The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-06-05

dred persons at work in the cotton mill
, when the cyclone struck. The mill was
a three story building. The first story
was left standing but badly wrecked.
The second and third floors We're
J completely demolished and the employees
caught under the w~reckage and man
! gled. L is now estimated there are
at least seventy-ive bodies under the
wreckage Of the third floor. 1t is not
known how many persons on the second
floor OF the building were killed.
The roof Of the electric car barn was
lifted and the building badly damaged.
The railroad depot suffered also.
The Gainesville cotton mills were
blown down and nearly every empIoye
in The building killed, including a large
number of children.
The Southern depot was blown down.
The Gainesville Iron Works were de-
molished and several people persisted
in the wreck.
The Gainesville cotton oil mills were
blown down.
The Die Piedmont Hotel, now used as
a school and a partment house was
RACED and half a dozen or more people
were killed in il.
The Richmond Hotel was wrecked and
several persisted along with it. One
hundred and twenty-five cottages, a
schooI house and a church were blown
away in the negro section of the town.
Five brick stores on the Main street
of Gainesville we're swept away. In all
two hundre buildings are demolished
here.
The cyclone went on TO New Holland
and it is believed at least seventy-fve
people are killed there. Neither the
Arlington hotel nor Brenau college was
in the rack of the tornado and they
We're. therefore. safe with their oc-
cupants.
The tornado first hit the town below
the Southern railway depot. 1t dropped
| almost UnnOticed and without any real
izatiOn of what happened it had ripped
down brick dwellings,, frame houses,
churches ana school buildings as if hey
We're structures of paper.
One of the first buildings to fall was
the Gainesville cotton mills, a three
story structure. The third and second
stories We're shaver off smoothly.
About 800 operatives were working in
them at the time, but a great portion
of them were in the lower story and es-
capped.
In the five brick buildings on the
main street about IS people were killed
most of them employees in the stores.
y fire started in this pile of wreckage
and the fire department was unable to
get to it because of the Instructions in
the street. AS soon as the storm had
RACED the buildings those who were o
disabled at once went to work at res
cuing the victims. All the stores in the
business sectionn that were not hit
closed their doors and every male citi-
zen who could lend a hand promptly
Joined in the work of rescue. This
work is now going on and the piles Of
dead in the path of the storm are being
Identified and given to relatives as
rapidly as possible.
The tornado tore down all the wires
leading into Gainesville except those of
the Southern Bell Telephone Company.
Those wire were used to communicate
with the outside world. superintendent
West. of the telephone ten
dered the use of his wires to the city
as soon as he head of the calamity.
The death list is expected to be
of much greater magnitude by morning
as nearly thirty are believed to be be-
yond hope of recovery.
Gainesville has only twelve local ply
sicians and their services were found
to be entirely inadequate to the situa-
ton. Surgeons came in tonight, how
ever, from Atlanta and several other
points south. The number in the city
is now about forty and all possible at
tentiOn IS being given the injured peo-
pie.
Supplies will be rushed into the
stricken city as rapidly as possible.
Gainesville feels able to take care OF
the immediate needs of the suffering but
unless supplies are received much dis
tress is likely to result as the families
visited by death and mutilation We're
almost entirely dependent upon their
daily labor for support.
The property loss it is now estimated
will reach about $780, 90.