The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-06-24
TORNADO KILLS.
Death and Destruction Near
Salina Last Night.
Houses Blown Down and Three
Persons Killed.
WAS A REAL TWISTER.
But It's Path Was a Narrow
One.
Topeka Had a High Wind, But
Not CyclOnic.
WAS A REAL TWISTER.

Kansas City, June IA Spec1al TO
| the Star from Salina, Kan, says:
News has just reached here of a ter
rife cyclone which passed fifteen miles
/ northwest of this city about 1920 o'clock
last night. AS far as heard, three are
dead and a number dangerously in
! jured. The dead are:
Mrs. Annie Geesy, aged "a.
Nola Geesy, aged 18.
Ida Geesy, aged 9.
Four members of this family are also
badly hurt.
Geesy was away from home. The re-
mainder of the family had retired, and
when the storm struck they made for
| their cave. Before they had gotten out
of the house, however, the tornado had
destroyed it. The work of destruction
was not known till this morning when
neighbors found the dead and injured
members of the family lying about in
the debris.
The three dead We're found about so
feet east of the house and near them
the baby, alive, but buried to her waist
in dirt. The other three were found
some distance west of the house.
tWO-by-fOUr scantling was driven
through one of Mrs. Geesy's limbs. The
bodies were removed to Mrs. Deans,
the mother of Mrs. Geesy.
At Mrs. Story's a half mile east of
the Geesy place, the family were sleep
ing in a stone basement with a frame
upright part. The framework was
blown away and the timber blown onto
the family below, but none of them was
killed. The stone work was uninjured.
At c. w. Morris the kitchen was torn
down and a grove of trees leveIed to
the ground.
The track of the storm was narrow,
but very winding. 1t tore down three
sides of the Geesy pasture without
passing through the middle of it. 1t
came from the east, and after doing
ed, part going west and the rest north.
There are rumOrs of other casualties,
but particulars are meager.
Weather Observer jennings says the
storm which visited Topeka and vicin-
ity last night was most severe one. |
He says, however, that there was not a
tornado, and that those who thought
they saw one were mistaken. Last
night was one of variable temperature
variable wind and a large amount of |
lightning.
The government Thermometers on the |
Columbian building were kept busy
registering the different temperatures. |
Weather Observer Jennings has the rec |
ord made during the storm, which is as |
follows:
100 a. m, so degrees.
1:30 q. m, 65 degrees.
2:3O a. m, 85 degrees.
1920 a. m, 50 degrees.
The storm broke about 1915 a m.
The wind was blowing at a terrific rate |
of speed and residents all over the city
were greatly alarmed lest a tornado |
should strike Topeka. The storm was |
most severe in the southwestern part of |
the city The storm clouds came up !
from that direction and moved around |
to the east and disappeared. On the |
Columbian building the speed of the |
wind was registered at 12:15 a. m as !
80 miles an hour. For the time cover |
ing the duration of the storm the aver /
age velocity of the wind was 80 miles |
an hour.
Speaking of the reported tornado
Weather Observer Jennings said to a |
reporter today:
There was not a tornado here last
night. People who saw those clouds /
around the state house dome and |
thought they were funneI-shaped are
mistaken. At night when there is
nothing to illuminate the clouds but
lightning flashes it is an easy thing to
be fooled into thinking that certain
clouds are funneI-shaped and are whirI-
Ing. Then, too, the clouds last night
easily have been taken for debris flying
about suppose, maybe, the clouds
encircled the state house dome, but
there wasn't a tornado. If there had |
our streets would have been strewn with |
trees, sticks and wreckage. Last night
during the storm I looked out of my
bathroom window and a flash of light |
ming lighted up the clouds. I saw |
funnel shaped cloud out west of the
house and sat and watched it. After
another fash I saw that the funnel
shaped cloud was really a slanting tree
branch. There are no evidences of
tornado having been near here. But If
was a big storm. There was II hun
dredths of an inch of rain fell
All over the city trees were blown |
down and small outbuildings destroyed.
The large front windows in the second |
hand store of Eli UIIamperl, at 227 Kan
SaS avenue. were blown in h1v tho T4-iy,5
Lumber yards suffered Lumber at the
new bridge was blown into the river
The smokestack on the Davis elevator
in North Topeka was blown down
Aside from small destruction like the
above there was but little real damage.
No one was hurt.
STORM AT FOREST PARK.