The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1902-05-03
A MISSOURI TORNADO
THE CITY OF JOPLIN. IS BADLY
DAMAGED AND FIVE PEo.
PIE KILLED.
Hpnses Are Blown Down and Much
Property Damaaed-storm Was .
Straight Gale Of Terrible Velocity
and Came Up Without Warning.
Believed That Neiahboring commu.
mites Suffered Severely.

Believed That Neiahboring commu.
mites Suffered Severely.
Joplin. Mo-. April ga tornado
struck this city during the afternoon.
Five fatalities are reported and many
persons were injured. Meager reports
from Galena, Kan, and Webb City
and Carterville. NO., 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 known 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, boy named Kruger. three
miles west of Joplin, and F. B. Kelley
and William Jones at Googoo Mines,
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 q straight
gale. but it was of terrible velocity,
whipping down scores of houses in the
south part of the city and reducing
to kindling wood 100000 worth of the
finest mining plants in this district
The worst havoc in Joplin city was
In a territory four blocks wide, COM
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 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
q tangled mass of debris and not a
single house is left standing. It Is
populated mainly by miners, who live
In little shacks.
OF the little home of Bidwell Hun.
ter not timber is left standing and
the three inmates of the house are
dead or dying, all having had their
skulls fractured.
Many of the finest buildings in the
city were wrecked. The tall spire of
the Baptist church, one of the most
imposing edifices here. toppled over
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 car
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 100000.
It is feared that the small mining
camps at Central City and Cave
Springs, four miles west of here, have
suffered much loss, as apparently they
were In the path Of the storm.