Little Falls herald., 1902-05-02
A MISSOURI TORNADO
THE CITY OF JOPLIN Is BADLY
DAMAGED AND FIVE PEo.
PIE KILLED.

Houses Are Blown Down and Much
Property Damaged-storm Was a.
Straight Gale Of Terrible Velocity
and Came Up Without Warning.
\ Believed That Neighboring commu-
mites Suffered Severely.
Joplin, Mo-, April ga tornado
struck this city during the afternoon.
Five fatalities are reported and many
persons we're injured. Meager reports
from Galena, Kan, and Webb City
and Carterville, Mo-. indicate great
damage.
In this city houses were blown away
and the city strewn with the wreckage
of the storm. The stores suffered
heavy damage from broken plate glass
and floods.
Five dead and SIX fatally injured
have been reported. The l-nown dead:
Esther Hunter, killed by falling tim
bers; Martha Cape, colored, died from
fright.
The fatally injured: Bidwell Hun
ter, Mrs. Anna Hunter, Mrs. Marian
Hicks, a boy named Kruger, three
miles west of Joplin, and F. B. Kelley
three miles west.
There was no premonition of the
storms terrible violence. There was
an utter absence Of the usual funnel
shaped cloud and the clouds looked
no more threatening than those which
produce the ordinary spring thunder
! showers. The wind was a straight
I! gale, but it was Of terrible velocity,
whipping down scores of houses in the
south part OF the city and reducing
! to kindl;n: v-cod 100000 worth Of the
! finest mining plants in this district.
; The worst havoc in Joplin city was
! in a territory four blocks wide, CON-
mencing at the west limits of the city
at Seventeenth street and ending at
! Seventh street on the west. Within
/ this narrow belt the destruction done
; is visible on every hand. The home
; of Mrs. Nellie Sullivan was destroyed.
Mrs. Sullivan was badly hurt about
! the head and face and her 2-year-old
; baby was blown so yards into a pond
! and saved from drowning by the heroic
! efforts of her 7-year-old brother, who
! had also received injuries from the
storm.
Passing east from the city the storm
spent its fury on the suburban dis
tricts known as Moonshine Hill and
Villa Heights. Three people were
killed at Moonshine Hill. The Hill is
a tangled mass of debris and not a
single house is left standing. 1t is
populated mainly by miners, who live
in little shacks.
/ OF the little home of Bidwell Hun.
ter not a timber is left standing and
the three inmates of the house are
dead or dying, all having had thei1
skulls fractured.
Many of the finest buildings in the
city were wrecked. The tall spire ot
the Baptist church, one Of the most
imposing edifces here, toppled ove1
and crashed through the roof, destroy.
ing the handsome interior of the build
ing. The Stevens hotel was unroofed
and it's occupants were driven else
where for refuge from the deluge OF
water which flooded them. The Frisco
roundhouse was destroyed and no less
than 20 mills are badly damaged. The
/ telegraph, telephone and street CO.
service is paralyzed. The electric
! light and gas plants are crippled, leav
ing the city in total darkness.
! The number of buildings destroyed
is estimated at so and the property
loss at $300,000
,, It is feared that the small minine
! camps at Central City and Cave
I Springs, four miles west of here, have
suffered much loss, as apparently they
were in the path of the storm.