Scores of strongly-built bridges like this throughout the flood districts were carried away by the raging torrentsCopyright by George Grantham Bain.Scores of strongly-built bridges like this throughout the flood districts were carried away by the raging torrentslink to high-resolution image
Copyright by George Grantham Bain.Scores of strongly-built bridges like this throughout the flood districts were carried away by the raging torrents
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When the waters of the Hudson overflowed, hundreds of men, women and children were trapped in their homes near the river bank and were rescued with difficultyCopyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.When the waters of the Hudson overflowed, hundreds of men, women and children were trapped in their homes near the river bank and were rescued with difficultylink to high-resolution image
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.When the waters of the Hudson overflowed, hundreds of men, women and children were trapped in their homes near the river bank and were rescued with difficulty
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TWELVE BODIES IN ONE HOUSE
Twelve bodies were recovered in a single house in the southern part of Peru on Friday. This was taken to indicate that the loss of life in that section of the city was great, as it was there that dwellings were completely submerged before the occupants could vacate.
"It is impossible to tell how many lives were lost at Peru," said one of the rescuers.
Six survivors were suffocated in the overcrowded court house. The weather had turned severely cold, adding to the misery of the unsheltered, but the flood was falling rapidly.
Terrible conditions prevailed among the refugees, who were increasing in numbers, as the waters receded. Sanitary conditions among the hundreds sheltered in the court house became so bad that boats removed many of them to other places.
GREED ABROAD IN THE CITY
The water was rushing back as fast as it came, leaving a coat of mud and slime. It was from this that the great danger of disease existed. The state board of health combined with the Peru board to help clean up.
Relief workers and city officials joined to investigate statements concerning exorbitant prices for foodstuffs, and proposed to expose every merchant attempting to make money through the misfortunes of others.
Several looters were arrested and others shot. One robber was shot by a citizen, who threw the body into the river.
The work of rescue was greatly impeded by the selfishness of residents. An Indian of the Wallace circus secured a boat and charged people $200 before he would help them off. Instances were told of men who drew revolvers on the men and boys working in the boats, threatening to shoot if they did not take them in.
REFUGEES URGED TO LEAVE
Railroad officials and the relief committee urged refugees to accept the hospitality of the municipalities north. They hoped to be relieved of temporary care of 3,000 persons by sending them out of the city.
Two railroads were bringing plenty of provisions within a half mile of the city, but the boats could not transport rapidly enough to the center where the supplies were being distributed.
SEARCH FOR THE DEAD
Systematic search for the dead was made, and the appalling early reports of hundreds of dead continued to shrink, although it was believed that the search would probably reveal more. The diminution was due to the discovery in the hills on the other side of the Wabash River of hundreds of persons who had been given up as dead.
The streets were strewn with dead animals that had begun to decay in some sections. An epidemic was feared. One of the greatest obstacles which the people faced was that of riddingthe city of the dead animals and filth in the low sections around the edge of the city proper into which disease-breeding filth had been washed.
Water still covered these low sections, and seemed likely to remain there for a long time. There were few sections around the valley that could be used for burning dead animals.
Citizens and officials who were becoming alarmed at the new danger estimated that at least 500 dead animals were strewn about the city of Peru alone. Most of them had to be fished out of the water wherever found, and it seemed an impossible task.
SHAKING OFF DESPAIR
Slowly the city began to shake off despair and repair the damage done. The property damage totaled $3,000,000. The Broadway bridge went down when a large house lodged against it and in turn carried away the Union Traction structure.
As Peru emerged from the flood it became apparent that the death list probably would not run over twenty-five.
The indirect death list as a result of the flood, however, went much higher, as scores of aged men and women, who for hours were forced to undergo terrible exposure and later to endure unsanitary conditions, perished soon after they were rescued.
CHAPTER XVIIThe Death-Dealing Tornado at Omaha
THE BOLT OUT OF THE BLACKNESS—RESCUERS WORKING IN DARK—A CITY TO THE RESCUE—PATH OF THE STORM—INTERRUPTED MERRYMAKERS—FAMILY MEET DEATH TOGETHER—FREAK TRAGEDIES—BRAVE TELEPHONE GIRLS—VIVID TALE OF THE STORM.
Easter Sunday did not dawn very brightly in Omaha, but in the afternoon the sun came out warm and bright. The usual Easter promenaders thronged the streets in holiday attire. Then, as the afternoon wore on, clouds appeared in the sky. They gathered very quickly, came lower, and as they approached the earth there was suddenly a fall in the temperature. In a few minutes the sky turned black and then came the bolt of wind down out of the blackness. Through more than three miles of the city it cut a clean path of from three to seven blocks in width in which not a building was left whole. Then the storm mounted the bluffs and sped away to the northeast, carrying destruction with it.
Omaha's destruction was kept secret from the world for several hours by the storm, for all wire communication wasbroken down in the wrecking of the homes. Messengers with the news stories had to go to Lincoln, the state capital, to give out first definite news of the disaster.
During the early hours of the night uninjured citizens worked desperately to remove such persons as had been caught beneath razed buildings. No great number was killed in any one place. The wind swept along, taking its toll here and there.
No sooner had the great wind passed than a second violent gale swept over much the same territory, but with lessened fury. The total number of dead in Omaha and suburbs amounted to 154; the number of homeless to 3,179.
Fire started in the debris of many wrecked buildings in the Nebraska metropolis, and these were menaces for some time, as the fire companies were hindered by fallen walls and blockaded streets. A heavy rain followed the wind, however, and whilst it drenched the hundreds of homeless persons, it also put out the flames.
RESCUERS WORKING IN DARK
Rescue work started as soon as the people were able to hurry to the stricken district, but the night's work was by the light of lanterns and little was accomplished. The storm took down all the wires in its path and the electric power was shut off immediately to prevent further loss of life. All night the stricken section was patrolled by government troops from Fort Omaha.
With the arrival of daylight, a train-load of militia fromLincoln and the presence in the city of Governor Morehead, the work was systematized.
MAP SHOWING THE PATH OF THE TORNADOMAP SHOWING THE PATH OF THE TORNADOlink to high-resolution image
MAP SHOWING THE PATH OF THE TORNADO
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The hospitals in Omaha Sunday night were full of injured, many of whom had not been identified, apparently because their friends were either dead or among the injured.
A CITY TO THE RESCUE
Immediately City Commissioners appropriated $25,000 for relief work; citizens present at the meeting organized and donated $25,000 more. The Citizens' Relief Committee was organized, composed of fifty citizens and an executive committee of seven to work with the seven city councilmen.
Governor Morehead notified Mayor Dahlman that he would send a special message to the Legislature asking forthe appropriation of sufficient funds to care for the homeless throughout the state.
Cots were placed in the Auditorium, and those without shelter were housed here. The city purchasing agent arranged for enough beds to care for all those who could sleep in the Auditorium. The Elks' rooms were thrown open to the homeless and the Union Gospel Mission provided seventy-five men with beds.
PATH OF THE STORM
The storm appeared to have started at Fifty-fourth and Center Streets. From there it traveled north, veering slightly to the east, to Leavenworth Street. Then it took a northeasterly course to Fortieth and Farnam Streets, sweeping its way through everything. Still traveling a little east of north, it covered a course from Fortieth Street east to Thirty-fourth Street, six blocks.
Striking Bemis Park, where the homes of the wealthy Omaha residents were located, the storm turned sharply to the east and passed along Parker and Blonde Streets, to Twenty-fourth Street, where its path was six blocks wide. In the latter section the damage was complete.
Finally, at Fourteenth and Spencer Streets, the storm swept over the bluffs, high above the Missouri River, demolished the Missouri Pacific roundhouse, leveled the big trestle of the Illinois Central Railroad over Carter Lake, wrecked several buildings near the Rod and Gun Club, a fashionable outing place, and disappeared to the northeast.
The Child Saving Institute was a veritable death house after the storm had spent its fury. Every available room was pressed into service, and one after another the dead and injured were brought into the house.
INTERRUPTED MERRYMAKERS
At the home of Patrick Hynes, a party in celebration of his eighty-first birthday was in progress. The guests had just begun dinner and were drinking a toast to the health of their host when the storm swept the house away. All the party succeeded in getting out with minor injuries, except a grandchild, who was internally injured.
"The party had just begun dinner," said Mr. Hynes. "The young people were making merry and, old as I am, I had entered into the spirit. Suddenly there was a roaring sound. The next minute the house was in ruins. I wiggled around and out and aided the others in escaping."
FAMILY MEET DEATH TOGETHER
Cliff Daniels, his wife and their two children met death together. When soldiers, digging about the ruins of their home, found the four bodies, the two little girls were clasped in the arms of their mother, while the body of the father was over them, as if he had tried to shield them with his own body.
When C. Saber discovered the crushed and almost unrecognizable body of his wife he fled down the street shrieking at the top of his voice.
E. H. Smith, a private of the Signal Corps from Fort Omaha, became insane after helping carry several bodies, and collapsed. When he had regained consciousness it was necessary to take him to the post hospital, where he was placed under restraint.
A. L. Green was on his back porch watching the storm when it broke. He said:
"It came like a rushing and roaring torrent of water and passed right by us to the east. I went to my attic window immediately afterward and saw fires bursting forth from houses along the path of the storm. I could see five fires burning at once. The flames made a ghastly sight as they illuminated acres of razed buildings nearby."
FREAK TRAGEDIES
Among the freak tragedies of the tornado none is more remarkable than that at the Idlewild pool hall, Twenty-fourth and Lake Streets. Twenty-five negroes were killed. The story is told by the single survivor, John Brown, who was dug from the wreckage twelve hours after the demolition of the building.
"Eight men were playing pool at one table," Brown says. "The rest of us were standing about watching. Without a moment's warning a terrific roar swept down through the room. The roof suddenly was lifted from above. The pool table shot straight upward, many feet into the air.
"All of us still were unhurt."
Insane with fear, but wondering, the negroes rushed beneaththe open roof and gazed upward. Then the heavy pool table and pieces of the roof shot down. All were caught. Brown was dug from the wreckage twelve hours later, uninjured.
HOUSE SPLIT ASUNDER
Huddled with his family in the basement of his home at 3229 Cuming Street, Prof. E. W. Hunt saw the house split asunder. When he recovered consciousness beneath the wreckage he discovered that a last summer straw hat was cocked on the back of his head. It had been hanging in a bedroom closet three stories above before the tornado struck the house.
The body of a girl about four was dropped into the arms of a pedestrian, Charles Allen, at Forty-fifth and Center Streets. Efforts to identify the child failed.
In a field half a mile from their home were found the bodies of Mrs. Mary Rathkey and her two grown sons, Frank and James. All three were dead but no bruises were found. The wind had cut their clothing completely away.
Mrs. F. Bryant, ninety-two, lived with her son, Dr. D. C. Bryant, at 3006 Sherman Avenue. She was in bed on the third floor of the house when the tornado struck. The three floors beneath her were shifted out and her bed fell to the basement. Except for the shock she was uninjured. Dr. Bryant and his wife were dropped to the basement from the ground floor. They, too, miraculously escaped injury.
VIVID TALES OF THE STORM
Perhaps the most vivid single description of the tornado's havoc was given by John Porter:
"I stood on the rear porch of my home when the great cloud of the storm began its race across the city," he said. "Before it rushed the traditional 'ball of fire,' which was in reality a yellow cloud, spherical in shape.
"My wife was visiting at the moment in the home of her father. I saw the house caught in the vortex of the cloud. It rose straight up into the air, its walls shattered and broken, but holding partially together. I am sure that I could not have moved an eyelash, if my life had depended upon the exertion.
"From the risen house I saw a myriad of black specks falling to the earth. Then I watched that home soar upward. It hurtled five blocks through the murky twilight, sustained at a height of one hundred and fifty feet.
"The Sacred Heart Convent was the target at which it was hurled. It struck the fifth story. The convent was demolished. The home of my father-in-law became splinters.
"Then I recovered my senses partially, and ran to the site of the structure. God himself must have directed that storm, for my wife, her father and her mother had been dropped behind, only bruised."
CHAPTER XVIIIStruggles of Stricken Omaha
A BLIZZARD-LIKE STORM—COUNTING THE COST—"THE GREATEST CONCEIVABLE BLOW"—SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD—A DAY OF FUNERALS—MORE CASES OF DESTITUTION—PLANS FOR REBUILDING.
As if the storm of Easter Sunday were not enough calamity, a blizzard-like storm descended upon the city of Omaha on Tuesday, adding to the grief and horror. The storm, which began shortly after midnight, and continued with gathering force, seriously hampered the work of rescue. More than three inches of snow covered the debris in the section of the city struck by the cyclone. It rendered uninhabitable the houses of many who had prepared to retain temporary homes in partly demolished structures.
Women tugging at heavy beams, hoping against hope to find dear ones beneath the wreckage, men gruffly cheering their sorrowful mates, sniveling children wrapped about with shawls and blankets were the scenes which the sunrise this morning disclosed to the federal soldiers as they patrolled the afflicted district.
Later, city officials gathered within the lines drawn aroundthe district by the soldiers and distributed clothing and other necessities among the sufferers who had been rendered homeless by the tornado.
COUNTING THE COST
For the first time the people began to count the cost in lives and dollars. When a resumé was made it was apparently more appalling than those who had studied the result were willing to admit.
One hundred and fifty-four lives were snuffed out within the city proper. Nearly five hundred were injured and eight of these died in local hospitals during the day.
All Omaha rallied to the assistance of the desolate victims of the tornado. Hundreds of citizens responded promptly by offering their homes and money to aid in caring for the stricken.
The City Commissioners appropriated $75,000 for relief work, and citizens at once subscribed to an equal amount. Governor Morehead sent a special message to the Legislature asking for an appropriation to care for the homeless throughout the state.
"THE GREATEST CONCEIVABLE BLOW"
After making an inspection of the devastated district, the Governor said:
"This is my conception of hell. It is horrible, and it has presented a most complex situation. The loss of life and damage to property is the greatest conceivable blow, not only to Omaha, but to the entire state of Nebraska. I willcall upon the state of Nebraska to render every assistance and I am sure the state will respond.
"My horror and grief are beyond my powers of expression."
SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD
Groups of men, aided and encouraged by women and children, labored incessantly all day Tuesday among the ruins of homes and other buildings. Only portions of the ruins of some buildings within which persons were known to have been killed were removed. As quickly as bodies were found they were taken to temporary morgues. Relatives claimed most of the bodies, but some remained unidentified. Funerals and burials were held from all churches and homes. Cemeteries were thronged with grieving friends and relatives.
MILITARY LAW
Military law was strictly enforced throughout the storm area. Upon the soldiers rested the responsibility for looting and fires. The city Health Department made every effort to place the district in a sanitary condition as rapidly as possible. Garbage wagons and trash carts were the only vehicles admitted within the patrolled section. The water supply fortunately remained unimpaired.
A DAY OF FUNERALS
Another period of unseasonable cold followed Tuesday's snowstorm and increased the already long list of sufferers from the storm.
Paying last rites occupied the time of thousands of persons on Wednesday. Fifty-two funerals silently wending their way to cemeteries brought home with greater force to the people of Omaha the full realization of the extent of Sunday's tornado. All day long, as fast as hearses could deposit the bodies at graves, a continual death procession was kept up.
Many of the bodies recovered from Sunday's storm were cared for at undertaking establishments, and a great number of the funerals were held from those places. Whenever possible friends of stricken families took care of bodies and had them prepared for burial. In many instances churches were demolished in the districts covered by the storm and others were so badly wrecked as to prevent their being used for burial services.
LITTLE CEREMONY
There was little ceremony. As quickly as one funeral was over another began. Undertakers co-operated in arranging burials. In several instances where entire families were killed or where more than one member of a family awaited burial one funeral service was held. The funerals were a constant procession.
One of the most pitiful of the funerals was that of Mrs. Mary Rathkey and two small children. Surviving Mrs. Rathkey is the husband and father, who is nearly demented over the disaster. Mrs. Rathkey and her children were killed in their home.
MORE CASES OF DESTITUTION
Many cases of destitution were reported on Wednesday. It took much time to prepare card indexes of sufferers' wants and to make requisitions on the central relief station at the Auditorium for supplies. While these formalities were being carried out want stalked through disconsolate homes from one corner of the city to the other. The task of caring for those needing food, clothing, supplies and money seemed to be too large for the relief forces.
PLANS FOR REBUILDING
As early as Tuesday plans for rebuilding the city were under way. The business men formed a corporation to conduct the undertaking in a systematic way, and to assist the unfortunates who lost their homes and personal effects.
The Real Estate Exchange immediately took steps to prevent the raising of rents. Cases of alleged attempted extortion, however, were reported, some of them by members of the Exchange itself. Executives of that body decided to deal harshly with any owners found taking advantage of those forced to secure new homes on account of the tornado.
A public appeal sent out by the Commercial Club stated that 642 homes were totally wrecked, 1,669 were damaged and 3,179 persons made homeless. There was need of reconstruction, indeed!
This scene shows the desolation caused by the tornado wrecking a whole street of houses at Omaha, NebraskaPhotograph by Brown Bros.This scene shows the desolation caused by the tornado wrecking a whole street of houses at Omaha, Nebraskalink to high-resolution image
Photograph by Brown Bros.This scene shows the desolation caused by the tornado wrecking a whole street of houses at Omaha, Nebraska
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A view showing the destructive force of the tornado at Omaha, where happy homes stood a few hours before. Many residents were caught as in a trap and instantly killed or fatally maimedCopyright by George Grantham Bain.A view showing the destructive force of the tornado at Omaha, where happy homes stood a few hours before. Many residents were caught as in a trap and instantly killed or fatally maimedlink to high-resolution image
Copyright by George Grantham Bain.A view showing the destructive force of the tornado at Omaha, where happy homes stood a few hours before. Many residents were caught as in a trap and instantly killed or fatally maimed
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CHAPTER XIXOmaha: "The Gate City of the West"
LARGEST CITY IN NEBRASKA—GATE TO THE WEST—GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES—SPLENDID INSTITUTIONS—A PROSPEROUS CITY—REMARKABLE ACTIVITY.
Omaha, "the Gate City," largest in Nebraska, is a typical plains town, proud of its industry and its climb on the census list. It stands eighty feet above the Missouri on the west bank of that river opposite Council Bluffs, Iowa. For twenty-four square miles stretch its many churches, educational institutions and large manufacturing plants, with the pleasant residential section lying above.
On the site of the present city Lewis and Clark in 1804 held council with the Indians. There were a trading station and stockade at the place in 1825 presided over by pioneer J. B. Royce. The first permanent settlement was made there in 1854. A tribe of Dakota Indians that lived in the region gave the city its name.
When the Union Pacific Railroad was stretching steel hands westward in 1864 Omaha was the most northerly outfitting point for overland wagon trains to the far West.At that time it took its name of "Gate City" and then its sudden growth began. In 1910 the population was 124,000.
GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES
Because of its location it soon began to draw industries. Packing is one of its leading industries today. So extensive is this business that Omaha ranks third among cities of the United States in packing. Silver smelting, distilling and brewing are some of the other pursuits that keep its citizens busy.
SPLENDID INSTITUTIONS
Among the more important buildings are the Federal Building, Court House, a city hall, two high schools, one of which is among the finest in the country, a convention hall, the Auditorium and the Public Library. Omaha is the see of Roman Catholic and Protestant Episcopal bishoprics. Among the educational institutions are a state school for the deaf; the medical department and orthopedic branch of the University of Nebraska; a Presbyterian Theological Seminary; and Creighton University under Jesuit control. The principal newspapers are theOmaha Bee,World-Heraldand theNews. TheOmaha Beewas established in 1871 by Edward Rosewater, who made it one of the most influential Republican journals in the West. TheWorld-Herald, founded in 1865 by George L. Miller, was edited by William Jennings Bryan from 1894 to 1896.
Omaha is the headquarters of the United States military department of the Missouri, and there are military postsat Fort Omaha, immediately north, and Fort Crook, ten miles south of the city.
REMARKABLE ACTIVITY
Prairie freighting and Missouri river navigation, were of importance before the construction of the Union Pacific railway, and the activity of the city in securing the freighting interest gave her an initial start over the other cities of the state. Council Bluffs was the legal, but Omaha the practical, eastern terminus of that great undertaking, work on which began at Omaha in December, 1863. The city was already connected as early as 1863 by telegraph with Chicago, St. Louis, and since 1861 with San Francisco. Lines of the present great Rock Island, Burlington and Northwestern railway systems all entered the city in the years 1867-1868. Meat-packing began as early as 1871, but its first great advance followed the removal of the Union stock-yards south of the city in 1884. South Omaha was rapidly built up around them. A Trans-Mississippi Exposition illustrating the progress and resources of the states west of the Mississippi was held at Omaha in 1898. It represented an investment of $2,000,000, and in spite of financial depression and wartime, ninety per cent of their subscriptions were returned in dividends to the stockholders.
The original town site occupied an elongated and elevated river terrace, now given over wholly to business; behind this are hills and bluffs over which the residential districts have extended.
CHAPTER XXOther Damage From the Nebraska Tornado
GREAT HAVOC IN NEBRASKA TOWNS—DESCRIPTION OF THE TORNADO—YUTAN A SUFFERER—THE TUMBLING HOUSES OF BENSON—CURIOUS TRAGEDIES—HOUSES TUMBLING ABOUT.
GREAT HAVOC IN NEBRASKA TOWNS—DESCRIPTION OF THE TORNADO—YUTAN A SUFFERER—THE TUMBLING HOUSES OF BENSON—CURIOUS TRAGEDIES—HOUSES TUMBLING ABOUT.
The storm which lashed its way through Omaha on Easter Sunday had already carried havoc into other Nebraska towns. William Coon, president of an automobile company of Lincoln, Nebraska, gave a stirring description of the tornado as he saw it from the platform of an observation car on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad:
DESCRIPTION OF THE TORNADO
"For miles," he said, "it seemed as if the train were being pursued by the storm. We were approaching Ralston, Neb., when I first noticed the strange cloud mounting the sky. Before that it had been clear."
Mr. Coon, from his observation car seat, saw the storm strike Ralston. "The passengers sat as if glued to their seats when the cloud struck," he said.
"The engineer brought the engine to a stop and the passengersran over to the wreckage of the houses. We could hear the groans of dying men and the wails and shrieks of injured women and children. I entered a house, or rather what had been a house, and beneath me lay a woman. I looked and I knew that she was dead. We got all of the injured out of the ruins and brought them to the train.
"We were about to leave when our attention was called to a little house some distance from the others. It had been wrecked and moved from its foundation, but we found a mother and her little baby lying upon a bed uninjured.
"The cloud wheeled and made towards South Omaha. We were not far behind, but our way was blocked by the debris the tornado had thrown on the tracks. Then, too, we stopped frequently to pick up the injured. There were some with their limbs torn off and all were cut and bleeding."
A Chicagoan, who withheld his name, told of the scenes at Omaha when the train stopped there. He said:
"I was just recovering from what I had seen on the train when we pulled into Omaha with the injured. It was night then, but such a night. The sky was lighted with a red glare, and the streets were filled with people who acted as though they were mad. Frequently the cries of the wounded, unloaded at the station, were drowned by terrific peals of thunder."
It is difficult for any one who has not lived through a tornado to have any conception of what such a storm can do. Tornadic force means anything more than one hundred miles an hour. There have been instances where tornadoes haveshaved off the stone sides of buildings as if they had been sliced away by a stonecutter. Forecaster Scarr, of New York, said that the tornado that wrought destruction in Nebraska may have been of the resistless kind that simply ground stone and brick to dust and carried up its electrified funnel the remnants of every building it struck. The tornado finally became almost like a mass of whirling steel, revolving faster than the blades of the swiftest planer and cutting everything to pieces in its course.
YUTAN A SUFFERER
The tornado first struck the little village of Yutan, southwest of Omaha. Yutan was practically wiped off the map and its population of four hundred left desolate. After the buildings had been razed the wreckage caught fire. "The town is burning! We'll all be killed!" some kept crying, and this added to the fears of the others. Many persons were killed and many injured. Waterloo, a village of about equal size to the northeast across the Platte River, suffered like damage. Wires were snapped off in all directions, and it took many hours to gather and circulate news of the disaster.
Leaving desolation behind it the tornado swept at a rate of possibly one hundred and fifty miles an hour into Berlin. This little village had a population of about two hundred. The storm killed seven and injured thirty. The habitations were virtually wiped out. A church, an elevator and part of the residence of State Senator Buck were all that remained standing of what was a prosperous town.
THE TUMBLING HOUSES OF BENSON
On its way to Omaha the tornado struck Benson and Yutan. Benson is a thriving town of over three thousand. Here property damage was great and many persons were injured. As the houses began to tumble a little girl dressed in white started from one of the houses and ran down the street with her hands above her head. Just then the side of a house came soaring through the air, and shooting suddenly downward it struck the child and buried her beneath it. When the storm had passed, the injured were lying all about the streets.
At Ralston, a suburb of Omaha, many were killed and much injury and destruction left in the path of the tornado. Late in the afternoon a copper-colored cloud was seen mounting toward the sky. The cloud grew rapidly and was traveling at tremendous speed. It assumed the form of a funnel and the air was filled with a curious, piercing noise. It swished across the railroad track and swept on its way toward the little town.
Then the storm struck the town. Houses collapsed as though they were of paper. The roofs went sailing away and the sides fell in. Passengers in a passing train watched the destruction, and a cry of horror went up from every one. It was an awful sight.
A farmer was standing on the doorstep when he noticed the funnel-shaped cloud. He called his wife and four children, and they all sought refuge in a cyclone cellar. Five minutes later their house went sailing away.
CURIOUS TRAGEDIES
Edward Mote, his wife and three children were sitting in their home chatting when the tornado suddenly carried them and their home to Paio Creek, one hundred yards away, and dropped them into the water. Mrs. Mote was drowned.
Postmaster D. L. Ham, his daughter, Mrs. Kimball, and his grandchildren were standing in the doorway of their home when the wind struck. Mrs. Kimball and her two-year-old daughter Frances stepped outside the door, which slammed shut. Their bodies were found among the debris. H. E. Said and wife, bride and bridegroom of a month, were in the Ham house. Warned of approaching death by Mr. Ham, they sought solace in each other's arms. Thus they were found dead. Mr. Ham was slightly injured.
HOUSES TUMBLING ABOUT
There was a big threshing machine standing near one of the houses, and when the cloud struck it shot straight up into the air and was carried about forty rods. Houses were rolling and tumbling along the ground. A box car was carried along by the terrific air current for a quarter of a mile. When it split open six or seven men, who turned out to be part of a repair gang, dropped out. Some lay very still, while others feebly crawled about.
A dozen other towns in the section of Nebraska surrounding Omaha were hard hit and many farming communities were destroyed.
CHAPTER XXIThe Tornado in Iowa and Illinois
MONSTER TORNADO SWEEPS ACROSS RIVER—DESTRUCTION IN IOWA—THE STORM-CLOUD OVER ILLINOIS—GALE AND FIRE IN CHICAGO.
MONSTER TORNADO SWEEPS ACROSS RIVER—DESTRUCTION IN IOWA—THE STORM-CLOUD OVER ILLINOIS—GALE AND FIRE IN CHICAGO.
The monster tornado that wrought such havoc in Omaha leaped across the Missouri River and swished its wicked tail through Council Bluffs. Then it sped northeasterly, wrecking several villages before it finally disappeared.
DESTRUCTION IN IOWA
Reports from Mills County stated that it caused loss of life in every town in the county reached by telephone. Many deaths occurred at Glenwood and at Council Bluffs. Scattering towns all through the district reported one to two deaths.
Eastern Council Bluffs suffered heavily, the storm breaking in the valley just east of the town proper and following the lines of the Milwaukee, Rock Island and Great Western railroads for a distance of a mile.
The storm, which was accompanied by hail, rain, sleet, lightning and a gale which blew seventy miles an hour fora time, was felt most severely in the northwestern section of the city, where houses were overturned, windows broken, trees uprooted and electric light and trolley poles blown to the ground. Nearly fifty small fires resulted and hundreds of men, women and children fled from their homes in terror.
Considerable damage was done to Des Plaines, Park Ridge and other suburbs. The property damage in the city and suburbs was estimated at more than $500,000.
THE STORM-CLOUD OVER ILLINOIS
Illinois also suffered severely from a tornado on the night of Easter, March 23d, and the following morning. The storm was less severe than that which struck Omaha, but the wind was blowing at a rate of seventy miles an hour for a time, and in Chicago alone thirty-two structures were damaged and a number of persons killed. Out in the state the heaviest suffering was at Rockford, Elgin, Wheaton, Bloomington, Galesburg, Peoria, Erie and Des Plaines. The aggregate loss in other communities was great.
The storm covered all of Illinois north of Peoria. In Galesburg many buildings were moved from their foundations. Half a dozen residences in Peoria were demolished. All streams rose high and costly floods occurred along the Kankakee, Illinois and other rivers.
GALE AND FIRE IN CHICAGO
In Chicago all the elements seemed to meet Sunday night. The wind blew a violent gale; snow flew before it in someplaces; hail crashed windows in other parts of the city. Every available fire apparatus in the north and west sides of the city was called out to extinguish fires which broke out in business blocks and dwellings partly wrecked by the storm.
A number of lives throughout the state were lost by this storm and the property loss was estimated at $2,500,000.
A second storm on Monday caused great destruction in Mahanda. Thirty cars of a southbound Illinois Central freight train were blown from the track a mile north of the town. Two firemen were injured.
CHAPTER XXIIThe Tornado in Kansas and Arkansas
THE "BLOWOUT" IN KANSAS—DAMAGE TO CROPS AND SOIL—DUST STORM COMES SUDDENLY—TORNADO IN ARKANSAS.
THE "BLOWOUT" IN KANSAS—DAMAGE TO CROPS AND SOIL—DUST STORM COMES SUDDENLY—TORNADO IN ARKANSAS.
Following a heavy downpour of rain on Easter Sunday night the atmosphere at Topeka, Kansas, was filled with dust until it had the appearance of a heavy fog. The dust came from the western part of the state where severe dust storms prevailed.
In western Kansas the "blowout" has been as great a source of damage to the wheat fields as the drought or chinch bugs or hot winds. In the event of a drought there is always some hope of rain; with the hot winds there is hope of a cool spell; while the ravages of the chinch bugs may be checked in two or three ways.
With the "blowout" there absolutely is no hope left, and not only is the wheat crop gone for good, but the ground sometimes is left in bad condition. The "blowout" is little understood by any one except the person who has witnessed a dust storm. Several years ago the "blowout" was much more common than now, although there is some damage in western counties every year from this source.
DAMAGE TO CROPS AND SOIL
The damage comes not only to the fields that have been blown out, but the adjoining fields, on to which the "drifting soil" has blown in great clouds and settled, have suffered likewise, and whole pastures have been known to be destroyed by the same means. For several years the farmers have been working night and day to devise some method to prevent the damage from "drifting soil," or "blowouts," as they are more commonly known.
Senator Malone has introduced in the Kansas Legislature a bill providing that the county commissioners of any county where a "blowout" has commenced may call in agricultural experts and devise ways of stopping the drifting. The farmers of Thomas County held a meeting in Colby recently to discuss the situation and if possible arrive at some means by which the drifting of soil might be stopped from destroying the crops.
These farmers reported that a strip of land between Colby and Rexford, about fifteen miles long and five miles wide, was blown out last season and in that territory not a single root of vegetation remained, and the top of the ground was as hard as the pavement on any street in Kansas City. The ground as far down as the plough went was completely blown away. When these fields were blown out the wheat was several inches high and before the wind came up the prospects were bright for a good crop. It took but a few hours for the wind to complete its work of destruction. The little town of Gem sits in about the center of the devastated land.
DUST STORM COMES SUDDENLY
A dust storm is not only unfortunate, but it is unpleasant in the extreme. It comes up sometimes very suddenly. The sun may be shining and not a cloud in sight. In less than five minutes the sun will be obscured from view and the air filled with dust, sand, gravel, sticks and other debris.
Besides suffering from a dust storm, Kansas was stricken by floods due to heavy rain in some parts of the state. Hail and lightning accompanied the rain and did much damage.
TORNADO IN ARKANSAS
A tornado on Monday night, March 24th, eight miles southwest of Leslie, Arkansas, killed Mrs. John Couders and seriously injured John Couders and his son William, and James Trieste, his wife and three children.
A tornado that passed over Clarksville, Arkansas, on Tuesday, killed Miss Ida Brazell and blew down many houses. At Rumeley five were killed and several injured. Couriers immediately sought aid, carrying news of great suffering in the mountains.
Their tales were heart-moving. Lack of insurance, lack of funds and lack of knowledge of what to do when overtaken by calamity made the situation in small towns and in out-of-the-way places more pathetic than that of the unhappy homeless in some of the large cities affected by the tornado or the flood. To the latter relief was immediately sent—from neighboring places, from the whole country. The others, suffering no less, did not always even succeed in being heard.