The San Francisco call., 1895-07-20
PEOPLE PRAY FOR RAIN.
Then 1t Came With CyClonlC
Fury Scattering Houses
Everywhere.
HORSES WERE BLOWN AWAY
Throughout Several Iowa Counties
Small Grain Is Entirely
Destroyed.

ST. CLAIR, Mich, July ia fatal
windstorm. accompanied by heavy ram
fall burst upon this city soon after
o'clock this afternoon. For several weeks
PRAYERS had been offered in this vicinity
for rain. The storm was cyclonlc IN Jury,
and before it had spent itself a child mad
been killed. two men injured and property
destroyed.
The CITY Hall was partly demolished,
hundreds of trees were blown down. roofs
were taken off buildings by the dozen, two
large craft were blown aground in the river
and general confusion reigned. The II
months old child of Elmer E. Black was
killed instantly by the overturning by the
wind of the Black home. There were four
.other children in the house az the time,
. but thew escaped without injury. The
children were alone in the house. The
horse of Joseph Dam was blown in the
river, and in attempting to rescue it Mr..
Dam sustained serious injuries. A horse
of Julius Bellnap was also blown in the
river, together with shed which the
wind took a fancy to set down in Pine
River.
The damage to Belknap's brickvard will
not be covered by $1,000. Joseph Goualit, a
workman at the brickyards. was injured
bv a falling brick. A large chimney at
Sheldon's brickyard was blown to the
ground and came near striking on high
pressure boiler. The door was torn off the
Hotel Cadillac.
4 liberty pole now stands upside down
through the roof of one of the largest store
buildings in the city. The big steamer
MARYLAND of the Interocean line was
caught by the wind and blown aground on
the Canadian side of the river just below
this city. She was released about four
hours afterward by her sister barge, the
Manchester, which steamed along about
an hour after the big fellow had been vic
timized by the hurricane.
DES MONIES, Iowa, July 19.-Rain,
wind and hail storms over large sections of
Iowa did much damage to crops and prop
erty last night. In the northern part of
the State a storm swept strip twenty-five
miles wide in Palo Alto Iowa and Kossuth
counties and small grain was badly dam
aged The corn will recover, except in
places where it was beaten down by hail,
but the loss to small grain is very great.
In the middle of the storm strip was a sec
tioa about i've miles wide in which there
was a great haiisterm and here the dam
age to crops was immense. In the eastern
part of the State another storm did almost
as much damage 1t started Just east of
here and swept over the country as far as
the Mississippi River and south to the
State line.
At Brooklyn there was a water-spout
II. FL =
water in about an hour. It covered wide
section and the streams were flooded
Bridges were carried away and there was a
number of washouts on the railroads. The
Rock Island suffered so badly that for
twenty hours, up to o'clock tonight, no
through trains reached here from the
East. At Keokuk the storm was almost a
cyclone, and a number of buildings were
unroofed and other damage done. There
was more or less hail in this section of the
State and crops were very badly injured.
Small grain Just ready to cut is lodged and
much VIII be lost. Corn will generally re-
cover, in part at least, except where the
hail cut it up.
The Rock Island Denver flyer was
dItched near Iowa City by washout. and
the fireman had his leg broken. The pas
sengers were badly shaken up, but none
was seriously injured. The tracks of the
Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern
were washed out in two or three places in
the Eastern part of the State, and trains
are still badly delayed.
FINDLAY, OHIO, July 19.-One of the
most destructive windstorms ever known to
have passed over this section occurred in
and around this city this afternoon, caus-
ing much damage to property which lay
in its path. AT about dark slight breeze
sprung up from the southwest.
In half an hour rain began to fall, and,
without scarcely moments warning, the
gale burst forth and steadily increased in
fury until it was nothing short of cyclone.
Several houses were unroofed, but the oc-
cupants escaped serious injury. The south
wall and portion of the roof OF the Huber
School building was demolished. Hardly
a smokestack in the city was LETT standing
The fire tower at the Central engine-house
was blown down, and in falling smashed
in portion Of the stables. The storm did
not extend far beyond the city,limits, and
consequently no damage was done in the
oil fields or to growing crops. The loss in
the city is estimated at $4,000.