Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1877 — The Mount Carmel (Ill.) Tornade. [ARTICLE]

The Mount Carmel (Ill.) Tornade.

Heavy, dark clouds banked upon the western horizon yesterday gave promise of a continuance of the rain which had fallen at intervals during the day. The hour, as hear as can be ascertained, was 3:85 in the afternoon. Men who were looking to the west said: “There is a big rain coming on over there.” Suddenly a strange commotion was noticed in the cloudy banks. The air was filled with a mighty noise', like the rolling of waves high up on, the seashore. The terrified inhabitants .saw a mighty cone. It must have been 1,000 feet In'height, and bore the appearance of a olond whirling and spinning toward the town. It first was noticed at a distance of a mile and a quarter west of the center of the town. It was a cyclone, and (he besom of destruction passed through the town, leaving a trail of death and ruin behind it like unto the marks of the hand of Omnipotence when raised in anger. The air was filled with wrecks of houses, stores and missiles of every sort, The crash of falling buildings was heard on every band. The death-dealing cone passed through the town, making its terrible mark eaat on Fourth street, the prettiest of the streets of this bright little town. Ift two'tainutes all was over. The cyclone, seemingly having exhausted the vials of its wrath on Mount Carmel, passed through the town, and *t its eastern verge went upward and ceased to work harm. The roaring noise died away and tife rain fell in nlidding torrents. The afreets filled with people, gad shouts of terror and excitement rent the air on every hand. Nothing could be seen but devastation. The streets were impassable by reason of the debris. Buildings contmnbd to crash and fall. Men and women, erased with, fear, were panic stricken. School children, miraculously delivered from the jakrs of death, Wfefe wildly searching'for>their parents;' Groans on every hapd told of strong men in agony. Horses darted ’wildly pabc, riderless, filled with the terror of the scene. Suddenly, above all rose the tejrrible cry of “ Fire 1’ ’ and the lmid flames bdrstihg wildly from the ruins of what five minutes before had been the finest and most substantial business block in the town,’ verified tne alarm.

This was the time for heroes, to come to the front, and they responded. Men, bleeding and wounded, hurried to the scene. One man, cooler than the rest, remembering that Mount Carmel was without fire extinguishing apparatus, ran to the depot. He telegraphed to Vincennes: “ Oof town is in ruins and in flames. Send us aid.” Within ten minutes from the receipt of the telegram 1 the Vincennes steam fire-engine was at the Vincennes depot. A special train over the'Cairo & Vincennes Hoad was' hastily contributed. The distance to the luckless town was twenty-four miles. A ride of thirty-seven wild,ex6lted minutes brought the firemen and their engine to the scene, and there they ,worked as only brave men can. Three large brick 'buildings had been wrecked by the cyclone. Combustible material had started the fire. “ There are men under these fiery ruins,’’said the MaydT of Mount Carmel, who was cm the ground. The men redoubled their ,exertions,,and succeeded in confining and reducing the flame*. In a dozen other localities men with axes and bars were cutting and hauliflg away the ruins of buildings, recovering bcfdies and rescuing the injured. It was a terrible nigtjJt, and tfie rain, continued to fall. Torches and bonfires were lighted; and in their glare the search for the dead and the buried living was continued through the night. When exhaustion atk late hour bade a cessation of labor, the grimed and sooty men told each other in lowered tones that the deathroll footed up iWe’ve, and that it would be increased ; when the ruins of the" wrecked town were more fully explored. The gray and gloomy morning broke upon a scene pf desolation and destruction. A hundred dwellings were wrecked and battered! eloquent evidences of the force of the visitation i twelve homes were in mourning, and in fifty more friends Waited upon the injured and wounded and prayed that they might be spared. Mount Caripel, one of the bright, cheerful little towns peculiar to Illinois, has a population of about >B,OOO orderly, wellconducted people,; is located on the west bank of the Wahash' Hiver, on a high bluff, is forty-five miles from the mouth of the Wabash, and is reached by the Cairo & Vincennes Railroad and the St. Louis, New Albany & Louisville Air-Line JMaßffl"?***** ■ t '‘ l ■ 'i M etJ. ; ' >•!