Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-07-08
BLOOD STREWN PRAIRIE.
Awful Scenes In the Track of the
 Iowa Cyclone.
SOME QUEER FREAKS OF THE WIND

PoNERoY, la, July S.-Fifty-th dead, a fatally injured and l5o with broken limbs, cuts and bruises more or less severe. This is what the tornado accomplished in the matter of casualty.
 The town of Pomeroy is one complete wreck. There is scarcely house left stand ing. About l5 acres of debris constitute now what was thriving village Splinters are all that remain. Pomeroy is part and parcel of the prairie, the death dealing l wind having left it barren and desolate. Scarcely a tree remains Piles of broken l timbers and occasional pieces of furniture arc all that can be found of what was once the largest buildings in the place. Two hundred and fifty houses were all destroyed. and the money loss on these and their contents is placed at 800, 900. Every | where about Pomeroy were dead and dying l people. A dozen men were digging graves in the burying ground on the hill just north of the village, and the hearse was kept busy carrying the victims of the storm to their last resting place.
 Doctors from 6 dozen or more places hur- ried through thesstreets. and in their wake followed squads of soldiers carrying cof- 1 fins. Special trains from all the surround l l ready to take part in the work of caring for the dead and wounded.
 Clothing and food were shipped in by the ton. Soon order was brou ght out of chaos. Relief corps were organized and things were going along in busincsslike way. An Awful Night.
 The night of the cyclone in Pomeroy is | one that will never be forgotten by those l who were here Darkness followed quickly \ Nv. EsH. A escaped death and injury were compelled to grope their way among the ruined houses, guided along by the cry of some poor unfortunate who was pinned under | the fallen timbers. Almost every light of | any description whatsoever was destroyed, and the people from Fort Dodge and the l surrounding places. who were the first to reach the scene, failed to bring lanterns with them. The search for the victims. | therefore, was necessarily slow till morn Ing came.
 It was not till the first streRks of light appeared in the east that the enormity of the disaster dawned upon the people. They looked where once n city stood and saw nothing but R timber strewu prairie. Ev- cry residence to the south of the railroad tracks had disappeared. and the spires of seven churches in the place that only . few hours before shot upward to the skies were nowhere to be seen. Pomeroy had a wealth | of shade trees, but now nothing Is to be | seen of them save a broken and twisted mass of limbs and roots. Dead horses, cat tie. cats, dogs and chickens were scattered over the ground.
 Pools of human blood mingled with the mud at every turn, showing where some victim of the tornado had been tossed after life had been crushed out
 | The air was full of moans and sobS and shrieks, and every other face met on the street was stained with tears
 The people in Pomeroy seemed powerless to do anything for the sufferers, and it was not until early morning. when the people from outside towns arrived, that anything was done toward recovering tho dead and caring for the wounded.
 The Postonice n Morgue.
 | What is called the poStotlice building,
 but which has recently heen used as a
 billiard room, was turned into morguc, and hospitals were established in the re maining buildings. the biggest one being the Pomeroy hotel. The scene in the i'm provised morgue was a ghastly one. Bill
 iiard tables were turned into slabs, and on these the manSled bodies of the dead were placed.
 The floor was badly sunken in the mid
 dle, and here the blood as it drippcd from . the tables ran in small streams. and soon | with the assistance of the water from the
 
 gore up to the tops of the attendants shoes. On the tables were bodies without heads
 and bodies without arms, bodies whose legs had been blown away by the cyclone l and bodies with heads crushed beyond rec- ognition by the falling timbers. On one
 table lay the remains of au old woman, a hole as big as mans fist torn in the rear part of her head. Close by was a baby not more than 8 year old, one of it's legs gone
 and its little arms mashed to a jelly. The tornado, for such it was came from
 the northwest. All those who saw it agreed that it was one of the funnel shaped spe-
 cies. but came bounding along the prairie like huge ball. It was of a dark green color and was accompanied by terrific
 noise. There are many who saw it when it was far out of town, gave the alarm, and many were prepared for the monster when l t reached the village
 In the Cyclone Caves-
 Most of the people, however, became , panic stricken. They ran out of their houses and fled up the streets crying and . shrieking, till struck by the flying timbers and whirling trees. The cooler ones how ever, especially those who were near to them, made for the two caves in the south
 east part of the town, built especially for
 just such occasions as this. Into one oi
 these caves collected 25 people and in an.
 other five All escaped without a scratch
 A half hour before 1t struck it was exceed
 tngly hot and sultry, and save for a few P small clouds there was no evidence of the
 approaching whirlwind. The cyclone was
 but of few minutes duration and was fol ? lowed by 8 terrific rainstorm, which con D tinued at intervals more or less throughout ? the night
 The path of the storm seems to be about
 an eighth of a mile in width and % mile.
 long. The death list out in the country is ? heavy, and from many of the neighborinl - towns casualties are reported, Fairfield, iI Cherokee county. swelling the total mum Der of dead to Is. Eight more arc reported
 killed at Storm Lake, and many othel
 places give notice of one or two deaths. r There was good supply of doctors-no a large enough, however, to care for tn, a wounded. The ladies of Fort Dodge went as nurses, and there was a plentiful supply
 of bedding and food. As rapidly as possi
 ble the injured were taken to the impro l vised hospitals and given medical atten ' ton. It was soon found, however, tha