The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-07-01
Storm Strikes Regina and
MOws Path Through
Heart of City
DAMAGE ESTIMATED
AT MANY MILLIONS
City Was in Gala Attire With Flags
and Bunting in Celebration of
Dominion Day-Hospitals
Are Crowded

WiW peg. Man, June s0,-It is esti-
mated hat from 30 to 400 people were
killed and a property loss of $4,000, 600
entailet by a tornado, which, after a
day of thunder storms and high winds,
struck Regina, Saskatchewan, at 6
clock p. m. The local telephone office
was wrecked and it is feared that Is girls
employed there were killed. The tele-
phone exchange building. the Standard
block, the First Baptist church and the
Baird and Bottell building are among the
structures destroyed.
All wires except one telegraph wire
are down. This one wire is crowded with
private messages from people who wish
to send word of their safety to friends
and relatives.
special train left Winnipeg shortly
after 8 o'clock with doctors and nurses
and telegraph and telephone repairmen.
The tornado came from the south and
first struck the new parliament build
ing, just completed at a cost Of s., 600 900.
The building is OF steel, iron and con-
crete, and while it still stands it Is a
little shaken.
The storm swept northward. moving a
path six blocks wide through the FASH
ionable residence district Along Vic
toria street from Sixteenth to Eleventh
streets, 300 houses were destroyed and
many persons killed. Automobiles. filed
with people. were hurled high in the
air and dropped blocks away
At Eleventh street. in the business dis
trct, houses, banking institutions and re-
tail stores were sent into heaps of ruins,
while the air was filled with the wreck
age. Passing the business district the Ca
madam Pacific railroad tracks were
reached. Six big grain elevators we're
toppled over like ten pins. the timbers be-
ing piled in heaps on the tracks
The magnitude of the calamity which
Regina had suffered, while growing in
realization as the rescue work pre-
ceeded, could not be fully estimated at
a late hour tonight. 1t seemed certain.
however. that The casualties would roll
up to total of between 400 and 500
and that the propepy loss could hardly
''e ~ - ~ pp,Han'1at tlis fcsrst aatiS
Hospitals, Are Filled
The confusion was such that to de-
termine the number OF fatalities was
out OF the question. Every ambulance
in the city was worked to its limit,
CARRYING the bodies of the killed and
the scores Of injured persons to the
hospitals. which were filled early In the
evening and to a number of fmprovised
hospitals In some of the larger build
ings LETT standing. Crowds of volun-
teers all over the city are assisting in
the work OF searching the wreckage
ana Tor hours hardly minute went by
tnat dead body or the mansled form
OF some living victim was not uncov-
cred hurrying men and women speed
ing on their errahds OF mercy niled the
streets as the night wore on, whlle the
authorities strove their best 70 bring
order out OF confusion, succoring the
lving ana 10 determine as best they
couia' the numbers ana identity Oh the
uehd'
ihe sweep or the storm, The worst IN the
history OF the Canadian northwest, was
over city winch only short time be-
lore mad completed the work OF decking
OF Dominion day. Bunting aud flags COW
cred buildings everywhere and net works
OF colored electric lights were strung
and ready for illumination.
81, A4..
Wy IN "aia AZURE
Through these gaily decorated streets
the tornado swept and within half hour
ueshia nad peen turned INTO c'y Oh
mourning. IN the track of the storm,
building after building lay In ruins,
swathed In its shroud OF gay colored
bunting.
The tornado swooped down Just few
blocks 10 the north OF the southern lin
its OF the city
IN twinkling three OF the handsomest
churches IN Regina were laid in ruins.
they were the Methodist. Baptist and
Knox churches and the first OF the city's
odsst church fell with a crash that
sounded above the how'ing OF the storm
and the roar OF the cloudburst that ac-
companied the terrific wind then the roof
was swept from the Young Mems Chris
tian association building. across Victoria
square, and the walls of the structure
shattered, while just beyond the hand
some new public library was badly
wrecked and the church OF the Presby-
terian denomination was laid in ruins.
w rL
Aeiepno"e EAc"anse wreched
In rapid succession the Masonic tenn
pie and the telephone exchange build
ele1. tns storm seemed 70 spena i.s
Tf5sder tbe mass of wreckare ieft ware