Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-06-24
ANOTHER TORNADO
VISITS THIS SECTION
Carries Destruction and Devas-
tation in Its Path.
Trains Wrecked, Railroads Washed Out,
Buildings Demolished and
Crops Ruined


tion in many years took place at
lust about nightfall last Saturday.
The weather had been threatening
the latter half of the afternoon, and
when the storm broke, shortly after
seven o'clock the rain came in tor
ents, accompanied by terrific winds
and soon augmented by one of the
severest hail storms this section
has ever known. The storm lasted
well into the night and did meal
caulable damage to property, break
ing the giassin hundreds of windows,
urrooting and breaking down scores
of shade trees and wrenching limbs
and branches off of others, blowing
down telephone poles, etc.
The storm seemed to travel in
streaks a mile or more vide and
within its path growing crops are
practically ruined. In corn, oats
and pea fields the hail riddled the
growth terribly, also cut and fat
tened the nearly matured hay fields,
while the rain, which IN many To-
caities was so copious as to amount
almost to a cloud-burst, completed
the devastation by flooding the
fields and converting the raTines and
gullies into roaring torrents.
Scarcely a home In Lancaster
which has a supply of shade trees,
and that means practically all of
them. escaped the infection of more
or less injury. In some instances
it was no worse than the cutting off
of small and tender branches by the
wind and hail combined, in others
it was the twisting and breaking
off or large limbs which DISTRACTED
the sidewalks and streets where
they fell.
In the court yard the large elm
standing in the northeast corner,
opposite Baxter - Diapers store,
had one of the large branches, con
stitut1ng about one half of the en-
tire top, wrenched eff, which VIII
greatly mutilate the tree and may
render it necessary to cut it down
entirely.
Little Grant river was on a paTti-
cular rampage and much injury TO
crops, ETC., is reported from all
sections of the rich valley it
traverses. At the water works
plant the river rose very rapidly
until its banks were entirely over
flowed and water, mud and floating
debris of all kinds foated into the
building. Upon the porch outside
the engine room the water got SO
high that George Hyde, who was
temporarily acting as engineer dur
ing the illness of Supt. Stephens,
had to stand on 6 barrel to keep
above the water, which flowed
through the building more than the
height of a chair and got to within
about an inch of the fire CRATES in
the boiler room. The lawn sur
rounding the engine house was en-
'tirely overSowed TO a depth OF
nearly two feet and one of the two
steel cables supporting the foot
bridge leading TO the big spring
broke from the great pressure OF
water ard the accumulation of drift
wood.
Down along the roadway which
skirts the west bank of the river,
south from the water works plant,
the water not only filled the ac-
customed channel but rose above
the Sat lands adjoining and covered
the roadway four or Eve feet deep
IN many places.
At Whites hill, west of the city,
where Leo luxembourg is putting
in new cement bridge across
Pigeon creek, he had just completed
the cement arches Saturday and the
forms were yet standing. The
waters rose until they swept over
these arches, and strange to say,
although the cement had not be-
come dry and thoroughly hardened
the arches withstood the attack of
the floods and were practically un-
injured, although the forms were
washed away and carried down the
creek.
Harry Carthew and Oscar Wright |
had an experience during the storm
which they will not soon forget. |
They had gone TO Mcpherson creek |
late in the afternoon, intending to
remain through the night and get
the early morning trout fishing. |
The storm came upon them sudden
ly and they sought shelter under a |
tree. As the full violence of the !