“The sanitary conditions do not improve. Dr. Trueheart, chairman of the committee in charge of caring for the sick and injured, is going on with dispatch. More physicians are needed, and he requests that about thirty outside physicians come to Galveston and work for at least a month, and, if needed, longer. The city’s electric light service is completely destroyed, and the city electrician says it may be sixty days before the business portion can be lighted.
“A glorious and modern Galveston to be rebuilt in place of the old one, is the cry raised by the citizens, but it would seem a task beyond human power to ever remove the wreckage of the old city.
“The total number of people fed in the ten wards Saturday, the 15th, was 16,144. Sunday the number increased slightly. No accurate statement of the amount of supplies can be obtained as they are being put in the general stock as soon as received.”
“SEEMS LIKE AN AWFUL DREAM.”
Destitute save for a few personal effects carried in a small valise, and with nerves shattered by a week of horror, Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Prutsman, with their two daughters, twelve and six years old, reached Chicago from the flood-swept district of Texas. They came direct from Galveston, via. Houston and St. Louis.
During all of one afternoon the little family sat at the Rock Island station waiting for a train to take them to Putnam, Ill., where Mrs. Prutsman has relatives. When it was learned that they were from Galveston, they were besieged with questions concerning the details of the terrible storm. Crowds of waiting passengers flocked about them, and they told the gruesome story over and over.
“Yes, we were fortunate,” said Mrs. Prutsman, as she leaned wearily back in a rocking chair, and tenderly contemplated the two children at her side. “It seems to me just like an awful dream, and when I think of the hundreds and hundreds of children who were killed right before our very eyes, I feel as though I always ought to be satisfied no matter what comes.”
Mr. Prutsman said: “The reports from Galveston are not half as appalling as the situation really is. We left the fated city Wednesday afternoon, going by boat to Texas City, and by rail to Houston. The condition of Galveston at that time, while showing an improvement, was awful, and never shall I forget the terrible scenes that met our eyes as the boat on which we left steamed out of the harbor. There were bodies on all sides of us. In some places they were piled six and seven deep, and the stench horrible.
“I resided with my family fourteen blocks away from the beach, yet my house was swept away at 5 P.M. Saturday, and with it went everything we had in the world. Fifteen minutes before I took my wife and children to the courthouse and we were saved, along with about 1,000 others who sought refuge there. When we went through the streets the water was up to our arms and we carried the children on our heads.