The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-08-22
Havoc Created al st. Paul
and Minneapolis by
Raging Wind.
TWELVE LIVES ARE LOST
Storm Which Ragged Down the Val
ley of the Mississippi Spent Itself
OF the Twin Cities.
The Business Center of Each Was
Smittan and Great Was the
Damage Done.

st. Paul, MINI, &GS. ZZ.-Death to
twelve persons and destruction to
property both private and public esti-
mated in round numbers at 81 600 900,
rode on a screeching gale which tore
down the valley of the Mississippi at
about 8 o'clock Saturday night from
a point somewhere near the confluence
of the Minnesota and Mississippi riv-
ers near Fort Smelling. At about that
point The fury OF the elements seem
ingly divided and with a roar descend
ed on the win Cities and their en-
virons
Beginning at a point below Fort
Smelling there is the first known evil
dence that the storm struck with dam
aging effect 1t came from the south
west and, bowling in it's fury, uproot-
ed trees and demolished buildings in
it's pathway toward ST. Paul.
1t tore off two spans of the high
bridge completely. There the bridge
connected with the high bluffs at West
st. Paul, and it is $50 feet above the
river. This mass OF steel was carried
to the fats below, where flying steel
Orders and heavy planks fell on sew
eral small frame houses of the fiat
jewellers and crushed them. None of
the occupants of these houses was
hurt, they having seen the storm COM
ing and taken refuge in the caves in
the hillside. The storm tore along the
flats, uprOOting trees on Harriet Island
and with a deafening roar and the hiss
and splash of falling sheets of rain, it
struck this city at the Wabasha street
bridge. Here was located at the bridge
entrance, on opposite sides of Wa
basha street, the TivOli concert hall
and the Empire theater, both Of which
were fairly crowded with men watch
ing the performance. Both buildings
stood on the edge of the bluff over
looking the river, with sides Of the
buildings open, and were wrecked.
The full force of the tornado struck
them The buildings began to sway
and rock and the audiences became
panic-stricken. Men and boys rushed
over each other for the exits. The
lights went out and the sheet lightning
flashes, one following another with
gunfire rapidlty, illuminated scene
of pandemonium which was intensi-
fed by the crash of glass and the tear
ing Of timbers as the frame structure
gave way before the tornado. Sections
of the roof were blown through the
air and landed east in Third street, a
block distant. Underneath the debris
Of the Tivoli were found when the
storm had passed the mangleI bodies
of Lorin F. Hokanson, one of the en-
ployes in the concert hall, and George
Kweton, one OF the audience.
On the storm rushed to the north
east, over the wholesale district, and
every building facing the south from
Wabasha street for blocks east on
Third street had scarcely whole pane
of glass in any window, while many
on the opposite side were also broken.
Tin roofs on several buildings were
rolled in bundles and deposited in the
street. Flying plate glass mixed with
the rain, battered everything which
stood before it, and horses and carri-
ages were swept along the streets,
which in an incredibly short space of
time, were filed with water. Wires
were torn down and part of the city
was in darkness. The high buildings
reaching skyward above the smaller
ones on East Third street were shaken
to their foundations. The fine large
plate-glass windows were blown in and
several skylights were blown out.
In the path of the wind stood the
long freight warehouse of the Chicago,
Milwaukee & st. Paul railway, and
a section of this building about 500
feet long was cut out of the middle
end, the small section of the end about
fifty feet standing at the extreme east
side. Out East Fifth, Sixth and Sew
enth streets, the conditions were prac-
tically the same, except that on East
Seventh more damage was done to
roofs and glass. At the East Seventh
street stations of the Northern Pacific
and Northwestern railways ten poles
loaded with wires were blown down in
tangled mass. Telephone service
between the twin cities was out for
three hours, while all the telegraph
communication was cut off entirely.