Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1903 — STORM KILLS SCORE. [ARTICLE]

STORM KILLS SCORE.

TORNADO BWEEPS NEBRASKA * WRECKING MAN 1 TOWNS. * \~r~ ” Death and Destruction in Wake of the Wind—Norman,, Fairfield aad Other Places Visited Oklahoma Cloudburst Makes Hundred. Homeless, Tornadoes, which for several days wrought destruction in the West, desolated several Nebraska prairie towns Monday, killed at least twenty-one persons, injured scores of others, destroyed farm houses and village buildings and did immense damage to growing cereals and fruit*. Of the dead the name; of three residents of the village of Norman, Neb., are known. They are: Mrs. Earl Racon, Mrs. Welliver, John McCurdy. A partial list of the dead at Pauline follows: James C. Muinaw, wife and daughter, Frank Quigg, Lizzie Palmer, Jeannette Palmer. At Fairfield, Neb., three persons were killed In the wreckage of their homes, and many were hurt so seriously that the fatality list will doubtless be larger than at first reported. A tornado visited the town of Rolfe, seventy miles west of Des Moines, lowa, and killed Fong Foo, a Chinese laundrymas, and fatally injured a child. The tornado which devastated the - country near Norman, Neb., traveled rapidly east to Fairfield. The extent of the damage left in the trail in the farming region between the two towns is not yet known. A tornado struck fifteen miles south of Norman, demolishing fifteen buildings, killing three persons and injuring a dozen others. Front Norman, a town of about 100 inhabitants, situated on what is called the “high line” of the Burlington Railway, the path of the storm lay east to Pauline, a little station on the Prosser branch of the Missouri Pacific. From rauiine it proceeded southeast, losing its force south of Fairfield, The entire town of Fairfield, which had about thirty-five houses, is reported wrecked, and it is said that three persons were killed and others injured. Fairfield reports many farm houses wrecked in Clay, Adams and "Kearney counties, and eight persons are reported kiiled in the district near Fairfield. A tornado struck Elmo, Mo., unroofing stores and littering the town with the debris of trees. No lives were lost. Elmo is in the northwestern corner of Missouri near the Nebraska line, and the storm probably was a continuation of that which struck near Norman, Neb. >

A tornado struck the town of Rolfe, lowa, killing Fong Foo, n laundryman, fatally injuring a child and wrecking the State Bank building. Crayon’s general store, the Hotel de Main and one other building. Several residences were damaged. At Rochester, Minn., the worst storm in twenty years raged Sunday night from 11 to 4 o'clock. Several streets in the city were flooded. The Zumbro river rose five feet in two hours Monday morning and many houses and yards are under water. The storm was general in Olmsted County. A cloudburst is reported at Rockdell and some stock was drowned. The Chicago and Northwestern track near Dover was washed out for 200 yards. The water came down in torrents for several hours without ceasing, causing great damage to crops. Clon.U>ur3t in Oklahoma. A disastrous cloudburst swept through the country west of Enid, O. T., at midSunday, sending a flood of water 200 feet wide and three feet high through the bottoms, carrying houses and everything movable with it. Hundreds of families were rendered homeless and, the damage in Enid alone is estimated at fully $300,000. This amount will be largely increased when reports are received from the neighboring country. The storm came upon Enid without warning, while mort of its citizens were asleep. Within a few minutes a .hundred houses were partly or completely submerged. Rescuers went to work ftnHjediately and all night labored industriously' saving persons from perilous positions and aiding those driven from their homes. Thousands of dollars’ worth of property through central Illinois was destroyed by a cyclone Sunday morning. The storm left a trail of damaged buildings in its path, uprooted thousands of trees and greatly damaged the telephone systems. Raymond Morrison was killed by lightning at Curran. Lightning caused a fire which damaged several buildings at Virginia.