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

WIND AT 125 MILES AN HOUR.

“The wind at 125 miles an hour is something awful. I could neither hear nor see when it was at its height and it was difficult to breathe. I am nearly six feet in height and estimating the surface of my body exposed to the wind at five square feet, my body sustained at that time a pressure of 390 pounds. I began to think my house would never go. The wind acted as if it thought so, too, for it got harder and harder and harder until finally I felt the house yielding. I took a firm hold of my door facing, placed both feet against the house, exerted my full strength, tore the facing loose and as the house went kicked myself as far away from it as possible, so as to avoid sunken debris rising to the surface.

“The house rose out of the water several feet, was caught by the wind and whisked away like a railway train and I was left in perfect security, free from all floating timber or debris, to follow more slowly. The surface of the water was almost flat. The wind beat it down so that there was not even the suspicion of a wave.

“The current impelled by the wind was terrific. Almost before I had felt I had fairly started I was over the Gartenverein, four blocks away. The next moment I was at the corner of the convent. Here I got in a big whirlpool and caught up with a lot of debris. I was carried round and round until I lost my bearings completely and was then floated off (as I found afterwards) to the northwest, finally landing in the middle of the street at Thirty-fourth and M ½, or fifteen blocks from where I started.

“It was very dark, but I could see the tops of some houses barely above the water; could see others totally wrecked and others half submerged. I knew it was not so very late and as I could not see a light or hear a human soul I concluded that the whole of that part of the town had been destroyed and that I was the only survivor. For eight hours I clung to my board, which had found a good resting place, and during the whole time I did not hear a human voice except that of a woman in the distance calling for help.