Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1902-06-12
TORNAD0ES IN WEST.
Great Damage Done to Property In
Several States.
LIVES LOST IN ILLINOIS.
Fury of the wind Caused the Merh"
Town Hall to Collapse While
u Dance Was In
Progress.

NNlcuSO, June I-.~thtuSSA ANf~' ~
received here tell Of destructive tor
nauo which swept from the southern
boundary of Wisconsin through cen
tral Illinois as far south as Blooming
ton. with ramilications west Of the
Mississippi.
The storm at Peoria was very de-
structiyc. Many lives were lost, and
tie property damage was extensive,
The mercantile loss viii be hundrrUS
of thousands ol dollars. The Ehic"G"
Rock Island and Pacific lASSenG,
train was caught in Il landslide, an,
the engine and mail car were burlc"
in the mud,
At MernA, H.. three lives were lost
and forty to fifty people injured Lau-
rel, a little town in Marshall county.
Ia. is said TO have been wiped out by
the fury of the storm.
Bloomington, Ill.,, was hit severely.
and buildings in all parts OF the city
were seriously damaged and traffic
blocked So far as is known no lives
were lost in Bloomington.
At Kingston Mines, Ill.,, three lives
were lost two people were fatally in
jured. and the entire east end of the
village of LOCO inhabitants was swept
away. Houses and barns were blown
down in Groveland, MINER, Dillon,
uopedale and Dcievan, but so far no
loss of life in any of these places has
been reported. The most destruction
seems to have been at Kingston Mines
Opposite Iekin the river overfOwed
its banks and covered 10000 acres of
corn, which is believed to have been
ruined.
The Tragedy at Merna.
Merna is a small village ten miles
east of Bloomington. There was par
ty Of $50 young men and women at a
dance in a hall when the tornado struck
the building. A number of young men
held the doors to prevent the people
from escaping. fearing that they might
be injured or killed II they got outside,
About half Of them. however. escaped.
and then the building collapsed. The
others were buried in the wreck Three
were killed and forty or fifty more or
less injured, some Of them seriously.
The dead are Miss Lena .Iahagaln.
Mrs Edward Martin and Miss Anna
Kelly.
AL are daughters of prominent farm
"rs in the vicinity. The bodies We're
horribly mutilated by the heavy tim
ber. Quite a number of young men
and women were taken from the ruins
in an unconscious condition. Some of
them are still in that state and 1T is
feared there may be other deaths.
The storm struck Merna with the
greatest fury-greater thnn any other
place in that county. Many of the fin
est houses and barns were destroyed
Winds Fury In Bloomington.
AT Bloomington the storm began with
a furious electrical display. Rain &C
companied the wind. and the business
district suffered severely Many plate
glass windows were blown in, and the
stocks Of goods were badly damaged
Hundreds of trees in the city were
broken off at the trunks. and the streets
are almost impassable Telegraph and
telephone poles were broken short off.
and the wires added to the blockade.
Buildings all over the city were dam
aged. but no lives We're lost, nor was
any one seriously injured. A man
standing on West Washington street
was blown 300 feet, but escaped with
only bruises. Illinois Wesleyan uni
versity, Just on the eve of commence
ment week. had its roof blown off and
was badly damaged by water.
The railroads report damaged tracks
due to washouts and a number of
freight wrecks due to telegraph poles
falling on the tracks So far as now
known no one was killed or injured.
Efforts are making to reach the small
towns in the county as it is believed
several of them must have suffered
more or less damage.