Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1903 — STORM KILLS SCORE. [ARTICLE]

STORM KILLS SCORE.

fORNADO SWEEPS NEBRASKA WRECKING MAN / TOWNS Death and Destruction in Wake of the_ Wind—Norman, Fairfield asddther Places Visited Oklahoma'- Cloudburst Makes Hundreds 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 fruits. Of the dead the names of three resi- ■ dents of the village of Norman, Neb., are known. They fire: Mrs. Earl Racon, Mrs. Welliver, Jo'hn McCurdy. A partial list of the dead at Pauline follows: James. C. Mumaw, wife and daughter, Frank Quigg, Lizzie Paliper. 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, & Chinese laundryman, and fatally injured a child. The tornado which devastated the country near NormanjNebv.traveTed - rapuTTyeasT 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 fiftden miles south of Norman, demolishing fifteen buildings, killing three persons and injuring a dozen others. From Norman, a town ofabout 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 MifsouriNPacific. From Pauline it proceeded southeast, losing its fore«r»outh 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, ajid eight persons are reported killed in the district near Fairfield. A tornado struck Elmo, Mo., unroofing stores and littering the town with the debris of tarns and trees. No live? were lost. Elmo is in the northwestern corner of Missouri near the Nebraska line, and the storm probably was ‘n eontinuatioiuof that which struck hear Norman, Neb.

A tornado struck the town of Rolfe, lowa, killing Fong Foo, a ladndryman, fatally injuring a clyld and wrecking.. .the State Bank building. Crayon’s general store, the Hotel 'd e 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. Severai streets in the city were flooded. The Ztunbro river rose five feet in two hours Yfondny morning and many houses and yards are under water. The storm was general in Olmsted County. A cloudburst is reported at liockdell and some stock was drowned. The Chicago and Northwestern! track near Dover was washed out fur 200 yards. The water came down in torrents for several hours without ceasing, causing great damage to crops. Cloudburst in Oklaboiua. A disastrous cloudburst swept through the country west of Enid, O. T., at midnight Sunday, sending a Hood of water 200 feet wide and three feet high through the bottoms, carrying houses and everythin»‘ movable with it. Hundreds of families were rendered homeless and the damage in Enid alone is. estimated at fully $300,000. This aniount will be largely iiwreased when reports are received from the neighboring country. The storm came upon Enid without warning, while most of its citizens were asleep. Within a few minutes a hundred houses were partly or completely submerged. Rescuers went to work Immediately and all night labored indus|triously_gaving persons from perilous positions and gliding 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 Sts path, uprooted thousands of tregs greatly damaged the telephone systems. Raymond Morrison was killed bj lightning at Curran. Lightning caused a fire which damaged several buildings at Virginia.-