The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1880-07-27
]. CYCLONE IN IOWA.

CYCLONE IN IOWA.
Are Wooden Houses as Safe as
Stone?--HOw the Cyclone Acted
Instances of its Terrible
Power.
To the Editer of the New York Tribune.
An old subscriber to the Tribune saw
on the first page Of your weekly issue
of June l6 paragraph on the subject
of Tomatoes in'the West. 1t was sue-l
gested that the light. balloon frame
house is not just the thing for the re-
gion or tornado action, ana that an inn
provement would be to build slow
structures OF brick or stone, with heavy
roofs firmly fastened to the walls. Of
iering no projections for the WIND. to
seize upan.h WilIthe Tribune hear y
word from one OF many in this section
who knows something Of tornado ac-
tion."
My house stands ono mile south OF
Lewis, Cass county, Iowa, right in the
center OF the course of the storm to
which you refer watched the storm
cloud for an hour before it reached US,
and listened to its steady roar for long
time. / received no damage, simply
because the cyclone took one Of its
jumps in this vicinity. and went high in
the air over our heads. I saw it while
doing its fearful work just over the line
in Pottawatomie county. I stood on a
high divide where l could see quite
plainly.
The cyclone was an awful looking
thing. 1t reached across the sky from
west to east, or nearly so. The western
end wks the part which did the damage.
In color it was OF q purplish black.
Sometimes could see the clear blue sky
below it; and again it would touch the
ground so that could not. 1t looked
like revolving column, revolving
slowly at the top, but faster toward the
lower or western end. Great arms or
claws OF cloud would reach down and
around, corkscrew-l like, while the light
ming played necessarily down the sides.
The rest of the sky was somewhat cloudy,
but the clouds seemed to start simulta-
neously from all quarters toward the
coming column. The wind was then in
the south, where was, but soon turned
to the eest, blowing terribly. Then there
was sudden calm. Then the wind
blew more terribly from the southwest !;
and shortly afterward squarely from the
north. There was some rain and few
hailstones, about the size OF door-knobs.
There was nc storm mile south Of
me. At Lewis there we're only slight
rain and a little wind, though ten miles
north they had almost s|wsterspout.
Of course did not stav on the di.
vide. Like any sensible Iowa man, /
took my family into an underground re-
treat built originally for a milk-house
NowI know that there is just as much
difference between q awind-storm and a
cvclone as between rapids in a river
and whirlpool in the ocean. I know
that no building, whether OF wood, brick
or stone. be it three or two stories, or
only one, with or without projections,
would stand any chance with cyclone
if 1t we're struck fairly and squareIv.
The only safety for a man is under
ground; and the most of US in Iowa
have such summer retreats. "Cave sell
lars" they are called. can give you
some idea OF the power OF a cyclone by
describing how lumber and farm wagons
are treated by it. The wagons are the
same as those used in New York State.
They we're taken up. and carried OF and
picked to pieces. The a1es were bro.
ken short of close to the hubs. The
felloes were carried away entirely, and
the spokes we're broken off close to the
hub the tires we're twisted into fantas.
tic shapes. If possible. we ought TO
have cyclone-procf wagon wheels.
Horses and boys are picked up ont of
the pasture BY these storms and car.
ried to the next !. township and bali
buried in some corn field. These things
are no exaggerations; they are terrible
facts. The stable of William Hopley,
containing twelve horses, was lifted
bodily into the air and thrown down
upon the spot of ground from which his
corn crib had been blown away and
dashed into kindling wood, and that BY
merely the fag end Of cyclone. None
o. the horses we're killed either. The
hogs In the basement we're. many, of
them, killed by the rock wall being piled
onto them. Fa "a .
You could not get me to stay in
stone house in cyclone. There is
really less risk in good frame house,
because they burst outward after being
raised in the air. A stone house seems
to be whirled into promiscuous pile all
at once eYr 5 tr W. M.