Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1905-05-12
TWO HUNDRED LIVES
LOST IN TORNADO
Snyder, Oklahoma, In Path Oh
Terrific Cyclone.
500 PEOPLE REPORTED INJURED
From the Map-Destruction of Life
Is Appalling, and 1t Is impossible 10
Tell How Many Are Killed.

From the Map-Destruction of Life
Is Appalling, and 1t Is impossible Il
Tell How Many Are Killed.
Guthrie, Okla, May 11.-Reports re
ceived here indicates that between
500 and 400 lives have been lost in
partial destruction of the town OF
Snyder, Okla, by a tornado.
Relief trains have been sent to the
scene from a number of neighboring
towns. Details of the disaster cannot
be learned until some of these trains
return all telegraphic and telephone
communication with the stricken town
having been interrupted.
1t is reported that bodies are scat.
tered all over the streets and sur
rounding country. The storm struck
the town from the southwest, travelling
north until about 100 yards from thy
Oklahoma City and Western railway
track. Then it took a northeasterly
course through the business portion
of the town. North of the track not
a building was left standing.
The first relief train, sent from Ho-
bart, has arrived on the scene.
Snyder is a town or about $500 in
habitants, in Kiowa county, Oklahoma,
in the Kiowa and Commanche Indian
country, opened in 1901. The town was
laid out largely by the st. Louis &
San Francisco railway, at the junction
of two of it's lines, and the company
erected important buildings there. Sny
der is the division point for the Guam
nah division of the road The town
was named for Bryan Snyder, pas
senger traffic manager of the system.
The first news of the storm was re
ceiVed about midnight. Soon there
after, before any details had been re-
ceived, telegraph and telephone wires
went down. Immediately relief trains
were ordered out from all available
points, starting from Hobart, Chicka
saw, /. T., Guthrie, Oklahoma City and
other towns. Every train carried doc
tors, nurses and any person capable
of rendering aid.
On every hand they found the
wreckage and streets almost obliterat-
ed by piles of demolished houses. In
all directions evidence of the terrible
havoc of the storm was apparent. The
dead and dying lay about the streets,
in yards and mixed up with the wreck
age, while those who had escaped ran
hither and thither in excited attempts
to bring order out of the terrible chaos
and to render what meagre aid they
might.
The storm was not confined to Sny-
der On the way to the stricken town,
dead and injured were passed in plain
sight Of the relief trains, but these
were passed in the efforts of the res
cuers to reach Snyder, where there
was greater need of their services.
The first man to reach Snyder and
return to a telegraph point was the
station agent at Mountain Park, a
neighboring town. He had walked
4AACO olAJ oCAJ AOdG1AAS dI Qdy
light, and after taking hasty view
of the situation and without gathering
any exact details of the storms effect,
returned to Mountain Park This
man reported the the town partially
destroyed, and asserted that the list
of dead would reach somewhere be-
tween 800 and 400 The injured, he
said, were to be seen everywhere, and
their number undoubtedly will reach
into the hundreds.
While the tornado seems to have
been widespread, rumors that other
towns in southwestern Oklahoma had
been destroyed were declared by tele-
phone exchanges to be incorrect How
ever, there was no question that much
damage to property and loss of lii
had occurred in the outlying districts.
The same tornado struck Quinland,
in Woodward county, on the Santa Fe
railway, destroying several houses and
at that point at least three persons,
Mrs. o. w. Cox and her town sons, are
known to have been killed. The lorna
do struck Snyder from the southwest
travelling north, until within about 100
yards of the tracks of the Oklahoma
City and Western railway. There it
took a northeasterly course, through
the business portion of the town
North of the track not building was
left standing,
Coming, as it, while most of the in
habitants OF Snyder were asleep, but
few had any warning of their danger.
There was no possibility of securing
a correct early estimate of the number
of dead and injured. The number of
was placed at anywhere between 70
and 800, at Snyder alone, while the in
jured were placed at between 100 and
500.
At $50 this morning Indifferent tele-
phone connection was established with
Lawton. Lawton reported that the
telephone wire between there and Sny-
der had worked at brief intervals and
that from snatches of conversation re-
received the dead at Snyder were
placed at between 20 and 100, with the
injured between 100 and 200. Lawton
stated, however, that so much confu-
sion existed at Snyder that it was i'm
possible at that hour to give anything
a correct estimate of the casualties.
Slap Restores Voice.