Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-09-08
A DEADLY BLOW.

O1 VI AbVCuI0AEAR NJ
People Killed and wounded-Grs.s"any
struction Of Crops-A Train BLOW. oe-
the Track, with Fatal Result. rom
Storm Elsewhere, 1he
A Rochester (Minn.) special to the o..
neer Press on Tuesday night, about claw.
O'Clock, says a terrible cyclone visited tha.
city, leaving death and destruction in ;s
track A thousand people in the citv ~
homeless and dependent upon the CHARITY ~.
others for shelter and the necessities of ii.o
The resources and sympathies of tn.
citizens are taxed to the very utmost
and help is badly needed from abro,a
An impromptu hospital has been made ~
Romnels Hall. About forty persons ara
being cared for by a volunteer corps y,
nurses. The damage in the city can not bs
less than $500, 600, and in. the SURROUNDING
country an estimate is impossible. Fences
are all gone, cattle injured and at large
stacks Of hay and grain have totally disan.
peared, and crops Of corn and potatoes ara
beaten fiat. The terrible list a,
casualties in the city comprises
twenty-four persons killed and at least
eighty wounded, Of whom the names
have not yet all been received. The
dead are not all identified. The storm
swept through Dodge and Olmsted Conn.
ties, causing greater destruction than the
cyclone of one month ago The courthouse.
high-school building, Academy of Lourdes.
elevators, depot, %f1ourlng-mills, ten bust.
ness blocks, besides a great many dwellings.
are unroofed. The Methodist Church il
ruined, and the Congregational Church in.
jured. More than two hundred dwellings
are utterly destroyed. Losses in tia
county are very great. The condition of
things in the northern part of the city defes
description. A few splintered stumps and
scattered boards remain to show where the
Third ward was. The buildings in this part
of the city were mostly one-story frame
houses, many of them without cellars, and
there was the greatest destruction of life.
The mill and dwelling of L. Foxdre are a
total loss, while the immense Zumbrota
planing-mill, John NJ. Cole, proprietor,
is badly wrecked, huge pieces Of
carried off. MI. Cole, who was in the mill
when the cyclone reached it, thinking his
house a safer place, started for it, but had
not gone twenty feet before he was caught
up by the wind, carried a distance of eight
or ten rods, and dashed to the earth a
mangled corpse. The residences south
of the railroad to Zumbrota street all suf-
fered, losing roofs, windows and chimneys.
The shaded residence-streets are almost inn
passable from broken trees. pieces
of roofs. and debris of all sorts.
Reports from outlying towns are coming
in slowly, and show that the damage is not
confined to the city. Pleasant Grove is re-
ported amnihilated, two persons being killed
and ten wounded. The town of Salem lay
in the track Of the cyclone southeast of here,
and is said to be wiped out. The top story
of the courthouse is badly wrecked. The
cupola was carried several rods and the
building left exposed to the weather. The
tower Of the school-house lies OH the ground
and the roof is damaged. The roof
of the Methodist Church was
blown away and the walls are half
crumbled down. Phe steeple of the Con-
gregational Church was knocked of. A
children's picnic, just returned from the
country, had taken refuge in the church, but
all escaped badly scared. Had some of the
children been at home they must almost
certainly have been killed. The railway
roof OF G. w. Vandusen Il Co.'s elevator
was carried away, and the warehouse
adjoining crushed. H. j. Horizons
elevator lies across the railway track, and
the warehouse and Office of Written s.
Judge are a mass of ruins. The Rochester
harvester works are completely, pulverized,
not two feet of the wall remaining standing.
All of the machinery is a total loss. The
railway bridge is gone. Superintendent
Sanborn is here with a force of men. and
railway communication will soon be secured.
Whenever it was possible people took to
thelr cellars, and in no case where that was
done was life lost. In the upper part of the
city the darkness was at no time great, but
at the lower part of town it grew dark as
night approached, filling every one with
terror.
The dead, SO far as reported, number
twelve; missing and supposed to have been
killed, three; wounded, fifty-nine.
BLOWN FROM THE RAILS.
OwATONNA, Mimi, Aug. q.
Meager telegraphic advices were received
here early Wednesday morning that a terri
bic accident had occurred between Roch-
ester and Zumbrota, MIMI, on the Roch-
ester and Northern division of the Chicago
& Northwestern Road, by which about one
hundred people were killed and wounded.
On account of the interruption Of
the Geographic services at Rochester
no information could be obtained
till the arrival Of a train from the
scene Of the disaster with thirty-fve people
who had been wounded in the accident. OF
this number many seemed to be seriously
hurt, and all were taken to the hospital.
The train that was wrecked was that which
leaves Rochester about four p. NJ, arriving
at Zumbrota at six p. M. 1t was caught in
the severe wind and hail-storm that pre-
vailed in that vicinity between four and six
o'clock in the evening, and while running at
a great speed was lifted from the rails and
dashed to pieces. A gentleman who has been
to the scene of the disaster describes it
as one of the most horrifying character.
Every carin the train was almost literally
shattered to pieces by the sudden stop
caused by the train leaving the rails, togeth-
er with the forces of the storm burying the
unfortunate passengers beneath the debris,
killing many and injuring nearly every per-
son aboard the train. The gentleman stated
that nine dead bodies had been taken from
the ruins, and a large number of those Sc
rlously injured removed to Rochester and
Owatonna. At the time he left the work
OF extricating the unfortunate victims was
Still progressing, and it was believed the
number of killed would reach a score when
YhA fNn NrH -.