Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1893 — LIVES BLOWN OUT. [ARTICLE]

LIVES BLOWN OUT.

Terrible Tornado Ravages New Orleans and the Vicinity. A terrific tornado struck Now Orleans the other night from the northeast, sweeping to the south along the line ot the Mississippi River through the parish of Plaquemines to the Gulf. The storm was one of the worst that ever visited that part of the country As far as can bo learned it killed not less than twenty-four persons and wounded probably three times as many, some of them fatally, besides destroying a large amount of property at New Orleans. The wind reached a velocity of sixty miles an hour. Tho revetment levee on Lako Pontchartrain, which protocts Now Orleans from overflow on tho roar, was washed away and the water swept over it fifteen feet or more. Many of the yachts there were sunk or injured. In the Mississippi tho coal fleet was scattered, the transfer boat of the Texas and Pacific Railroad badly damaged and several wharves carried away. The New Orleans and Northeastern had its track flooded for seven miles and so badly washed that it can run no trains. The track of the Louisville and Nashville was almost wholly washed out for fifteen miles. Throe persons were killed and one wounded severely, if not fatally, by the storm in the city of JNeV Orleans itEelf. Below the city it was far worse, especially in Plaquemines Parish. Here the wind reached a velocity of between 100 and 125 miles an hour and carried everything before it. Tho parish teat of justice, Pointe a la Hache, a town of 2,000 people, was the worst sufferor. In that town not a single house escaped injury. The Court House and Roman Catholic Church, the principal buildings in the town, and some twenty other buildings wore destroyed. Four grown persons are known to be killed in Pointe a la Hache and several children,, how many is not evactly known. In the immediate vicinity of Pointe a la Hache other deaths are reported and thirteen more in the country below. Gov. Warmoth said that this storm was the worst experienced’in Louisiana since 1811. The hurricane of 1888 was not half so violent and detractive. Mobile Has a Cyclone. At Mobile, Ala., the wind blew tho water in from the Gulf until the river reached Royal street, which is four blocks from' the river and at an eleva-' tion of about fifteen feet from the main river height. There is no possible chance of estimating tho pecuniary damage. All the wholesale and a portion of the retail district of the city was some four feet under water, and thousands of dollars’ worth of goods have been damaged. It is conceded by all to be the worst storm that has ever visited Mobile. The towers on the court-house and Christ church may fall.