The Great Galveston Disaster. Paul Lester

States, the hurricane has at least caused a loss of 5000 lives and probably many more, and has destroyed and damaged property to the extent of $15,000,000. And yet, after its probable direction and the curve of its track were ascertained on Friday, September 7, no great cyclonic disturbance has been more carefully watched or the menace of its forward movement more decisively pointed out.

      “It is to be regretted that though the Friday warnings of the Weather Bureau caused apprehensions in Galveston, few realized the extreme gravity of the situation. The bureau, however, did its full duty, and its subsequent warnings with respect to the passage of the cyclone over the lakes were fully justified. The path the hurricane took between September 6 and September 12 meteorologically was most instructive and will unquestionably prove of great value in future forecasts. And yet it followed the normal rule and kept on skirting an area of high barometer that lay over the Southern States, the lakes and the Middle States. From the moment the cyclone was first “held up” by the high pressure anti-cyclone on Thursday it kept to the left of it, and so was diverted westward with such disastrous results for Galveston.

      “Though it may seem to some paradoxical to say so, the clear, bracing weather of yesterday, accompanied, as it was, by the strong winds from the south and southwest, was the hurricane’s contribution to northern weather. To most people who find great difficulty in understanding the twofold movement in cyclonic storms—the translation of the storm as a whole along its track and the circulation of the winds in the whirl itself—the idea that clear weather is part of a storm movement will seem strange, and yet such is the case.

      “If you are in the right quadrant and far enough from the vortex, or storm center, though it will control the winds in your vicinage, cloudless and rainless weather may easily be your lot. And this was our experience, for the cyclone at 8 A. M. was central over Quebec, whither it had traversed from Des Moines, Iowa, over 1200 miles, in a direct line, northeast from where it was central on Tuesday morning the 11th, at 8 o’clock.

TERRIBLE VELOCITY OF WIND.

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      “The rate at which it made this jump, taking in the lakes in passing, was at the speed of fifty miles an hour, while the cyclonic winds kept blowing into the centre at a velocity of seventy miles an hour. That these two motions have nothing in common is shown by the fact that on Saturday, when the vertical velocities were at their height, ninety-six miles from the northeast and 100 from the southeast at Galveston, the cyclone was moving on its track from the Gulf to the interior of Texas at the sluggish pace of ten and one-half miles an hour. It was this slow rate which had prevailed ever since August 5 that accentuated all the evils of the rotary circulation, for as the centre passed slowly over Galveston it gave the cyclonic winds full opportunity to pile up the waters and buffet and wreck the buildings.

      “Fortunately we were over 400 miles from the vortex, and, though we were within the sphere of its southern winds, they merely proved an annoyance through the excessive dust and were not disastrous. On the New England coast, as well as over the lakes, the winds were stiffer, and we are yet to hear the full story of the cyclone’s journey from gulf to gulf. Meteorologically, it is now a closed record, so far as the United States goes, but, unfortunately for Galveston, the horror of the visitation grows as access to the stricken town reveals the full extent of the devastation.”