New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-05-14
The Tornado of 1870.

For the information of those who have never
read a correct account of the tornado 1870 we
publish the following, taken from the Natohez
Weekly Courier and Journal, Of May 49, 1S4O
Our devoted city is in ruins, and we have not a
heart of stone to detail while the dead remain I'M
buried and the wounded groan for help. Yester-
dry, at O'clock while all was peace, and most OF
our population were at the dining table, a storm
burst upon our city and ragged for half an hour
with most destructive and fearful power We look
around and see Natchez in ruins and hundreds of
our citizens without shelter or pillow. Genius
cannot imagine, poetry itself cannot fill up pic
ture that would match the ruin and distress that
! everywhere meets the eye.
Twas the voice of the Almighty that spoke, and
| prudence should dictate reverence rather than
exeeratOn. All have suffered, and all should dis
play the feelings Of humanity and the beneyoence
of religion
'Under the HIP presents scene of desoIa
| ton aud ruin which sickens the heart and beggar;
descript0n-all all, is swept away, and beneath
the ruins still lay crushed the bodies of many
strangers 1t would fill volumes to depict the many
escapes and heartTending scenes; one of the mos
| interesting was the rescue of Mrs. Alexander from
the ruins of the Steamboat Hotel; she was fount
greatly injured with two children in her arms ant
| they both dead
The destruction of fatboats is immense Al
| least sixty were tossed for moment on a raging
river and then sunk, drowning most of their crews
| The best informed produce dealers estimate the
numDef OF lives LDSL Dy t0e sinking OF uhtDOats a
two hundred No calculation can be made of the
amount of money and produce swallowed up by
the river. The steamboat Kinds, with the most o.
her crew, went to the bottom, and the Prairie
from st. Louis, was so much wrecked as to bt
unfit for use The steamer St. Lawrence at the
upper cotton press is a total wreck.
There is no telling how wide spread has been thu
ruin. Reports have come in from plantations
twenty miles distant in Louisiana, and the rage o
the tempest was terrible, Hundreds of negroes
killed, dwellings swept like chat from their foun
datlons, the forest uprooted and the crops beate1
down and destroyed. Never, never, never, wa
there such desOlatiOn and ruin.
We cannot even attempt a description of thu
mangled condition OfNatche2. Hundreds ofhouses
yesterday on firm foundations and the abode o
comfort and beauty, now choke up our streets witt
mangled materials, in state of utter destruction
We can do nothing to-day but bury the dead ant
bind up the wounds of those yet struggling fo
life. list of the dead and wounded will be gYeI
as soon as we can procure it complete.
The courthouse at Yidalia, parish of GonCordia
is low with the earth, and the jail next to it badly
shattered. 1t is painful to report the death o
Judge heeton, who was dug from the ruins of thu
courthouse horribly mangIed; he was the onl,
| person in the building at the time.
| The sheriff of Adams county and the marshas 0
this district, have suspended all business for thu
| present.
If ever community deserved the sympathy o
| the country and the bounty Of the government,
| is desolated, ruined Natchez.
| Ehe condition OF our office will prevent the ssu
ance of another paper until next Monday or Tues
day.
| WOUNDED AND KILLED.
From physicians, committees and the informa
| ton reported by citizens, we make the following
table of dead and wounded by the storm:
Killed in the city Of Matches 4s
Wounded in the city "A
tNatcGea Democrat.