The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1894-09-29
TORN BY

Minnesota and a Much Larger Number
Injured by the Late Widespread and
Devastating Cyclone - Heartrending
Scenes In Many Sections-Once Happy
Families Rendered Homeless.
FORT DODGE, Ia, Sept. 2S.-Seventy-
five persons are believed to have lost
their lives in the cyclone which
wrought death and destruction over
night; the injured are numbered by
hundreds, and the property loss will
reach well up into the thousands. The
devastated country lies in the south
ern part of Minnesota and the north
ern part of Iowa. and extends from the
western to the eastern boundaries Of
these states.
The storm started a few>miles west
of Emmettsburg, in Palo Alto county,
Ia. In Iowa it went through the
counties of Kossuth, Hancock, Winnie
bago, Cerro Gordo, Worth, Floyd,
Mitchell, Chickasaw and Howard.
Leaving Iowa it went through the
counties of Meyer, Fillmore and
Winona. In all of these counties seri-
Gus damage is reported. Houses were
taken bodily from their foundations
and trees were lifted by their roots.
Many miraculous escapes are reported
where houses were carried from one
place to another without injuring the
occupants. Such escapes, however,
were exceptions.
The town of Emmettsburg, near
which the cyclone started, was very
fortunate in escaping, as the terrible
hurricane grazed the outer edge of the
town. Several persons were killed just
outside the town and several others
were severely injured.
The towns through which the cy-
clone passed after leaving Emmetts-
burg, so far as reported, are Ellington,
Burger, Hayfield, Newton. Tompkins,
Buffalo, Ruthven, Usage. Algona,
Cresco, Burt, Plum Creek and Lowther,
all in Iowa; and Waseca, Leroy, Spring
Valley and Homer. in Minnesota.
While the damage through these
small places is very great, it is light
in comparison with that done through
out the country districts. 1t is, of
course, impossible at this time to say
what the property loss will be, but it
is very great. The loss of life is esti-
mated to be in the neighborhood of
seventy-five persons.
The cases of death are widely scat
tered, being reported in ones and twos
throughout the county, but the largest
concentrated destruction seems to
have been at Algona, where fifteen
were killed and twice that number in
jnred. In the county south (kossuth)
thirty in all were killed and fifteen in
jured.
At Usage nine were killed and fifteen
injured. Several of the injured ones
in Usage will probably die.
At Spring Valley, in Minnesota, five
We're killed and many injured. If the
storm had reached there a half hour
a large number would have
been killed, as the theater building
was destroyed just after a large au-
dience had dispersed.
The Genes in many sections are
~heartrending. Parents are grieving
for children who were killed, and chill
dren are moaning the losses of parents.
Many families are without a ROOT to
them, who have always before
had happy homes and necessary COM
Some of them r able to re-
build and to stand the loss, but the
majority are not. Some of them, gel
so late as two weeks ago, sent their
savings to help out the fire sufferers in
Wisconsin, and to-day they are in want
themselves.