Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-05-28
qO-DAY'S TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.
The Cyclone.

quickly told. The day was an oppres.
siye one and there was no wind. About
four o'clock in the afternoon the entire
western horizon was banked with
clouds, light wind sprang up and a
sudden darkness came upon the city
and increased until the storm broke.
There seemed to be three separate cy-
clones. They came from the north
west, the west and the southwest
When they reached the Mississippi
river they had become one. 1t was
quarter to five when the storm broke.
It's descent was so sudden that the flee
ing women and children were caught in
the streets and hurled to destruction or
buried under falling walls. Lightning
PLAYED about them and there was q
marvellous electrical display. The
storms approached at the rate OF eighty
miles an hour.
From the clouds a strange, cracking
sound came. This filled the air, and at
times was stronger than the incessant
peals of thunder. The funDels envel-
oped the western side of the city, and in
thirty minutes were wreaking destruc-
ton. So destructible was the cyclone
that some of the staunchest business
blocks went down before it. Iron
beams were torn from their fastenings
and carried blocks away as if they were
feathers.
The east end of the Eads bridge, one
of the most solid and finest bridges in the
world, was destroyed. The other great
bridges spanning the Mississippi were
all injured. Scores of persons were
drowned, or, after being killed on the
land, blown into the water. Steamers
were blown high on the banks, and
others, after being torn from their
moorings, disappeared and have not
been heard from. AS rule the smaller
craft were sunk. Whatever was in the
path of the wind was either destroyed
or badly injured. And this destruction
was done within an hour.
In East st. Louis the devastation was
as great as in st. Louis proper. Fire
added to the destruction, and as the
streets were Uttered with rubbish and
debris the fire department was help
less.
The scenes at the morgue through
the evening and night were heartrend-
ing. Mothers and fathers, daughters,
brothers and other relatives called
there and inquired anxiously for miss
ing ones. They rushed into the dead
room" They were hysterical with
grief. 1t was after midnight when the
crowd dispersed.
The list of dead discovered so far
falls below the first estimates, but is
long enough to be appalling. Crushed
beneath falling walls, hurled against
the sides of buildings, struck by flying
timbers, cut by shattered glass, shocked
by the net work of electric wires, hu-
mainly suffered in ways innumerable.
The names of all the injured will never
be known. The loss ot:property Is be-
yond conception. There we're 450 sick
people in the city hospital when the
storm came. Some ran shrieking from
the place thirteen were injured in the
ward. The Convention Hall lost part
of the roof and was punctured in sew
eral places by flying timbers, but ten
days work will make the hall good
again. A section of the brick wall OF
the Jail went down and the prisoners
were panic-stricken. Between Sixth
street and the river and northward
from Choteau avenue every building
within the path sustained damage.
Smokestacks and chimneys were top
pied over, walls were leveled, roofs
were lifted, thousands ofwindows were
smashed, and miles of telegraph and
telephone wires were left in net work
on the ground. The streets are cover
ed in places with debris 10 feet deep.
Along the levee front the hawsers snap
ped and boats were sent adrift, some to
90 down. The death-dealing cloud
crossed the river and swept part Of
East st. Louis. The list of dead and
injured on the east side of the river
will not be complete until after ef.
fective search, though more lives have
been lost than upon the west side.
The injured number hundreds. The
most impressive evidence of the storms
force is to be seen in the wreck of the
eastern end of the Eads bridge. The
tornado tore off and tumbled down
tons upon tons of stone masonry, be-
ginning with the big eastern pier and
extending to the foot of the incline.
Fire in East St. Louis aided at least
81 100000 to the property loss. In st.
Louis south ofthe Iron Mountain tracks
and east of Sixth street to the river the
scene was frightful, but it was nothing
compared with the scenes along the
levee, Broadway and the side streets.
Every house had relatives and friends
among the dead and injured. Hus-
bands, fathers end brothers would run
from one temporary morgue to another
in order to attempt to identify their
relatives and friends. Miss Dean sat
speeches. in the car stables, while her
dead father lay at her feet. Her mother
was not far away and her two younger
brothers lay mangled upon door
nearby. 1t was an awful spectacle,
but it was duplicated over and over
again. To add to the distress there
was no light of any kind to be had.
At o'clock this morning it was esti-
mated that two hundred are dead and
four hundred are wounded in East St.
Louis and fifty.fve people are dead in
the city ofSt. Louis.
Fifty-six identified and nineteen I'M
identified bodies had been received at
the morgue up to noon. In East ST.
Louis only twelve bodies have been
identified thus far.
There Is some relief to the anxiety of
friends in the knowledge that most of
the steamboats, have been reported safe