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

WELL ORGANIZED.

“The relief work is fairly well organized. Nothing has been accomplished, except the distribution of food among the needy, and some attempt at clothing them. I found no one who was hungry or thirsty. About one-half of the city is totally wrecked, and many people are living in houses that are badly wrecked. The houses that are only slightly injured are full of people who are being well cared for. The destitute are being removed from the city as rapidly as possible. It will take three or four days yet before all who want to go have been removed from the island city. A remarkably large number of horses survived the storm, but there is no feed for them, and many of them will soon die of starvation.

“In the city the dead bodies are being disposed of in every manner possible. They are burying the dead found on the mainland. At one place 250 bodies were found and buried on Wednesday. There must be hundreds of dead bodies back on the prairies that have not been found. It is impossible to make a search there on account of the debris. There will be many a skeleton of victims of the disaster found on the prairie in the months and years to come.

“Bodies have been found as far back from the present mainland shore of the bay as seven miles. That embraces a big territory which is covered with rank grass, holes filled with water and piles of debris. It would take an army to search this territory on the mainland.