St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-08-31
A Disastrous Cyclone.

At seven O'Clock on the evening of
the 2lst cyclone struck the city of
Rochester, Mimi, and of two hundred
houses, which were standing before the
approach of the storm, there is not suf-
ticient material to build an ordinary
frame shelter. All the household
furniture and clothing was also COM
pletely destroyed. Over fifty persons
are wounded and in hospitals, and six
teen persons were instantly killed.
One thousand men, women and child
rem, of the class that possess hardly
anything outside of their homes and
what there is of them, are without any
thing. The tornado swept over a terri
tory sixty miles in length and above
two miles in width, leaving in its path
nothing but ruins. The loss in
Rochester is now estimated at $780,
600. A freight train was wrecked on a
trestle at the western approach to the
city. The wind twisted the switch bar
from its place, throwing open the
switch. The engineer saw his peril
when close at hand and jumped, saw
ing his life. The fireman was carried
over the embankment with the engine
and killed. A large elevator near the
depot was broken in two portions and
the upper half, an immense mass, was
carried across the railroad and over
two trains of cars standing on the track.
The depot building of the Northwest
ern railroad was destroyed. The roof
of the court house was blown off and
the upper portion of large stone man
sion near by was wrecked. The Cook
hntal haIlx- Anp,n,Ya1 l,n
streets were filled with debris and
buildings. A fatal black cloud swept
toward st. Charles, five miles south
east of Rochester, cutting a wide
swath through the timber and farms,
wrecking buildings in the little hamlet
and leaving two cOrpses and three per-
sons fatally manned. The body of one
of the men killed was found in a tree
top. 1t had been torn limb from
limb by the wind while being drawn
up and carried along by the terrible
tunnel. a family, consisting of four
persons, saw the approaching storm
cloud and hastily crept into huge
tank cistern buried in the ground, and
which fortunately contained no wa ter.
Their house was torn to pieces and
wholly carried away over their heads.
Not Il vestige of their home remained,
but their lives were spared. At kas-
son, Dodge county, the tornado came
within six miles, doing great damage
to persons, buildings and crops.
Three women, the wives of Norwegian
farmers, were killed, and Il number of
other people were badly injured. Brick
houses were destroyed, and a great
many head of live stock were killed
The loss in that little place alone will
amount to many thousand dollars.
| The hailstones that fell measured ten
inches in circumference. At Dodge
Centre the crops were all destroyed,
and heavy damage was done to build
ings. A. Elbrecht and wife were work
ing in Il field when they saw the storm
coming. They chung to each other,
but the storm Knocked him senselcss
and his wife was blown to II consider
able distance. She was found soon
after in horribly mutilated
condition, one arm being twisted of
and the other nearly so. A number of
others were less seriously injured.
North of VOLTA, OlmSted county, the
tornado swept away the crops and the
buildings, clean in its path. Along
the railroad, the people saw the clouds
lcaping and rolling over and over with
Il loud, roaring noise, and sought
places of safety. In Utica and the
southern part of Wabash county farm
property was much damaged. Twenty
five thousand dollars has been con-
tributed for the relief of the sufferers,
Init the funds are still inoIpuuntp
One hundred and fifty destitute are
relying on outsiders to shelter them.
Two more victims died on Sunday.