Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-08-22
DEATH IN TORNADO
St. Paul, Minn., Swept by Flu
 rious Gale.
TWELVE PERSONS LOST THEIR LIVES
Half a Mile Wide, the Storm Gut a Pathway Through the Business District--NIinnenpol1 and
 Suburbs Suffer.

ST. PAUL, Minn., Aug 22.-Sixteel persons were killed, 160 injured, sev eral fatally, and property valued a S2,oOO,OOO was destroyed by torna do which tore down the valley of thu Mississippi at 9 o'clock at night iron point near the confluence of the Min nesota and Mississippi rivers near For Smelling.
 With a terrific roar the furious gale descended on the Twin Cities, St. Pau and Minneapolis, demolishing houses uprooting trees and tearing dowI bridges. In its wake 1t left huge piles of debris, under which the manglet bodies of its victims were recovered.
 According to the weather station rec ords the wind registered 1s0 miles ar hour for one full minute before the in struments were blown away. This it is said, is the highest wind ever re corded in the United States.
 Lorin F. Hokanson and George Kwenton, carpenter, were killed at tht Tiv6li theater, an unknown child was killed by a falling wall of dormitorJ at the House of the Good Shepherd  St. Louis Park, a suburb of MinneapO lis, and four unknown persons at Wa conia, a small station twenty miles west of Minneapolis. There were many seriously hurt.
 The tornado cut pathway about z half mile in width and eight miles ir length through the business and resi- dence distri0s, leaving ruin and devas tation in its track.
 The downtown business district was hit hard, many of the big office and business blocks being completely rid dled and the stocks of wholesale houses seriously damaged by the floods of rain that accompanied the wind.
 Three were killed in St. Paul, foul at Waconia, a small station twenty miles west of Minneapolis on the Min neapolis and St. Louis road, and three killed at St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, where the station was demolished and a saloon razed to the ground.
 Beginning at a point below Fort Smelling, there is the first known evt. dence that the storm struck with dam aging effect. It came from the south west and, bowling in it's fury, uprooted trees and demolished buildings in its pathway toward St. Paul.
 1t tore off two spans of the High bridge as completely as if they had been. unbolted from the rest of the structure and carted away by work men. There the bridge connected with f,3S IIu o% it is 1SO feet above the river. This mass of steel was carried to the flats below, where flying steel girders and heavy blanks fell on several small frame houses of the fat dwellers and crushed them con1pletely.uNo of the occupants of these houses was hurt, they having seen the storm coming, took refuge in the caves in the hillside, where they were safe.
 The storm tore along the flats, up roofing trees on Harriet island, and then struck this city at the Wabash street bridge.
 The storm then rushed on to the northwest, over the wholesale district, and here the greatest destruction to property was wrought After causing havoc in St. Paul the tornado swept onward to Minneapolis and it's sub- urbs. Here, however, the destruction of property was not so great, although telephone and telegraph wires were torn down tn great numbers. For hours the Twin Cities were cut off from any communication with the out side world.
 
 Practically every building on the north side of East Third street is wrecked. The Habighorst block, at Seventh and Wacouta streets, was un- roofed, and the Economy department store is reported to have been damaged o the extent of $2O,OoO. -.4e+.s
 The front wall of the building occu- pied by Lindeke, Warner & Son, whole sale furriers, was shattered and stock and fixtures damaged to the extent of thousands of dollars.
 The St. Anthony elevator in Mime apolis was leveled to the ground, the wreckage blocking the Great Northern tracks.