The Iola register., 1902-08-22
The Worst Tempest That
Ever Visited lola Swept
the Town Wednesday
SEVERAL FACTORIES HURT
Old Nicholson Sme,ter and Aurora
Foundry Half Jestroyed-Many
Narrow Escapes.

ruih 1hdI was clOuu DurSJ, nail
storm that was fierce and continuous,
swept over lola about 7 O'Clock last
evening, breaking trees, riddling
shrubbery, flooding buildings and do
ing thousands of dollars of damage
tothe old Nicholson smeter and the
Aurora Foundry, incidentally tying
up the street car line and upsetting
two Katy cars. Old timers say that
never in their experience did they see
more furious assault of the elements.
In the afternoon a greenish cloud
that looked dangerous came up in the
northwest, but it veered to the east
and did not touch the town. Just be-
fore darkness fell in the evening a
black cloud appeared from :he same
quarter, but nobody looked for what
happened. A stiff breeze preceded
the storm and about the time everyone
thought the rain would begin falling
and the wind drop, the fury of the
tempest was but developing.
The wind increased to a terrible
force, bending trees to the ground,
dashing the rain and hail against
buildings with a power that seemed to
threaten to tear down the walls. In a
minute the cutters were running full
from the rain which seemed cloud
burst. The hail was not larger than
bullets but it fell for several minutes
and was swept into winrows beside
buildings. Every door and window
on the north side of houses was
searched out by the storm and water
ilowed indoors. The storm lasted fif-
teen or twenty minutes, but it seemed
to the anxious people as if it was an
. hour.
When the uproar somewhat ceased,
the hail no longer falling and the
wind abating, people crept out of
doors and found their shrubbery beat
en- into shreds, dover plants ruined,
vines whipped nude of leaves, shade
trees split and branches Topped eff,
wreck of leaves scattered over their
lawns. A fusillade of bullets would
not more completely have stripped the
vegetation.
Over this scene of wreck and devas-
tation, as darkness began to SETTLE
the wind carr led the long distress
whistle from the factories east of town.
A locomotive in the same neighbor-
hood took up the alarm and the dole
full duet made peoples flesh creep
over the unknown havoc which the
alarm announced to have been wrought
east of town.
Men dressed for mud and water and
hurried to East lola. All the way the
walks were Hooded and the trees were
broken. On East Madison avenue a
milk wagon, caught on its rounds by
the storm, was turned upside down.
The team had run away when the
downpour of hail began.
THE WRECK IN EAST lola.
The very center of all the wreckage,
however, was at the crossing of the
Missouri Pacific and street railway.
flying roof from the Aurora Foundry
had come down there, bearing to the
street the trolley wire, the supporting
wires and the poles, together with
string Of telephone wires. This mass
OF electrified wire completely filled the
street, blocking the east bound even
ing Missouri Pacific passenger train
for half an hour. The wi IS we're cut
and the train slowly made its way out
Of the wreck and to the east.
y piece Of the same roof which went
little farther, dashed in the side
tie Office and shed OF Harry Thomas's
lumber yard The shed was wrecked
for forty feet
OF the four buildings OF the Aurora
Foundry, two were nearly destroyed.
The northeast building, a new one,
occupied as pattern room, was total
ly wrecked, the brick walls being torn
down and the roof carried away. The
west wall and part of the north wall |
of the machine shop, the large new
building at the west of the plant, were
also torn down. Several men were at
work in the shop when the crash came.
D. G. Willman was the only one who
was injured. He was hilton the should
er by falling brick and his shoulder
fractured. He was carried to the hotel
nearby and Drs. Dresbach and Wiley
summoned
At the lola Brick plant the frame
roofs over the kilns were all carried
away, but no other damage done.
The acid works escaped injury, al.
though the long, high buildings
seemed to invite destruction from the
Several panes of glass were
broken in the Office building and that
was all.
SHELTER NEARLY RUINED.
The old Nicholson sn1t.,1 ar now I