba; that it moved to the northwest as cyclones always do at first, and that the storm had developed into a cyclone in the neighborhood of Yucatan; would move to the northwest and strike somewhere near the mouth of the Mississippi, going thence to the northeast and passing into the Atlantic ocean off the New England coast. The error I made was in placing its course too far east.

“My residence was within two blocks of the beach, so I had ample opportunity to observe the Gulf. Friday night there was a strong wind from the north, and Saturday morning, about 6 o’clock, I went to the beach. I saw that the tide was high, but that it had fallen again and was then at a stand. While I was out there the tide began to rise again, and soon washed up to and over the street railway track near the Olympia. I was certain then we were going to have a cyclone, and so soon as I could get to town I telegraphed to my wife, who, with my children, was on a Southern Pacific train coming from the West, to stop in San Antonio. I told her that a great storm was on us, but not to say anything about it and not to feel anxious about me.

“By 12 o’clock the wind had increased in violence to between 40 and 50 miles an hour, blowing from the north, and the water, both in the bay and Gulf, was very high and still rising. At 1 o’clock I visited the wharf front. The wind had shifted a point or two to the east of north, and was over fifty miles an hour. The bay water was over the wharves and was slowly encroaching on the Strand. All low places were completely inundated.