Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1890 — CYCLONIC DESTRUCTION [ARTICLE]

CYCLONIC DESTRUCTION

WHIRLING WINDS WRECK A PORTION OF LOUISVILLE, KY. Two Hundred to Three Hundred Buildings Blown Down and 200 People Killed —Destruction at Metropolis, Ill.—Dispatches Telling of the Ruin in the Storm's Track. Louisville (Ky.) dispatch: A tornado has swept over this city, wrecking 200 or 300 houses and killing 200 people. The wind came from the southwest. The Union depot at the foot of Seventh street was lifted from its foundation and turned over into the raging torrent of the Ohio river. A train of cars making up for the Louisville Southern road went over with the building. Falls City hall, on West Market street, was wrecked. In the hall were over MX) people, and but few of them escaped alive. Many buildings after falling caught fire and the inmates were burned.

G. E. Johnston, a telegraph operator, who was an eye witness, says: “The cyclone struck Louisville in the southwestern portion and took a northeasterly direction. I only saw the course of it from Fourteenth and Walnut' to Eleventh and Market streets. From this latter point it followed its course to Seventh street and the river, where it left the city and striking across the river reached Jeffersonville at the foot of Spring street. “Little damage was done in Jeffersonville, however. In Louisville the devastation is terrific and the loss of life will certainly reach hundreds, if not thousands. “In one building, at Twelfth and Market, two lodges and a dancing school were in session, there being in the building perhaps 100 persons, not one of whom is thought to have escaped. “I stood and watched them working on this ruin and saw six or eight corpses taken out in fifteen minutes. There Is scarcely anything left that would indicate that this heap of rubbish had ever been a building, and if any of its Inmates escaped it was by nothing less than a miracle.

“The path of the cyclone was about a square and a half in width. All streets are blockaded with the debris of fallen buildings or telegraph a“nd electric-light wires. This dispatch is carried around the city to the bridge and sent by railroad wires.” • Cairo (Ill.) dispatch: A tornado struck Metropolis, 111., at 5 o’clock In the evening, doing great damage to property. Many houses were blown down, and It is reported that several hundred people were killed and injured, but all wires are down and it is impossible to get details. Metropolis is a town of about 4,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the Ohio river, which at that point is a broad stream now much swollen by tne floods which have threatened the towns along its banks. It is the county seat of Massac county, and lies directly south of the center of the county. This town has but one railroad, the Terre Haute, which, running south through the county, turns at Metropolis and follows the course of the Ohio up the river to a point opposite Paducah, Ky, There the road crosses to the Kentucky side and becomes the Newport News & Mississippi Valley. St. Louis (Mo.) dispatch: It is reported that at Mill Creek, a small station twenty-five miles not th of Cairo, several houses were blown down and a number of people injured. Owing to the wires being down it is impossible to get particulars. A special from Coulterville, 111., says that town was visited by a disastrous wind accompanied by hail the size of hen’s eggs. Davidson Elder’s house was wrecked, and Mrs. John Richmond, Mr. Elder’s daughter, and Messers. McCracken and Smith of Nashville, 111., who were in the house at the time had a miraculous escape, getting off with a few bruises and scratches. A special from Nashville, 111., s»ys the cyclone struck that place with terrific force, and that not a pane of glass is left in a window with western exposure. At Little Prairie, a few miles away, the storm destroyed the residence of William Rhine and Mr. Rhine was badly hurt, his leg and arm being broken. He is also internally injured and not expected to live. Two of his children were carried a quarter of a mile to the home of David Smith. They were uninjured. Smith’s house was destroyed He rushed out with his little girl and a tree fell on them. Neither is expected to live.

A special from Carbondale, 111., says a disastrous cyclone passed through Jackson county. At Graud Tower a coach of the Grand Tower & Carbondale railroad was blown from the track. A number of houses were leveled to the ground and three lives are reported lost. Near Murphysboro Mr. Linsley’s dwelling was literally blown to pieces, his child killed, and his wife dangerously injured. St. Louis (Mo.) dispatch: Officers of lower Mississippi steamers arriving here report much distress in the overflowed districts south of Memphis, and the outlook for their next crop quite discouraging. Should the water not drain off by the last of April it will seriously interfere with their planting. Over 1,000,000 empty sacks have been shipped to points between Memphis and Vicksburg and have been filled with earth and sand and used in strengthening the levees. Newsy Paragraphs. The colored men of Battle Creek, have organized a protective league. Charles Desson, a missing grocer of La Porte, Ind., is supposed to have wandered away while temporarily insane. Rev. Dr. D. J. Burrell of Minneapolis has declined the call extended him by the Collegiate Reform church of New York city. Eugene Youngs and Abe Armstrong fought with knives at Montague, Mich., while drunk, and the former received Injuries which will probably cause his death.