Wilmington, North Carolina Storm
September 18, 1906
COTTAGERS IN GRAVE DANGER
Two Hundred People Awake to Find Great Sea
Sweeping Across Their Island.
Wilmington, N. C., Sept 18.--For six or
eight hours upwards of 200 men, women and
children were cut off from the mainland in
imminent peril by a storm which swept
Wrightsville beach, nine miles east of
Wilmington. The storm reached the zenith of its
fury between 6 and 7 o’clock in the morning. It
came without warning, and hundreds of cottagers
at the beach received their first intimation of
danger upon awakening to find breakers sweeping
clear across the beach to the sound and rolling
high up on the mainland, two miles beyond. A
trolley car kept at the beach in case of an
emergency took about 25 early risers across the
sound on the trestle, by which it is reached,
and four other cars responded from the city to a
telephone message and brought others across
while the waves swept the trestle.
Those left at the beach were afraid to cross the
trestle, which gave way immediately after the
last car reached the mainland. The storm
increased in fury until noon, when the rescue
work was begun. Surf boats were sent across the
channel at great risk, bringing first the women
and children, and later the men, the last of the
number being brought over at 5 o’clock in the
afternoon. Sheriff
Stedman was among those caught at the
beach and at once swore in a number of deputies,
who closed the barrooms and patrolled the beach
to prevent looting.
Cambridge Jeffersonian, Cambridge, OH 20
Sept 1906
Transcribed by Audrey. Thank you,
Audrey!
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