The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-05-24
CARM EN- @. T.
STORM SWEPT
Meagre Reports Show Two
Dead and Many Injured
F. C. BROWN WAS KILLED
Wichita travelling Mans Head
Crushed by Timber
BUILDINGS DEM0LlSEO
Every Structure in Town Was
Damaged
BUILDINGS DEMOLlSED

Word came to this city early yesterday
morning of a disastrous tornado at Car
men. o. T. the present terminus of the
Kansas City, Mexico and Orient railroad
The report stated that the entire town
was wiped off the map, one man was
killed and forty people were more or less
injured. The telegraph and telephone
wires are down and no details of the
storm could be learned until o'clock
yesterday afternoon, when the Orient
train due here at o'clock yesterday
morning, came in. The train was delayed
on account of a washout at Cherokee.
The details Of the storm as far as the
injuries TO people could not even Be
learned from people on this train. The
train left Carmen at half past five yester-
day morning before the fun amount of
the damage could be ascertained. Until
late last night no details as to the injured
could be learned further than that T c.
Brown. a travelling man of the Plano
Harvesting company, was killed and four
others, whose names could not be learned,
were fatally injured.
The storm struck Carmen just about
O'Clock Friday evening. 1t was not a
twister. just a straight wind blowing at
seventy or eighty miles an hour The
wind came from the west, sweeping up
the street Of the little town, tearing roofs
and awnings from buildings and in some
cases demolishing the entire structure.
T. c. Brown was in the street in front
Of the building occupied by the Carmen
Hardware company, when he was struck
on the head by falling timber and his
head was mashed into a pulp. Three
others are believed to have been killed
in practically the same manner, but their
names were not secured by the passengers
on the train. AS the train was pulling
out Of Carmen before daylight yesterday
morning the body of another man was
brought to the depot from some place
down in the yards His head was
crushed, presumably by a railroad cross
tie.
The Baptist church was partially de-
moIished a week ago and the carpenters
had just completed the roof. The fine
church building is now nothing more
than kindling wood. 1t was blown down
and scattered all over the townsite.
A new hotel building being put up by
an Oklahoma City woman, was totally
destroyed. The roofs were torn off nearly
all the business buildings. The high
fronts of the store buildings were torn
away and the wooden awnings were
splintered. Several of the largest build
ings were blown partially off their foun-
dations and all were shaken and twisted
30 badly that many will have to be torn
down and rebuilt. a number Of residence
houses were moved off their foundations.
The wreckage was Scattered for half
mile east Of town. Timbers, railroad
ties. boards and all manner of building
materials were strewn over the prairie.
Several Orient cars standing in the
yards were blown off the track. The
agents car was lifted and moved about
forty feet. 1t was left standing on its
wheels
A dispatch last night from Aline says:
About 100 o'clock last night cyclone
struck Carmen. FIVE miles north. and de-
stroyed about cne-third Of the town, in
Guiding principal business houses and
postofice. P. F. Brown. of Wichita.