The herald., 1896-05-28
Disaster Utterly Unparalleled Visited Upon
the Great City of St. Louis

dead and injured are being taken from
the ruins.
At East st. Louis destruction seems
greatest. H. c. Rice, Western Union
manager at Relay depot, climbed across
the demolished bridge and reported the
National hotel, fremont house, Martell
mouse, De Wolf cafe, Hazel Milling COM
pany's mill. Horns cooper shop and
great many dwellings east of there as
FAR as Fifth street gone and many peo-
pie killed. The Baltimore & Ohio and
Vandalia roundhouse, Standard Oil
works. East st. Louis and Crescent ele-
vators and twelve freight houses on the
levee are destroyed. The Grand Repub-
lie and several more excursion steamers
with all on board are reported sunk in
the river and all steamers on the levee
gone down. The city hospital Is full of
wounded and the morgue contains a
great number Of dead. A rough estimate
would place the number killed and
wounded at 1000.
Both the Western Union and Postal
Telegraph companies lost every wire out
of the city, which is in total darkness.
1t is impossible to get off any more from
here at present.
In a few seconds the same message
was reported from Lexington, KY, with
the additional facts that fully $50 peo-
pie were killed. This information was
subsequently corroborated by the opera
said that in his second message received
from East st. Louis 1t was declared the
the grand stand at the race track was
down and that fully $50 people were
buried in the ruins.
1t is thought the storm swept over ST.
Louis from the northwest to the south
east. as 1t is considered probable the
storm which was reported in the after
noon at Rush Hill, Mo- would require
several hours to reach st. Louis and the
storm at the two points Is reported as
having been long enough apart to ena-
BILE the storm to cover the distance be-
tween Rush Hill and st. Louis.
The storm which tore through the
country south of Centralia, ILL.,, Is said
to have occurred at about 6 o'clock, or
an hour after st. Louis was devastated
These three points are In direct line
from northwest to southeast and the
weather officials are inclined to believe
that the storm was one and the same.
THE EADS BRIDGE,
Which is reported as having been badly
damaged by the storm, was built in 1873.
and was considered one ofthe strongest
arch bridges in the world. 1t was built
without a draw bridge, and rose to an
elevation in the center and sloped down
to the shore on either end. There were
upon 1t a double railroad track, which
was used by the trains of the Wabash
and Alton railroads. double pazyage-
way for wagons and q double pathway
for pedestrians. From the reports re-
ceived Ii is not thought it is so seriously
damaged as to delay the train service
of the roads which use it to any large
extent.
At midnight 1t was reported at the
dispatcher's office of the Wabash road
at Forest, ILL.,. that it was impossible to
reach any point further south than
Nameoka. which is nine miles northeast
of st. Louis. The operator at that point
said that up to midnight it had been i'm
possible to obtain any definite Information
from st. Louis, but it was certain that
fearful damage had been done. He said
the ruins at East st. Louis were on fire
and burning fiercely, but could tell moth
ing more than that. He had not been
able to obtain any information from any
of the Wabash trains that had passed
his station since o'clock in the after
noon.
The report of the damage to the bridge
and the estimates of the dead and
wounded, he said. were not confirmed
with any accuracy, and the report of the
destruction of the Relay depot in East
st. Louis also lacked corroboration.