The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1871-03-18
The Tornado at st. Louis.

The Tornado at st. Louis.
Most of our readers, doubtless, have read
accounts in the daily papers of the recent
tornado at ST. Louis but the following letter
from an esteemed friend who surveyed
the scene day or two afterwards gives u
much more vivid idea of the "wreck and ruin
wrought" than we have met in any of the
newspaper accounts
A look over the track of the tornado which
passed over East St. Louis on the 9Th OF March,
gives one an impression of the power OF the wind,
which no verbal description can. Such survey
is suggestive, also, of freaks and caprices in the
rushing storm.fury.
Blowing off the top of grain elevator, like
that of Eames' warehouse ut Ottawa, the tempest
struck the east shore of the Mississippi Just be.
low the abutments for the bridge, in the neigh.
borbood of the ferry landing Quicker than
thought, ovsr-and.over it rolled many q wagon
and team, sweeping IN its whirl a number of
men directly into the river. IL snatched off the
frame and trestle work of the piers, belted and
brsced with rods and chains of iron, as garden.
er brushes in his grasp handful OF tender
weeds. 1t tossed overheard the engine from
little tug leaving its cockle-shell. 1t takes the
upper works and sheeting off ferry boat, strip.
ping its wheelhouse as for . new roofing Just
beyond it encountered fine steamer, tears off
and lays opsn her upper cabin: racks and
smashes down and bears away her upper works,
tossing her chimneys one way and lodging her
metallic life boat, bent round tree top on Shore
in an opposite direction. .t...
The depots and railways lay nearly at right
angles across its path. The passenger depot of
the Chicago & Alton road had both ends blown
49, ,kolo ta1
ing in it were left untouched, but covered with
dust and falling plaster. So sudden was the
visitation and so short. perhaps not more than
half minute, there was no time for fear.
The day after the storm, East St. Louis looked
rs if it had received shower Of kidding wood
Splinters and broken beams covered the ground
or foated as coverings on the sloughs. Trees
gone half through houses and stopped on their
way, trees PROSTATE, trees spintsred and twisted
off, trees standing cree: and hung about with tin
roofing or rags,-all things lying around loose !;
shantes standing. shanties scattered,-le you
wondering why the track was not sDept clSan.
and why 50 very few were injured " killed
You could hardly believe, without seeing it, that
a locomotive weighing thirty tons could be
tossed directly off the track dozen feet and let
drop into slough on its side, and not touch the
ground or leave a scatch from where 1t stood to
where it fell. And yet there it lay, and the
track on which it stood remained uninjured
Behind it magnificent Pullman car, weighing
more than the locomotive, lifted from, the track
aud striking some eight feet off, left its trucks
half buried in the sand, and was tossed several
rods across and into slough. A now passenger
car, weighing nearly ~ much, WAS blown clear
oCer thigh up on ga embankment, distance Of
four or five rods, striking ground much more
than fve to eight feet lower than where it first
stood.
The course of the tornado, which began near
Helena, in Arkansas, and went with destruc.
tive power full hundred miles north of St.
Louis, was gentle curve, as q whole; vet with
marked dcviations from side to side Six miles
north of st. Louis it shifted from slight north.
easterly direction to q north westerly, sweeping
again over the railway tracks and tum bling off
train Of box cars, blowing one clear into the
woods some rods from where it stood crushing
down the forest trees and scattering the fences,
lifting off roofs, on it went with au incrsdib
speed and power.
The ssddest incident IN its history was the
imprisonment of an engineer in the fallen ruins
of round house belonging to the Chicago &
Alton road, at East St. Louis. The fallen tim.
bers held HIM by his hand and he could not dis
engage it. Men gathered quick aud worked
hard to help him, but could not reach him He
begged they would get an axe and cut off his
uTUl. AAeh Couiu nave Oeen 1OuDO UblOfe th0
storm, bu, now everything was in confusion
and no one knew where to find anything. Tho
fire in his engine fred the building and young
Isaac Evans soon persisted. His home was at
Alton, where his remains were brought to be
buried. Perhapsit was the very Sabbath before
he witnessed the public profession OF his wife rs
she united herself with the Baptist church, say
ing, as they returned home, he chopped he should
join her SOON" The little family beresved, his
mother, wife and two children, shared in SYM
pathy and pity. But how soon will these pass
away, while they are left dependant to wear
away the years of anxiety, care and toll.
The loss Of u quarter or half million dollars
in property in u minute, the prostration of sew.
enty buildings, brings discomfort but eight,
ten or dozen lives plucked away bring Ms =
sorrow that the years coming cannot efface or
cure. N. K. w.