Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-04-27
ABOUT 400 DEAD IN
SOUTHERN T0RNAD0ES.
At Least 1900 Injured and Several
b Thousand Homeless Another Tor
nado In Alabama and MiSsisSip pi.

Atlanta. Ga April 2G-Eews from in
ISOLATED points in Mississippi late to-
night adds i: more deaths to the hst
of victims of the storms which swept
through four Southern states on FRI
day and Saturday, while three OF the
injured in the hospitals at Albertvliie,
Ala. died today making the total
death list 36S, with probable reports
which may run the number up to 400
Another severe electrical storm
struck Georgia today but so far as
known there were no fatalities and lit
tie property damaged. The death llst
in Georgia stands at approximately ~
with a heavy loss in farming districts
to property. The crop damage is
small.
Reports are still coming from north
ern Alabama parts Of MISSISSIPPI ana
Louisiana but the death list is not
materially changed. With probably
200 persons injured possibly half Il
hundred towns damaged the story oi
ruin IL told. The communities WHICH
suffered most were wooden buildings,
the ma iOrity of them with compare
lively small number of inhabitants.
Wind caused the greatest havoc anG
negro residents from the large pro-
portion of dead and injured.
New Orleans, la, April 26.-The to
tails OF death. misery and ruin caused
in four Southern states by t'riday
tornado came t. hand today III appar-
emily correct form. Briefly stated the>
are:
Killed-about 800. Injured, painfully
or seriously 100. Homeless several
thousand.
Towns reporting serious wreck
aSe-iG.
Habitations and business houses
practically complete ruins Ill these
towns about $500 The above figures
do not include the wreckage of planta-
tons and farms. scores of whi'h were
struck and damaged. The number oil
dead will never be known acturatei!
because about 300 of them were ne
eroes and they were buried III many
communities without careful records
being made oi their number. While
some ri the first reports giving APP
parently reliable death lists have since
proved unreliable, nevertheless re
mote places which We're late in re
porting their dead have served t. hole
the total death list uniformly $50 The
manner in which this death list has
grown for two days, despite continual
substractions from early reports. mas
been melancholy index of the inter
state scope of the disaster
Bv 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 are of Il cir
Gle and travelling toward the north
east
The first of these travcrscd northern
Louisiana. Mississippi and Tennessee
before daylight Friday morning The
second appeared further south about
: o'clock in central Louisiana and Mis-
issippi. This apparently was the p""-
tiCn of the tornado which swept
through Alabama and Georgia FRIDAY
afternoon and night and Saturday
morning The third tornado appeared
Friday afternoon. further south thar
either of It's predecessors. This was the
storm which demolished Amite. La.
and Purvis. Miss. the towns in which
the wreckase was worst
Whv the fatalities We're so unusual
~ numerous is apparentS today from
glance at the photographs which have
arrived here from many portions of thu
tornado belt They all tell the same
story Whole blocks of what were for
merry little residences and cabins. lie
spread over the ground in separate
boards. If a huge lumber pile hat
been scattered over these areas the
number of individual boards. unat
tached to anything else. could scarce
Is have been greater. Many nf these
blanks show very few breaks where
they were separated from the othe'
construction. Under this mass /"
wreckage many hundreds of persons
were buried. not one in a hundred eS
caring without some injury The
houses which were thus Scattere,
about were mostly negro habtationS
The homes of the whites held togeth
or better and the photographs show
many of them with half the ton of thu