The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1898-01-20
WINDS AWFUL WORK
NEARLY FIFTY LIVES BLOWN
OUTAT FORT SMITH, ARK.
Many Residences md Public Buildings
Ground Into SpIinters-Dead and
Wounded Are Dragged from the
Ruins by Survivors.
Cut n Wide Swath.

n
Fort Smith. Ark. was swept Tuesday
night from end to end by terrific cyclone.
and Wednesday the business portion of
the town was in ruins, while the dead lay
in long rows at the morgue. Fifty peo-
pie. it is thought, perished III the fury OF
the STERN.
Coming from the southwest the cyclone
swept Fort Smith completely. smashing
everything along the way. The crash of
falling houses was first heard at ii o clock
and before the sleeping inha bitants could
rise and seek refuge the full force of the
storm was upon them. buildings went
down in heaps on every side. One large
boarding house, struck by the full power
of the tempest. broke in fragments like an
eCgshell. Fifteen bodies were taken from
that boarding house Wednesday morning.
and it is thought that Mt least twenty-five
victims died among the falling tlmbers.
The handsome new high school building.
recently erected at cost of 100000. dis
solved like n fabric of dream. Two
churches fairly flew asunder when the
cyclone pounded on their walls. Resi-
dences went crashing to the ground,
stores and business blocks followed in one
hideous ruin. In few moments 1t was
over-the storm had passed and the city
was in ruins.
In the blackncss of the night. the up-
roar of the falling walls, the cries of the
injured and the hurtling of flying timbers'
the uninjured citizens We're for a tine
completely panicstricken. Toward md
night, regaining their self-control as best
they could, they began a systematic in
vestigation of the damage dcne, and also
an attack upon a number of fires which
had blazed up among the ruined buildings.
For a time it seemed as if this new dan
ger would add equal damage to that done
by the wild work of the storm. Several
bodies, whether. dead or living it Is hard
TO say. were cremated in the flames be
fore the fire department could overpower
the blaze.
Then, every physician in toI-n having
been summoned to the rescue. a search
was begun among the ruins-a search in
the blackness of a wild night, with
torches and lanterns for light. with the
cries of the wounded as guiding sounds,
with the shaking. tottering ruins on every
side as added dangers. Dead men and
women were found ut every point among
the ruined houses-people who had been
killed as they lay in bed, as they sat in
their parlors, as they strove to flee.
Wounded-pinned down by big timbers.
bruised and stunned by the rain of bricks
and plaster-were intermixed among the
dead. These were cared for as best the
sea archers and the hastily summoned doc
tors could, while the death list steadily
grew and the row of bodies in the morgue
grew continually longer.
Morning came and revealed scene OF
horror and destruction. Among the
wreckage. torn out of all shape by the
storm. burned and blackened by the en-
suing fires. were found more dead, more
wounded. The hospital was full to over
flowing. The morgue could hold no more
Scores of people who had missed relatives
or friends in the wild uproar of the night
ioined with the searchers, directing, aid
ing. digging among the masses of mason
~, roofing up the fallen timbers and drag
ging away the shattered beams. No es-
innate can be made at this time of the
damage done to property.
After tearing through Fort Smith the
cyclone veered. whirled to the southeast
and laid in ruins the town Of Alma, nine
miles away. 1t Is reported that Alma is
almost utterly destroyed and that several
people have been certainly killed, while
many are missing.