The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-04-22
A Terrible Cyclone.

80 PERSONS KILLED AND 200 WOUNDED.
A terrible cyclone swept over Minnesota
on wednesday of last week. The catastrophe
far exceeds in CHASTITY details the first reports
of it, The revised estimates of the killed and
wounded are: st. Cloud. 80 killed, 81 injured
Sank Rapids, 81 killed, 100 injured; Rice's Sta
ton, "a killed and large number wounded.
HUGE AERIAL BEAST.
The description of the calamity at st. Cloud is
exceedingly graphic. 1t seems that few min
utes after O'Clock on Wednesday afternoon
and great black mass rose over the hills
Southwest of the city an came with terrible
velocity towards the western err; 9atsRilts n m,
clouds hung low and rolled over and over like
smoke over q battlefield and were accompa-
that resembled a furious conflagration. The
cloud was funnel-shaped, and the point drag
ged along the ground like the tail of huge
aerial beast, dashing everything that came in
its path into atoms. Citizens had hardly time
to flee to their cellars and seek other points OF
the air was filled with flying boards, shingles
bricks and other DEBRIS. which were strewn
over the country and piled in promiscuous
in a Northeasterly direction until it reached
the river, where its course was diverted, and it
followed the river bank until it reached Sank
Rapids, where it diverged to the left, passing
directly through the centre of that town.
The portion of ST. Cloud struck by the cyclone
portion occupied by the iaboring classes, a
majority of them being foreigners employed on
the railroads. Their dwellings were light
built and became an easy prey to the monster.
They were like cockleshells in the grip of the
whirl-wind. and were picked up and tossed in
the air and rent into thousand pieces.
The earth was ploughed up in the line of the
cyclone, and the path over which it passed to
width of nearly a quarter OF mile looks as
canic eruption. 1t had hardly begun its terri
BILE work before 1t was finished, and the scene
If vUInn hQ6 mod
the fury was one that caused the stOutest heart
to shudder. Cries and shrieks of the wounded
the bodies of the dead.
In the track of the cyclone stood the Mani
toba freight house and cars filled with freight.
Down on them the whirlwind ponnced, and
grasping the heavy cars lifted them from the
tracks and cast them to pieces In shapeless
mass. The iron rails were torn rom the ties
poles were torn up and the wires twisted into
curious masses. The freight house was totally
eral hundred: the sides next succumbed and
over $1,000 worth of freight was whirled through
the air and thrown into heaps and scattered by
piecemeal over an area of a quarter OF a mile.
Fifteen freight cars were demolished. The
operators in the telegraph office and employees
and fled into the cellar and thus escaped. 1t
was $50 in the evening when the special car
arrived from st. Paul and Minneapolis. The
run was made in two hours, through terrible
thunderstorm. The skies hung low with black
clouds and zig-zag streaks of lighting made
ivid riffs in the black pail Whl nj 9n peals 81
the car wheels shook the air. Through the air
drove torrent Of hail and rain with sufficient
force to almost break the car windows. The
locomotive drove at the rate of thirty five
miles an hour Along the road were signs OF
terrible storms apparent on either hand, and
the confines of their banks and covered the
prairies until the country had the appearance
of a world of angry water.
SCENE IN THE HOSPITAL.
On the arrival of the train with surgeons
work was at once begun to relieve the wound
ed The dead were taken to the Little Giant
Engine house and stretched on the floor, while
the wounded were sent to st. BENEDICT Hos
CORDS of physicians and nurses, among whom
were numerous lady residents who had yolun-
teered their services. There were twenty-eight
wounded stretched out in cots in the various
wards and the scene was heartrending. Men,
women and children lay in broken shapes,
bathed in their own blood and faces blackened
and grimy and arms and legs broken, scalps
torn and bodies lacerated The scene at the
engine house was more horrible; Eighteen
two rows, draped in sheets and blankets while
around and among them moved men with lam
terms uncoyering faces, trying to recognize in
which they might trace relationship. The
bodies presented a terrible spectacle.
twelve miles from st. Cloud, that house in
which there was wedding party was struck
by the cyclone and twenty people killed, in
It is estimated that at st. Cloud 400 structures
were blown down, all of frame and not costly.
The force of the storm was such as to wrench
off The door of the safe in the postoffice and
carry it some distance from the building. The
church bell, weighing 1900 pounds, was found
among the debris 400 feet away from any build
ing The school house was RACED to the very
foundation. The total dana e Is $60,000
The reports from Sank Rapids say that the
cyclone struck there shortly after 4o'clock
Wednesday afternoon and in just six minutes
the best portion of the town was in ruins. Not
a single business house is left standing on the
main street and many residences are demol-
ished. The wind came from the Southwest
and swept everything before it for width of
about four blocks. The storm-cloud was as
black as night, with bright, clear Sky on
either side.
several of the county officers were killed. The
Union Schoolhouse, the Presbyterian and Con-
gregational churches, the postoffice, flour mill
and a large machine shop were all converted
into kindling wood in less time than it takes
to tell it. What was the centre of the town is
now covered with timber, doors, pieces of fur
piture, ETC. Only the City Hall remains intact
The Northern Pacific depot was literally
blown away and Q large number of freight cars
overturned upon the tracks.
The storm also swept over portions Of Mis-,
souri, Iowa and Kansas. In Missouri 1t visited
Skidmore and Burlington. At Extra, Ia, 1t was
severe, and ut Atchison, Kansas, 1t caused COL
siderable damage.