Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-08
Eastern Illinois and Western Indi-
ana in Storms Track.
DEVASTATION At COLLINSVILLE
Fifteen Persons Injured and Sew
eral Residences Wrecked.
BAD WEATHER ELSEW

ST. LOUIS, Mo-, February S.-The towr
of Collinsville, twelve miles from St. Louis
on the Vandaiia railroad, narrowly escaped
destruction by a tornado today. Nine per
sons were injured in the immediate vicinity
of the village, some of them fatally, and
there was much damage to property.
The miners who live on the outskirts losi
heavily by the wind. A group of three fine
residences standing on a hill was reduced
to splinters.
The injured are:
Paul Quarandhi, aged thirty-fve; perhaps
fatal.
Otto Odderhole, aged seventeen; serious.
Sophie Fix, aged seventeen; skull frac.
tured.
Newton Anderson; not serious.
Theodore Lawrence; internally injured.
Frank hobart: seriously.
John Marquette; badly burned.
Son and daughter of Frank hobart; Sc
verely cut and bruised.
Tony Skalla, wife and two children; badly
bruised.
Barney Falette; seriously hurt.
Tom Pomatti; arm broken.
The last two named were blown several
hundred feet from their houses into field.
About 2:30 am the storm was first felt
at a point one mile south of Collinsville
The first house demolished was that occu-
pied by Frank hobart. He, his son and
daughter were all buried in the debris, and
lit was some time before they were rescued,
bruised and bleeding, from the wreckage.
They were carried to a neighbor's house
and given such care as could be had until
physicians arrived from the village.
From this place the wind swept to the
a,-th -
by a quarter of a mile, and the last trace
of the storm is to be observed at Hights-
Vile. a manufacturing suburb, one mile
away.
The great smokestack of the Hight Club
Coal Company building was leveed to the
ground and the walls somewhat damaged
From there the wind swept to the Vandalia
tracks, laying waste telegraph poles for a
distance of a quarter of a mile Beyond
the Vandalia tracks several large frame
houses were leveled. and nothing is left
save a mass of tangled wreckage.
Strikes Western Indiana.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind, February s-A
wind storm swept western Indiana and
eastern Illinois early this morning. Tele-
graph and telephone wires were seriously
affected. Telephone messages from the
western border OF the state and from
points in Illinois indicate that the storm
was most terrific at Collinsville, ILL.,, q
town on the Vandalia railroad, west of
Terre Haute. The officers of the Vandalia
at Terre Haute, who made an investiga-
ton through their local agents, were un-
able to verify the report of fatalities.
Meager reports from the territory north
of Collinsville indicate that there must
have been considerable loss of property,
and it is feared loss of life.
The storm seems to have passed down
the Indiana-Illinois line to Evansville, and
the reports from many places indicate that
the wind reached almost the velocity of a
tornado at many points.
Near the village of Cantane, ILL.,, not far
from Collinsville, a large farm house was
completely destroyed. The farmer and the
members of his family all escaped. In the
same locality a mile and a half of tele-
graph lines was blown down and much
debris piled on the track of the Vandalia
railroad. The farmer whose home had been
destroyed while out looking for his live
stock noticed that the track of the rail-
road was obstructed, and, hurrying to the
west a mile, tagged No. IA, the fast pas
senger train, due in indianapolis at S:2O
o'clock. 1t was not yet daylight, and the
officers of the road say the train would
surely have been wrecked but for the
warning of the farmer