The maximum velocity of the wind will never be known. The gauge at the Weather Bureau registered 100 miles an hour and blew away at 5.10 o’clock, but the storm at that hour was as nothing when compared with what followed, and the maximum velocity must have been as great as 120 miles an hour. The most intense and anxious time was between 8.30 and 9 o’clock, with raging seas rolling around them, with a wind so terrific that none could hope to escape its fury, with roofs beginning to roll away and buildings crashing all around them, men, women and children were huddled in buildings, caught like rats, expecting to be crushed to death or drowned in the sea, yet cut off from escape.
Buildings were torn down, burying their hundreds, and were swept inland, piling up great heaps of wreckage. Hundreds of people were thrown into the water in the height of the storm, some to meet instant death, others to struggle for a time in vain, and thousands of others to escape death in most miraculous and marvelous ways.
Hundreds of the dead were washed across the island and the bay many miles inland. Hundreds of bodies were buried in the wreckage. Many who escaped were in the water for hours, clinging to driftwood, and landed bruised and battered and torn on the mainland.
All attempts at burying the dead has been utterly abandoned, and bodies are now being disposed of in the swiftest manner possible. Scores of them were burned the 12th, and hundreds were taken out to sea and thrown overboard. The safety of the living is now the paramount question, and nothing that will tend to prevent the outbreak of an awful pestilence is being neglected.
This morning it was found that large numbers of the bodies which had previously been thrown in the bay were washed back upon the shore and the situation was rendered worse than before they were first laden in the barges and thrown into the water.
TOO MANY ON THE COMMITTEE.
Relief committees from the interior of the State have commenced to arrive, and, as usual, they are much too large in numbers, and to a certain extent are in the way of the people of Galveston, and an impediment to the prompt relief which they themselves are so desirous of offering. Several of the relief expeditions have had committees large enough to consume 10 per cent. of the provisions which they brought. The relief sent here from Beaumont, Tex., arrived this morning and was distributed as fast as possible. It consisted of two carloads of ice and provisions, and came by way of Port Arthur.
The great trouble now seems to be that those people who are in the greatest need are, through no fault of those in charge of the distribution, the last to receive aid. Many of them are so badly maimed and wounded that they are unable to apply to the relief committee, and the committees are so overwhelmed by direct applications that they have been unable to send out messengers.
The wounded everywhere are still needing the attention of physicians, and despite every effort it is feared that a number will die because of the sheer physical impossibility to afford them the aid necessary to save their lives. Every man in Galveston who is able to walk and work is engaged in the work of relief with all the energy of which he is capable. But, despite their utmost endeavors, they cannot keep up with the increase in the miserable conditions which surround them. Water can be obtained by able-bodied men, but with great difficulty.
Dr. Wallace Shaw, of Houston, who is busily engaged in the relief work, said that there were 200 people at St. Mary’s Infirmary without fresh water. They had been making coffee of salt water and using that as their only beverage. Very little stealing was reported and there were no killings. The number of men shot down for robbing the dead proved a salutary lesson, and it is not expected that there will be any more occurrences of this sort. The soldiers of the regular army and of the national guard are guarding the property, and it is impossible for thieves to escape detection.