The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1911-04-13

Tulsa, Okla, April Is. = A heavy
wind storm attaining the velocity of
tornado in some sections, and accom-
panied by rain and hail and lightning,
swept over western Missouri, Kansas
and Oklahoma yesterday afternoon,
killing over a dozen persons, injuring
almost two hundred, practically de-
stroying two towns, wrecking scores
of buildings and putting almost every
telephone and telegraph wire in the
district touched by the wind out of
commission.
The heaviest loss of life as well as
the heaviest loss OF property was sus-
+, tanned at Bigheart, Okla, about 80
miles northwest of Tulsa, in Usage
county, where was enacted the sad
dest of dramas by a heavy gale and
failing timbers.
| The early reports Of the storm prov
ed very conflicting. Twenty persons
were. reported dead; fifteen to twenty
five as fatally injured, and one hun
dred and fifty as slightly hurt.
At 1880 o'clock this morning it was
definitely known that nine persons had
been killed The known dead at that
time we're: John Kerns, Fred Ham
mond, Will NARROW, William NARROW.
Every wire with which to establish
communication had practically been
leyeled to the ground.
Shortly before o'clock this morn
ling forty persons, among them some
of whom were thought would not sur
lvive the night, were brought to Tulsa
and taken to the different hospitals.
The entire medical staff of Tulsa,
as well as every nurse, was pressed
into the service of caring for the in
ljured A large crowd of Tulsans went
without sleep waiting the arrival of
the relief train to ascertain If rela-
tiyes had been hurt in the storm.
The tornado struck Bigheart few
minutes after O'Clock yesterday after
noon. The day had been sultry and
storm clouds came and went as they
gathered in the skies over eastern Ok
lahoma. 1t was an ideal temperature,
and many who had experienced the
horrors of cyclones gazed into the
skies and feared that the weather was
mischievous
The tornado was accompanied by a
driving rain and swept everything be-
fore it. Houses were blown from their
foundations and the town of Bigheart
was utterly demolished.
AS soon as communication could be
established with nearby towns, re-
lief train was started rom Avant
/ This consisted of work train, stand
ing on sidetrack. Into this piled fifty
persons ready to assist, and five
physicians had their rendered services
ireadily accepted.
Six of the less seriously injured but
who were not able to walk, were plac-
ed on gasoline car and taken to
Avant.
! Bigheart has population of be-
tween four and five hundred, and it is
estimated that fully one-third of the
entire population was physically in
jured in one way or another. The oil
refinery located there was blown
down The new $4,000 school house
was wrecked and its timbers strewn
over the surrounding country but a
few minutes after the teachers had
turned the keys in the doors at the
close of their days task and before
many of the four score pupils had
reached their homes. 1t is thought
that each of these would have met
death had they been in the structure
at the time the wind struck 1t, as the
school building lay directly in the
heart of the storm.
Practically every building lying to
the south side of the Midland Valley
tracks was either leveled or twisted