The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-03-31
schoolhouaa Wrecked.

5CuOOtnOuso "EoCkoOs
EUFAULA, Ala, March 22.-This
city was swept by cyclone this morn
ing. Men were almost caught up
from the streets before they could find
shelter. Roofs, shutters, etc., gave
way and for two hours there was ter
ror and desolation, when the cyclone
passed off the Northwest, along the
Chattahoochee Valley. The reports
soon coming in told of devastation.
The town of Blakely in Georgia was
almost lifted out of existence and peo-
pie seeking refuge indoors were as
badly knocked around by falling tim
bers as were those on the outside, who
were unable to dodge fence rails and
other flying missiles.
The most shocking story of all,
however, was that which came from
Arlington, Early County, Ga. 1t was
about 8 o'clock, when the pupils of
Arlington Academy began to assemble
About fifty were present when the
cyclone lifted two cabins across the way
into tie mid air, wrenching them into
splinters as man would handful of
rotten wood. The shutters and swing
ing doors of the academy building
were wrenched from their hinges.
Then came a twisting and a careening
and the central part gave wav, fall
ing with deadly effect upon a group
of children. The doors and windows
gone, the storm had full sway within,
fragments of timbers flying in the air
and children being caught up and
dashed against the wrecked walls.
The people of the town, regardless
of the wreckage of their own homes,
ran to the school, where they knew
their children were, only to find many
Of them dead, others wounded and
pinioned beneath the debris. Profess
sor Walker had his arms and legs
broken, and cannot live through the
night.
The death list so far as known is:
Alice Putnam, Claude Roberts. Ollie
Paramore, Willie McMurray, Genine
Butler. Maude johnson, Mary Wei.
Ions, Kenneth Boynton, and Albert
Butler.
The wounded are: Earnest Wellons,
leg broken; Dudely Killerbrew, both
legs broken; Prof. W. A. Coyington,
internal injuries, will die; Alton
Carter, leg broken Ethel Carter, inter.
nal INJURIES, will die; Ben McMurray,
head crushed, will die; Bette Para
more, arm broken and hurt internally; :;
Nellie Roberts, shoulders dislocated !;
Simon Sanders leg broken, hurt in.
ternally will die; George REILLY, arm
broken, hurt internally, will die.
The rain began to pour down in tor,
rents as soon as the wind passed off
and the 500 people were drenched to
the skin while clearing away the
wreck. Some remarkable escapes
were related. One little girl almost
sufocated, was lying under three Of
her dead companions. From Henry
County, Ala, there come stories Of
death and wreck, but no names have
been received.
A family of five is reported killed
near Genoa. A second disaster, that
of floods, is now upon the county.
The rivers and creeks are swelling
with the rainfall, which almost re-
sembled a clouGburst. On both sides
of the Chattahoochee, South of this
place, the fields are overhowed, de.
stroying all the winter work of pre-
paration. carrying away outhouses
and cabins and floating off stock SO it
can never be recovered.
Late tonight news comes in OF the
drowning of family of eight persons
on the Alabama side of the river in
Henry County. Richard Mason with
his wife and six children lived in a
cabin on the river bank at the crossing
of the Central Railroad from Colum-
bia. The water rushed in. surround.
ing the cabin. All were lost.