Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-05-02
ALPENA WEEKLY ARGUS.
Wednesday, Nay 2, 1883.
A Southern Tornado.

On the 22nd of April, a cyclone
ran across Georgia, Alabama, Missis-
sippi and other Southern States, and
did immense damage. The village Of
Beauregard was completely destroyed,
and number of other towns were
partially leveled to the ground.
About one hundred persons are re-
ported killed and three hundred
wounded. M. Quad, in dispatch to
the Detroit Free Press, thus describes
the cyclone at Greenville, South Caro-
lima:
The sky had a peculiar hue about
sunset and rain fell in a perfect sheet
for twelve hours. The lightning was
so incessant one could read the finest
print without interruption for hours.
The thunder was akin to an earthquake
and colored people rushed about cry
ing out
THE JUDGEMENT DAY HAD COME.
Rain fell with such force as to
drown fowls, lambs and calves. Rail
road trains running into the tornado
at thirty miles an hour were brought
to stop. Freight trains with brakes
set were carried along at ten miles an
hour. Every railroad suffers from
land-slides, washouts and bridges.
Trains on some railroads out of At
lanta were Cancelled for twenty-four
hours. On some streams in Georgia
highway bridges and dams are gone
for distance of fifty miles.
THE LOSS OF LIFE
Will not be fully known for two or
three days, as the tornado was the
worst in the districts removed from
telegraphic communication. In some
sections, forests, houses, barns, and
fences were swept clean for miles.
Pine trees were twisted about like
willows and uprooted and flung in
every direction. Highway bridges
were lifted bodily and carried TO dis
tant fields and piled up in a grand
wreck. Brick buildings were treated
the same as wood. Loaded freight
cars at stations upset the same as emp
ty barrels. At Rome, Ga, hail fell
with such violence as to iniure horses
and cattle. On the larger rivers
where the dams were swept away,
great quantities of fish were carried
into fields and picked up by the wagon
loads to-day.
MANY ACTS OF HERoIsM
Are reported among the rural popu-
lation in leaving wrecks of houses and
dead and dying wives and children
to signal passengers trains and avert
disasters from washouts. Trains ran
for miles amidst falling trees, flying
limbs and such commotion of the ele-
ments as to terrify and appal train
men and passengers alike. Between
Atlanta and Greenville almost every
owner of live stock lost horses, mules
and cattle by lightning and many
barns, gins and sheds were burned.
In Oglethorpe Co., Ga, houses were
unroofed and wrecked for miles. The
cyclone is the
FOURTH WITHIN TEN YEARS.
And followed the exact route of 9TH
ers. Its width was from quarter to
half a mile. The very earth is torn
and furrowed in its track. and corn
was blown clean out by the roots.
Human beings were picked up and
carried long distances and battered
and bruised to pulp. At Eastman,
Ga, the bodies of COWS and horses
were carried mile after being killed.
Small lakes were filled up by land
slides and small streams cut new chan
nels across fields.
Beauregard, with about 600 inhab-
itants, was entirely swept away. The
destruction to life and property is in
describable and appalling. Not a
house of any character is left stand
ing. Large brick buildings were
blown down. Frame houses were torn
to atoms. Trees were swept away
like straws. Loaded freight cars were
lifted from the track and carried 200
yards. Trees and timbers from hous-
es were scattered for miles around.
The town could not be recognized.
One gloomy, CHASTITY mass of desola-
ton and destruction marks the spot
where was once a beautiful, flourish
ing little village.