Port Royal, SC Tornado, Aug 1893

HUNDRED DEATHS

Later Reports From the Storm Only Increase the Terror of Its Havoc.

At Least a Hundred Persons, Mostly Colored, Perished at Port Royal, S.C.

Augusta, Ga., Aug 31.-The news received direct from Port Royal, S.C., that 100 lives were lost in the cyclone that burst upon that town at the rate of 100 miles an hour Monday, followed by a tidal wave that almost swept the town away, is reliable. It is furnished by MR. E. W. AVERILL, general freight and passenger agent of the Charleston, Sumter and Northern railroad, who came up from Port Royal. He says Port Royal is cut off from the outside world. All telegraph wires are down and the railroads are washed away.

MR. AVERILL was unable to state the exact number of lives lost, but without overestimating he says he is certain they will number over 100. The unfortunates were killed and drowned. He saw 32 dead bodies. Nearly all the drowned were negroes. So far as reported when MR. AVERILL came away only six white persons had lost their lives.

By midnight Sunday the gale was blowing 75 miles an hour. The furious waves completely submerged the island of Sullivan. The water was seven feet deep. Three lives were lost here: MRS. E. POLLARD, ANDREW BRYAN and SYLVIA BRYAN colored. A great many sought refuge from the waters in Fort Moultrie.

Aberdeen Daily News, Aberdeen, SD 31 Aug 1893
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Transcribed by Linda Houston. Thank you, Linda!