The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1902-06-19
Buildings Torn and Shattered
and Inmates Crushed in
the Ruins.
FOURTEEN PERSONS KILLED
Crops Ruined by Hurricanes Fury and
Torrentlal Rain--Winds Force 100
Miles an Hour.

swept pathway 100 miles wide
and nearly 200 miles long, marked
by the loss of fourteen lives. the
destruction of hundreds of build
ings and the devastation of
crops, is the result of the furious
storm which late Tuesday night
and early Wednesday caused a
loss of over 81. 900, 900 in central
Illinois. Commencing in Cham
paisn county on the east, the
area swept bare by wind and
rain passes through Ford, De
Witt, Mclean, Woodford, Taze-
well, Logan, Peoria and Mason
counties.
From many towns in each Of
these counties reports have been
received showing how great has
been the destruction, and the es-
Inmates which are given in the
dispatches from the towns fail to
show what will be the total loss
when the damage done to tire
crops and the live stock of the
farmers is taken into considera-
ton. The wind reached a veloc-
ity of 100 miles an hour and des-
olation is left wherever its malign
force touched.
The greatest loss of life is re-
ported from Peoria county,
XII ,gston mines, a small town,
being almost swept away by the
gale. Four persons We're killed
here, two of them being women
whose deaths were caused by at
tempts to escape with infants,
while on Peoria lake, near by, a
tug boat with a crew of three
men was lost in the fierce blast.
In the city of Peoria two men
were killed. One Of them, line
man, was UP pole repairing a
break made by the first storm,
and when the second storm broke
he was caught by a live wire. A
friend who went to help him was
fatally injured. The other death
was that of an engineer who was
crushed by falling timbers in a
roundhouse which was reduced
to mass of ruins.
A steam launch which left port
with party of several persons
is still missing and is believed to
be lost.
Perhaps the most pathetic
touch in the long list of fatalities
is found in the death of three
young women and one man who
were killed while at a dance in
Merna, Mclean county. When
the storm first broke some of the
men who were near the door went
outside and finding it impossible
to stand before the force of the
wind entered again into the town
hall IN which the dance was be.
ing held.
There they endeavored to pre-
vent the women from leaving,
fearing they would be injured if
they did so, and their efforts
caused the death and injury of
those who remained within, for
a sudden blast of immeasurabIe
fierceness tore the town hall
from its foundations and wrecked
it utterly, burying over fifty per-
sons beneath the ruins, of whom
four were dead when taken from
beneath the timbers.
The storm swept over a wide
extent of country and was the
worst that central Illinois ever
experienced.
At Bloomington buildings all
over the city were damaged. and
the Chicago and Alton depot was
blown into ruins and the freight
sheds did not escape. Several
grain warehouses adjacent TO the
elevators were demolished, but
little wheat was stored in them,
owing to the season.
At Clinton the Chicago & AL
ton roundhouse was demolished,
but, so far as known, 20 lives
were lost.
At Barnes an elevator was
blown down. A large number
of farmhous.s are reported seri-
ously damaged, but details are
lacking.
The town of Stanford was bad
1y damaged by the storm and
eovora1 elevators m, tho 1toY, tr,