The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1867-11-13
Terrible Tornado.

The Brownsville Rio Grande Courier gives the par.
teuars of one CT those disastrous tornadoes to which
our Southern coast is unfortunately exposed we copy
as follows:
On the 7th of the present month (October the long
heated term put end to by refreshing norher
which sprung up about o'clock A. NJ, and continued
with more or less violence until about P. NJ, when II
assumed rotary motion, srldng with fearful fury
from Nm g. aud momentarily increased to the vo-
ence of the most dreadful tornado of the tropics
We have seldom had occasion, in all our course OF
journalism to describe an occurrence so vivid IN ter.
rors and so prolific in destruction
As we wander amid the erumbling ruins of fallen
walls, and the crowds of homeless poor, we feel
incapable to give the merest conception OF that nsnt
of terrors when families of delicate females and chill
dren rushing from the fallen ruins of their homes
to brave the tempest of driving rain, and the air hlieo
with fragments of building material
There are, at the least calculation, three thousand
families who have lost everything and are completely
destitute. We are informed that our authorities, mil
tary and civil will appeal to the cities throughout the
States for assistance.
The rival steamers which gave such a cheerful ap
pearance of commercial importance to our city, are
dsmantled and reduced to almost shapeless ruins IN
volvng loss of at least 100000.
There were ten killed and twentyone wounded. The
names and particulars will be published in our nex
issue.
The destruction at Matamoros is equal if not greater
than at Brownsville. Our reporter made tour through
the city He reports the following losses but his re
port cannot be considered complete The house oil
A. c. St Mark, Sixth street, partly destroyed
loss estimated at $4,000. The entire square bounded
by Seventh Eighth Herrera and Bustamante streets was
blown down. The houses and buildings on the Plaza
de Armas stood pretty wel the square itself is COM
plete ruin The Cathedral is badly damaged
John Gauche's store and warehouse completely de-
stroyed loss about 100000
1t estimated that there at least 1900 houses
destroyed. There twentysix deaths reported on
Thursday.
There are we learn from passenger who came up
the Tamaulipas about one hundred persons alive at
Bagdad. There are left three four houses standing
but damaged very badly.
A letter from G. T. Noble, inspector at Clarks'iIle,
to the collector of customs, states that there are only
two houses standing at Carksville
LATER.
When the hurricane began, at 9 P. NJ, it took-the
Courier says-a rotary motion This accounts for the
saving of much property in Brownsville and Matamo-
ros That on the lower or river side of Elizabeth
street for the greater part, and the upper part OF
Brownsville seems to have escaped destruction. The
garrison, we thought, bad escaped, but the Courier
says the entire garrison was swept away. Several
soldiers wounded"
The loss in the Rio Grand river steamers is estimated
at 100000.
The ninety persons who were saved at Bagdad on
the steamer Antonio brought up to Brownsville
on the Tamaulipas; no vehicle went for them.
At Bagdad more people were saved than was at first
supposed, many having taken refuge in the sandhils.
twenty-five persons known to have been lost only
three four houses left standing in Bagdad and
they are badly damaged.
From Brownsville and Matamoros to the Gulf, the
tornado swept everything before it,
The Corpus Christi Advertiser says
Mr.. Grader, of this city, received letter from Mat
stating that one-thrd of the houses in the city
totally destroyed ard that the balance more or
less injured.
At Brazos, as Mr. VIM. Kelly writes:
The people have saved nothing but such clothes as
they had when the hurricane broke out and abso-
luely no provisions have been saved except such as
may have been found among the ruins that have not
vet hoated off
The Rio Grand Courier saws of the Brownsville
losses:
There is not habtation which has not felt the ter
rbe force of the Storm while the majority of bus
mess houses are in ruins
Although devote the present number exclusively
to this truly awful calamity, unable to particu
arse many instances of individual loss aud suffering
and the many shining examples of heroic sefsacrfce
The cities along the Gulf have ALL more Or less, suf
fcred from the yellow fever and themselves in very
poor circumstances; consequently cannot afford US
any assistance 1t is for the people of the East West
and North to come to our aid and help. Nor do the
houseess and homeless poor OF Matamoros less address
to the symEathies OF the world
We were in the eleventh hour of deliverance
from the scourgc of yellow fever, and owing to the
long continuance of rigid quarantine, business being
stagnant the poor people already much
strained by loss of employment and for that
this blow falls more grevously upon them.
People who have never experienced similar mis-
fortune, can form no adequate idea of this tempest
which blew with fearful force about three hours when
a little before midnight it ceased, with omnou5 lull
OF about onehalf hour, only to recol from the oppo
site direction with increased volume and tenfod fury
1t would need the pen of an Ossian or a Dante to
describe the 'plurimamortis image" of that
be forgotten ght.
There were those whose lips were long unused to
prayer, who, warned by impending DEATH knelt down
with most passionate fervor, to that power which in
the beginning gave and has right to take away in
lis own good time and manner.
We have grown forgetfu of our obligations to Di-
vine Providence and need the wrath of the wild
chained elements to teach who rules them"