Milford chronicle., 1896-07-03
BUILDING FOR ToRNADoEs.
A Suggestion That Cellars Should BE Plan
ned TO Serve as a Refuge.

Such frightful catastrophes as the recent
tornado at Sherman, Tex, by which $50
! lives were instantly destroyed, will go far
to make dwellers in the east thankful that
their lot has been cast in a safe land 1t
Is hard for one who has passed his life
among the firm and rock ribbed hills of
New England to understand tho terror of
nature which overhangs so large a part of
our fair country Now and again n fOrked
tongue of lightning may dart down from
a thundcrcloud and hunerlly lick up q
human life, or occasionally a spring freshet
may carry away incautiOus dwellers in the
valleys. But we know nothing of the ter
TOR which blanches the face of the inhabit-
ant of the far southwest when tho solid
earth rocks and swings under his feet and
bottomless abysses yawn open to right and
to left, or Of the fear that stills the heart of
the tiller of the rich Mississippi plains
when the murIy clouds twist like black
and green snakes and lash the earth with
their cruel blows. A catastrophe like the
Mill river flood is an event in New Eng
land history, the result of abnormal con-
diti0ns and Of mans carelessness Yet few
more lives were lost by this cataclysm than
were destroyed in a moment the other day
by the caprice of nature. Still less are we
able to realize such stupendous commissions
of nature as the eruption of KralatOa a
few years since when the sea and the fiery
lava swallowed up 1875, 600 souls, and a
whole fleet of ships was sucked down into
a burning vortex in midocean, or the great
floods Of the Yellow river, hardly less de-
structiye to human life. To the New Eng /
lander nature is friend He watches the
gathering storm with frank fearlessnsss
and does not hide In the cellar when the |
sky Is black, as in the southwest
1t is obvious that the cyclone will be /
more and more terrible scourge as the /
steady press Of emigration peoples the (
great plains of the west There is n not un-
common impression that such storms are
becoming more frequent or even that they
are IA comparatively new thing The true
explanation Of this seeming increase is that
as the country becomes more thickly settled
the storms do more damage There are
vast districts where every neighborhood
has its "windfall, " q narrow gorge per-
haps less than 100 feet wide, running for
miles through the forest, In which thore is
no tree standing Tho largest oaks have
been broken off or pulled up by the roots
and sent carcering perhaps half mile in
to the sky, while outside Of this belt the
frailest shrub is unframed There was an
unreDOrteQ cyclone. Ou inc prllfleS Sucn
storms are constantly happening and leave
no such trail Occasionally n solitary
ranch is blown into the next state, and per-
haps an item gets into the papers
The cellar is the only element in archi-
lecture that can be counted upon in these
wind swept districts, and here we must
find the key to life saving building Wei
suggest to western architects that in cities
as well as in the country they make the
cyclone cellar the basis Of their work. Only
in a bOmbproof casemate underground
can one really DO safe. And furthermore.
no time must be wasted in getting there
The cyclone does not give warning Why
not adopt the plan in use in the fire de
Dartments, and in place of the slow and
clumsy stairs have sliding poles by which
the whole family can deposit themselves in
l place Of safety almost in the twinkling
If an eye9 Then, with II system of electric
alarms, to give the needed minute Of grace,
he loss Of life might be almost entirely
ione away with Tho American is nat
lrally brave and reckless and seldom thinks
# danger till it comes, but such frightful
disasters as this have their lesson and it is
line that builders were beginning serious .
v to study the problem instead of copying
houses which do well enough in the tran
luil eastern states. Springfield Mass }
3onublicuu