Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1898 — TORNADO DRILLS IN KANSAS. [ARTICLE]

TORNADO DRILLS IN KANSAS.

Cave* Are Being Built Under School Heaaea. We have fire drills in our public schools in the east, and very effective drills they have proved in more than one case of emergency. In Kansas they have no fire drills, or, if they have, we have still to hear of it. Out there tornadoes are more to be dreaded than fires, and the schoolchildren are .now being trained in tornado drills, says the New York Sun. When tornadoes strike a Kansas town everybody makes at once for prairies. It is the onty way to escape death from flying doors ami chimneyß, falling trees un<} toppling buildings. Schoolchildren are trained to know this from the cradle, and on these occasions rtish pell mell for the nearest bit of clear prairie attainable. BAt .many children have been maimed and even killed in these terrible storms. So they have started a movement throughout the state to have tornado caves built under the schoolhouses large enough to accommodate all the children while the blow lasts. And here comes in the tornado drill, which is already being put into practice. It is very much like our own fire drill. The teacher sounds the alarm on the piano and the children all stand up. Then the march is played, and out they go in good order, down the stairs and into the cave. Then let the winds blow! Let the entire building fall in ruins! The children are safe and have only to be dug out.