The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-05-26 00:00:00

DESTRUCTIVE CYCLONES in AMERICA.

At dusk on Friday night in last week a cyclone
passed through the north•eastern part of Racine,
Wisconsin, destroying 150 buildings, and killing and
injuring a number of persons. It was followed by a
thunder shower. The path of the cyclone was 400
yards wide and about half a mile long. Few houses
in the neighbJurhood remain standing; brick and
wooden buildings were alike wrecked, and most
of the people who escaped fled to the cellars. In
but few cases were the buildings moved from their
foundations. Those standing in the central path of
the tempest fell in ruins; and those on the outer edge
of it were turned round. A number of wagons and
other movable articles were swept into Lake Michigan,
over which the cyclone passed from the town, making
a grand spectacle, as the whirling columns of air moved
along, raising spiral columns of water. Several persons
were killed in the neighbouring villages.—The New
York Correspondent of the Standard gives the follow-
ing details :

The day dawned brightly, but a fresh, cool wind
blew from the S.E. in the afternoon about four
o'clock a sharp electric storm visited the neighbour.
hood; but little rain fell. At six o'clock a dead cairn
set in, with oppressive heat; and observers noticed two
heavy inky clouds crossing the sky in opposite
directions, N.E. and S.W. They met with a roar
which is described as resembling the noise of many
railway trains pas,ing over a bridge. The sound
carried terror far and wide. It continued for about
two minutes, and ended with a peal of thunder,
like the discharge of heavy ordnance. For a brief
interval the clouds remained stationary ; then they
whirled along, a wheel of a quarter of a mile in
diameter, towards the north, touching the earth now
and them as they careered madly onwards. As the
cyclone approached the city of Racine its velocity in-
creased. It then resembled an enormous funnel, five
hundred feet high, around the top of which the light-
ning played so that it suggested the chimney of
a great iron foundry. The storm swept away every.
thing that lay in its path through the city.
For half a mile nothing remains intact. The brick
chimney of a factory was carried a distance of three-
quarters of a mile. An oak two feet in diameter was
dashed through a house. Some buildings were turned
over, while others were turned round. One house,
which was apparently caught in the centre of the
whirlwind, was lifted twenty feet above the ground
and floated along until the pressure of the air burst
the building, and its five inmates disappeared
without leaving a trace; it is believed that
they have been carried into Lake Michigan.
One house lost its roof ; its wooden frame
remains, but the brick casing was stripped off,
like the rind of an orange. Even the side walks were
blown out of their position. It is known already that
28 persons have been killed in Racine, and some of the
bodies are mere shapeless masses. The estimates
differ of the number of the injured in this one place
alone, but the lowest is thirty. The nature of the
injuries is very curious; some have had their eyes
destroyed, others merely had their fingers broken.

Another cyclone at about the same time struck
Howard, Illinois, destroying many of the buildings,
and killing five and wounding twenty people. Seven
persons were killed, and thirty-five wounded by
cyclones in South-Western Illinois during the night.

A later account speaks of terrible destruction occa-
sioned by the cyclones, extending through large dis-
tricts of Wisconsin, Minnesf ita, Illinois, and MisBouri.
Eighty-three persons are reported to have been killed,
and 340 injured—many of them fatally.

Stable Seorets.—Very unstable ones.—Weighing
One's ehances.—Soaling the jookeys.—/knny Folks.