Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1908 — DEATH AL WAYS BUSY [ARTICLE]

DEATH AL WAYS BUSY

Grim Reaper Brings to Hie Aid the Cyclone and the Treacherous Pit Fiend.

TWENTY-TWO DIE IE BTOKME

Tempest Sweeps Over Parts of Nebraska, Texas, lowa and Oklahoma.

Savon Miners Killed by Explosions of Gas While Fighting a Pit Fire —Over a Dozen Others Wounded.

'At least five persons are dead, two fatally injured, a score or more badly hurt, while hundreds of thousands of dollars* worth of property was destroyed by a tornado which passed over portions If Sarpy, Cass and Nemaha counties, In Nebraska. The dead are: Mrs. Frank Hester,near Louisville; Charles Leader, near Richfield; Mrs. Marko, Bellevue; Martin Tieth and son James, near Papillion. Fatally injured —JEdward Martin, near Meadow; Mrs. TruceUe, Bellevue. Telegraph and telephone wires are down so that full details are not obtainable, and it is feared that there may be more names to be added to the death list when it is all known. Besides the damage done by the wind the heavy rainfall caused floods which badly demoralized the railroads in the territory mentioned. The heaviest property losses, so far as hearh from, were sustained by the United States army post at Fort Crook and the Presbyterian college at Bellevue. The storm was the most severe that ever struck eastern Nebraska. The damage to the college buildings at Bellevue was heavy. The tower was blown from Park hall and the building wrecked. Lowry hall and Rankin ball were unroofed. The panic-stricken students ran to the basement, and in this way many fatalities were probably averted. The college stables were wrecked and all the horses killed. A number of small buildings and stores in the village wits blown down. Moving south the tornado struck Fort Creek, damaging several of the barrack bul’dlngs, but nobody was Injured. In the town of Fort ever, a number of buildings was entirely wrecked and other damage done. Tornadoes Hit Oklahom. Eight persons were killed and scores of others injured in several tornadoes in northwestern Oklahoma. The dead are J. E. Hale and Mrs. J. E. Hale, Little Robe, Ellis county; two unknown persons Arnett, Ellis county; Dr. Bowser. Vici. Woodward county; Arthur Slbel, Mutual, Woodward county; William Hand. Estelle, Major county. Mrs. Young, Selling, Dewey county. No list of the injured Is obtainable at this time as telephone communication Is entirely cut off from the stormswept area.

Postmaster E. A. Speck, of Vici, has asked that a postoffice inspector be sent to report on his office, which was demolished and the contents scattered in all directions. The village was wiped off the map. A horse was lifted by the wind at Vici and dashed through the top of a dugout, burying Dr. Hawser beneath the entire earth roof of the dugout and the weight of the animal's body. A horse belonging to Sibel, of Mutual, was killed when a piece of two-by-four lumber *was driven through his body. At Mutual fifteen young persons had gathered for an evening social. Hie storm lifted the house completely off the floor on which they were seated, leaving the floor and the young people unharmed. Seven Dead in Louisiana. Seven are known to be dead, and many others are Injured, as the result of a tornado which swppt across northwest Louisiana. The nttle town of Gilliam, twenty-five miles north of Shreveport, was destroyed and the town of Bollinger, on the east side of the river In Bossier parish, was badly wrecked. Communication with the greater portion of the storm-swept section is interrupted. and it is believed certain that later reports will Increase the Dumber of dead and injured. Texas Has a Fatal Blow. One person is known to have been killed, several others sustained serious injuries, and considerable property damage resulted from a tornado which swept trough the northern section of Texas. At Leonard, lex.. Mrs. A. T. Bowdry lost her life, and her husband was injured when their home, a two-story structure, was demolished. At Crandall about fifty houses were wrecked and several persons were injured. Train Races with a Cyclone. The train crew of the Burlington passenger train from Omaha reported •t St. Joseph, Ma, a race with a cyclone near Island Park, la., barely escaping from the which they report wrecked a bunk train containing a number of foreigners who had been working on the trade. Six men were reported killed and a score Injured. The bunk train had been moved from Bartlett, la., earlier In the day.