The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-16
Damage Is Estimated at
 S5,OOO.
 ----.-- ! SEVERAL HOUSES WERE 1. TORN 10 sPLNTERs Tornado Was Purely Local, Lasts
 But Short Time. sss wAose es ses Acre Fsrm is Liter. .Ely Csvsssa by Dssrss--sev-
 ssal sesrse. wets zs- 5ursd, one serieusly.

with one sudden. powerful gust which lasted not i've minutes. the heavy wind of Sunday night struck the farm section on the Lower Wetumpka road, near the eight mile post. al about il:l5 o'clock. crushing and tcaring houses to spIinfers. injuring the occupants, In one instance near to death, crushing its way through 2 stretch of forest, and wreaking dam !, age, Altogether which will amount to probably s5,oo0,. or more. Today. as a result of the tornado. there is barely q square foot oyer sse acres, that Is not strewn with timber from the cabins. barns and fences. that feii before the 5 Practically the sntire amount of de- Dris ia at the plantation of T. D. Brooks. who suffered the areatest loss. Hts tenants quarters are wrecked. houses hattened and twisted by the wind; four of his tenants were hurt, the casualties ranging from serious in- ternal injuries. as sustained by an old woman, .Aunty" Tate, who may die. and . broken les. the lot of Jim Tate. to less serious cuts and bruises, which were received by two younger mem hers of the Tate family his barn, a structure eighty feet in length, was de- Knoliehed, a COW and several hogs be- dng killed, and much of his farming
 
 blows. ruined. The loss to Mir. Brooks will be not less than ss,ooo. as most of tha structures were new.
 With the exception Of his own house there was not structure on the farm that did not feel the effects of the wind. most of them suceumbing en- tireiy. The house of his son, Jim Brooks, Alsubatantial fonr.room dwelf- fng, was torn from It's pillars. wrench : cd Into { fantasttc iop-sided shape, it's xoof torn in. and its floors uprooted. The house is rendered useIess. and wIll nsceasftate rebuilding entirely.
 The house in which Jim Tate. q ne- gro fArm-hand' and his family of three aived. was rent literally to splinters. Not stick remained standing one foot above the ground, and the bed and other furniture was destroyed. And yet. as if by q miracle. not one of the -four negroes within were killed, though all more or less seriously Injured.
 Another tenant house. that occupied by Jim Fountain and his wife. was Likewise levelled, and yet neither of Ghe occupants hurt.
 The huge barn was destroyed, the tdmbers and roof folding upon itself like . pack of cards With one long squeal. as the heavy timbers eaved ups on them, four of the hogs within were Killed. and the rest. kogather with sev- @rat other animals; cows and mules, were pinned 80 that the farm hands were forced to cut and dig through piles of debris to free them. g7
 With the exception of haavy loss an timber. snsta&ned by Mr. Pelham Anderson. through whose wooded land ahe tornado pIowed in q wide path, and the destruction of small puthouse in Ehe convict camp nearby, there was no pther loss from the storm beside that hncurFed by Mir. Brooks, so far as can lae a&certainad. No word of storm Idamags ts, heard from the section of kfhe county in which the wind appar- fently ennanated. To ali appearances. the wind had accumulated Into a strict 1y local tornado. concentrating at the spot upon which Mfr Hrookss settie- knent was located. and dissipating in l9orce just beyond.
 No Damage a& Canap.
 The convict camp No. {. on Lower eWetumpka road. was thought, at the lmrst report, to be damaged, The de- scription of the storm showed that the lcamp was in the path Of the wind but proved that no damage mad been incurred at the stockade.
 omcia1s had been rushed out to the camp. at the hrst news of the tornado damage, among them Craig smith. State Convict Agent, but found noth- 1nR out of the ordinary.
 The Brooks home is situated in the exact centre of a 6so acre farm, and about 1t. for the space of one-quarter to one half mile on either side. there are no trees. Apparently the wind. finding free play in, the clearing. scur~ ried across the plain. gathering volume and force with every foot until the group of buildings on the Brooks farm was encountered
 Besides the larger structures, whose 0A@ A probably dozen smaller buildings and outhouses on Mir. Brooks's place which