Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-03-29
THEY WERE THERE.
Statements of Persons Who Were at the
Scene.

CINcIxNATI (Ohio) March 2Sth- Conductor
R. B. Holburn, of the Louisville and Nashville
Railway, brought his train into this city six
hours late. In speaking OF the Louisville dis
aster he said 1--WE left there about Q o clock
this morning. All was confusion. [ didn't see
the tornado last night, but saw some OF the
ruins: They are simply awful. EyersIhing be-
tween Seventh and Fifteenth streets is laid
waste. This section embraces the main part of
the city The Union Depot on Seventh street is
in ruins.
the city and ran in zigzag course through the
main part of the business center, ard, coming
out al the depot, crossed the river, demolishing
eight or nine blocks of Jeffersonville, just
fore the wind like feathers. All along the line
coming out from Louisville, telegraph poles
wire and timber aIe scattered in all directions
We are late TOR that reason At La Grange,
twenty-seven miles from Louisville, there is
much damage At Emine, forty miles southeast
OF Louisville, several persons were killed. The
whole country coming out OF Louisville is one
mass OF poles, timbers, trees and other debris" "
BEYOND DESCRIPTION.
Train No. S, over the same road, came in
later. There were a few passengers on the
train. Brakeman Crickets and Mr.. Williams
were eye-witnesses to the terrible storm last
The center of Louisville is one mass of terrible
ruins. All is woe. We were in the city at the
time. The electric display was the grandest
spectacle of its kind that we ever saw. The
storm began about $50 o'clock. The thunder
was simply awful, and by the vivid glare of the
lightning we could see for blocks. All was Il
mass OF ruins snd flying timbers. Women,
men and children were running here and there,
panic-stricken, crying for aid or seeking for
friends who were buried beneath the huge
masses of ruins"
ANOTHER ACCOUNT.
INDIANAPOLIS, March 2Sth.-Conductor Rob
ertson of the Jefiersonville. Madison and In
diauapolis road arrived here al 3l5 this morn
ing, having brought a train in from Jefferson
vile. He was in Louisville when the tornado
burst on the town. He was eating supper in the
Metropolitan Hotel at Q o'clock, when a crash
ing and roaring was heard outside. All the
guests rushed out on the street. but recoiled on
finding the air full of flying debris. Everything
was black, lights being ont on the street. In a
moment the roaring seemed TO pass on into
darkness, and in the track of the wind sprang
up in every direction shoots # fame, while
from the masses of ruins thus lit up, came cries
and groans of the wounded.
For time everybody seemed paralyzed with
fear and apparently in doubt whether to flee OF
not. The work OF rescue soon began, however,
and along that part of the town in which Rob-
eTtson was The sidewalks were soon piled high.
Wagons of all kinds were pressed into service,
and the dead ana wounded were hauled away
as rapidly as the darkness and confused condi-
! tion of the streets would permit 10 houses out
/ side the path of the cyclone.
While Robertson remained in town but an
| hour after the storm, and consequently had a
| limited opportunity of observation, what he
! of the catastrophe is known, it will be one OF
| the worst in the history of the nation.
/ HE WAS IN THE HOTEL.
! CHICAGO, March 3Sth.-D. H. Hersey and wife
/ OF ST. Paul, and L. Lamb, wife and daughter, oi
/ Clinton, Ia. arrived at the Grand Pacific Hote
/ this evening, having past through the horror:
| OF last night AT Louisville, KY. In conversation
! this evening Sir. Hersey told of their experience
/ in escaping from the city.
Some OF the gentlemen of our parry" he
| said, had gone for cigar into the smoking
I room of the Louisville Hosel. where we were
! stopping, on our way from Florida. About "a
O'Clock I saw the windows fall in from above
the smoking-room door, and then everything
| was unearthy in its stiffness. This was followed
| by terrific noise like that made by a WesterI
| tornado. as ] have often heard Il. We al
; rushed from the room 10 the balcony whiel
looks upon the Office. Looking upward / saw
that a portion of the roof was gone showihi
the sky above, and through the hole rain hat
commenced to fall The halls were by this tint
filed with screaming women and crazed ne
groes. We ran TO the office, aud on going to tn,
door looked up aud down the street. 1t wa
one mass OF destruction. Not building SCENE,
TO stand Those that remaiaed partially ints
were iu flames. With the exception OF the iigh
from the burning buildings the street were il
total darkness II was simply terrible"