The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1876-05-13
rnE GREAT srORa.

At half.past three O'Clock yesterday
morning, this vicinity was visited by the
heaviest and most destructive xind storm
that Leaven worth ever experienced. il
had been raining almost necessarily fol
about sixty hours, and at the time the
wind storm struck the town, the rain was
still coming down in torrents. At an
early hour in the evening the lightning
began to play across the sky, the whole
air seemed filled with electricity, and all
night long the flashes and reports fol.
lowed each other in such rapid success.
sion that there was almost an unbroken
glare of lightning and roar of thunder.
Generally it seemed to be some distance
away, and didn't give nervous people any
special occasion for uneasiness, but coca.
sionally there would come q binding
fash followed immediately-Or, rather,
accompanied-by a terrifying, crashing
roar, indicating that the elements were
operating in unpleasant proximity to US.
The lightning struck somewhere in town
several times during the night, but We
have not been able to learn Of any dam
ages resulting from this cause mean.
while the rain continued to come
straight down till about three O'Clock,
when it Stacked up" for a little while
aud them seemed to be prospect that
the storm was over. But in about twen-
ty.6ve minutes there appeared in the
western hOrisOn dense mass Of cloud, of
inky blackness, which, seen from the city
appeared to be about hundred feet in
height, about the same across the top,
and tapering down to q point at the
surface OF the earth. In the lightning
which now flashed about once q minute,
this cloud, which at other times was As
black as pitch, seemed to be of angry
yellOw.red color, very dense, and clearly
approaching the city with great rapidity.
In o few moments after this, it was OBJ.
served, sharp breeze came up frOm the
east, which continued not over minute,
then there was a dead calm, and the
rainfall ceased entirely; then began to
be heard the distant roaring of the
coming tornado. Those who heard it
supposed at FIRST. that it was the rain
coming again; then, as it came nearer
and louder, the impression was that a
hail storm was coming-but this idea
very soon vanished, for in q moment
more the wind struck US and it seemed,
for time that every thing above ground
was doomed to destruction. Just as the
hurricane struck the city came . blind
ing flash of lightning, with a crash of
thunder that made the earth tremble /;
this, with the terrific roaring of the
wind, which cannot be likened to-any-
thing but itself, the creaking and groan.
ing of trembling buildings, the crash of
falling walls and flying imbers, made an
of the fury of the elements,
which those who witnessed it will never
desire to see repeated. The writer
hereof was one of the few who had the
misfortune to be awake during the entire
and he has no hesitation
in declaring that no further experience
of the same kind is desired.
The "wind cloud" was funnel-shaped,
with the small end downward; it moved
in general course from West to East,
oscillating from North to South, re-
bounding like shot on the water, and
ruin in its pathway wherever
it struck the earth. The stOrm-centre
seemed to pass down Cherokee street,
extending in destructive force to Shaw
nee, on the north, and to Oak on the
South, covering an area of about a mile
east and west by quarter of mile
north and south, Immediately through
the heart of the city. The loss to the
city and county, directly and indirectly,
from the wind and rain cannot be less
than $3.50, 900. and may reach a quarter
Of a million.-LeaeenWorth Times, 9Th inst