Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-30
CLEARING OFF DEBRIS
Death List at St. Louis Grows as the
Work Progresses.
BURIED UNDER THE CITY HOSPITAL
Late Reports From the Surrounding
Towns.
JRIED UNDER THE CITY HOSPITAL
RESTORING ELECTRIC LINES

paralysis caused by the awful storm. Some
of the principal thoroGghfares that were
choked with wreckage have been opened,
and few of the street car lines have been
started but the telephone system of the
town is practically useless. The side streets
of the wrecked district still in a chaotic
condition. Telegraph and telephone poles
with a tangled network of wires. roofs of
houses, uprOoted trees, wagons and vehicles
of all kinds. and the shattered remains of
whole buildings, are still strewn through
most of them, so that traffic is in many
instances impossible. 1t will require weeks
to restore some of the streets to their
normal condition.
In the City Hospital Ruins.
The number of dead is hourly growing
greater the work of restoring the build
ings progresses. The ruins where at first
It was not thought there were any dead
bodies are now yieliing them up.
1t was said by the officials at the City
Hospital the day after the storm that no
one was crushed in the ruins. They are
now beginning to change their minds. 1t
has been aScertained that from sixty to
seventy-ive patients and four or five en-
ployeS are missing. Until this morning
practically nothing toward exploring the
ruins had been done But large number
OF men We're put to work at daylight today.
This was done only at the loud demands of
the people who had friends a the hospital
during the storm and who have not been
heard of since. Father kendricI< of 81. Vim
cents Church, who has been attending to
the spiritual wants of patients in the hos
pital for years, says that fifty bodies will
be found, if not more.
DR.. Starklof says many are dead under
the wreckage- DIR. Suffer estimates the
number at twenty-five. but would be sur
priSed if it runs over that figure.
Demand for houses and flats by those who
UpT bnr t,tyW W-aJra ,i1,y'
storm is great.
Restoring Electric Wires.
Expert workmen, electricians, ground
men and even laborers are being imported
from neighboring cities in large numbers
to construct the broken telephone, tele-
graph and electric light lines. Carloads of
telegraph poles, wiring and lamps and
various electr.cSf apparatus are arriving,
ard with the stock constantly carried by
the various companies, furnish material for
thousands of ws&kmen. The Bell Tele-
phone Company's wires along the course
Of the stern are total logs. The COM
Pany carries a heavy supply aid was en-
abled TO sta t JO rIen at Ork yesterday
morning. a conservative estimate of the
Bell Telephone Company's loss IS placed
at S1J.tD. The Postal Telegraph Company
got off with a loss of $4,000, its damage
being of such nature that 1t may be
easily repaired
The Western Union has 300 men in East
st. Louis uTtangliEg wreckage preparatory
to repairing lCsses, the extent of which the
officials cannot estimate. Another gang of
wOrkmer is on the line OF the Missouri Pa
Cific. where the loss IS great
1t had temporary circuits working last
night. but fully Il month VIII elapse before
the damage IS permanently repaired.
Twenty frst-clasS operators are expected
from Chicago to relieve the nearly ex-
hauSteG force in the central office
An estimate of the loss IS urobtairable,
as the officers Of the company can form no
idea what the amount may reach.
The Western Union is fast clearing up its
business. At this writing the company has
one qUadrupleX work nS TO New York, four
to Chicago, one to Omaha. three to Kansas
City and one to Cincinnati. 1t also has
three W WheatStOnC circuits, two of which are
to Chicago and the other to Kansas City.
The Missouri Electric Light and Power
Conn any escaped damage to the power
house. but in Broadway. 9Th, Ith, Chestnut.
ISL. 18th. list, 22i streets and jefferson
avenue the wires and a great many of Its
poles are Gown. The estimate of poles
dem reaches :.OD. The company has suf-
fcient reserve supplies on hand TO repair
il, loss ard 2;0 linenen at work, but fully
three or four weeks will elapse before all
connections are made.
The loss is not possible to compute. Mr..
3 NJ n0d1, the president of the company,
aGI also president of the Edison Illuminat-
iLg Company. was seen, but he refused to
even guess at the amount of the loss.
W::h The Edison company the poles and
w-r=s in about ~ books from the levee TO
G,ay.t avenue, ard from Ruttger to Clark
G.eIue. are torn down. and every arc
lamp is smashed. The power house is a
week. although the machinery not
Er-JtIy injured.
Some few of the city arc lights that are
Burning IRE supplied by a switch feeder
frCm the Missouri company's power house.
The first mail to arrive in the city since
the storm broke was received yesterday,
coming from the south. Until this time
there had been 10 communications with
tie outside world.
Outside the City.
Reports continue to come in from points
within radius of 20O miles of this city,
showing that Wednesdays storm was
Widespread. A special from Bowling Green
Mo. says: This city was not swept off the
earth. as reported in some quarters, by the
storm. but has suffered great loss of prop
erty and injury, to property. Two miles
west Of Bowling Green dwellings and barns
were blown TO atoms.
4 house was picked up with its occu-
pants. carried over the tree tops and set
down again in one instance without injury
to the family.
In a strip of country a mile wide, and
extending from here to Curryville, eight
niles. almost every house is damaged and
many are utterly demolished.
Al Curryviie not a single house escaped
damage The residence of j. w. Alvs was
crushed in like an egg shell, and Mrs. Re-
tecca Reed instantly killed. Jack Emerson
ard Henry Walsh and wife were injured
The damage TO property there will aggre-
gate many thousands of dollars.
Four miles west of here Mrs Carrie
Bradbury had her ribs crushed and
sustained Internal injuries. Louis James
boy had both arms broken. and Joe Smiths s
boy had his scalp taken off and will die
In most places the wind was a tornado,
but at others II took on a cyclonic feature
tw sting off elm trees three inches in dia-
meter and whirling houses around on their
foundations. Inside of thirty minutes the
rainfall was 31a inches, and from to 6
O'Clock It registered inches No such rain
or wind storm was ever seen in Pike coun-
ty. Almost every bridge on the ST. Louis
ard Hannibal railroad from Hannibal to
Gilmore, is gone.
Northwest of the City.
Reports received from other storm-visitetl
places outside of ST. Louis add to the num-
Der of dead and injured. and tell of great
destruction of property. The section of
Missouri that suffered Is northwest from
St. Louis, while in Illinois the tornado
moved almost directly east.
Two more CT the wounded at New Baden,
Ill, dead.
New Minden, ILL.,, is practically swep,