“It is interesting to study the law of storms which take on such a rhythmical obedience as it would seem to appear at given places and times. In this case the weather bureau was accurately alert to the approaching disturbance. Four days before its arrival on the coast its formation in the Caribbean Sea was noted and its probable course northward chartered and proclaimed as a danger to the Atlantic States. The meteorological phenomenon was correctly defined and watched in its development until on Thursday night it reached the Florida coast and struck a rude blow at Tampa. Up to this moment the weather office had made no mistake and its predictions lifted its utterance to the domain of verified prophecy.
FREAKS OF THE HURRICANE.
“Then the behavior of the storm with reference to its movements becomes almost fantastic. It was as if its controlling spirit had received a notice of the warning that had preceded it and the preparations of commerce to defend itself from its attacks. Therefore it made a feint demonstration upon the Atlantic Ocean, and suddenly turning fairly about in its course flew westward out of barometric supervision to seek a more vulnerable spot. Galveston was open to it, and sweeping across the gulf, from which no herald of warning could hasten in advance, it struck the Texas coast on Saturday and went howling with demoniac fury over the Mississippi plateau, across the lakes and down the St. Lawrence Valley out to sea again, to be chilled to death in the frigid air currents of the polar seas.
“When the West India Islands and the ports of Mexico are equipped with weather observing stations from which prompt and frequent reports shall be made, no storm can draw nigh on shores to effect a surprise. Commerce can in a measure protect itself, but ill-built cities and crops must at intervals suffer. The lesson of the last one is of warning, but how to profit by it outruns prevision that seeks absolute security. There can be no such thing, ‘for as the pestilence walketh in darkness and destruction wasteth at noon still a thousand shall fall and ten thousand at thy right hand, for the hand of man cannot stay the tempest.’ This is according to all human experience.”
To have saved and then to have lost is if anything harder to hear than to have lost at first. It was thus with Mr. William H. Irvin, who succeeded in saving his wife and all but one of his children from the death which the elements were so anxious to administer, but afterwards lost his wife, who succumbed to the injuries she received that night.
The story of Irvin and his family’s escape is like those of others who succeeded in getting out alive. It is simply marvelous, and their coming out with their lives can only be credited to that supreme power which is even mightier than the winds and sea. While he did all that any human could in saving his loved ones, yet his efforts were naught in that mighty battle of the elements.
GREAT DARING SHOWN.
In point of detail his story corresponds with the many others that are told of that night, but it is one of great daring also, one in which quick action and a trust in Divine Providence played an important part. Irvin was living with his happy family in a little story and a half cottage near the corner of Nineteenth street and Avenue O ½ before the storm, but now all of that happy home is gone, and two of that happy family are no more.
It was early in the afternoon that the water began rising out there, but it was not until later, when all chance of getting out and coming to town to a place of safety was gone, did they become frightened. The house, though small was strongly built, and it was this that caused several of the neighbors who were living in frail houses to come to the Irvin home for refuge. They were Mrs. Crowley, two sons and a daughter, and Miss Aldridge. Along in the afternoon they became thoroughly frightened by the waters, which were rapidly rising, and the wind which was increasing in velocity every minute.
And well they might, for at that time the house was beginning to groan under the fierce onslaughts of the wind and the water. They stayed downstairs until the water had creeped up into the house, coming up and up until it drove them to the stairs. Then it drove them up step by step. They were frightened, yes, but never did the dreadful picture of what did happen present itself to even their terror-stricken minds. No imagination was then able to make a picture like the one in reality.