The Sweetwater Telephone-Thursday, September 13, 1900

                            DEATH AND DESTRUCTION LEFT IN STORM'S WAKE.

                 Hundreds of lives reported lost and millions of property destroyed at Galveston.

                             OTHER TOWNS IN LONE STAR STATE SUFFERS.
                              Thousands of people in want, heart rending scenes.

Houston, Texas, Sept. 10.  -- A scene of desolation and death, not only at Galveston, but at many
island points in Texas, is the condition presented today as a result of Saturday's storm.

Estimates of the number of dead are place between 1,500 and 2,600.  The property loss will
aggregate many millions of dollars, although no accurate figures can be given at present.  The
streets of Galveston are mostly under water; wires are in a hopeless tangle and dead bodies are
thickly strewn among floating debris.  No complete list of dead is obtainable until the water
recedes.

Harrowing tales of loss of whole families and many miraculous escapes are told by the few
survivors who have thus far reached this city.  The relief trains which arrived here early this
morning, have been the only means of communication with the storm swept Galveston and
information as to the present situation is scarce.  The cotton and rice crop throughout the district
devastated by the storm is badly damaged in many places, and in others totally destroyed.
                    
                                    GALVESTON STRICKEN

Galveston, Texas, Sep. 10. -- The most appalling calamity in history of modern times has befallen
Galveston.  Everywhere there is death and desolation and ruin.  A great commercial city is
stricken with misfortune, and her people appeal to the outside world for help.

Estimates of the loss of life vary from 600 to 1,000.

Parents mourn their children and children are made orphans by the terrible hurricane which swept
all of South Texas Saturday and Saturday night.

The damage to business and residence property is beyond computation.  The city is almost ruined. 
The wharf front is entirely gone.  Every ocean steamer is stranded.  The fine steamer Alamo lies
upon the top of the Mallory wharf, and a big English cotton-laden steamer was driven ashore at
Texas City.  Other vessels are aground in different parts of the bay, hopelessly wrecked.  The tug
Louise of the Houston Direct Navigation Company is under water at Redfish.  Two of the crew
were drowned, the remainder escaping in the lifeboat.

No pen can depict, language adequately describe the awfulness of the situation.  It is simply
immense, unparalleled, and even those who went through the experience of the storm and
survived are so dazed they can hardly realize the enormity of the loss.

The water-works are in ruins and the cisterns all blown away, so that the lack of water is one of
the most serious of the present troubles.

Debris is everywhere.  Electric light and telegraph poles are nearly all prostrated, and the streets
are littered with timbers, slate, glass and every conceivable character of debris.  There is hardly a
habitable house in the entire city, and nearly every business house is badly damaged.  The school
buildings are unroofed, such edifices as the Ball High School and Rosenberg School buildings
being badly wrecked.  The fine churches are almost in ruins.  The elevators and warehouses are
unfit for use, the electric light plant has collapsed and so has the cotton factory.

From Tremont to P Street, thence to the beach, not a vestige of a residence is to be seen.

In the business section of the city the water was from three to ten feet deep in stores and stocks of
all kinds, including foodstuffs are total losses.  Men in newspaper life are used to harrowing
scenes, but the experience of newsgatherers on this fatal Saturday night beggars description.  In
making the rounds it was nothing to see women and children emerging from comfortable and
happy homes, dazed and bleeding from wounds, the women wading neck deep with babies in their
arms.  To add, if possible, to the calamity, the city is cut off entirely from the world.  The
telegraph lines are down and the cable which connects Galveston with Mexico is cut.

                                           SITUATION SUMMARIZED.

Galveston, Texas, Sept. 11 -- A conservative estimate places the loss of life at more than 3,000.

At lest 5,000 families are shelterless and wholly destitute.  The entire remainder of the population
suffers in a greater or less degree.

Not a single church, school or charitable institution, of which Galveston had so many, is left
intact.  Not a building escaped damage and half the whole number are entirely obliterated.

There is immediate need for food, clothing and household goods of all kinds.  If nearby cities will
open asylums for the women and children the situation will be greatly relieved.  Coast cities
should send us water as well as provisions, including kerosene oil, gasoline and candles.   W.C.
Jones, Mayor.

                                    DESTRUCTION AT OTHER TOWNS.

At Walter half the houses in town were demolished.  The South Texas Baptist College is badly
damaged and the school house is a wreck.

Not a house in the town of Chappell Hill escaped damage and many were demolished.  Business
houses also suffered and a fine gin is a complete wreck.

At Brenham the court house was nearly wrecked, and the city hall completely so.  Every business
house and residence suffered to a greater or less extent.  The fire apparatus is under the ruins of
the city hall, and a guard is maintained for fire duty.

At Guston stores were unroofed and residences destroyed.  At Rock Island the Baptist church
was totally wrecked and several residences unroofed.

At Eagle Lake the damage amounts to $250,000 to the rice and cotton crops and residences.

At Rosenberg in addition to residences, the opera house and Baptist church were wrecked.
Several persons injured.

Many houses were unroofed at Lexington and their contents ruined by the rain.

Forty-two dwelling and business houses were wrecked at Wallis.

At Fulshear fifty houses were blown down.  One person was killed near the town by a falling
house.

In Hardin County a large amount of timber was blown down, and there was much damage to
property at Village Mills.

                                          LATEST REPORT

A special from Galveston, dated Sept. 12th, says: A summary of the conditions prevailing is more
than human intellect can master.  The estimate of the loss of life is placed at 5,000, while the
number of victims may reach 10,000 within a week.

The property damage is anywhere from between $15,000,000 and $20,000,000.  Dead bodies are
being disposed of by every possible means.  Deaths from sickness and unavoidable neglect are fast
occurring and are liable to multiply.