Isaac's Storm (45 page)

The
death
list
took
up
a
full
page
and
a
fraction
of
the
next,
and
included
fragments
of
information
that
telegraphed
to
readers
larger
truths
about
the
disaster.
Black
victims
were
identified
as
colored.
The
list
provided
vivid
evidence
that
the
storm
had
crossed
all
lines
of
race,
profession,
and
class.
It
killed
steamship
agents,
mailmen,
longshoremen,
a
prizefighter,
a
deputy
U.S.
marshal,
and
thirteen
unidentified
inmates
of
the
Home
for
the
Homeless.
It
killed
twenty-two
people
at
the
residence
of
"Francois,
a
well-known
waiter,"
and
pruned
to
a
stalk
the
family
tree
of
the
Rattiseau
clan,
killing
Mrs.
J.
C.
Rattiseau
and
her
three
children;
J.
B.
Rattiseau,
his
wife,
and
four
children;
and
C.
A.
Rattiseau,
his
wife,
and
seven
children.
It
drowned
Mr.
and
Mrs.
A.
Popular
and
the
four
Popular
children,
Agnes,
Marnie,
Clarence,
and
Tony.
It
killed
Sanders
Costly
and
Clara
Sudden,
Herman
Tix
and
H.J.
Tickle.
It
killed
John
Grief
and
the
entire
Grief
family.

The
list
included
a
man
named
Pilford
of
the
Mexican
Cable
Company
and
his
four
children.
The
place
of
death,
the
entry
said,
was
"Twenty-fifth
and
Q."
Isaac's
corner.
Perhaps
even
his
house.

On
Friday
the
newspaper
returned
to
its
practice
of
running
"Personals,"
but
now
these
took
on
a
rather
different
character.

W.
M.
R.
Clay
placed
a
notice
to
the
attention
of
Jetta
Clay.
"I
am
here,"
it
said,
"2002
L.
Come
at
once."

Charles
Kennedy
placed
one
seeking
Fred
Heidenreich.
"If
alive,
come
to
24th
and
Church.
Your
brother
Ben
is
there."

The
following
Tuesday,
a
query
read:
"RYALS
—
If
Myrde,
Wesley,
Harry
or
Mabel
are
living,
please
address
their
mother,
Mrs.
Ryals,
2024
N."

HELP
BEGAN
ARRIVING.
The
Army
sent
soldiers,
tents,
and
food.
The
train-ferry
Charlotte
Allen
brought
a
thousand
loaves
of
bread
from
Houston.
The
steamer
Lawrence
brought
one
hundred
thousand
gallons
of
fresh
water.
The
Grand
Dictator
of
the
Knights
of
Honor
arrived
to
look
after
the
needs
of
his
Galveston
brethren.
Clara
Barton
arrived
to
look
after
everyone,
and
immediately
telegraphed
home:
"Situation
not
exaggerated."
She
had
expected
many
orphans,
but
found
few.
The
storm
had
been
hardest
on
the
small.
She
came
with
a
trainload
of
carbolic
acid
and
other
disinfectants
supplied
by
Joseph
Pulitzer's
New
York
World.
William
Randolph
Hearst's
New
York
Journal
sent
a
train
too.
It
left
first
but
arrived
last.
Which
peeved
Hearst
no
end.
He
dispatched
one
of
his
top
writers,
Winifred
Black,
his
famed
"sob
sister,"
whom
he
had
brought
to
New
York
from
San
Francisco
specifically
to
battle
Pulitzer.
The
storm,
she
found,
had
unearthed
a
Galveston
cemetery.
The
Journal's
headline
shrieked:
"EVEN
THE
GRAVES
GIVE
UP
THEIR
DEAD."

The
great
hurricane
dominated
the
front
pages
of
newspapers
from
Miami
to
Liverpool
and
generated
a
tidal
wave
of
contributions,
most
channeled
through
the
Red
Cross.
Hearst,
in
the
name
of
an
outfit
called
the
New
York
Bazaar
for
Galveston
Orphans,
gave
$50,000,
a
fortune.
In
his
role
as
publisher
of
the
Journal,
he
gave
$3,676.02.
The
Kansas
State
Insane
Asylum
sent
$12.25.
The
Colored
Eureka
Brass
Band
of
Thibodaux,
Louisiana,
sent
$24.
The
Elgin
Milkine
Company
of
Elgin,
Illinois,
sent
seventy-two
bottles
of
its
dried-beef
tablets
and
powder.
The
tablets
came
in
lemon
and
chocolate.
The
Fraternal
Mystic
Circle,
Elmwood
Ruling,
No.
430,
of
Gainesville,
Texas,
sent
$50.
The
Ladies
of
the
Maccabees
of
the
World,
Sacramento
Hive
No.
9,
sent
$329.25.
The
city
of
Liverpool
gave
$13,580,
the
Cotton
Association
of
Liverpool,
$14,550.
In
the
United
States,
the
state
of
New
York
sent
the
most
money,
$93,695.77.
New
Hampshire
sent
the
least
—
a
buck-matching
the
contribution
of
Moose
Jaw,
Canada.
The
Sabbath
School
of
Odell,
Illinois,
sent
$4.10
for
the
few
orphans
Barton
did
find,
and
got
a
warm
personal
letter
in
return.
"It
would
not
surprise
me
if
in
its
careful
expenditure
there
were
not
a
few
playthings,"
Barton
wrote,
"possibly
a
doll,
a
wooly
dog,
an
antelope
or
a
little
village."

Among
the
contributions
that
moved
her
most
was
$61
from
workers
at
the
Cambria
Steel
Company,
Johnstown,
Pennsylvania.
They
made
no
mention
of
the
ordeal
they
had
gone
through
eleven
years
earlier
after
the
failure
of
a
dam
at
a
rich-man's
club
high
above
town.

Observers
within
the
Weather
Bureau
contributed
to
a
fund
for
the
relief
of
their
Galveston
colleagues,
earmarking
$200.76
for
Isaac,
$150
for
Joseph,
and
$50
for
John
Blagden.
Isaac
sent
his
deepest
thanks.
A
rather
unctuous
letter
went
to
Willis
Moore
from
an
observer
in
the
West
Indies
Service,
William
H.
Alexander.
Alexander
did
not
contribute
to
the
Galveston
relief
fund,
but
professed
to
feel
deeply
for
the
station
and
for
the
state
of
Texas.
"So,
feeling
thus
and
fearing
lest
my
silence
be
attributed
to
indifference,
I
felt
that
in
justice
to
myself
I
should
state
that
I
sent
to
Galveston
to
a
needy
friend
as
soon
after
the
storm
as
possible
the
sum
of
$
11.00
which
was
every
cent
that
I
felt
able
to
contribute."

There
is
no
record
of
any
contribution
from
his
Indies
superiors,
William
Stockman
and
Col.
H.
H.
C.
Dunwoody.

.
.
.

ISAAC
RETURNED
TO
work
on
Monday,
September
17.
What
he
had
done
during
his
eight
days
away
from
the
office
is
unclear.
One
local
historian
believed
he
was
in
the
hospital
recovering
from
his
injuries,
but
this
seems
unlikely.
Isaac
was
not
seriously
injured,
at
least
not
physically.
He
continued
to
file
telegrams
to
Washington.
Most
likely
he
spent
this
time
struggling
with
the
hunt
for
his
wife,
the
care
of
his
children,
and
his
own
grief.
There
was
much
for
him
to
do.
He
needed
to
find
a
permanent
home
for
his
children
and
a
woman
to
care
for
them.
He
put
Joseph
in
charge
of
the
office,
although
it
must
have
pained
him
to
do
so.
Joseph
reveled
in
his
new
command,
and
in
his
brother's
absence.
Telegrams
from
the
bureau
became
more
dramatic.
At
11:30
A.M.,
Tuesday,
September
11,
Joseph
fired
off
a
breathless
telegram
to
Moore,
in
which
he
reported
that
Bornkessell
was
still
missing,
Isaac
had
been
injured
but
"not
seriously,"
and
"nearly
half
the
city"
had
been
washed
away.
"I
am
badly
injured.
Two
thousand
dead
found
burying
at
sea."

Exactly
three
minutes
later,
a
more
businesslike
telegram
entered
the
wires,
this
composed
by
Isaac.
"All
mail
communication
cut
off
since
noon
Saturday.
Can
get
no
material
on
which
to
base
crop
reports.
All
messages
sent
by
boat
to
Houston.
Instruments
erected
temporarily
by
Blagden.
J.
L.
Cline
still
on
duty
but
unable
to
do
much."

These
were
hard
days
for
Isaac.
He
believed
in
work
and
in
filling
his
day
to
the
limit
with
productive
effort,
but
in
so
doing,
he
had
put
love
and
family
in
a
box
that
he
had
allowed
himself
to
open
only
rarely.
A
mistake,
he
saw
now.
He
had
lost
his
wife
and
nearly
lost
a
daughter.
How
completely
Cora
had
held
his
world
together
now
became
apparent
to
him.
His
children
needed
food,
warmth,
a
dry
place,
and
most
of
all
they
needed
him.
As
the
city
had
fallen,
so
had
the
neat
compartments
of
his
life.

His
house
had
disappeared,
along
with
everything
that
described
his
past
—
all
his
photographs,
letters,
his
beloved
Bible,
and
the
manuscript
of
his
nearly
finished
book
on
climate
and
health,
the
second
time
the
book
had
been
destroyed.
His
station
was
in
disarray.
Kuhnel
had
deserted.
Baldwin,
on
mandatory
furlough,
had
gotten
safely
away
just
a
week
before
the
storm.

And
Bornkessell
was
surely
dead.
He
had
just
built
a
home
in
the
city's
West
End,
but
searchers
found
only
empty
ground.
Neighbors
apparendy
had
sought
shelter
in
his
house,
placing
in
him
the
same
faith
others
had
placed
in
Isaac.
On
the
morning
Isaac
returned
to
work,
he
read
in
the
Galveston
News
a
query
from
a
Houston
man
named
Harry
M.
Perry.
"I
wish
to
report
to
you
as
among
the
missing
and
undoubtedly
lost
my
wife
and
son
Clayton,
aged
7.
They
were
visiting
Mr.
and
Mrs.
Theodore
C.
Bornkessell,
who
resided
in
their
new
cottage
on
the
north
side
of
the
shell
road,
about
a
mile
west
of
the
Denver
Resurvey.
I
reached
Galveston
on
the
first
trip
of
the
steamer
Lawrence
and
searched
the
ground
carefully
from
the
site
of
the
house
to
the
bay,
but
could
find
no
trace
of
them.
Everything
out
there
went
straight
into
the
bay,
as
there
was
nothing
to
stop
it.
The
house
is
entirely
gone,
but
some
of
its
wreckage
is
lodged
in
trees
a
mile
northwest.
My
wife
was
about
5
feet
5
inches
tall,
wavy,
medium
length
black
hair,
30
years
old,
looking
younger,
but
hair
had
many
gray
ones
in
it...
Should
any
record
of
such
persons
have
been
made
by
any
one
it
is
needless
to
say
I
will
appreciate
all
possible
information.
Mr.
and
Mrs.
Bornkessell
were
undoubtedly
lost
with
them."

As
far
as
the
station
was
concerned,
things
could
have
been
worse.
Joseph
was
indeed
injured,
but
not
as
badly
as
he
seemed
to
think.
He
had
never
dealt
well
with
injury
or
illness.
Blagden,
luckily,
was
well
and
full
of
energy.
The
Levy
Building
was
still
sound.