The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1908-05-01
TORNAD0'S DEATH
ROLL REACHES 1868
Awful Record of Death, Misery
and Ruin by Storm in Four
Southern States.
FORTY SIX TOWNS WRECKED
loo Persons Painfully or Seriously In
jured, While Thousands Are
Homeless.

New Orleans, La, April IS. - The
totals of death. misery and ruin
caused in four Southern states by Fri
days tornadoes came to hand yester-
day in approximately correct form.
Briefly stated they are:
Killed, about 1868: injured, painfully
or seriously, 1900; homeless, several
thousand.
Towns reporting serious wreckage.
46; habitations and business houses
practically complete ruins in these
towns, about $500. The property loss
will run into millions. These figures
do not include the wreckage of planta-
lions and farms, scores of which were
struck and damaged.
Total May Never Be Known.
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 giving apparently
reliable death lists have since proved
unreliable, nevertheless remote places
which were late in reaching their
dead have served to hold the total
death list uniformly around $50. The
n in which this death list has
grown for two days, in spite of CON
tlnual subtraction from early re-
ports, has been a melancholy index
of the interstate scope of the disas-
ter.
Sweeps Vast Area.
By following the wreckage of towns
the general direction of the t%ornadoes
can be traced closely. Apparently
the storm struck in three separate
currents, each describing the arc of a
circle and travelling toward the north
east.
The irst Of these struck through
Northern Louisiana, Mississippi and
Tennessee before daylight Frld ~
morning. The second appeared
further south. about 7 o'clock, in
Louisiana and Mississippi. This ap-
parently was the portion of the storm
which swept through Alabama and
Georgia On Friday night and Saturday
morning. The third portion Of the
storm appeared during Friday after
noon, further south than either of its
predecessors. This was the storm
which demolished Amite, La, and
Purvis, Miss, the towns in which
the wreckage was worst.
Whole Blocks LeveIed.
Why the fatalities were so unusual
ly large is apparent from a glance at
the photographs which have arrived
here from many portions of the lorna
do belt. They all tell the same story.
Whole blocks of what were formerly
little residences and cabins lie spread
over the ground in separate boards.
Under this mass Of wreckage many
hundreds of persons were buried, not
one in a hundred escaping without
some injury. The houses which were
thus scattered about were mostly ne
gro habitations. The homes of the
whites held together better, and the
photographs show many Of them with
half the top or the upper half OF the
structure ripped off, leaving below
projections which must have saved
scores from death.
Quick With Relief.
Yesterday was one of relief meas
r throughout the wrecked dis
trict. The ruined towns have been
visited by thousands of spectators,
many Of whom went with a few dol
l I~cc - %H0;r ,on1,o%, Is A-
among the needy. Sheds made from
the wreckage have hecom the homes
OF hundreds. Small parties of men on
horseback have gone through country
districts, taking inventories of the as
sistance needed and rendering aid
where 1t was most necessary. At
least a dozen funds have been started
in as many cities and towns.
Another Blow in Mississippi.
Meridian, Miss, April ga disas-
trous tornado passed through a
sparsely settled section of East Mis-
sissippi south of this city late yester-
| day. Meridian also was visited by a
remarkable. wind. rain and hailstorm.
much damage being lone to crops and
%shrubbery. Reports from Causeyville
say the main tornado passed seven
miles below that place in a sparsely
settled district. Timber properties
! are reported devastated.
A report received here last night
says that the timber section of South
ern Mississippi and the adjacent Ala
bama territory has against been Wis
tied by a heavy storm and much dam
age done.