Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1904 — STORM DOES DAMAGE. [ARTICLE]

STORM DOES DAMAGE.

CHICAGO AND VICINITY HIT BY WIND AND RAIN. Several Killed and Many Hurt—Suburbs from North to South Swept by Fury of Gale and Flood—Tornado Describes Circle About City. A cyclone, the worst for years, visited the outlying districts of Chicago about 7:30 o’clock Thurqjiay night, killing three persons, fatally injuring many others, and destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of property. Wires were torn down in all directions, so that many* of the outlying towns were in darkness throughout the night, and Chicago herself was practically cut off from all telegraphic communication with the outside world. The storm, which was followed by torrents of rain and blinding lightning, passed over the entire northern portion of Illinois and Indiana, felling houses, wires, poles and trees as if they had been straws, and then as suddenly as it descended jpassing on to work fresh havoc elsewhere. The rain added to the already extensive floods, and wrought almost as much damage as the wind. The storm was most serious in the Calumet region, the towns of Indiana Harbor, Hammond and East Chicago suffering severely. The most reliable Information to be obtained from Indiana Harbor was that twenty-four houses had been wrecked, two men killed and fifteen seriously hurt. Reports from East Chicago told of four buildings being damaged, including a school house and Tod’s opera house, the latter a three-story structure, the largest in the town. No lives were lost at East Chicago. The path of the storm was a meteorological freak. It described a wide curve around the city, extending from Waukegan, Crystal Lake and other points on the north through the north side and, taking in the western suburbs of Riverside, May wood, Lyons, Melrose Park, La Grange, Hawthorne, Clyde and Berwyn and then sweeping south to Morgan Park, Dauphin Park, West Pullman and still farther south to Hammond and the adjacent Indiana towns. v In the brief space of fifteen minutes the tornado, which left scarcely a mark in Chicago, wreaked destruction on the towns in its pathway. Trolley lines were swept down by the wind and street car traffic blocked so completely that hours elapsed before the damage could be repaired. Electric light plants were tied up and thousands of stores and homes were plunged in darkness. In Washington Heights and Morgan Park ten houses were blown down, one woman was hurt, and the tracks of the Rock Island Railroad were blockaded by fallen telegraph poles for miles. The utmost fury of the storm was felt at Thornton, where a church was wrecked and many persons were injured by falling buildings. The Gorman baithetan Churcl} was lifted from its foundations and fairly blown to pieces, the roof being torn off and the structure ruined. A saloon, crowded with men, was blown down and it is remarkable that no one was killed. Several were injured, however. A house was blown from its foundations and another was hurled into a stone quarry and demolished. As far north as Crystal Lake the force of the wind was strong enough to unrcof many buildings, demolish store fronts and carry away outbuildings. Forty head of fine cattle were killed on the Bryant stock farm near Crystal Lake by the bam collapsing under the wind.