Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1882 — Another Iowa Cyclone. [ARTICLE]

Another Iowa Cyclone.

Independence, lowa, was visited by a devastating hurricane on the afternoon of Juno 21. The day had been a most oppressive one. At 4:30 p. m. rain began to fall, the wind at that time blowing briskly from the southwest. In a few minutes another current seemed to come from the northwest, and they met near Independence. Suddenly it grew dark, and the people were wild with fright. The citizens nearly all went into their cellars, hut there were thousands of country people in the city, who had come in to see Sells’ circus, and they not only filled the stores but lined the streets. The darkness did not last long, but an opening appeared in the clouds, and at that spot there were rapidly changing colors of purple, pale green and other colors, and that seemed to be almost directly over the city. It was then the hurricane commenced, and the time of the destruction was not over three minutes. The scene was one of the wildest con fusion and terror. Houses were picked up and dashed to the ground, demolishing them as badly as were those at Grinnell. Hoofs, boxes, boards and gravelstones were flying promiscuously through the air. Wagons wore overturned and demolished, horses were running away and becoming entangled in the telephone wires that had been thrown to the ground, and everything seemed to be in chaos. There were nearly twenty-five houses completely wrecked and more than that number of barns, while of those that were damaged from SSO to *IOO each there were over 100 houses and as many barns. Hundreds were unroofed, or partially so, had their windows broken and were damaged by falling trees. Cellars wore generally chosen by the residents as places of refuge, but the rural visitors took shelter at the most convenient places. The deathswill number four, and the. damage to property will approximate $175,000. There were many miraculous escapes, and the only wonder is that more lives were not lost. The citizens of Lswa now anxiously watch for the appearance of the ominous black clouds.