Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1890-04-03

LOUISVILLE, KY:, March 31.-The storm Of
the evening of the 9th entered the south
eastern portion of the city, at Eighteenth
street, and swept south five blocks diagon-
ally reaching in a ragged line to Seventh
street, leveling every building in its path,
probably 250 houses.
A rough estimate places the killed at 500,
with thousands injured.
The city is filed with a crazed mass Of
people wildly seeking friends.
The buildings on Main street, from Eighth
to Fourteenth streets are in ruins, not one of
the handsome wholesale houses being left,
and all the tobacco warehouses were swept
away. On Market street, Falls City hall, a
four story building, was blown down, while
several Masonic and Knights of Honor lodges
were IN session, and ito men and women
were buried in the ruins.
Every other house on Market, Jefferson
and Walnut streets, from Eleventh to Six
teenth streets, Is i'll ruins. Falkland, sub
urb, Is swept away. AT the union depot, at
the foot OF Seventh street, the Chesapeake d
Ohio train for Washington, was just starting
out filled with passengers. The building was
Frustrated, crashing In On the train. All the
passengers, however, were rescued except
one newSboy.
The district laid waste comprises an area
OF tmrty-three miles long and nearly half q
mile wide.
Probably the greatest loss of life occurred
at the Falls City hall, which was in the center
of the tornado. In the lower rooms Of the
hall were seve1ty-five children with their
lessons. There were at least lbs persons on
the lower floors and seventy-tive more at
tending lodge meeting on the upper floors
when the terrible wind swept down upon the
building. The entire structure in less than
five minutes was shapeless mass of brick
and mortar, burying 10 helpless victims, of
which number few escaped uninjured. Con-
servative estimates place the loss of life at
this point at leo, whale other reports indicate
the number as nearer 20.
Immediately upon the burst of the cyclone
the fire bells sounded and the police were at
work. In ten minutes a posse appeared at
the Falls City hall and went to work, and the
walls of the adjoining house were first
propped, and then began work of cutting
through the heavy slate roof that covered ali.
At first the work was difficult and laborious
on account of the anxious multitude that
thrOnged the wreck to view the ruin. Women
were found digging at the slate with their
fingers, crazed at the groans beneath, each of
which they thought assembled from their dy-
ing loved ones.
1t took an hour to reach the first victim,
who was alive.
As soon as the roofing was removed and
the mass of brick beneath, the first sight that
met the eye was anything but hopeful. Ten
women locked in each others arms were
drawn out OF the debris, all dead but one.
James Hassan, whose wife had been at the
lodge meeting, was foremost IN the work and
the person whom he drew out of the ruined
building was his wife, who died in his arms.
The pathway of the storm extended from
Sixth to Eleventh streets, and from Seventh
TO Eleventh streets not a single t,.l;iding was
left standing. Occasionally massive stone
or iron front still stood intact, while the en-
tire structure proper had been swept entirely
away. This morning it presented the most
stIpendous spectacle of disaster and ruin
ever witnessed. In the course of tine storm
lay the prIded tobacco market of the city,
and to-day the warehouses, almost to the last
one, lay lii ruins.
After three hours work at the hall, first
mentioned, fire broke out in the ruins and it
was more than an hour before water guenched
1t: meantime groans and shrleks came from
the ruins, and SO great was the horror of the
moment that the watchers grew frantic and
screamed and ran about like wild, the terri
BILE sutferings which they were unable to ale
viate driving them to despair.
A dispatch from Indianapolis says: "a. B.
Lewis who was at Louisville, says the dead
Will certainly reach 500.