Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-04-27
Property Loss Will Reach to
Several Million
Dollars.
WERE 1,277 INJURED
Relief Measures Being Taken
in Cities---2,500 Houses
Down.

Atlanta. Ga, April 27.-Conditions in
the districts stricken by the storm of
Friday, Saturday and Sunday show no
Improvement, according to reports up
to 1 today. The death list may reach
450 The list of injured stands 1,277.
Three States Chief Sufferers.
Apparently Mississippi and Louisi-
ana were the chief sufferers Reports
from these sections today show num-
ber of small towns have from to 10
dead. Relief measures have been TAX
en- in Montgomery, Mobile, New Or
leans, and other places. The number
of dead in the vicinity of Richton,
Miss, is Is? The financial, loss will
aggregate several million dollars.
Totals Are. More Accurate.
New Orleans, April 27.-The totals
of death, misery and ruin caused in
four southern states by Fridays tor
nadoes came to hand yesterday in ap-
proximately correct form.
Briefly stated they are:
Killed, about $50.
Injured, painfully or seriously, 1,200.
Towns reporting serious wreckage.
&c.
Habitations and business houses
practically complete ruins in these
towns, about $500.
Plantations Not Figured In.
| The above figures do not include
the wreckage on plantations and
l fo, 10 1ol, CT Il
and destroyed.
| The number of dead may never be
known accurately for the reason that
about 800 of them were negroes and
they were buried in many communi-
ties without careful records being
made of their. numbers.
While some of the first reports Civ
ing apparently reliable death lists
have since proved unreliable, never
theless, remote places where were
late in reporting their dead have
served to hold the total death list
around $50.
| Storms Path Traced.
By following the wreckage of towns
the general direction of the tornadoes
can be traced closely. Apparently the
storm struck in three separate cur
rents, each describing the arc of a
circle and travelling toward the north
least
The first of these struck through
northern Louisiana, Mississippi and
Tennessee before daylight Friday
morning.
The second appeared farther south
about o'clock in Louisiana and Mis-
lsissippi. This apparently was the por-
tion of the storm which had swept
through Alabama and Georgia on Fri
day night and Saturday morning.
i The third portion of the storm ap-
peared during Friday afternoon, far
ther south than either of its prede-
cessors. This was the storm which
demolished Amite, La, and Purvis,
Miss.
Why the fatalities were SO unusual
ly large is apparent from glance at
r photographs from the tornado belt.
, They all tell the same story. Whole
; blocks Of what were formerly resi-
: dences and cabins lie spread over
3 the ground in debris.
Il If huge lumber pile had been scat
e tered over these areas the number
r of individual boards. unattached tt
: anything else, could scarcely have
!. been greater.
Under this mass of wreckage man,
hundred persons were buried, not ons
in a hundred escaping without som,
4 Injury. The houses which were thu
lscattered about were mostly negrt
habitations.
Strange storn story.
Along with the accounts of suffer
ling have come many recitals Of re
markable experiences. Of which tn
following is typical:
,fI At Amite, La, when the tornad
le appeared there were seven persons a
t, the dinner table at Hamilton Wa
d. Iner's home, including three children
stl The wind in second tore on tw
4. doors on opposite sides Of the room
rs land an astonishing procession Of liv
ID land inanimate objects began to pas
into the room through these doc
lways. First came a calf. running b
Ifore the wind The animal jumpe
le lover the dining table and went o,
er the opposite door Afterward can
,e, la horse, which followed through Il
~. exit taken by the calf. The thr'
M children sought refuge under I
table. and no one was injured.