The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-27


to the Times from Topeka, Kan. says:
Five persons at least were killed out
right; three fatally and seventeen more
or less seriously injured and great des-
truction of property was wrought by
cyclone which passed over Clay county
last night.
The dead are:
Frank Peterson, wife and child.
Mrs Ole Halverson.
A grandchild of Peterson.
The injured belong to the families of
John Morris, F. Welkin, Peter Ander-
son and H. Gardner.
Passengers on the Rock Island train
from the northwest this afternoon
brought partial
DETAILS OF THE CYCLONE.
1t started about six miles south of
Clifton and went in northeasterly
direction for twelve or fifteen miles,
then lost it's force by spreading. 1t
passed about half way between Cliff
ton and Morganville. Its track varied
from $50 yards to a quarter of a mile
in width. 1t tore through 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 TERRIFIC RAIN STORM,
which lasted several hours flooding the
devastated district
The cyclone took the people I'M
awares. 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 Ander-
sons house at $50 o'clock. This was
about a mile from the starting point.
The house was demolished in an in
slant. Every member of the Anderson
family was injured. When they had
eXtricated themselves from the debris
they discovered that Anderson's grand
child was 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 MADE 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 injury and damage was
known. At nool today it was thought
that all the victims had been found.
A large number of cattle and horses
were killed and fruit in the storms
track was ruined 1t is impossible at
this time to estimate the damage to
buildings and other property.
Heartrending tales of suffering are
told by persons who visited the scene
of the storm. Mary Of the injured lay
all night
PINNED DOWN BY WRECKAGE
or paralyzed in the mud, while others
crawled or hobbled across the country
to a neighbor's house. In several in
stances people were lifted into the air
by the cyclone and carried for dis
lance and then suddenly dropped.
Buildings were lifted up and then hurl-
ed to the ground with force enough to
demolish them.
The wife and daughter of John Nor
ris were reading when the shock came.
The house was divided The women
managed to get out when the wind
picked them up, carrying them 200
yards and let them down safely on a
pile of straw just away from the
storms track.
The people for miles around today
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 when the cyclone crossed the
road. Telegraphic communication be-
tween Topeka and Clifton was cut off
from the hour of the storm until
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.