The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-26
Mississippi Was Hard Hit Again. MARTIAL LAW RULES
 IN MANY SECTIONS Late Reports Increase the Lssses
 Enormously. Tents are Rushed to Provide sheiter for Stricken People and Relief Committees are Busy About
 Work of Aiding
 Sufferers.

New Orleans. La, April 2S-Prob. ably half thousand lives were lost, hundred or more persons fatally tn- | Jured and many times this number painfully hurt. the great property loss running up into the millions, present record. so far. of a cyclone which orig mated In the West two days ago. Sweeping across Texas, OklahomA, Arkansas. Louisiana, Mississippi, Ten- nessee. Alabama and Georgia, 1t has left a path of desolation and want in | It's wake. interrupted all communica- ton between all cities in the South. and brought about chaotic conditions in many smaller towns. Up to midnight tonight, the known dead in Mississippi is is3, the serious | ly injured, $50, while counting minor l injuries those hurt in Mississippi Frt- | day morning and afternoon numb l fully 1000.
 | Of the injured In Mississippi proba- | bly 200 were In hospitals tonight. while l the remainder were cared for by | friends. In few places the destruc- ton to life and property was So SCI we're that some of the lntnrsd suffered for nearly twenty-four hours with only the scantiest medical assistance. and 1 meanwhile were exposed to a cold raiu 1 followed by a scorching sun. The I white persons killed In Mississippi numbered about twenty-five.
 
 enal properly loss for the State has been received tonight. but t Is known that l about twenty-five towns were badly damaged. that several hundred planta- tions suffered losses varying in extent from one to several hundred dollars | each, and that railroad propertss~ sus- tained widespread damage. including the loss of both trackage. trestles and | box cars.
 Second In the list of sufferers stood Louisiana, closely pressing Mlssissip- pi's heels in the matter of property 1oss
 The death list In Louisiana, which up to dark tonight had been estimated as small has since moved up with fright full rapidity, until at midnight 1t stood at 10s.
 These deaths. mostly negroes. oc- cured in an area about 100 miles square in the eastern portion of the 1 State along the Mississippi. River packets and other slow means of com municatlon, tonight began bringing stories of at least some ruin and fre- l quently from one to A dozen deaths from all over this section.
 It appeared as If instead of a few isolated tornadoes striking a few towns as was supposed yesterday, the entire region was buffeted by a wind | resembling a hurricane, which did dam~ | age everywhere, and in a few places developed into tornadoes.
 WashingtoA. Tangipaho. Concordla. and Rapidesi parishes reported partial | lists of losses which total close to e2,- 900. 900. These losses do not include much plantation stock which was strewn dead over the face of the coun- try.
 The most acute indexes of the lossss were appeals for the necessities of life sent by several communities to neighS 1 ct ar9 hf death struck its victims in this region are all largely the same, recitals of terrible masses of inantmate objects driven by the wind and miraculously passing some persons, cruelty mutiiat- ing others and sometimes killing an entire family.
 Alabama and Georgia come third in loss of life with the dead estimated about the same in each State. Georgia reporting about twenty-fy dead and Alabama thirty-one.
 In Texas, Oklahoma. Arkansas and Tennessee, also loss of life and prop erty damage Is reported.
 Authentic information is in many in- stances lacking and owing to the crippled facilities for communication. 1t is impossible at this time to form anything like an accurate estimate of the damage done in many sections.
 In half a dozen communities martial
 
 thA destruction and so helpless were the stricken people left by the disaster. Serious disorders have occurred in. some places including Amite. La. Looting and other crimes have been reported. but these instances have been on the whole, rare.
 Several places have issued appeals for aid and in Mississippi, Governor Noel has been askd to provide tents for the homeless in sections left desor late
 The tornadoes lasted in all a period of nearly two days. It was Thursday night that damage by tornadoes traF- cling eastward were first reported from points in Texas This was fol- lowed during the next twenty-tour hours by similar reports from Okla homa. Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississip- nj and Tennessee Last night Ala bama came within the flight of the storm and today reports of serious damage by the winds in Georgia have been recorded.