The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1871-06-29
Remarkable Tornado.

4 I. ~
Between 8 and 9 o'clock yesterday morn
| ing some men on the truck farms on tn
l;south side.of the Christiana, near tho nout]
! of that river, heard q singular roaring an,
rushing noise, and shortly afterwards say
that whirlwind was passing across. thei
place. It crossed a tomato patch, wrcnchin.
Iand9twistingsthea who's, passed thence int
Henry Ell Townscnd's wheat field, ard ap
| peared TO gather, strength as it went, for a
it passed the wheat field it; snapped off tire,
pannes of fence, and then struck lare,
brick barn, and passed around il to lars,
hay barn, a building l04 feet long. Her,
it commenced the. work of destruction il
earnest. 1t tore, the building. to pieces, anc
teveled the very foundation walls on which il
was built y ''']i ''''' ''''. -
1t next struck wheat barn about sixty
feet long by twenty wide, and completely de-
molished it. Thence it passed Ito a wheat
barrack, no portion Of which. except tho up
rooted posts, has since been seen.
Itnext struck granary solidly built Of
heavyswhite oak.9a The building was too stout
to be torn to pieces, butlt lifted it off of its
foundations, moving it several feet, and then
upset a corn crib adjoining it, smashing be-
heath it a grain drill and a sleigh.
z It also destroyed one or two other small
buildings 'and tore up several large trees by
the. rootsjgand split in two large locust tree
standing near the house. a,.y "a ..-s.,
One Of the most singular and fortunate
things about the whole affair is that it passed
completely around the house, without doing
it the slightest damage, or injuring anything
within the home enclosure except the locust
tree just mentioned. s.
Some of the performances seem almost like
the fantastic freaks of a sportiye gent The
back barn, first struck, was not I'M ured other
wise than by tearing off all of its doors; but
one of these doors, a large ono, which it
would require four men to carry, was carried
up into the air and whirled about like sheet
of paper. 5as a
One Of the grain fans standing in the gra-
nary, moved by the wind, was upset, and its
hopper was taken off and carried quite dis
lance and dropped in front.of the house.
A sixteen-foot board was deposited in the
top of a, cherry tree The rake ola revolv-
ing horse-rake was picked up and carried
some distance, broken in two in the middle
aud the two halves hung on two pins on the
side of the granary.
1t snapped the iron axle of a new-style
horse-rake off at the hub.
But the most remarkable feature of the
whole affair was that, though twenty cattle
were buried beneath the ruins of the large
hay barn first demolished, they all escaped
without any serious injury. In many cases
they were pinned closely to the ground by
the debris. but as fast as the wreck was lifted
from them they got out of the wilderness Of
confusion around them with whole skins and
sound limbs
The property was owned by Zadoc Town
send, and occupied by his son, Henry l..
Townsend. The latter, with remarkable
good fortune, escapes all loss but that Of the
sleigh. Had the cattle not have escaped his
loss would have been very heavy. His faith
er is the principal loser but says that as most
Of tbs buildings were quite old, and all would
have had to be moved before long to make
way for the extension Of city Improvements
iu that direction, he only estimates his loss at
1000.
In company with Mr.. Townsend, ST., we
rode over the track of the tempest this morn,
ing We never saw more complete or thor
ough wreck. The buildings were SO CON-
pletely torn up that it seemed that there was
scarcely one piece Of timber left fastened to
another, The hurricane spent its fury there,
and seems to have divided up into several
smaller ones, which damaged tree here and
there, and then subsidized.
ANOTHER HURRICANE.
On the north side of the Christana, short
ly after the ravages of the hurricane on the
south side, whirlwind suddenly seized two
large willow trees near the Lighthouse, tore
them up by the roots, and hurled them against
the Lighthouse, completely demolishing its
porch We believe it did no further damage
= WiLminuton DeZl Conl27lerciGk 1871