Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1883-05-31
HOW A TORNADO LOOKS.
Vivid Description of Its Terrible Power
Bounding Like a Ball Hundreds of Feet In
the Air.

Vivid Description of Its Terrible Power
Bounding Like a Ball Hundreds of Feet In
the Air.
A Kansas City (Mo. letter gives a
vivid account Of a tornado which
visited that city. Before the visitation
of the tornado, says the writer, the air
was heavy and the fitful wind carried
sheets of rain hither and thither with
out apparent direction. In another
hour the skies had grown darker and
across their sullen face torn scraps OF
clouds in fantastic shapes scudded with
a velocity that told of the presence of
vast air currents somewhere in middle
space. These were followed by dark
sheets as of smoke that rolled up from
the horizon, broke and lost themselves.
The air suddenly grew cold. 1t is i'm
possible to describe the weird and un-
natural chill, save that it was icy and
lasted for some moments. Just
then a gigantic cone-shapI d cloud, the
point toward the earth, appeared in the
northwest. Those who noted the time
saw that it was exactly 4:30. The
cloud rushed down into view so quickly
that it was impossible to tell whether
it was born of a conflict of the elements
before the eye or came from some
point beyond. Moving with incon-
ceivable rapidity, and bounding like a
ball, sometimes hundreds of feet above
the earth and sometimes trailing upon
it the monster passed over Wyandotte,
and paused at the bar opposite the
mouth of the Kaw, where it sucked up
tons of sand, completely changing its
color from dark blue to deep dun,
then it zig-zagge1 upward, bounded
into midair, and disappeared.
Scarcely had it made its spectral
exit when another cloud, almost iden-
tical in size and shape, appeared at
about the point where the first was
seen. This cloud can be likened to
nothing so much as a partially col
lapsed balloon with the neck enor-
mously elongated and twisting about.
The color was reddish yellow, distinctly
relieving it against the darker back
ground. This extraordinary appari-
tion of the skies moved directly toward
the city, not very fast apparently, but
springing up and down in an uncanny
dance. AS it came nearer one could
see that every time it touched the
ground it swept it clean, carrying up
the debris and dropping it as it passed.
A few moments after its appearance
it struck West Kansas City, barely
touching, however, and its damage
confined principally to the unroofng of
houses, demolishing the upper portion
of the stock exchange, and killing one
man. 1t leaped into the air, striking
the bluff on Eighteenth street, and
passing on east and slightly north for
near two miles. In the greater part
of this distance the storm funnel
touched the ground, and wilderness
of ruin marks its track.
The passage of the tornado was SO
sudden that people did not have time
to he frightened till it was over, but
the scene of terror that followed in its
wake was something that words can
not describe. 1t cut clean track
through the city three miles in extent
and from 100 to 300 yards wide. Heavy
houses were demolished, small frame
houses were scattered to the winds,
and trees were twisted from the earth
as if they were weeds. The number
of houses entirely demolished was fifty,
and the number more or less damaged
amounted to about 200 The loss was
about 100000. Three persons were
killed outright and many others very
badly injured.