Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-11
habitants Of Snyder were asleep. but few
had any warning of their danger.
Casualties Not Known.


Casualties Not Known.
Up to 10 o'clock today no clear estimate
of the casualties was obtainable owing to
the confusion in the stricken town. con-
servative estimate places the dead at be-
tween seventy-five and one hundred per-
sons and the seriously injured at 80.
Ten undertakers attending the funeral
directors convention at Oklahoma City.
left that place this morning with a carload
of caskets for Snyder.
1t is believed that a large number of the
injured will die.
In number of cases entire families were
killed. and in almost every family in town
some member was injured.
Every house In the town except six are
said to have been either badly wrecked or
demolished. many of them being blown en-
tirely away. The havoc wrought is most
complete. The business portion Is reported
entirely destroyed.
A late special dispatch from ]. s. Hen
nessey. agent of the st. Louis and San
Francisco railway at Chickasha. says that
that road has succeeded In getting up
wire into Snyder, and that a message mas
been received from the operator at Snyder
saying that the dead number seventy-fve
and that So are injured; that the entire
business portion of the town has been de-
stroyed. but that the residence portion Is
not badly damaged
Mayor Messenbaugh of Oklahoma City
and a committee of prominent citizens have
gone to Snyder to make personal investi-
CATION OF the needs of the people there.
Up to IL a m. the only names OF dead at
Snyder obtainable were those of j. h. Rai-
ston and his twenty four-year-old son, FL
mer.
The mayors of Guthrie. Oklahoma City
and some other Oklahoma towns have is
sued calls for mass-meetings to formulate
a system of relief for the injured, and early
in the day special trains bearing physicians.
nurses clothing and provisions were start
ed for Snyder.
At least one other town in Oklahoma.
Quinlan. a small place in Woodward county.
was struck by the tornado and Mrs. u.
w. Cox and her two sons were killed
Rumors that other towns were destroyed
are not credited
Bodies Widely Scattered.
The first relief train to reach Snyder left
Hobart when the first news of the disaster
was received after midnight and arrived
on the scene at daylight. The tornado
came out of the southwest and In its north
easterly sweep left it's victims strewn along
the route taken by the relief train For
miles before the volunteers reached Snyder
they saw in the gray light of dawn bodies
of men. women and children scattered
among the carcasses of cattle and horses
lying on the plain with heaps or splinteIeo
material. The nurses and physicians oe
cided that they had best go directly to the
town. since persons who had been swept so
Tar by the gale would probably be beyond
medical aid.
In the town itself or what was left Of 1t
there was found only masses of ruins
were a few hours before the neat streets or
the little boom city had been. Beneath the
wreckage groans and shrieks told or ire
plight of many who had been pinned down
in the collapse of their homes but had not
been killed At some point two or more
houses had been cast into one great heap'
and the work of the section hands, with
crowbars and axes, was necessarily slow,
since they could not tell when their tools
might pierce some unfortunate who was
still alive. Field hospitals were estab-
lished in the totally RACED section or the
town north of the tracks of the Oklahoma
City and Western railway. This had been
the business section, and many OF the mer-
chants lived in rooms over their stores
Along the lines OF the streets here many
bodies crushed and bruised almost beyond
recognition were found. That the village
of Oluscee was also destroyed by the same
tornado is believed, for all attempts to
reach it by wire or telephone have failed.
According to the course of the storm, 1t
would have struck with full force upon the
little village of frail frame dwellings. At
present all the people of Kiowa county and
neighboring towns in Texas and Indian Ter
ritcry intent on bearing aid to the
stricken inhabitants of Snyder. Reports
from dispatchers on the Santa Fe road say
that the town of Quinlan. in Woodward
county, was hit and that three people are
Known to have been killed.
BY this time at least four relief expedi-
lions are supposed to have reached Snyder
to assist the Hobart party that is laboring
under such difficulties. The Frisco rail-
road authorities are doing all in their power
to assist in getting aid to the scene and
special trains made up of freights and any
old rolling stock that can be secured have
been sent there.