Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-05-01
GREAT MAJORITY OF CASUALTIES
IN CYCLONE AMONG POORER
CLASS OF BLACKS.
SEVERAL STATES ARE SWEPT.
Tornado Lasting Twelve Hours Assails
Score of Towns and Hundreds Lose
Their Lives or Property.
FEW HOMES ARE LEFT STANDING.
BULLETIN.

ATLANTA, Ga, April 25.-The latest
estimate of the dead in Fridays tornado
in the Gulf states places the dead at not
less than 500.
NEW ORLEANS, La, April 25.-The
dead more than 300; the injured at least
1000; these were the grim facts which
came to light in the early hours today
when a little of the wreckage of Fridays
tornado in Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama had been cleared away.
The tornadoes lasted altogether about
twelve hours, striking one town after the
other from before daylight on Friday
until midafternoon.
Trains Bring in Injured.
Many hours after they struck, trains
bearing nearly 200 injured came crawl
ing cautiously out of the tornado dis
tricts, leaving behind them one town,
Purvis, Miss, utterly demolished, five
others practically blown away and tit-
teen little villages in more or less acute
stages of ruin. With these wounded
came the details of one of the worst
wind disasters in the history of the gulf
states.
First of all it became known that ne
groes comprised most of the dead, that
the picturesque darky cabins, noted for
their fimsy, happy go-lucky construction,
had been converted by the wind into
wholesale death traps.
Blacks Crushed in Cabins.
1t was in the fall of these cabins
which went down almost without warn
ing that most of the negro deaths oc-
Cured. These always overcrowded cab
ms also furnished most of the badly
wounded.
The identified white dead early today
numbered forty-two.
In addition. it was reported that tour
whites had been killed at McCallum,
Miss. which would bring the white death
list up to forty-siX. The number OF
negroes killed was between 100 and 10.
Towns That Suffered.
The towns which suffered the worst
damage, in addition to PurVis, were
Amite La, McCallum, McLaurin and
Winchester, Miss. and Albertville, Ala.
The following fifteen towns were more
or less damaged Richmond and La
INQUIRE, La; Wingate, New Augusta,
Columbus, Walls, Braxton, Belle Grove,
Landing, Fairchild's Greek and Waha-
lax in Mississippi, and Bergen, Ala.
Most of these places are merely col
lections of a few stores and dwellings,
so that the property losses will not reach
large figures. No estimates of property
damage have been made, with the excep-
ton of Amite. La, and Purvis. Miss.
the two worst sufferers, where the dam
age, which will never be estimated in
the aggregate, was done to timber lands,
to plantations, to railroad property,
scattered through belt about 500 miles
long.
Seven Homes Standing.
The destruction of Purvis, Miss, oc-
Cured at about 2:1O o'clock Friday aft
ernoon and was all over in few min
utes' time. Of about 200 dwelling
houses. only seven were left standing.
The courthouse, the only other building
in town to withstand the wind, was
Immediately packed with dead and III
iured and served as the only available
hospital within many miles.
c. w. Cromwell, Jackson. Miss. in at
tempting to describe the storm said that
all he could realize was that the air was
full of flying timbers. These tlmbers
| dealt death to many persons who sought
safety in the open air, while the falling
of walls was a still greater peril to those
who remained indoors.
Martial Law in Effect.
When the storm was over, a specia
train bearing two physicians and ffteer
| other persons went to PurviS. Meanwhile
a second relief train started Tor Lum
| berton.
One train was stopped by woman
| waving a red cloth. When the engineer
! ran ahead to see what she wanted, the
woman tainted and the engineer founC
that the red color of the cloth was caused
| by blood. A search revealed her home
near the railroad and three members OF
| her family were found dead and four IN
| iured.
night reported that he saw the bodies OF
| several dead whom he took to be negroes
| lying beside the road. At nightfall what
was left of the town was put under
martial law, a militia company preserv
| ing order.
Priest Killed in Tower.
| Amite, La, was so badly damaged
! that it was put under martial law by
| order of its mayor The storm strucI
| there Just about noon, killing two white
| persons and thirteen negroes outrlgh
and injurinr maay others. mostly, ne
| groes so badly that physicians said the
total death list of Amite would reach
at least twenty-five.
| Rev. Father Felix Rumpf was the frs
person killed. He was in the bell tower
| of his church, having just finished ring
| ing the bell. lie was crushed TO ueaII
| by the falling tower.
The tornado path was about two an(
| one-half miles wide and when it hat
passed Amite stood a wreck. Large mum
| bers of farm animals were killed.
All day physicians from Vidalia, La.
and Matches were going from planta
| ton to plantation and sending the wors
wounded of the negroes back to tn
/ cities to be treated.
|