The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1908-05-01
FATAL
CYCLONES
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
WITH AWFUL RESULT.
1T is REPORTED THAT FROM
500 TO 1000 PERSONS LOST
THEIR LIVES.

Between 500 and 1000 persons lost
their lives and 1900 were injured in
the series of cyclones which swept the
states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Ala
bama, Tennessee and Georgia the last
two days of last week.
Millions of dollars worth of prop
erty has been wiped out and business
of the stricken sections has been par
alyzed.
The full horror of the catastrophe
struck when reports began to pour
from all over the stricken states, show
ing that the disaster was much worse
than earlier reports indicated. Every
point which has reported the visitation
of the cyclone has shown heavy loss
of life and property
1t is believed that when all the re-
ports are in they will show that not
fewer than 1000 persons lost their
lives. Telegraph wires are down in
all directions and advices' are still
comparatively meager. The heaviest
loss of life is reported from Natchez,
Miss, the capital of Adams county,
and Amite, La, which were stricken
Friday afternoon, and from the vicin-
ity of Cedartown, Ga, which was
swept by the storm Saturday morning.
East Tennessee, between Chatta-
nooga and Knoxville, along the line
of the Southern railroad, suffered
more severely from a cyclone early
Saturday than did west Tennessee
and the other portions of the Memphis
district, which suffered Friday morn
ing. The present series Of windstorms,
which are spreading. death and de-
struction in their wake, started We'd
nesday in Texas, and has moved
steadily eastward
Another disastrous cyclone passed
through south Mississippi Friday aft
ernoon. Devastation marks the path
of the storm. 1t is impossible at this
time to get positive reports, but it is
by far the most desolating storm
which has swept this section of the
country since 1892.
Terrible Scenes Follow.
Visitors to the storm scene at Pur.
Wis, McClain, McLaurin and McCallum
bring heartrending reports of infants
torn from mothers arms, children
crushed in the debris of falling houses,
DaraDtS oorriod ouou in Tho t,,,;,,riao
Of an eye from those dependent on
them for bread.
The storm clouds, as usual, seemed
to travel in the same general direc-
tion-toward northeast. A receipt
was picked up on the streets of Ellis.
vile, Miss, signed by a merchant at
Dicke, Miss, a hundred miles away.
The air was full of floating papers,
leaves and twigs. A terrifice cyclone
is reported on the Mississippi state
farm at Parchman, doing great dam
age.
/ $500 Houses Raced.
The totals of death, misery and ruin
caused in four southern states by Fri
days tornadoes are now at hand in ap
proximately correct form:
Briefly stated, they are:
Killed, about $50; injured, painfully
and seriously, 1900; homeless, severa
thousand.
Towns reporting serious wreckage
46; habitations and business houses
practically complete ruins in these
towns, about $500.
The above figures do not include the
wreckage on plantations and farms
scores of which were struck and dam
aged
The number of dead may never be
known, accurately, for the reason tina
about 300 of them were negroes anC
they were buried In many communitie,
without careful record being made O
their numbers. While some of the frs
apparently reliable death lists have
proven unreliable, nevertheless remot,
places reporting their dead hav,
served to swell the total death list tt
around $50. The manner in which
this death list has grown for two day,
in spite of continued subtractions from
earlier reports has been a melanchol,
index of the interstate scope of tn,
disaster.
Three Death Currents.
By following the wreckage of town
the general direction of the tornadoe
can be traced closely. Apparently, tn
storm struck in three separate cur
rents, each describing the arc of
circle and travelling toward the north
east. The first Of these struck through
northern Louisiana, Mississippi an,
Tennessee before daylight Frida
morning. The second appeared fun
Their south about o'clock in Louisian
and Mississippi. This apparently wa
the storm which had swept through
Alabama and Georgia on Friday nigh
and Saturday morning. The third Dol
ton of the storm appeared during FIR
day afternoon further south tha
either of it's predecessors. This wa
the storm which demolished Amite
La, and Purvis, Miss, the towns i
which the wreckage was worst.