The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-03-25
WAS BLOWN DOWN, WITH FRIGHT
FUL RESULTS-MANY WERE
KILLED OR INJURED.
CABINS Went WHIzzTNG THROUGH THE AIR
A Cloud Burst Followed the Blow,
md All Streams Were Out of
Their Ranks-Eight PersOns
Drowned mt One Point.
Large Property Loss.

New Orleans, March 22.-Ihe l1mcs-
Democrats Eufala, Ala, special says:
This city is central in section which
was swept by cyclone this morning, in
which death and destruction played
dreadful part. The horror record be-
comes more thrilling hourly.
For several days there has been sum-
mer mildness all through southwest Geor-
country tributary to the Chattahoochee
river. Yesterday the thermometer went
to 80 and the air was sultry. With the
coming of night the skies were beclouded
and rain began to fall copiously about
midnight.
This was but for an hour, when the
the wind presaged a storm, which came
along with terrific and devastating force.
People hurried off the street and soon
found shelter. Shutters and signs were
whirled around for two hours, and for
two hours there wns terror and desolation,
when the cyclone passed off to the north
west careering along the Chattahoochee
valley.
The reports coming in tell of terrible
devastation. The town of Blakely, Ga,
was almost lifted out of existence, ana
people who sought refuge indoors were
as badly knocked around by cracking and
side who were unable to dodge fence rails
and other flying missiles
The most shocking story Of all, how
ever, was that which came from AIRING
ton, in Early county, Georgia. II was
about o'clock that the pupils of Airing
ton academy began to assemble. There
were about fifty present when PROFESSOR
Covington, noticing the coming storm,
called them in for shelter. On ana on
Al. xx.tt u. a xxh
increasing until it lifted the cabins into
mid-air, wrenching them into splinters as
n man would handful of cottonwood.
This sight so frightened the pupils that
they clung to Professors Walker and
Coyington, who vainly tried to comfort
them. Suddenly cracking noise was
heard and the shutters and doors were
wrcnched from their hinges. Then came
n twisting and careening and the central
part of the building gave way, falling
with deadly effect upon Il group OF chill
drcn who were clinging to the professors.
The doors and windows gone, the storm
had full sway within, fragments OF tim
her flying in the air, and children, help
| less, being caught up and dashed against
the wrecked walls The cries of the
wounded and the groans of the dying are
described as having been heart rending.,
While all this was going on 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.
| Professor Walker had his arms and legs
| broken and can not live through the night.
Among the dead are:
Ollie Paramore.
Claude Roberts.
Alice Putnam.
Willie McMurray.
| Kenneth Boynton.
Maude Johnson.
Mary Wcllons.
The wounded are:
| Ernest Welons, leg broken.
| Dudley Kilebre, both legs broken.
Prof. w. A. Covington, internal inju-
| ries; will die.
Alton Carter, leg broken.
Ethel Carter, internal injuries. will die.
Ben McMurray, head crushed; will die.
| Bette Paramore, arm broken ana hurt
| internally.
| lola Roberts, shoulders dislocatcd.
Simon Sanders, leg broken, hurt inter
| nally; will die.
George Riley, arm broken, hurt in
| tcrnally.
Clara Thighen, arms broken, hurt in
ternally; will die.
| The scenes around the building were
| most heartrending, as mothers clasped
the forms of their loved children in their
arms. needing not bloody and mangled
| forms.
The rain began to pour in torrents as
soon as the wind passed off, and 800 ,peo-
pie were drenched to the skin while clear
ing away the wreck.
Some remarkable escapes were related.
| One little girl. almost suffOcated to death
| for want of air, was lying under three
| of her dead companions, whose bodies had
| formed buffer which saved her from
| the severity of the blows from falling
| debris
| Reports from points on tie Chatta-
| oochec river up from and below and but
one story Of death and destruction. Five
miles below this city five negroes huddled
up in their cabin and began to pray Tor
| the storm to pass over. Strangely enough
| it did lift it's force at that point, and
they are thoroughly converted.
| The storm came from the Gulf of Mex
| leo, forming on the western side and en-
tering the Apalachicola river, traversed
| its continent streams to their sources.
| The Apalachicola is formed by the con-
| junction of the Flint and the Chatta-
| hoochec, the latter of which up to that
| point forms the southeastern boundary
| line between Georgia and Alabama, and
| lHe lOr1ner ulNcrpeS lnlO centrhi peOrelu'
II was in the zone within this circumfer-
ence that the strength of the storm was
spent and most of it being inaccessible to
telelgraphic communication, details are
hard to obtain.
From Athens county, Alabama. around
| Abbeville. there comes story of death
and wreck, but no names have been re-
ceiyed. A family is reported killed near
Geneva.
A second disaster is now on Athens
county. Rivers and creeks are swelled