People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1896 — RUIN AT LINCOLN, NEB. [ARTICLE]

RUIN AT LINCOLN, NEB.

CYCLONE DOES ENORMOUS DAMAdE. Many Parson* Art Injured, but None. It I* Thought, Fatally Wild Scenes or Terror Throughout the City Minor Storm* at Various Points. A terrible cyclone visited Lincoln, Neb., Tuesday evening, and, after the disturbance, it was found that scarcely a building in the capital city of the state had come out of the struggle undamaged. While the ruin, in some instances, was complete, it varied in others from the loss of roofs to the demolition of chimneys. No loss of life has yet been reported, but the number of persons injured is

large. The “twister” scooped down upon the city at 4:30 o’clock in the afternoon and in a short time the work of destruction had been done. Among the larger buildings that suffered were the Hotel Ideal and the structures of the State University. The buildings at

streets, was destroyed. The loss is |4,5<N). .. —r» TERRIFIC TWIBTKR AT ELK HORN. Descend* to the Barth Twiee aad LmtM It* Mark of Ruin. Elkhorn, Neb., Special: A cyclone swept this region Tuesday. A funnelshaped cloud shot down from the storm center and'a general stampede of citizens for cellars and oaves ensued. At the school house the children fled pan-ic-striken to the furnace room, and several of them were hurt. The cyclone struck the ground north of the town. Its course was northwest. The path of the storm was from 200 to 300 yards wide, and everything in this path was razed to the ground, including several houses. Large trees along the highway adjacent were torn and twisted out of the ground. Carl Johnson, a farmer, was caught in the “twister.” He had a team attached to a wagon.

He endeavored to skirt the storm by driving in a meadow to the westward, but before he could lash his horses out of the path of the rapidly approaching hurricane he was caught, and man, horses and wagon were sent, through space, together with fences, boards, posts, wire and other debris. Johnson’s clothes were torn from his back, and he received several injuries. At times the wind would raise him high in the air aifd drop him back to the earth, only to catch him up again, and finally, when the storm passed over him, he was 150 yards or more from where the storm first struck him. The wagon was completely demolished.