Troy weekly news. (Troy, Idaho) 1897-1933, 1908-05-01
HUNDREDS OF PERSONS WERE
KILLED DURING IT'S SWAY.
Whole Business Sections of Towns
Wiped Away-Property Destroyed
Will Reach Millions of Dollars
East Tennessee Suffered the Most
Mississippi Also in the Path.

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
tnan 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, Ca, 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,
parents carried away in the twinkling
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 recent
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 terrihce 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. several
thousand.
Towns reporting serious wreckage
40; 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 he
KNOWN accurately, for the reason that
about 300 of them were negroes and
they were buried in many communities
without careful record being made of
their numbers. While some of the first
apparently reliable death lists have
proven unreliable, nevertheless remote
places reporting their dead have
served to swell the total death list to
around $50. The manner in which
this death list has grown for two davs
in spite of continued subtractions from
earlier reports has been a melancholv
index OF the interstate scope of the
Three Death Currents.
by following the wreckage of towns
the general direction of-the tornadoev
can be traced closely. Apparently. the
storm struck in three separate cur
rents, each describing the arc of
circle and travelling toward the north.
east. The first of these struck throppb
Louisiana, Mississipni and
tennessee before daylight Friday
morning. The second appeared fur
her south about z o'clock in I,onisiono ,
md MisSissinni I'LL Iel !