Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1890 — SWEPT BY A CYCLONE. [ARTICLE]

SWEPT BY A CYCLONE.

DESTRUCTION IN THE CITY OF ST, LOIS. A Fierce Whirlwind Strikes Migsouri’eMetropolis, Leaving Death and Destruction in Its Wake—The Killed and In* jured—List ot the Wrecked Buildings— The Storm Elsewhere. [St. Louie telegram.] The city of St. Louis was' visitfed last Sunday by a frightful wind storm which did great damage to property, and resulted in loss of life. The storm struck the southwestern section of the city and swept through to the northern limits, making a pathway nearly a quarter of a mile wide and leaving death and desolation in its track. There was scarcely any warning of the' approaching storm, owing to the fact that the sky had been overcast for several hours before the full force of the wind was felt, and it was all over in an incredibly brief period of time, those residing in and near the path of the cyclone scarcely realizing what had happened until it was all over. In addition to dozens of dwellings and stores in the southern, central and northern sections of the city more or Jess wrecked, the following buildings were damaged: The Anchor mills, Goodwin, candle factory, Pullman shops, Vam Brock’s furniture factory, Kingsland & Ferguson’s farm implement works, Missouri Pacific hospital, Hodgen school, German Evangelical church,. Second Presbyterian church and others yet to, be heard from. The losses on property are roughly estimated at 8100,000, but will likely Drove more. The cyclone seemed to have entered the city in its full force at Twenty-third ; street and Choteau avenue, passings northeast until it reached Seventeenth and Olive streets, where it swerved, taking a direct easterly course to Fourteenth, and then again .turned to thenortheast, leaving the city and striking the river just north of Tyler street. The only announcement of the approach and progress of the storm was a dull, sullen roar, quickly followed by a torrent of rain, which in turn was succeeded by sleet, and before the victims could realize what had happened the storm swept by and on, leaving wreckage and mangled humanity in its pathway. Trees were torn up by the roots and broken off, telegraph poles swept down as though mere sticks, while the roofs of buildings were lifted from their moorings like feathers and tossed into the streets. Mrs. Charles Miller, who resides with her husband at Twentieth and Eugenie streets, wa? sitting in a rocking chair, with her bane in her arms, when the roof was lifted from her house. She rushed to the window, and just then the wall gave way and Mrs. Miller and her babe were buried under the debris. The babe mirculously escaped without a scratch, but the mother was bacHy hurt and may not recover. Mr. Miller was in another part of the house and escaped unhurt. This is but one of dozens of incidents of the storm. It is just reported that a number of passenger cars were blown from the tracks in the upper part of the Mill Creek valley, the western outlet of the union depot yards. The list of killed, sofar as known is as follows: MRS. MAGGIE CONNERS, aged 40. BERNARD M. CONNERS, aged 40. JOE WEAVER, aged 8. WILLIE MARKS, aged 6. The injured are. Teresa Weaver, aged 6, both legs broken; will probably die. Mrs. Charles Miller, badly cut and bruised. Sj, Annie Connors, badly bruised. Maggie Connors, bruised and cut badly. Francis Connors, slightly bruised. Dr. Nichols, who is attending Mrs. Miller, says that she is dangerously hurt. The babe is all right. The last death reported is that of Willie Marks, aged 6 years, whose parents reside in the northern part of the city. He was in bed sick with a fever. The storm blew the roof off the Marks home and bricks came crashing into the room, resulting in the death of the boy from sheer fright. . The cyclone was of not longer duration than five minutes’ time, but in that short space it left behind it a track of ruined buildings, unroofed houses, shattered walls, dismantled churches and ■’chools, wrecked factories and mills, streets heaped with debris, telegraph poles blown down by thousands, the wire service of the city temporarily destroyed, and the usual dread accompaniment of loss of life and widespread injury to human beings that left a panic-stricken populace gathering at every street corner ,to discuss the sudden horror. From the evidence of eye-witnesses the storm was an undoubted cyclone, dropping upon the city at about the inital point designated and gaining in intensity as it swept in a diagonal path toward the river. The usual sudden darkening of the skies at the point where the cyclone burst, the awful descent of the funnelshaped cloud, and the havoc of ruin following its touching terra firma, are all told in the stories of those whose terrifying fortune was to mark the approach and passage of the hurricane. The telegraph and telephone wires were badly knocked out by the cyclone. The Western Union and Postal have been at their wits’ end with but half a dozen wires between them, while 700 of the telephone wires of the city are down. A messenger just arrived from the east side of the river says that the storm in St. Clair county, Illinois, was unusually severe. Brooklyn, a village of about five hundred people, seems to have suffered most. The danfage at East St. Louis and Venice was largely confined to railroad property and small dwellings and telegraph and telephone poles. Brooklyn is about three miles north of East St. Louis. Its population is largely composed of colored people. It was first reported in East St. Louis that the little village had been swept off the face o*f the earth. It proves not quite so bad as that, though, bad enough, and though several were in-' jured no lives were lost. A number of’ dwellings are in rains.