Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-04-30
A Cyclone in Kansas.
DEATH AND DESTRUCTION IN A
STORM NEAR CLIFTON.
CLAY COUNTY.
Five Killed and Twenty Injured
Houses. Barns, Fences and
Trees Laid Low.

spccidl W the if"eS from ioPohas
kas., says:
Five persons, at least, were killed
outright, three fatally and II moro or
less injured and great destruction of
property was caused by n cyclone
which passed over Clay county last
night.
The dead are:
FrankPeterson, wife and child.
Mrs. o. Haverson.
A grandchild of Peter Anderson.
The injured belong to the family of
John Morris, F. Welkin, Peter Ander-
son and H. Gardner.
Passengers on the Rock Island train
from the West this afternoon brought
partial details of the cyclone. 1t
ton and went in a northeasterly direc-
ton for u or Is miles; then lost its
force by spreading. 1t passed about
halt way between Clifton and Nor
ganville. Its track varied from $50
yards to a quarter of q mile in width.
1t tore through a farming community
and left nothing standing. Houses
and barns were wrecked, trees torn up
or broken, fences leveled and hay
stacks blown in every direction.
The cyclone was followed by a ter
rifle rain storm, which lasted several
hours, flooding the devastated district.
The cyclone took the people unawares.
! There had been indications of a heavy
rain all day, with local showers, but
nobody expected a storm.
SO far as learned, the victims were
in their houses, and the most of them
had retired. The storm struck Peter
Anderson's house at $50 O'Clock. This
was about q mile from the starting
point. The house was demolished in
an instant. Every member of the
Anderson family was injured. When
they had extricated themselves from
the debris they discovered that An
derson's grandchIld vas missing. The
dead body of the child was found this
morning in a ravine half a mile away.
1t evidently had been carried there by
the wind. Anderson alarmed the
neighbors who lived out of the track
of the storm, and search was com
menced for victims, but little Roadway
was made in the rain.
Couriers were sent to Clifton and
Morganville for doctors, but it WAS
daylight before they arrived, and the
extent of the injuries and damages
were known.
AT Don to-day it was thought all
the victims had been found. A large
number of cattle and horses were kill
ed, and fruit in the storms track was
ruined. 1t is impossible at this time
to estimate the damage to buildings
and other property. H~eartrending
tales of suffering are told by persons
who visited the scenes of the storm.
Many of the injured lay all night pin
ned down by wreckage or paralyzed
in the mud, while others crawled or
hobbled across the country to a neigh
bor's house.
In several instances people were
lifted into the air by the cyclone and
carried for a distance and then sud-
denly dropped. Buildings were lifted
up and then hurled to the ground with
force enough to demollsh them. The
wife and daughter of John Morris
were retiring when the shock came.
The house was divided. The women
managed to get out, when the wind
picked them up, carried them 200
yards and let them safely down on a
pile of straw, just away from the
storms track.
The people for miles around to-day
gathered at the different points where
damage had been done and rendered
assistance in every possible way. The
conductor on the Rock Island train
said that the track of the storm looked
like a piece of ground which had been
leveled with a roller. Half a dozen
telegraph poles were torn down where
the cyclone crossed the road. Tele-
graphic communication between To-
peka and Clifton was cut off from the
hour of the storm until 9 O'Clock this
morning. 1t is expected that much
damage was done in the vicinity of
Palmer, Washington county, but the
details cannot be learned.