The Ordway new era., 1911-11-17
SEVERAL WISCONSIN TOWNS ARE
DESTROYED; MANY PEOPLE
ARE INJURED.
PROPERTY LOSS HIGH
MANY HOMELESS WOMEN AND
CHILDREN ARE FACING DEATH
IN FREEZING WEATHER..
Western Newspaper Union News Service.

Western Newspaper Union News Service.
Chicago. - Reports received tell Of
death and injury. extensive property
loss resulting from cyclonic storms
that ragged in southern Wisconsin,. H.
lnois and on the Great Lakes. The
tornadoes came between an abnOr.
mally warm period in which heat
prostration was reported in Chicago
and following u cold wave bearing
sleet, snow and rain.
Scores of people are known to be
dead, several dying. and scores are
injured and suffering from the bitter
cold. snow and sleet. which descended
upon the shel,erless homes. is report.
ed in the wake of the storm.
Southern Wisconsin was the hard
est hit. Near Oxfordville in Rock
county. six Of the seven deaths re-
ported occurred. and n few miles
away. at Milton. a seventh was found
dead in the ruins of storm-wreckcd
home.
In the village OF Virginia, near
Springfield, ILL.,. nearly every public
building was damaged. including
stores. churches, theatres and city
property. Many were injured in the
swirl OF flying timbers and some OF
these probably will die.
In Des Moines. Ia. q 50-degree drop
in the temperature turned the pour
ing rain into driving sleet. and n coat
of ice covered the city. stopping ell
tirely electric and steam traffic.
Property loss mounted up rapidly in
the trail Of the Wisconsin cyclone.
Severe weather conditions are re-
ported all the way from the Rocky
Mountains. In Chicago the wind at
tained q sweep OF A miles an hour
and in the Yellowstone Park and at
Helena, Mont. the thermometer in the
government weather bureau regis.
tered s degrees below zero.
At the Sault Ste. Marie canal in
Michigan more than an inch of rain
fell.
Near Deadwood it was 25 below.
Results OF tornado and blizzard:
Scores are dead in tornado that
sweeps Rock county, near Janesville,
Wis; hundreds are hurt, hundreds
homeless; millions Of dollars in prop.
erty lost; homeless are freezing to
death in blizzard.
Hundreds injured and untold prop.
erty loss is result of tornado in Hi.
nois and Missouri.
Twenty hurt, one dead, at Virginia,
ILL.,; and business section of town a
mass of wreckage. Blizzard with
zero weather RACES after tornado
passes.
Freight handler in Chicago dies of
heat prostration.
All Colorado in grip of blizzard; i;
thermometer at Denver drops GO de.
over whole state and stock Is suffer.
ing. Zero weather is reported from
many points in Colorado. and at Grip.
pie Creek, where the bottom was
reached, 12 below was reported. La
mar, Colo. with a 70-degree drop in
"a hours, has the record for the state
in sudden fall of mercury. Pitkin
county, with two feet of snow, has
the heaviest fall in the state.
Seven degrees below zero was re.
ported at Cheyenne, Wyo.
With the mercury 25 degrees be.
low zero near Deadwood, s. D., that
section claims the coolest spot in the
United States and has beaten its own
record since that land was owned by
the white man.
A downpour of rain at Des Moines,
Ia, was followed by tumbling of the
thermometer, and that city is encased
in ice.
Twenty motorboats were sunk at
Peoria, ILL.,, and much damage done
to business buildings.
Minnesota is in the grip of a rec.
ord blizzard.
John Mahoney, a freight handler
in Chicago, was overcome by the heat
while at work in an open freight
warehouse. The government ther.
mometer registered seventyfour de-
grees at the time.
This was the hottest November day
since 1888 and the first heat prostra-
tion for thine month on the police rec
ords.
Late in the day, however, the heavy
wind that sprang up brought on driv.
ing rain, the heaviest fall for month
being reported. Vivid lightning and
heavy thunder accompanied the down.
pour.
GAINESVILLE, Wis.-Scores Of lives
were lost and scores Of persons were
injured, some fatally, in a tornado
which swept Rock county. Hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of dam
age was done to crops, buildings and
other property.