Thursday, September 07, 2006

While Galveston suffered...

Houston also took a serious hit from the 1900 storm.

One of the first reported deaths from the hurricane was that of Henry C. Black, a hired driver for funeral director Sid Westheimer.

A Second Ward alderman was going home at about 1:30 a.m. Sept. 9 when he noticed a body lying in a gutter in front of the Wells Fargo Express Company building. A downed power line was lying across the body.

The body was taken to the Houston Daily Post offices and was quickly identified as Black. Officials said it appeared Black was electrocuted by the downed power line.

"There were burns on the hands and on one of the legs, the flesh was seared to the bone," the Post reported.

Black was taken to his home in the 2200 block of Center Street once the storms subsided.

Other damage reported in Houston:

  • The roof of the Post building was torn off, flooding the presses.
  • The windows at the police station were shattered and the roof of the "prison department" was blown off.
  • A house at Tuam and Fairview caught fire after it was blown off its pillars.
  • The roof of the dining room at the Capitol Hotel was blown off.
  • Windows at the Southern Pacific offices at Franklin and Main Street were blown out.
  • The Grand Central depot and its hotel also lost much of its roof.
  • "The roof of on one wing of the Lawler Hotel was blown off and many of the windows in the building were shattered. The guests became alarmed and the crying of the ladies and children increased the excitement."

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1 Comments:

At 10:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The First Baptist Church at Fannin and Rusk was also destroyed in the storm.

 

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