Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1890-03-29
Te|egTaphjc Tidings 6
TERRIBLE DISASTER.
Miles of Buildings Destroyed by a
Cyclone at Louisville,
Kentucky.
The Dead Number Hundreds - Awful
Scenes in the Stricken
City.

| LOUISVILLE, n.y., MArcn ~ - Last
night Il tornado swept over the city,
Wiecking 2,OU0 houses and killing 800
people. The wind came from the south
west. The Union depot, foot OF 7h street,
WAS blown into the raging torrent of the
Ohio river. A train Of cars making up
for the Louisville Southern road went with
the building over the falls. Falls City
hall, on West Market street, is wrecked.
In the hall were over 100 people, and but
few OF them escaped alive. Many build
lngs alter falling caught lire and the in
! mates were burned. immediately upon
the burst of the cyclone he fire bells WIS
sounded and the police We're at work.
| Within III minutes a posse appeared at
the Falls City hall wreck. The walls of
the adjoining house were prOpped then
began the work OF cutting through the
roof that covered all. After an hour Of
ceaseless labor the first victim, Mrs. ).
Kelley, was unearthed. She was found
sitting upright, with head bruised and
one arm broken. She said at the first
quake mad rush was made for the en-
trance. Women were Knocked down and
trampled on. Seeing the overw helming
jam at the door several remained behind.
The excavation was then moved from the
rear to the front, where it was supposed the
greater crowd had gathered. AS soon as
the roofing was removed from the mass
OF brick beneath, ten women, locked in
each others arms, were drawn out. In
side the next hour sixty men and women
were drawn out dead, but with no wounds.
1t is thought that all met death from SUI
location.
All the great tobacco warehouses lay in
ruins and thousands of hogsheads of to-
baccO are mass Of brick and mortar.
The Louisville hotel was unroofed AMI
otherwise wrecked The next built in
west was occupied as q cigar store upon
the first floor. Sleeping rooms are u on
the second and third. 1t was razed to
the ground and not single brick is re-
in place. In the destruction OF
this house many lives were lost, prlnci- |
pally persons who occupied sleeping
rooms there. Many of them were girls |
at the hotel. Saloons and
other available places have been turned |
ntO hastily imprOvised morgues, where
he bodies are taken as fast as recovered !
and left waiting identification. Eleventh
street seemed to serve as a kind OF fiue for
he storm, and all intercepting objects ia
hat line were practically reduced to moth
ngness. Down the street it carried
ronts Of buildings, mostly residences,
md on each side leaving III many instances
he furniture and other contents un-
Jefferson and Market streets
ire in almost as bad condition US Main.
hundreds of wagons are busy carrying
way soiled and broken furniture from
he shattered houses.
The tornado entt red the southwestern
wept path OF five blocks dagonally
in ragged line to lst street, ..
eveling every building in its path-prob-
bly, $500 houses. A rough estimate
makes the killed number 500, with thou
ands injured. The city is filled with a
razy mass OF people wildly seeking
riends. A large force of men is at work :
n the ruins. Two hundred bodies have I,
,een recovered. All the buildings OH
lain street from Sth to l4th are in ruins
lot one Of the handsome wholesale houses
J left. On Market the Fails City hall
as struck while several Masonic ana I
nights of Honor lodges were IN session.
me hundred men and women were buried
q the ruins. Every house on Market,
ehersOn and Walnut streets from 10th to :
9th il in ruins. The Parkland suburbs
ave been swept away. Such desolatiOn
O city has ever known in this country. I
very building, tree and telegraph pole {
/ the district struck is leveled. The 4
yclone was predicted by the signal serv- d
;e yesterday, but 10 attention was paid
, the warning. The cyclone came with =,
carce warning sound, and in all the [
struck the inhabitants were en-
ngaged in the usual vocations. The dis I
,ict laid waste comprises length OF three J
liles and is nearly half a mile wide.
Many bodies have been carried away by
lends. 1t it impossible to reach the
lumber. The cyclone crossed the river, !
triking Jefiersonville and badly wrecking
'ront street on the river front, but no
YES were lost.
Probably the greatest loss of life oc- s
urred at the Falls City hall, which Was
a the center of the tornado's path. In t
he lower rooms of the hall were fifty or
twenty-five children with their mothers
nd other relatives taking dancing lessons
here were at least l25 persons on the
over floors and seventy-tive more at
ending lodge meeting on the upper floor
,hen the terrible wind sWooped down
Ipon the building. The entire structure,
n leas than five minutes, was shapeess
mass OF brick and mortar, burying 200
lelpless victims, of which number but
ew escaped uninjured.
Over fifty dead bodies had been identi-
led, among them being Mrs Mary Has
om, Miss Annie Nyles, Mrs. Mclaughlin,
Mrs. Belle Selloh, Sister Mary Plus, and
even servant girls employed in the
louisville hotel and an equal number of
he male help. Several employees of the
,nion depot were killed and many fatally
iurt.
Among the dead are Miss May Hodges,