The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-07-13
incredible Power of n Storm-A Train
Blown from the Trnck-lmnnense
Destruction.

The Geographic reports in no way cXag-
perated the tremendous force of the storm
which recently devastated a portion OF Ne
braska. In the country near Omaha serious
mischief Was done. A number of people
were killed and a vast quantity of property
DESTROYED. The house of a farmer. j. K.
Jester, was lifted bodily from its founda-
ton by a furious blast and Whlrled through
The air five rods or more, stunning and
bruising the frightened inmates. In the
same town nearly every house was IN
| rooted, the wind tearing the roofs off like
| pasteboard. For miles the fine corn-tields
and wheat-fieldS have been ruined. Says
the Omaha Herah:
| A procession following the corpse Of
Lewis P. Thompson was oyertaken by the
tempest about four miles west of this city.
Mr. Ireland was one of the first to see it
coming, and, being a strong man, he jump
ed out, hoping to be able to hold the car
riage to the ground. But his efforts were
iruitless, the vehicle being twisted out of
his grasp and overturned. Nearly every
team was lifted bodily from the ground. A
carriage, in which Mrs. Thompson, Mrs.
Ireland, Mrs. Scott, and other near rela-
tlyes of the deceased were riding, was cap
sized. The hearse ran down into a hollow,
| where shelter was afforded. One lady was
taken up from the ground and carried u
distance OF 200 feet in the air before she
could regain her feet. The men could not
stand up, but were thrown about ut the
mercy of the wind.
The afternoon train on the Fremont and
! Elkhorn Valley railroad was struck by the
! storm between Scribner and CrOWell, and
| the three coaches were lifted from the
track, thrown down the ~embankment, and
turned upside down in the ditch. One side
| OF the engine was lifted eight inches from
| the track, but the coupling broke, and it
fell back again. Nearly every passenger
was more or less injured. John McClary,
of Norfolk, received a fractured skull his
wife was bruised beyond recognition ;
tured. Robert E. Farley's shoulder
was %dislocated. The left arm of DR..
A. G. Beebe, Of Blair, was broken above the
| elbow. Conductor McLeod's shoulder was
broken. Lew. Reed, OF this city, was on
the train but escaped with only slight
| bruises. But one mile from the wreck of
the train, the house Of Nathan Austin was
| picked up by the wind, carried about 100
feet, and torn completely into pieces. MIR.
Austin was crushed to death in the wreck
by falling timbers. His daughter escaped
with her life, though she was severely IN
jured. The Union Pacific railroad express
train, which had drawn up to the water
tank ut Lone Tree, was backed away from
the building when the approach of the
storm was noticed, and not q moment too
soon, for the windmill n building
fell Immediately afterward with a fear
full crash. AS the storm swept about
the train, shaking it tremendously ; the
employees of the company hurried toward
the sleeping-cars, which were considered
the safest from being the heaviest, and the y
said that the passengers were nearly all on
their knees praying for mercy, for not one
expected to escape alive. Immense hall
stones fell at this point, and a dispatch re-
ceived from there said that none We're
smaller than cotfee-cups. One was found
that actually measured twelve inches in
circumference. In the city twelve houses
were blown down and destroyed. The roof
| was torn from the back side Of the depot !;
the kitchen OF the hotel was blown down ;
the telegraph poles were torn from the
ground q box freight-car, which was
standing on a side track, was demol-
ished; the frame was blown down III en-
baDkment, and the truck was taken up by
an opposite current of wind and thrown
on the main track. Piles Of lumber were
| whirled in every direction. The operator
telegraphed that "a woman was picked up
| by the wind and carried a quarter of q mile
| at the rate of q thousand miles a minute"
A gentleman named E. Phelps, living
near Lone Tree, was killed, his daugh-
ter fatally injured, and every member OF
his family more or less bruised. The storm
there continued about ten minutes, and its
track was about ten miles in width with