The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1896-05-29

crew was unable to launch any boats rhe
| passengers crouchcd in the cabin expect
| ing every minute to 60 down. The boat
| drifted as far as jefferson barracks, where
she sunk in shallow water. The teams ON
| the lower decks were drowned, but the
| fifteen passengers were rescued in boats.
! The storm left its path Uttered with
! dead and dying and patrol wagons, am
| balances and undertaker's cars were busy
all day long carrying the identified dead
10 their homes and homes of relatives and
friends, or leaving the unidentified dead
| with the city mOrgue authorities.
The miles of wrecked blocks as yet un-
explored and the numerous collapsed fac
tories towards the investigation of which
little progress has been made, may hide al
most any number Of bodies, as the police
have been unable to secure anything like
definite list Of the missing In the factory
districts many Of the employees on duty at
the time the storm broke were without
relatives in the city and their disappear.
ance would scarcely be noted, even though
they be buried in the ruins. 1t is believed
by the police, too that owing to the sud-
denness with which the crash came many
tramps and homeless ones sought shelter
among the buildings which were leveled
and that nothing will be known of their
death until perhaps weeks hence, when
their bodies are found.
The Republican national convention
auditorium was practically uninjured by
the storm, the only damage being that
some light roof covering on the southeast
corner of the building was blown off. The
damage can all be repaired in a very few
days. There is not the slightest doubt but
that the building will be perfectly re.
| stored and in first class condition long be-
lore the day the convention is to meet.
Colonel Wettmore, manager of the Lig-
get & Meyers tobacco plant which was
wrecked, estimates the entire property
damage at S25, ,0O0,0OO which will be, he
says, almost total loss, owing to the lack
of cyclone insurance. Other estimates
range from S15,OOO,0OO to S30,OO0OOO, but
the majority of them are close to that
made by Colonel Wettmore
In East st. Louis, Ills, nothing what
ever remains of Broadway from the river
to the viaduct, apd on the east side, for a
width of probably 600 yards, there is abso-
| lutely no semblance to a house, freight
shed or cars left standing Cars in the
yards ware thrown on their sides, ends on
top OF each other into the ponds abound
ing on the island and completely wrecked.
The Big Four, Vandalia and Louisville
and Nashville freight sheds are razcd to
the ground, not us much as a stick re-
naming in an upright position. The Of
flee force, together with the freight han
dlers at the latter shed, sought refuge in
box oars, and owe their lives to that fact.
The river front for thousand yards is
one great mass of wreckage. Steamboats,,
ferryboats, transfers and tugs are piled up
in an indiscriminate pile, some partly sub
merged, Others high and dry on the shore
| The very stone masonry on the east end OF
the Eads bridge was cut off clean with the
railroad tracks, while the approaches are
twisted and wrecked, trains passing over
very slowly and carefully.
Every undertaking establishment in the
place is an improvised morgue, and the
hospitals are full Of injured At St Mary
there were probably sixty patients, with
some so seriously hurt that they cannot
recover One little sufferer, ten months
old, lay there moaning and unconscious
She was picked up in front of her house
without a stitch of clothing on her little
| body. She is injured internally and will
die. Her mother lies badly hurt in another
ward.
AT the police station nothing could be
| learned beyond what could be seen at the
morgues, hospitals and out in the streets.
1t will be several days before the exact
situation is known. The search for the
dead is still going on, but it is slow work
There is rs yet too much confusion to pro-
ceed systematically. The only mode of
travel between St Louis and East ST
Louis is on ferryboats, making hourly
trips, and it is loaded down to the waters
edge with people coming and going.
The first section of the cyclone, for it ap-
peared to come in waves, first struck East
ST. Louis about 5:15 o'clock Eye wit
nesses who We're near the river declare
that the cloud seemed TO divide and then
come together again, and as il came across
the river looked like an immense water
spout. The path was very wide embrace
ing almost the entire levee district with
the center and what appeared to be the
most destructive part Of the storm near
the great 2ads bridge
The upper portion Of the bridge on the
east side Of the river for a distance Of
about fifty feet, was completely torn away,
the great iron girders being twisted like
strings, and the massive masonry torn
away and hurled to the level On the
bridge just as the storm struck it was a
Chicago and Alton passenger train This
was turned completely over, as was also
three trolley cars on the upper portion, of
the bridge All Of the passengers were
badly shaken up, but none were seriously
injured.
To the right of the Eads bridge, whore
the bridge trolley cars met the local street
cars, formerly stood a long row of frame
houses. OF these scarcely the wreckago
romans, In one Of the houses lived John
Mckenzie, an employe of the St Louis and