El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-04-14

ready been ushered in by two de-
l. structives cyclone twisters'
which within the last few days have
worked devastation at Shreveport La
where eight persons were killed and %
injured, and Little Rock. ARK "hl~H
reports seven dead and more th4h q
score of wounded.
As the country becomes more dehsely
populated this kind OF meteorologlcaI
phenomena is assuming q proporuOH-
and villages are thick, tornaooes 1LS
more likely to destroy lives and prop
erty Dread Of such Whlrllhs Sums
has grown, and their alleged IIeq 80 -
in certain states, such as Kansas anu
Nebraska, has had tendency 70 uiS
courage settlement ,, %,
And vet tornado figures are liable 70
be misleading, because IN colhpaI ~ ~ =
the records Of various states they ran
70 take the relative area Of the ldtIet
into account PropOrtionately 10 area
according to weather bureau uala CIV
ering l6 consecutive years, the DauASL
state for storms OF this character Is
New Jersey During that period Ne"
Jersey has had II tornadOes- Kansas Kansas;
with 1O2 'twisters, STANDS seCouu'
Maryland is third; MassacnuseJlS'
fourth; Indiana, fifth. and missouri
sixth.
There is a notion rather generally
accepted that in the east tornaGOeS are
Of very rare occurrence Such, no"
ever. is far from being the case me
figures above given show that Massa-
chusetts and Maryland are decloeulS
liable to Whirling storms OF TINS chdI
acter and during the 10 years %
weather bureau observation there nave
been no fewer than 70 tornadoes IN the
state Of New York
Naturally. tornadOes have given the
weather bureau a good deal OF anxious
thought-the more so because 1t seems
TO be impossible 10 predict or give
warning of their occurrence. On an
average there are not more than three
very destructive ones IN this counIEE
yearly, and the annual damage haro.y
exceeds $1,000. 900. But in 1895 the total
loss was SASS 3OO-mainly caused by
the funnel cloud" which struck St
Louis in Nay, with such disastrous re
suits.
One Section Escapes.
Certain parts ef~the United States
such as the northern half OF North Da-
kotaL and portions Of Minnesota ana
Wisconsin-seem TO be practlcaliE eN-
empt from tornad0es- Most suoJect
10 them on the other hand. are the
great interior valleys. In winter
months they occur only in the z ult
states: but with the warming up oL
the valleys and plains OF the interior,
they break loose farther and farther
portbward. until June which is the
month Of greatest frequency IN Ne
braska, South Dakota, Iowa and MIN
on an average. the area OF destruc-
lion does NOT extend beyond a strip 500
wards wide and % miles long-a totai
OF only little over three square mics
Even the socalled tornado states, the
annexation that a "twister' viii strike
any given square mile OF territory
amounts according to the weather ou-
reau's figures to less than one-siN-
teenth Of / percent IN century.
When however a funnel cloud does
bit the jmportant center OF population
the damage it does may be enormous
This was what happened March -,
1880. to the city OF LoulsVllle' n.y.
when I13 lives and $3.50, 0JO worth OF
property were wiped out in ten min
utes by a ''twister" which struck the
town at 7:45 p. m It was an appalling,
catastrophe. All the gas lights went
out, leaving the town IN 9srH 4il.'
which was Illuminated only by light
ming and huge balls Of electric fire
playing about the streets
The Big st. Louis Tornado.
But the St Louis tornado, which
passed through that city in the early
evening Of May p, 1885, was vastly
more destructive, In Less SS , tnan 50 MN
utes' time it did So, 5000 worth OF
There had been a long and very hu-
mid hot spell, and the bricks and
stones Of the houses and streets had
become an enormous storehouse OF
heat a fact which, in the opinion of
meteorologists, augmented the energy
of the storm
At 3:z5 p. m. the Temperature oe8an
10 fall the wind rose, and the whole
sky became covered with strange-lOok-
ing hemispherical clOudlets. These
ran together and began to assume the
light green color CHARACTERISTIC OF the
tornado sky" A little after o'clock
there was a marked increase in the
violence Of the storm, and the wind,
changing suddenly from southeast TO