The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-06-11
LIFTED The ROOF.
Tornado Wrecks Town Hall at
Merna, Ill.
Two Hundred People Were
Dancing on the Inside.
THREE KILLED, 80 HURT
Bloomington Sustains Serious
Damage to Property.
Railroad BlOckaded by Trees
Across the Tracks.
Grain Elevators Demolished at
Various Points.
PEORIA WAS HIT HARD
Many Lives Lost and Property
Damage Heavy.
A Rock Island Train Caught in
a Land Slide.
PEORIA WAS HIT HARD
Many Lives Lost and Property
Damage Heavy.
A Rock Island Train Caught in
a Land Slide.

Bloomington, ILL.,, June 11-Three lives
We're lost and twenty people injured at
Merna, 10 miles north, in the storm
that visited this vicinity about mid
night. The dead:
MISS LENA CAHAGAN of Leroy.
MRS. EDWARD MARDIN of Leroy.
MISS ANNIE KELLY of Merna
Mitchell Cunningham of Merna is
missing.
About 20 others were more or less ser
iously injured
Two hundred people were attending
a dance in the town hall when a tor
nado wrecked the building. lifting the
roof and crushing in the walls. Other
damage was done at this point but
particulars are meagre.
The storm in this city was very Sc
we're, but no lives were lost. The Ilh-
nOis Wesleyan university was badly
damaged, many buildings were un-
rooted; plate glass fronts blown in; tel
egraph and telephone wires prOstrated
and the streets rendered iTnpassa bic by
falling trees. Street railway traffic is
tied up, and all railroad trains are de-
layed by trees blown across the tracks.
At Clinton the Chicago & Alton round
house was dem olished, but SO far as
known no lives We're lost.
At San Jose a grain eleva tor was
blown across the Alton track, entirely
blocking traffic
AT 6dIASS auOlneI elevator was DlOWn
down A large number of farm houses
are reported Seriously damaged, but
details are lacking.
MERNA GOT THE BRUNT.
Bloomington, Ill, June 11.-Death and
destruction followed last night in the
wake Of the worst tornado that has ever
visited central Illinois. The wind
wrought ruin and woe, and the property
loss win be tens of thousands of dol
lars. There is no way of really esu-
mating the loss at present, owing to the
uncertainty as to the effect upon the
growing crops, which it is feared, Suf-
fered heavily. The saddest feature was
the killing of three young women at a
dance at the town hall of Merna, a vii
lage ten miles east of this city. There
was party Of 250 young men and wo-
men at the dance in the hall when the
tornado struck the building about IL
o'clock last night. Everybody rushed
for the door. A number of young men
held the doors to prevent the people
from escaping, fearing that they might
be injured or killed If they got out
side.
About half of them however, escaped.
and then the building collapsed. The
others were buried in the wreck. Three
were Killed and 40 or so others injured
some of them seriously.
The dead girls are daughters of proni-
nent farmers in the vicinity The bodies
were horribly mutilated. A number of
young. men and women taken from the
ruins in an unconscious condition are
still in that state and it is feared there
may be other deaths.
Merna got the brunt Of the storm ami
many of the finest houses and barns
there We're destroyed.
The storm reached Bloomington about
II p. m, commencing with a furious
electrical display. Rain accompanied
the wind and the business district suf-
fered severely. Many plate glass VIM
doWs were blown in and stocks of goods
were badly damaged. Hundreds of big
trees We're broken off at the trunks and
the streets were almost inpassa BILE. Tel
egraph and telephone poles were snap
ped in two and the tangled wires added
to the blockade. Buildings all over the
city were damaged but no lives were
lost, nor was any one seriously injured.
A man was blown 300 feet but escaped
with slight bruises Just on the eve of