Thus he struggled for two hours in what was an enormous raft of several hundred broken up houses, going before the wind, being churned together in a huge caldron by the waters. Whole roofs and sides of houses were bobbing, striking, sinking, turning over and moving together like chips in a huge whirlpool. Words can not describe that awful scene. In it all Brophey and hundreds of others were struggling for their lives almost all in vain. Dead bodies of women and children who had succumbed to the inevitable in the early part of the storm, and men and women whom the waters had not yet killed, but were playing with like a cat does a mouse before hurling them into the beyond, were carried hither and thither.
DODGING TIMBERS IN THE WATER.
Thus Brophey struggled, several times giving up and letting himself go down, but rising each time with a determination to fight until the bitter end, although terrible odds were against him. After having been in this mighty whirlpool for almost an hour, dodging huge timbers, crawling on roofs and sides of houses, being sucked under with them, he saw a house standing. With almost a last effort, he struggled and fought his way to a window of the house. There were ready hands to pull him through the window.
This haven which saved his life, together with a number of others, belonged to a negro and is situated near Thirty-seventh street. It was filled with negro refugees, and it is, indeed, to their credit that they struggled with such heroism to save Brophey and several others who drifted by.
Getting into the house, he threw himself on the floor, more dead than alive, and there remained until after the storm, when he was taken by friends to the Tremont Hotel, where he has become convalescent.
One of the interesting features of the story of his terrible struggle is his unintentional rescue of a dog. Early in his mad career in that most awful caldron he ran across a dog. From that time until his rescue it stayed with him, and would not be pushed off, and at last succeeded in crawling into the window after him. He is going to send for the dog, and declares that never while he is living will it want for a rug to sleep on and a bone to eat.
A. C. Fonda, chief clerk in the Santa Fe general freight office, at Galveston, had a fearful experience during the storm. He said that on Saturday afternoon, when it became apparent that the flood was going to be very high, that he went down to his home to remove the furniture from the lower floors to the upper, never dreaming that the effects of the storm would be more than a flooding of the first floors of residences. His family being away in California, fortunately for them, he worked alone and had about removed everything when the water got so high that he could not escape from the house.
FLOATED IN A TANK.
He had noted a large zinc-lined wooden tank on the upper floor, used for holding water, and which he thought might be used for a boat, when suddenly the crash came and he knew no more for possibly an hour. He recovered consciousness to find himself floating in the tank on the surging waters, bruised, bleeding and almost drowned. He managed to escape to higher ground in a short while and crawled into a deserted house, where he spent a night of horror, suffering from his injuries and momentarily expecting death. As soon as daylight came he sought surgical assistance, and then saw the awful results of the hurricane’s work. Mr. Fonda is bruised all over, and has a deep wound on the back of his head, but no bones were broken and he is able to be at work.
E. F. Adams, chief clerk in the Santa Fe passenger department, at Galveston, is also a flood sufferer, but happily his family are in St. Louis at present, and his residence, being at Alvin, only suffered slight damage. He said that he and fifty-two others occupied the Santa Fe general offices on the night of the storm, and, in his opinion, very few of them, if any, realized the awfulness of the disaster until next day, as the sheet-iron roof on the train shed became loose early in the evening, and the tremendous noise it made in flopping up and down prevented them from hearing the crash of falling buildings, or, perhaps, the screams of drowning human beings during the night.