Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury [Connecticut]) 1903-1917, 1908-04-27
HUNDREDS LOSE LIVES
Number of Victims Of Widespread
Southern Storms Mounting.
TWELVE HUNDRED INJURED.
Property Loss Large, Although Crops
Are Only Slightly Damased-Relief
Measures Begun by Spectators Of
Winds Havoc. III, 1885,,

Atlanta, Ga, April 27.-News from
isolated points in Mississippi add tif-
teen more deaths to the list of victims
of the storms which swept through
four southern states, while three Of the
injured in the hospitals at AlbertviEe,
Ala, died, making the total death list
1858, with probable reports which may
run the number up to 400.
Another severe electrical storm struck
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, but
so far as known there were no fatali-
ties and little property damage.
The death list in Georgia stands a.
approximately thirty, with a heavy
loss in farming districts to property.
The crop damage is small.
With probably 1000 persons injured,
possibly half hundred towns damag-
ed. the story of ruin is told. The COM
munities which suffered most were
wooden built villages, the majority Of
them with a comparatively small num-
Der of inha bitants.
Wind caused the greatest havoc. and
negro residents form the larger proper
ton of dead and injured
At Purvis, Miss. old negro mammies
and little black children lay wounded
and helpless under bistering sun,
there not being enough left of the town
to shelter them. BY a queer freak
many of the trees which We're not up
rooted We're snapped off few feet
above the ground. A grove of pines
thus mutilated look as though a giant
scythe had swept through the grove
twenty feet from the ground. The tor
nado, instead of entering the town at
one side and passing to the other, saw
ed about so as apparently to double on
its trail. One young woman who ran
away from the storm as it struck one
street corner was killed as she reached
the next corner by some timbers fall
ing on her. Twentyseven prisoners
were in the little town Jail when the
roof was lifted off. The prisoners We're
so terror stricken that not one of them
gained his freedom, but none was seri-
ously injured.
Relief measures have been taken
throughout the wrecked district. The
ruined towns have been visited by
thousands of spectators, many of
whom went with few dollars in their
pockets to distribute among the needy.
Sheds made from the wreckage have
become the homes of hundreds. Small
parties of men on horseback have gone
through country districts taking in
ventories of the assistance needed and
rendering aid where it was most nee
essary.
BY following the wreckage of towns
the general direction of the tornadoes
can be traced closely. Apparently the
storm struck in three separate cur
rents. each describing the are of cir
Gle and travelling toward the north
east.
The first of these struck through
northern Louisiana. Mississippi and
into Tennessee. The second appeared
farther south In central Louisiana and
Mississippi. This apparently was the
portion of the stor.n which had swept
through Alabama ard Georgia. The
third portion of the storm appeared
farther south than either Of its prede-
,essors. This was the storm which
demolished Amite. La, and Purvis.
Miss thp towns I'm which tho xracE-
age was worst.
Buried Under Cabins Ruins.