The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-03-04
FIRE FOLLOWS IN
WAKE Of STORM
Sixteen Railway Employees Are
Buried in One Heap Beneath
Wreck of Depot.
TORRENTIAL RAIN SAVES
REMNANT OF THE CITY
Lights All Out and Work of
Rescue Is a Herculean
Task.

MOBILE, Ala, March 3.-Information
has reached Mobile by telephone that a
destructive torando visited Meridian,
Miss. at $50 last evening. killing twenty
one white persons and n total OF over n
hundred people. including colored and
damaging property TO the extent of 1900. o.
600
There were also scores seriously in
Jured by being caught I'm wrcckage OF
houses. The tornado caught the city on
the southwest and travelled to the north
east, expendlng Itself In two suburbs,
where many negroes were killed and in
jured. whole tenement district being
wiped out.
Two large wholesale stores, one smaller
one, the principal hotel. the electric light
Ing plant ard all the smaller property
between the Mobile & Ohio railroad depot
and the business part Of the city are
badly damaged. Twenty-onc men were
caught In a restaurant and several were
Killed
Two stories of the J. NJ. c. A. building
We're wrecked and the upper story OF
other buildings suffered.
The Known Dead.
MRS. EMMA SINGLETON and grand
MAcKEY SLAUGHTER.
CLAUDE WILLIAMS.
P. T. M'INNEs. conductor OF the Mo
bile & Ohio railroad.
WILLIAM r NELSON.
Among the injured are Charles NJ Alex
ander, Charles H. Woodslde, E II
Brown, Ernest Bennett. Frank Woodruff,
William Marlborough and w. c. Morrison.
Fire Adds to Horror.
The negro tenement district in the north
OF The city was demolished and the debris
caieht fire. threatening n new danger,
but the local department with the help OF
hundreds OF citizens, oVcrcamc this, after
a hard fight.
They were assisted by the torrential rain
following tho tornado.
The city Ia in darkness and the full en-
tent OF the disaster vii not be known un-
I'll daylight The known path OF the
storm was about erO feet Wide and one
mile in length.
100 Killed; Great Property Loss.
A message received at Birmingham,
Ala, b. Esr-7rirteziscr: a. Grigg OF the
Alabama Great Southern at IL o'clock to
night from the operator at Toomsuba-
Miss, four miles north Of Meridian, who
had just come from the scene OF the dis
aster. says that upward OF 100 persons
were killed and that the property loss
will be enormous.
He says all buildings between Front
street and the railroad tracks wcre de
molished. and calls for large force OF
workmen to assist In removing bodies
from the debris were blng made.
D. f. Bennett Claude Williams and
Frank Woodruff. employees OF the Meyer
Neville Hardware company, were buried
In the debris when that building went
down. Bennett escaped. Dut the Otner
men are still beneath the ruins.
The Union and Queen and Crescent de-
pots were among the dspots demolished
and 1t is believed that more than score
are underneath the wrecknge. Eighteen
lodies have been recovered. Scores are
missing and unnccounted for.
During neayy rainstorm at SD o'clock
a storm cloud developed in the south and
moved on the city striking Front street
the business center. with full force. The
wind was blowing seventy-hve miles an
hour.
Whole Squares Destroyed.
The tornado passed over in about two
minutes and during that period three or
four whole squares were devastated. A
conservative estimate places the number
II buildings blown down at between
Among the heaviest losers arc the
Meyer and Neville Hardware company,
Tom Lyle Co. Joseph Moore, dry goods
Northwestern railroad freight depot and
Cthcr buildings. the names OF which arc
not obtaInable at this hour.
The Mobile & Ohio depot Is safe, as we'll
the Southern hotel but the Grand Ave
nue. hotel was considerably damaged. The
guests in the latter building escaped
From the business center the tornado
Jumped to the east end, where q number
of residences were blown down and 9TH
ers badly damaged.
$50 Believed to Be Dead.
Fire was raging In the devastated dis
Jrict at 10 o'clock. The work of the res
cuers is going on bravcly. but owing to
all lights being out lanterns and candles |
are being used. and the work is necessar-
ily slow
II is thought that 80 bodies nre In the ,
wreckage,
Sixteen employees OF the Queen &
Crescent railroad are now known 10 be |
buried In the ruins.
AS the tornado passed through a dense |
ly populated section, and the houses i'm |
nedately caught fire. 1t will take days |
10 learn the exact number OF killed