Hurricane Slices Top Floors From Brick Buildings as if Cut by Razor
NEWSPAPERMEN BATTLE ELEMENTS TO GET NEWS
Climb for Miles Through Mud and Wreckage to Get to Scene of Disaster — Heavy Concrete Benches Blown Through Air As If They Were Bits of Paper.
Savannah, Ga., Sept. 20 (AP)—A graphic story of havoc wrought in St. Petersburg and the west coast of Florida, by the tropical hurricane was told here last night by J. A. Kelly, Washington, dining car steward on the Seaboard Air Line’s “The Southerner.”
Man Blown Under Train
“We left St. Petersburg on time,” he said. “The delay to the train came when we had to stop every few miles and cut trees blown down across the tracks. We stopped half a dozen times between Ft. Petersburg and Tampa where trees were down.
“In St. Petersburg I saw a yard man switching trains. He was blown down by the wind directly in the path of a freight car and one arm and one leg were cut off.
“The upper floors of two story brick buildings were sliced off by the wind as if cut by a powerful razor or saw. Every wooden house almost had its roof taken off, and in many cases the houses were simply blown flat on the ground.
Heavy Benches Blown About
“Massive concrete park benches were picked up and blown into the streets which were impassible to anything but pedestrians.
“Electricity was cut off early Saturday evening to prevent danger from fallen high tension wires. Water and debris tilled every street and in the hotels and buildings of all kinds in the greater portion of the city, the water stood well above my shoe tops. Tall lamp posts in the streets were blown down or crumpled over, broken glass and business signs littered the streets.
Force of Wind Awful
“The force of the wind was awful. Outside our windows we could see the largest limbs of great trees twisted off one by one. Then the trunk of the tree itself would split and in a moment lay a mass of splintered wood.
“Along the water front the damage was fearful, many boats being smashed to bits by the force of the wind and waves. It was an awful sight from beginning to end. In many of the hotels and homes the people did not go to bed at all Saturday night, hut stayed awake in order to be ready to meet any emergency.
“When dawn came Sunday morning it showed the wind still strong, the sky overcast with swift flying clouds and the whole city a torn and wrenched shamble, bearing little semblance to its former beauty.'”
Daring Newspapermen
West Palm Beach, Fla., Sept. 20 (AP)—With news dispatches from West Palm Beach yesterday of the devastation along Florida’s lower east coast came details of obstacles encountered by Associated Press representatives in getting news of the disaster to the outside world.
Torn and tangled communication lines, roads strewn with wreckage and debris, and blinding rain confronted the men when after taking a hasty check of the toll of life and property, they began their torturous journey to a telegraph office.
R. P. Mitchell, Miami correspondent of the Associated Press, and Reese Amis, telegraph editor of the Miami Daily News, walked eight miles from Miami to Coral Gables for an automobile to bring them to West Palm Beach, and the nearest communication lines. Finding their automobile wrecked, they commandeered a delivery truck of the Miami Daily News and began their journey at 4:15 p. m. Saturday.
Had Perilous Journey
In the face of blinding rain they picked their way through woods, swamps and over railroad tracks, often encountering water so deep that it rose above the floor boards of their truck.
All along the 60 mile route they found towns wrecked, telephone poles and wires blocking the roads with a tangled mass of wreckage, and were forced many times to climb to the top of the truck and clear off broken limbs of trees.
Six miles south of Fort Lauderdale, their truck became mired in a muddy bank. They walked the railroad track to Fort Lauderdale and slept Saturday night in the women’s club there with 60 refugees. Water was doled out in half glass portions.
Sunday morning they borrowed a small automobile and continued their journey to West Palm Beach where on their arrival at 11:30 a. m., they sent out the first meager despatches of the toll of life and property damage of the hurricane.
Survivor’s Description
Savanah, Ga., Sept. 20 (AP)—A story of the damage wreaked by the hurricane in the vicinity of the Palm Beaches was told today by Samuel W. Traylor, Allentown, Pa., manufacturer. Mr. Traylor arrived here on the first Atlantic Coast Line train to come out of the storm area of Florida.
“The damage is many times greater than that caused by the hurricane of a few days ago,” he told a Morning News reporter.
Roads Impassable
“At 4 o’clock Sunday morning, when our train left, no communications whatever had been established between Palm Beach and Miami. Automobiles bearing first aid supplies and newspaper men started out but found the roads covered with water and altogether impassable. A special train was dispatched down the line by the Florida East Coast but after it left no word was heard from it.
“Whether it ever got through was not known when we left.
Damage at Palm Beach
“In Palm Beach itself the damage was immeasurably greater than that following the first storm. Buildings not hurt much by the first storm were damaged almost beyond repair by this one. Where repair work is going on at the scene of greatest damage following the first hurricane, even the repair
materials and machinery were destroyed this time.
“In the Pennsylvania hotel water was standing several feet deep. Water from the lake was standing in the streets more than 100 yards from the usual high water mark. Automobiles were stranded and smashed along many streets. On Clematis avenue even walking was difficult after the storm because of wreckage littering the street.
Bridges Swept Away
“All causeways and bridges were swept away or littered with debris left by the raging waters and wind. Vessels along shore, in the, harbor and in the lake, were sunk or battered to bits.
Houses Unroofed
“Roofs were torn from houses and small buildings not staunchly constructed, were blown down. There’s not a sign left hanging anywhere. The streets are a mass of debris. A considerable number of people were Injured by the flying bits of debris and wreckage blown by the hurricane along the streets.”
New Britain Herald, New Britain, CT, September 20, 1926
