WENT THROUGH THE STORM OF 1875.
“The great storm which has just devastated Galveston reminds me of the terrible equinoctial storm that swept over that city in September, 1875,” said Dr. Henry Stanhope Bunting of room 500, 57 Washington street, Chicago.
“At that time I was a resident of Galveston, and my experience was similar to that of many others who escaped. The loss of life and property was great.
“The situation of Galveston exposes the city to the waves whenever there is a severe windstorm. The island is thirty miles long and quite narrow. It is really only a great sand bar, rising four to five feet above the surface of the gulf. At their highest point the sand banks are not more than ten feet above the normal surface of the water.
“The city is built at the northern end of the island at the entrance to Galveston Bay. The opening to the bay between the end of the island and the mainland gives the water a free sweep over the jetties when a heavy wind is blowing. In this way waves running several feet high pour immense volumes of water into the bay, causing its waters to rise many feet and flood the lowlands. In the rush of the waters back toward the gulf the narrow channel entrance to the bay is not a sufficient outlet and the flood sweeps into the city.
“It is seldom that the equinoctial storms are so severe that the back flow of the water inundates the island. In very heavy storms, however, as in the latest hurricane, the great waves might sweep across the island from the gulf and add to the work of destruction in rushing back to the gulf from the bay.
“The houses have no cellars. They are built on pillars of brick several feet above the ground. When the water is high it washes up to the first floor and sometimes drives the occupants of the building to the second story.
“When the storm struck in 1875 we were at a house near the water’s edge five miles down the island from Galveston. The waves lifted the house off its brick pillars and dropped it in the water and sand tilted at an angle of 45 degrees. With other families we took refuge at a house on much higher ground, but even there we were driven to the second story.”
AWFUL EXPERIENCES DURING THE FLOOD. FIFTY-TWO FAMILIES MEET DEATH IN ONE HUGE BUILDING—RESCUERS’ LOVED ONES PERISH.
John Davis, having apartments in a huge flat building, whose wife was killed, and for whose body he was searching in the debris of the structure, said there were fifty-two families there when the house collapsed, and he was the only survivor.