Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 February 1884 — WORST ON RECORD. [ARTICLE]

WORST ON RECORD.

The Terrible Destructiveness of the Decent Tornado in the Southern States. Six Hundred LiYes and Oter Seven Millions, Worth of Property Destroyed. Dwellings Tom to Pieces and the Oocupants Exposed to the Fury of the Tempest. Clean Swaths Cat Through Dense Forest.Shocking Wounds of the Victims. The first reports of the great Southern oyolono were not in the least exaggerated. Later and fuller details more than oonflrm the first accounts, and settle, beyond all doubt, that It is the greatest disaster that has ever happened In this country. The loss of life and destruction of property are simply appalling. In Alabama 210 people . are known to have been killed, and many wounded beyond the hope of recovery. In Georgia the fatalities are placed at 200, while many are mortally wounded. In South Carolina 103 are known to have lost their lives, and in North Carolina the killed number between 75 and 100. These figures show the loss of life to have been about 000. The loss of property is immense. Whole villages were swept entirely away and plantations and farms denuded of everything valuable. Live stock In great number was slaughtered or maimed so that It will have to be killed. Much valuable timber was also blown down and splintered to the extent that it will be worthless. In Georgia the pecuniary loss Is estimated at $2,000,000, and In one portion of Alabama It is said that $8, 000.000 will not oover the damage. In South Carolina the damage will foot up at least $1,000,000, and In North Carolina it Is estimated at $1,500,000. The storm blew straight across the State of Alabama, forty miles, sweeping every thing it encountered to destruction. Whole towns were literally obliterated, the houses being brushed away like chaff. Houses, fenoes, cattle, all were blended In an indescribable mass of objects without a moment's warning. Ten villages fell victims to the fury of the blast, and hundreds of farm houses were swept away. Horses, cows', mules, and wagons were strewn through the woods for miles. The same scenes of death and devastation followed in the wake of the tornado in its entire course through Georgia and the Carolinas. Almost incredible stories are told illustrative of Its destructive power. Thousand of sores of forests were swept away like chaff. Railroad oars loaded with freight were lifted from tbe tracks, hurled hundreds of yards, and wrecked. Many instances are reported where parents and children were lifted from their homes by the storm, carried high In the air, and landed on ground again without sustaining any Injury. A little boy In the Cahaba valley, Georgia, had his scalp blown from bis head. A lady near Cartersville, Ga,, saw the storm coming, and ran with her children Into the oellar, crouching and trembling with fear. The house was blown from its foundation and torn to atoms, leaving the mother and her little ones comparatively unharmed. Tbe mo her’s arm was broken, and one of the children bad a finger torn off. A Cave Spring (Ga.) man relates the following : I noticed the funnel-shaped cloud, black as Ink, long before It reached Cave Spring. The small end of the funnel was dancing along the earth, drawing Into its fatal vacuum everything In Its path. I saw houses lifted bodily from their foundations, carried along for yards, and then crushed like egg-shells. In a few momenta the beautiful village would have been a mass of ruins, but when a few miles away itscourse was changed and we were saved. Jarvey Henderson, of Heard Connty, Georgia, when the storm approached, took refuge m a well. While lying on his face In the bottom of the well a fence-rail was hurled Into the well with great force by the wind. Tbe rail came down endways, one end striking Henderson In the back, and going through him Impaled the victim to the earth and killed him almost instantly. In Talbot County, Georgia, a little girl named Annie Green, while drawing a pail of water from a well, was struck on the head with a large hailstone and sustained a fracture of the skulL While lying on the ground, apparently dead, the wind picked her up and after carrying her nearly fifty yards landed her helpless form In a thicket, where she remained until rescued by her parents. In Harris County, Georgia, hall fell in pieces of about five Inches In circumference In many curious shapes. In Baldwin County, hall fell as largo as goose-eggs, and in Warren County It was so heavy as to form drifts two feet deep. Hogs weighing 150 to 200 pounds were blown Into a yard from neighboring plantations. On the Georgia Pacific Railroad a fence-rail was driven squarely through a crosstie. At Davlsborough, Ga., the contents of stores were scattered In the woods for miles. At anothor place a large Iron safe was carried many yards. One man was found 200 yards from where the cyclone struck him. He was dead. At one plaoe a child was carried off by the wind, and Its body has not yet been recovered. At Leeds, Ala., John Few, a negro who was killed, was carried by the velocity of the wind 300 yards, and when picked up was In a perfectly nude state, his clothes having been torn from him by his body coming In contact with various obstacles in tbe way. Mrs. Bass, wife of a prominent Leeds merchant, while ileelng before the storm to take refuge In a house, was struck in the back by a pebble with such force that the missile passed through her clothing and Imbedded itself deeply In her fiesh. The pebble was out out by a physician, and the probabilities are that she will get well. The scene around Leeds is described as awful. Houses Just completed were blown away, and not even a brick left where the houses stood. Horses, mules, and oows were killed, and in some Instances fence-rails were driven clear through their bodies. Two horses were seen to sail away In the air, and have not since been seen. William Fitzgerald and Miss Annie Hodges, while returning home from a social call, near Ladlga, Ala., were overtaken by tbe tornado, and the horse, buggy, Fitzgerald, and the young lady blown nearly 200 yards, and when picked up were horribly mangled and disfigured. Near Greeusport, Ala., a small dwell-ing-house was blown nearly half a mile before the angry elements and twisted Into fragments. A boy who attended a water-tank near Leeds was blown 200 yards, and ever since has been a raving maniac. In Johnson County, N. C., D H. Jones' family were all injured and his bouse blown hundreds of yards. His daughter fled as the house gave way, leaving her infant asleep in a crib. All o( the house save the ground floor was wrecked. The little child was found asleep uninjured, though the railing of the crib was carried 200 yards. A wagon was blown some distance and lodged In a tree-top. In Harnett County, North Carolina, a mother and child wore blown into a swamp and killed In the same swamp a baby was found half dead with cold and it soon died. The wounds of the dead in this locality are described as most horrible. Heads were crushed flat, Immense splinters driven through bodies, others were impaled on broken trees, forced Into piles of logs.or bad their intestines torn ' out. John Dalkin, near Rockingham, N. C., was found dead with a piece of splintered timber as large as a man’s leg piercing his abdomen. McDonald's saw and grist mills were scattered like chaff, the mill-stones even being taken up and carried several yards. A carriageway or slip, composed of two large sills, 12x14 inches ana about thirty feet long, and pinned together, was taken up and carried across the pond, with a carriage which was on It. A lightwood log, 2 feet In diameter and 20 feet long, waa caught up from tbp ground and carried several feet. Birds and poultry were nripped of their feathers and killed. Cows, hogiTC&n andeven rats and mioe, were destroyed. A young lady, when the house began to rock, ran out, and was Instantly killed by being pierced through by a fence rail. The scene of the disaster about Rockingham is said by those who witnessed It to have been worse than a battlefield. After the wind had passed the rain fell In torrents; when tbe rain had nearly ceased hailstones of extraordinary size fell in great quantities. Horses, mules, and cattle were killed by scores.