The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1878-08-15
THE TERRIBLE TORNADO.


Iss Deadly Wor;S at NValifngfo Conn.,
Twenty-eight Persons Killed and Many
Others IDjured-Houses swept Away,
Leaving No Trace,
New YORK, Aug "A Tines special
from Wallingford, Conn, says: No
man who has not looked upon the ruin
wrought in this place by the storm OF
Friday can conceive of the terrible force
with which the elements beat upon the
plains OF Wallingford during the few
moments it lasted. Never did storm
come with more appalling suddenness.
Friday afternoon was one of the lovehest
of the season. Light clouds sailed
across the sky until 3 or o'clock in the
afternoon, occasionally Obscuring the
sun. Then few black clouds portend-
ing disaster appeared over Mount La
mentation, high hill lying to the west
ward of the village. Under the foot OF
this hill spreads Lake Windermere, an
artificial pond crested by the Com
muhity people by damming the Quin
nipiac River. Wallingford lies between
this hill and another not so high that
runsparallel to the mountain east of the
town. Hills surround the pretty village
THE CLOUDS GREW DARKER
toward o'clock, when the workmen
about the village left the factories and
the mills, and started for their homes.
The wives sci about preparing supper
for their returning husbands, and only
passing glance was cast toward the
murky clouds that rolled over the west
ern hills. BY $50 o'clock they had be-
come intensely black. Still there was
no sense of impending danger. The
utter stiffness that precedes many thun-
der-storms settled down in the valley
Just before o'clock. All the wind
seemed to have died away, but aloft the
clouds went tearing wildly along at such
pace that many observers took alarm,
and fastened through the streets to seek
shelter. Lightning began to play in
cessantly across the low-hanging clouds.
WITH HORRIBLE sUDDtNNEss
change took placein the heavens. Tn.
der the threatening clouds other and
blscker clouds were driven. They came
up from the west almost with the swift
ness of thought, before a dense black
mass that rolled over the Wallingford
community. A feecy, white curtain
advanced, hiding the orchards aud vine
yards as it moved forward. The light
nings flashed in binding forks from
this cloud, that was more like smoke
than vapor in its lightness. Incessant-
ly the flashes lighted up the surround
ing country with a lurid purple light,
while the thunder ratified and doomed
with interminable and deafening loud
ness.
1t was about 10 that a second mass
of clouds was was noticed approaching
on different current of wind from the
snerthward, and some say there was also
Commencement setting in from the
southwark, bringing heavy black clouds
that seemed to touch The tops of the
trees. A few drops of rain fell gently
Men and women hurried to the windows
to close them, and home going laborers
began to run. Little reckened any one
the peril of that moment. Before cry
could be raised, or preparation made to
escape,
A DEATH-DEALING BLAST
fell upon the homes of the poor The
heavy clouds over Windermere Lake
seemed suddenly to drop upon the lake,
and the waters were churned into foam
with great whirling and whistling.
The winds from opposite quarters seem
ed to meet. A great volume of water
was lifted from the lake and went swirl
ing up and up into the air. Lightning
is not quicker than was the advance
from west to east of the column of wa
ter and the clouds that seemed to min
gle with it'll a second it started on q
forward course. Before it lay the sand
plains on which about 81 families, most
~ Irish, have bought lots and establish
ed their dwellings. The plains are near
ly flat for q distance west to east OF
about third of mile. Then the land
rises rapidly to the ridge on
which the main street is laid out. The
Wallingford Community had water
wheel on the shore of Windermore
Lake. The whirlwind caught it, and
It was crumbled IS if it had been bull.
of straws. A few hundred yards from
the lake was a poor cottage, in which