Delaware gazette and state journal., 1896-07-02
some EDEATH-DEAllNG STORMS
Power ofTornadoes Like Those
In the West.
FRANKS PLAYED BY ELEMENTS
Extremely Curious Freaks of
~. the Wind.
niass,ve Structures Tossed About Without
the slightest Efrort-Bodies of Victims of
Tempests Denuded- Many Other Remarks
able Tricks Performed. l

few weeks been destroying lie ana
property in Wisconsin, Michigan and
Missouri are, weather prophets say,
due to the exceptionally high tempera.
lures that have prevailed over the cen.
tral valleys in the months OF April
and May.
Scientifically speaking the name
storms, isN said to be misnomer.
Ths proper wotd is said to be "tor
nado, !" and it u singularly illustrative
of the newnesstot this scourge that the
dictionaries only few years ago
spoke of it as whirling wind, (which
sometimes Visited the central districts
OF the United States, and in few in
stances, had been known to overturn
haystacks, fences, trees and even
houses" The name "cyclone" is
properly applied to those vast circular
storms with ahiameter of from 100 to
1,0O0 miles, which sweep up from the
South Atlantic and the Mexican Gulf
and sometimes are days in passing over
. given spot.
Under another name they are equally
we'll known in the Indian ocean, along
the coasts of the Indian Peninsula and
among the myriad islands of Oceanica,
but in each case the general character
of the storm is the same; 1t is an at
mospheric disturbance of enormous pro-
portions, whirlwind whose centre or
vortex may be from 5 to so miles in
diameter 1t is tornado on mighty
scale, the wind whirling round an
imaginary pivot, with an upward sue
tion at the centre, just as in the case
OF a genuine Kansas storm, and only
! less destructive because the great part
- Ac s,p pxra l,a ipotan1 of
over the land.
To the dwellers in the tropics and
particularly in the tropical islands of
the West Indies, no visitation of ma
ture is more terrible than tornado.
A day or two before the coming of the
storm peculiar haziness in the atmos.
phere to the south is observable, the
fishing boats hurry to land, the steam
ers hurry to sea, or make everything
secure for the expected change. Sud-
denly the mercury falls, great cloud
sweeps up from the south and wind,
blowing from 25 to 100 miles an hour,
levels everything before it. 1t may last
from four hours to as many days, then
there is iull and the frightened peo-
Pile grow paler still, for they know they
are in the vortex Of the storm. A period
of suspense, lasting from five minutes
to four or five hours, passes. then the
winds begins to blow with the same
fury shown at first, but from the op
posite direction. What has been spared
by the first half of the cylone is fire.
quently destroyed by the second; ships
that have been blown out to sea are
often hurled back on the shore. Hours
and days of peril ensue. the length o.
time depending on the size of the
rx,nIona thas. s,16IapIv notpau fha p,tr
again, shining on ruins and corpses.
Diminish the diameter of the great
Atlantic cyclone from 1000 miles to 10t
yards, continue the whirling motion
intensity the destruetiveness by max
ing the whirling wind blow from ever,
point in the compass within 10 seconds
let the vortex be reduced to almos
nothing and the upward suction b,
greatly increased, and tornado is tn
result. That is, the scientists call j
tornado, but the people of thi
country have made up their minds t.
call it a cyclone. Within track from
100 to 200 yards broad and of indeterm
mate length, there is shown all th
fury of West Indian hurricane. 1t i
an Atlantic cyclone in everything bu
size, for in destructiveness it quit
equals, in its way. that of the grea
circular blast that starts between tn
Windward Islands and the Africa
coast, sweeps along the eastern shor
of the United States, crosses the Al
lantic and spends It's remaining fore
on the coasts of Great Britain and MOI
way. The waterspout on the sea is tb
nearest approach to the Western cS
clone; in both cases there is the fur
mel shaped cloud writhing like a sci
pent, rising and falling. but in th
waterspout there is nothing for it I
carry up but water, so it sweeps alon
over the sea, sometimes with immens
rapidity, sometimes with slow, regl
lar advance. but always source
uneasiness to mariners. 1t is kanst
cyclone transferred from the plains
the West to the boundless and tract
less sea. For ages these sea tornadot
have been known and dreaded only
recent years has their striking sim
larity to our cyclones been observed
and now, by many scientists, the tN
are believed to be Identical Transf,
the waterspout to the Western plail
and it becomes cyclone; in the moul
tains the downward rush of its water
when the column is broken, becomes
cloudburst.
The tremendous force exercised by ii
Wlnu during lanu cyclODe greatly g.
K ceeds that of any other agent known.
The other day in Sherman the ste
girders of bridge, supposed to
strongly constructed, we're warped o.
of all semblance to their origin
shape, and phenomena of a simil
character have occurred two or thr
times in Kansas and once each
Missouri and Nebraska. The giant
the wind has an arm of mighty powe
and in his grasp steel seems no strong
Y than straw.
The effects of the cyclone wind
houses are go diverse as to defy g
tempts at generalization. Sometim
the buildings are torn utterly
pieces and the fragments distribut
SO widely as to render collection al
Identification impossible; sometim
they are simply ovsrset and left otht
wise undamaged. Occasionally the re
ie taken off and torn to pieces, whi
the house is left. On one occasion
roof of an eight room house was lift
bodily. carried 200 yards, half way il
grove, where it seemed impossil
that it could have passed between t
trees, and left lying Hat, but upsi
down, in vacant spot just lar
enough to receive il. Occasionally
side of a house is carried away a
converted into kindling wood, VIII
the rest of the edifice is quite uni
jured.
In one instance, in Iowa, half