It is eerie that my family is in this same situation- 100 years apart.
Keep in mind that the main target of the epidemic was young people, poor and ill of health.
MY great grandfather was a pressman for the Baltimore paper. My grandfather and his brother were in the military camps close to their Baltimore home, waiting to be shipped to France.
They left in December.
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The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919:
A Digital Encyclopedia
Here are some pieces of it.
"On September 24, 1918, a small number of influenza cases among soldiers at Camp Meade–some 25 miles north of Baltimore and on the route to Washington, DC–were reported to military medical officers. ....
On September 26, he announced that the influenza circulating in the area was the “same old influenza the physicians have recognized and treated for a good many years.
On October 1, Blake did ask the United Railways Company and the city’s theaters to keep their streetcars and spaces well ventilated and to post signs reminding patrons to use their handkerchiefs when coughing and sneezing.7
We no not consider such drastic steps necessary in view of the extreme low civilian death rate in the city.”9 For Blake, the supposed fear that a closure order would cause was worse than the epidemic itself.
The death rate may have been low thus far, but the number of new cases was quickly overwhelming Baltimore’s hospitals, nurses, and physicians. By October 6, there were already so many residents sick with influenza that the city’s hospitals were unable to accept new patients.
On October 8, the school board decided to take unilateral action and to close all public schools until further notice, over Blake’s strenuous objection. A staggering 30,000 students and 208 teachers were absent on October 7 alone,
October 9, he issued an order prohibiting public gatherings and closing theaters and other places of public assembly.15 The next day, Blake restricted the business hours of department, retail, and specialty stores. Saloons were spared from either closure or business hour curtailment because of the purported medicinal value of liquor.
The next day, Blake ordered dentists to wear gauze masks while with patients, and limited the operating hours of saloons and bars to 9:30 am to 4:30 pm.17
Within a week, the number of new influenza cases being reported daily began to decline, although, given Baltimore’s slow response to the crisis, this was most likely due to the epidemic running its natural course than to the recent social distancing measures enacted.
Caskets, as well as the labor to prepare graves, were in short supply. Families, many of them living paycheck-to-paycheck, could simply not afford the expense of one or more funerals in the family.
By late-October, only two weeks after taking action, Blake decided that the epidemic situation in Baltimore was looking good enough to remove some of the restrictions on public gatherings. Beginning on October 26, retail stores would be allowed to operate from 9:00 am until 5:30 pm, while movie houses, theaters, poolrooms, and lodges could open from 7:30 pm until 11:30 pm. Churches could hold services from 5:00 am to 3:00 pm
Interestingly, schools remained shut. When a delegation of private school officials inquired about reopening their schools, Blake –now seemingly a convert to the idea that social distancing measures could have an effect on an epidemic
Over the course of November, Baltimore continued to experience new cases of influenza, but in drastically lower numbers than during the height of the epidemic. Instead of hundreds of new cases reported each day, there were only handfuls. December, however, saw a slight rise in new cases
Over the course of the winter, life in Baltimore slowly returned to normal, as much as it could in a city that, by the end of 1918, had a total of nearly 24,000 reported cases of influenza (Blake estimated the actual count at closer to three times that number) and had lost 4,125 Baltimoreans to the epidemic.
Baltimore’s excess death rate for the epidemic period was only 559 per 100,000, better than that of many of its East Coast counterparts. Washington, DC, for example, only 40 miles to the southwest, experienced a death rate of 608 deaths per 100,000 people, despite a similar lag in response to its epidemic. Boston and Philadelphia, two cities devastated by influenza in the fall of 1918, experienced excess death rates of 710 and 748 deaths per 100,000 people, respectively."
My great grandfather was a pressman in Baltimore. My grandfather and grand uncle were in military camps near home, waiting to ship to France. They left in December.
Eerie, isn't it? My dad had an older brother who died of the flu in 1918.
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