Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-04-22
An APPALLING CALAMITY.
SECTIONS OF MINNESOTA, IOWA N MIS-.
SOURI, Lid TASTE BY 4 CYCLONE.

element and the streets are filled with
men and frightened women and children.
The disaster is certainly appalling. AS
nearly as can he learned, scores OF houses
have been entirely wrecked. Twelve ply
sicians were aboard the relief train which
left for ST. Cloud.
A later dispatch from st. Paul says: Fri
vate advices say the storm struck the rail-
road between the r%oundhOuse and the depot,
and swept a path 600 yards wide through
| the city, leveliing between $50 and 200 hous-
es. H. M. Clark, a well-knoWn lumber
man who lives in st. Cloud, says ninety per-
sons were killed and more than 100 injured,
many very seriously.
Reports of the cyclone at st. Cloud, Sank
Rapids, Rye Station and other points in the
vicinity, last night and early this morning,
were not exaggerated. At three O'Clock
this morning in the places named there
were forty-nine dead and nearly two hun
dred injured, with many still missing,
whose bodies will probably be recovered.
Just enough houses are left in Sank Rapids
to form a fringe around the village limits.
The debris is not piled in heaps, but scatter
on the Manitoba depot, and a basket full of
school books were found in Rye Station,
fifteen miles distant. This shows the ter
rible power of the storm.
The fury of the storm at st. Cloud is thus
wildly described in a dispatch from that
place on Thursday: A few minutes after
1 o'clock yesterday afternoon the skies be-
came overcast with q dark cloud, and a
great black mass rose over the hills south
west of the city, and coming with terrible
velocity to the western outskirts in a dl-
rect line for the Manitoba freight yards.
The clouds hung low, and rolled over and
o,,os l;1>o e~o ol,o Dx,6r, hoff1a fold on6 Xypra
accompanied by a loud roaring sound, that
resembled a conflagration in its fury. The
cloud was funneI-shaped, and the point
| dragged along the ground like the tail OF a
huge aerial beast, lashing everything that
came in its path into atoms. The citizens
had hardly time to flee to their cellars and
seek other points Of refuge before q whirl-
wind was on them and the air filled with
flying boards, shingles, bricks and other
debris, that was strewn over the country
and piled in promiscuous heaps. 1t came
from the southeast and moved in a norther-
ly direction until it reached the river,
where its course was diverted and followed
the river banks until it reached Sank Rap
ids, wherei it diverged to the left, passing di-
rectly through the centre of that town.
The utmost excitement prevailed. Wo-
men and children fled from their houses
and rushed aimlessly about in the midst of
the dark cloud of dust and an avalanche OF
boards and brick. Men lost their presence
of mind and stood in silence and inactivity
in the presence of the wind demon. 1t was
hardly noticed before it was on the city
in all it's fury, and the people were not
warned of their danger before it wa upon
them, and they fell like grain stalks before
the reaper's sickle.
The portion of st. Cloud struck by the
cyclone was the southwest section and was
the residence portion occupied by the labor
ing class of people, the majority of them
being foreigners employed on the railroads;
became easy prey to the monster that had
so viciously bounced upon them. They
were like cookie shells in the grasp of the
whirlwind, and were picked up and tossed
in the air and rent into a thousand pieces.
The earth was plowed up in the line OF the
cyclone, and the path over which it passed,
to a width of nearly a quarter of a mile,
looks as though it had been upheaved by a
terrible volcanic eruption. 1t had hardly
begun its terrible work before it was finish
ed, and the scene that greeted the eyes of
those who had escaped it's fury was one
that caused the stoutest heart to shudder.
The cries and shrieks of the wounded rent
the air, and the ground was streWn with
the bodies of the dead. Among them were
stalWart men, weak women, and weaker
children. The citizens almost to a man
rushed to the demolished districts, and sum-
moning physicians began their work OF res
cuing those who were still living from be-
meath the piles of dirt and fallen buildings.
At Sank Rapids the storm was equally
severe, striking the city shortly after 4
O'Clock in the afternoon and destroying the
best portion of it within six minutes. Not
a single business house was left standing on
Main street. Many residences were de-
molished. The wind came from the south
west and swept everything before it for a
is now a heap of ruins, and several county
officers are killed. The Union school-house,
the Presbyterian and the Congregational
churches, the postofice, a flour mill and a
large machine shop were all converted into
kindling wood in less time than it takes to
tell it. What was once the centre of the
town is now covered with debris-timber,
doors, pieces of furniture, etc. Only the
city hotel remains intact. The Northern
Pacific depot is literally blown away and
a large number of freight cars overturned
upon the tracks.
Scarcely a vestige of any of the wrecked
covered with all kinds of timbers, promis-
cuously tangled together. 1t is estimated
that 400 structures (all france were blown
down and the neat and costly Manito-
ba depot was unroofed and wrecked, thus
almost entirely cutting off t~elegraphic COM
munications. The only building of any
consequence aside from the depot injured
was the brewery, and this was badly warp
ed and twisted. The small residences were
mostly occupied by foreigners, whose m
it has been impossible to secure with any
degree Of accuracy. The money loss is dis
proportionately small. 1t is estimated that
5000 0 will replace all the buildings de-
stroyed.
The force of the storm was so great as
to wrench off the doOr of the safe in the
postoffice and carry it some distance from
the building. A church bell weighing 900
pounds was found among the debris four
hundred feet away from any building.
ogniZable, being completely crushed and
blackened. There are a remarkable num-
Der injured about the hips and spine.
Many of the survivors will be disabled for
life.
Thirty-one persons are already dead.
The list will be swelled to forty. DIR.
Ames of Minneapolis, who is on duty at
st. Cloud, informed DR.. Dolliver that at
least thirty deaths can but result from the
visitation there. At Sank Rapids a man
named Van Elton, who weighed $50 pounds,
was carried 400 feet through the air and ia
tally injured. A dead baby was found in
the street. No owner for it can be found.
At st. Cloud, in the track of the storm,
stood the Manitoba freight house and cars
filled with freight. The heavy cars were
lifted from the tracks and cast in a shape
less mass. Iron rails were torn from the