Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-08-31
TERRIFIC TORNADO.
Destruction Of a Portion Of the Union
Pacific r. r. Bridge at Omaha.

Last Saturday forenoon one of the
most terrible wind storms ever expert
enced in the Missouri valley passed be-
tween Council Bluffs and Omaha, quar-
teringly across the bed Of the Missouri
River. Its track was narrow, but those
who witnessed it say that it divided the
waters of the river like those of the Red
Sea before the fleeing Israelites. 1t
struck the eastern portion of the splen-
did Union Pacific Railroad bridge across
the Missouri, and lifting two of it's mas
sive iron spans, each $50 feet in length,
and weighing thousands of tons, and
threw them bodily into the stream, and
besides did other damage of serious
character. The following are the par
ticulars of the calamity received by
mail:
Up to 2 o'clock Saturday morning
there was not the faintest indication Of
a storm, and the people awake at that
hour thought the light wind from the
south would develop into nothing more
than an easy rain; but about o'clock
the wind veered to the northwest and
increased in such strength as to awaken
everybody, while the lightning began to
flash so wildly as to illuminate the
heavens and earth continually. Amid
the signing and moaning of wind that
betokened a hurricane, householders
hastily closed their shutters and win
dows and then returned to bed, but had
hardly done so when hail storm sprang
up and continued fifteen or twenty min
utes, thoroughly arousing every one.
Those living near the business center
heard few crashes as outbuildings and
fronts of stores were blown down, but
beyond that no one looked for any great
damage. About $3.50 residents near the
Union Depot heard loud crash, as of
falling iron and timbers, and were at a
loss how to account for it. Daylight
came and with it news that part of the
Union Pacific bridge was gone. 1t seem
ed incredible, but visit to the scene
showed it to be too true.
The first two eastern spans were gone
and naught but the piers, standing soil
tary and alone, remained, while at the
foot of the embankment was what was
left of the eastern span, snarled and
twisted out of shape. The second span
had fallen into the main channel of the
river below, and sunk in thirty feet Of
water But one man could tell how it
happened, and he was John Pierson, the
Waterman on the eastern end of the
bridge. He says that when the hail
storm ceased there was lull in the
tempest for few minutes, when sud-
denly he saw, from his guard house, a
balloon-shaped mass whirling down the
river toward the bridge. He was so con-
fused by the hail and the play Of the
lightning that he does not know exactly
what next occurred, until he found him
self at the foot of the embankment,
twisted up in the telegraph wires He
says two spans of the bridge seemed to
be lifted up very high and then cast
down with deafening crash. Beyond
this he cannot say.
The mail train was to leave this side
at O. clock, and being afraid it would
come and perhaps be precipitated into
lIlS SitdSHI, Ac GilIHDcu W lllc lOp anu
tried to signal the Waterman at the west
end of the bridge to stop the train. but
could get no response, all the wires be-
ing down, which he did not know. Fail
ing to hear from this side, he went be-
low, crossed the river in a boat, and gave
information of the catastrophe, arriving
in time to stop the train.
The cost of replacing the spans is es-
timated at 100000, and will be done in
about three months.
Travel will not be interrupted with
the Chicago, Burlington y Quincy, and
Rock Island passengers will be transfer
red at Plattsmouth and run into the
city over the Burlington 4 Missouri
The Northwestern will transfer at the
Missouri Valley Station, and come here
via Omaha and the Northwestern Road
from Blair. Every skiff in this vicinity
is engaged in ferrying passengers over
the river. The Union Pacific are run
ming dummy trains from the transfer
station to the river, for the accommoda-
ton of travellers between the city and
Council Bluffs, and do not collect fare.