The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1909-06-04
eight DEAD IN
DAKOTA CYCLONE
Twister Cuts Wide Swath in
North Dakota, Leaving Death
and Ruin in Wake.
MANY n0U Sts ARE WRECKED


cyclone or tornado swept through
Northern and Central North Dakota
and Western Minnesota like blast
from furnace and blazed trail OF
death and destruction.
Eight lives snuffed out like so many
Pickering candles, five persons injur-
ed so that they will probably die, a
score of others more or less hurt,
quarter of million dollars worth of
property destroyed with one fell
swoop and Geographic and telephone
communication broken and crippled
is the record Of the whirlwind which
wrought terrific havoc in a few hours
Saturday.
The worst sufferer from the storm
was Langdon. N. D., where five per-
sons were killed and twenty or more
injured. The loss to property there
will reach fully s1750C0, and the gen.
eral Generalization of business caus-
ed by the damage will reach consid-
erably larger sum.
Forty Houses Raced.
With but little warning the storm
swept down on the town about
o'clock in the evening. With a wild
swirl it swept about the streets and
roadways and in less than five min
utes forty houses were RACED to the
ground, the Methodist church was
torn from its foundation and scatter
ed in the streets like driftwood in the
surf, and the huge grain elevators
we're swept aside like so much kim
ding and left pitiful heap of broken
blanks.
People rushed from their homes in
wild dismay and as they did so were
hurled by the wind like bits of paper.
YpsiIanti Is Wrecked.
From jamestown, N. D., it is re-
ported that Ypsilanti. village thir-
teen miles south Of there, has practi-
cally been destroyed by the cyclone.
The farm house of George Graves
was blown into the James river, and
Mrs. Graves and her two young
daughters, who were in the house at
the time, were instantly killed. Every
house in the village was either entire
ly or partially destroyed.
After leaving Ypsilanti the cyclone
sped down the James river, destroy
ing farm houses and wrecking every
thing in it's path.
Damage in Jamestown.
In Jamestown all the buildings of
the jamestown Fair association were
demolished, the Russe!l-Mi!ler flour
mill was wrecked and a large portion
of the Northern Pacific roundhouse
caved in, burying in the debris num-
Der of locomotives and severely injur-
ing several Italians who had fled to
the roundhouse when the storm first
came up.
At Tyler, Mimi, a grain elevator
was lifted from it's foundations and
carried several yards away. Four
cars on the railway tracks we're turn
ed upside down and three men in
them were severely injured.
At Lakota, N. D., several buildings
were struck down. At Wahpeton the
state fair buildings were demolished,
and at Devils Lake the Great North
ern wires and telegraph poles were
thrown down and communication cut
Off,
Langdon Hit Hardest.
Reports from over the state last
night indicate that outside of Lang
don and Ypsilanti there was no loss
of life in the cyclone of Saturday.
Small losses of property are reported
from various sections of the state,
but the loss in Langdon overshadows
all others,
Residents of Langdon, dazed by
their misfortune for a brief spell,
have bravely responded to the needs
of the unfortunate people who lost all
in the disaster. No help from outside
the city will be required, it is an
nounced