There was another fearful visitation on September 17, 1875. A good part of the city was under water several feet deep. Vessels were wrecked and the City Hospital was filled with water and the Ocean House, on Gulf Beach, crumbled and fell and floated away in remnants. Thirty lives were lost. It was the hardest storm since 1867 up to that time. The storm raged for several days.
Indianola, one hundred and twenty miles southwest of Galveston, was almost totally destroyed. More than one hundred and fifty of its inhabitants were found dead in the ruins of their homes. Nearly all of its three thousand houses were unroofed or badly damaged, and $7,000,000 in money has gone to waste.
A hurricane on the lower Texas coast and in Mexico on August 20, 1880, carried destruction far and wide. As many as three hundred houses in Matamoras, Mexico, were demolished, even brick buildings offering no more resistance than so many toys. Brownsville, Texas, saw its houses unroofed and the infantry barracks were demolished, and twenty-eight army horses and several mules were killed. A convent did not escape damage, and several of the occupants were injured by falling debris.
The railroads, quarantine stations and the lighthouses were seriously damaged. Thirty lives were lost and property damaged was estimated at $1,000,000. This hurricane was followed by one of equal violence on the Mexican coast, which completely wiped out the town of Altata and the port of that name. Not one house was left standing and ships in the harbor suffered greatly.
ATLANTIC COAST ALSO SWEPT.
Savannah, Ga., has not escaped the fury of the southern gale. The city suffered severely in 1881, the waters rushing into the streets and causing the death of four hundred persons by drowning. Four million dollars, it was said, was the amount of the damage to property. In 1893 Savannah was visited by another cyclone and forty persons were killed. This time the property damage was $7,000.000.
Havana, Cuba, and the West Indies were visited by a destructive hurricane in September, 1888. One thousand persons were killed and hundreds of head of cattle were killed. The loss was $7,000,000.
Sabine Pass, which is the dividing line between Texas and Louisiana, was swept by a terrific storm in October, 1886. The population of the town was about four hundred. Of these one hundred and twenty-six perished and 90 per cent. of the deaths was caused by drowning. Four houses escaped injury.
The coast of Mexico was devastated for three days in the fall of 1889 by a destructive cyclone, which first struck the coast of Campeachy. There was a drenching rain which played havoc along the peninsula for miles. The wind was so furious in the city of Carmen it uprooted trees, depositing them upon houses which they crushed. All the shipping in the harbor was wrecked. Twelve foreign barks were wrecked. Some were thrown high and dry on the beach, while others were submerged. Two steamships, many schooners and many smaller craft were wrecked. There was great loss of life.
A hurricane from the West Indies, which swept up the Atlantic coast, did great damage to Savannah, Ga., on Tuesday, September 30, 1896. Wind blew at a velocity of seventy-five miles an hour for an hour and a half. Hardly a building escaped, and thousands of houses were unroofed. The damage was $1,000,000, and twenty-two persons were killed. The roof of the United States Pension Office was blown off. Railroad stations, churches, theatres and the Bonaventure Cemetery were ruined, monuments being overturned.