The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-10-02

At forty-tiye minutes after ) O'Clock YES
terday afternoon cyclone swept over one
portion of Wichita, doing a great deal of
small damage, but hurting no one, SO far
AS heard from.
4 The path of the cyclone is virtually as
follows: Beginning at point south west
OF the Twelfth street depot, il Travelled
northeast; east from Main street to Market,
northeast from Market to Lawrence,
thence north to Thirteenth, and on north
east with little deviation.
With the destruction wrought it is moth
Ing less than marvellous that no one was
hurt. Although the destruction of the
Twelfth street depot was great and the air
was full of flying timber, not one of the
twelve men inside the building was hurt.
No one was passing along Main street,
Market street or Lawrence avenue at the
time. At that time it would have been
sure death. Further on, near Fifteenth
street and Mead avenre. no one was hurt
in the Gibson house, although the furni-
ture was demolished and the house twisted
from its foundations and the sides blown
put Mr.. Throckmorton' 5 escape was one Of
hairs breadth.
IT WAS A TWISTER SURE.
There is no doubt as to the nature of the
storm. 1t was d twister. At first it was
thought that it was only hard straight
blow. This idea WAS probably taken in
Difference to the old Indian legend that Il
cyclone had never and could never occur
at the conjunction of the Little and Big
Arkansas rivers. This legend will have
to be laid away on the shelf 1t was a
vicfe "a M in ion
tion of the path of the storm by corps Of
EAGLE men showed.
The great trees, the oldest in Wichita,
which were uprooted, the wrenched con-
dition of the houses which were torn from
their foundations and the unmistakable
roar which many heard, as also the narrow
track of the furious gale indicate and set
tie the matter as to the nature of the
storm.
Outside of the destruction of property
which in dollars and cents will not
amount to much and the Inconvenience
caused by wrecked chimneys aud lawns
full of hugh tree-trunks and four or five
women more than ever pre-disposed TO
faint, the results of the twister are not
serious.
HOW The STORM WAS FORMED.
The day had been blustery. From early
morning it had been raining and driZ-
zling by starts, and no one thought much
about it, except in Connection with its eX
tent and the prospects for the fair.
About 5 O'Clock the clouds became dark
er and there WAS considerable lightning
The wind was blowing gently, hardly per
ceptibly, from the southwest. No one
thought anything about wind-storms. and
there are, this morning, hundreds and
hundreds of people within three blocks of
the path of the storm who have no idea
that any such storm took place. A visit
10 the scene will leave them no doubts how
ever Al 20 minutes until o'clock one of the
hardest storms ever seen in this valley set
in. The rain came down in torrents,
flooding the streets and filing the cutters
to OVERCOMING Those in the extreme
north part of the city at this time saw a
sight which others did not see. \ very
black ominous cloud swept swiftly down
the northwest. It hung low in the air and
moved rapidly and In a solid body. All
the while the wind was blowing stronger
aud stronger from the southwest. There
is little doubt now that these two oppos-
ing forces met few hundred feet south
west of the Twelfth street depot and began
twisting, although no one could be found
last night who actually witnessed the
storm at the minute of its formation. But
il must have gathered tremendous force in
two or three seconds, for it plunged into
the depot and tore the roof off complei ely.
1t lifted this great mass of woodwork up
into the air and carried it a block and
threw ii into the barn ard house of DR..
Hupp, smashing the barn into smithereens
and badly wreckiag the house.
THEN IT BEGAN To- ROAR,
1t was a terrible monster by this time,
writing and believing. twisting the trees
out By the roots and overthrowing barns
and out-buildings like cockle-shells. 1t
had begun to roar and the people could
hear it, though no one saw 1t at this time
for the driving rain shut the vision off at
at few feet. After playing havoc with
the barns and porches and chin
neys along Market street between
Eleventh and Twelfth streets it swept over
on Lawrence ana there very plainly dem
onstrated one thing. The great massive
trees undoubtedly saved the Bunnell and
the Charles Davidson residences. Thou
sands will undoubtedly visit this scene this
morning 1t is a sight worth seeing.
The trees are torn and twisted and broken
everywhere. But the large houses We're
untouched. This evidently made the
iwlster sick, this conflict with the trees,
for il seems to have lifted. \ block further
east on Topeka avenue lt came down
again, Jerking the chimneys of the houses
and pulling them apart brick by brick. On