The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1913-04-02
REVIEW OF EASTER TORNADO
THAT BROUGHT DISASTER

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them in some cases blocks away
skirting the vast building Of Sacred
Heart convent, Thirty-siXth and Burt
thrusting a glance blow sldeWlse al
the residence of the Rt. Rev. Rlchart
Scannell, Catholic bishop, distgurliE
the large new, half-completed home
of Louis Nash anu demolishing 9th
ers nearby.
Laughs at Wooded Hollow.
Here once more it reached SHARP
decline and takes the grade into
Bemis park like the winning auto on
the last lap of the speedway. Here
| it truly "scours over the land and
"ploughs up the whole deep from the
lowest bottom for not spot OF Benz
is park seems to have been missed
1t burrows into the hollow and rolls
vast pillows" of trees and earth anu
furniture from Cumins street homes
over against the north side slopes.
One might imagine that SO great a
depression as the tree tempted low
lands OF Bemis park would break the
velocity of the wind, but he would
not imagine it after gazing upon the
sad ruins of the once handsome homes
that densely crowded upon the hills
OF this choice residential district.
There they lay an indiscrimlnate
mass of material intermingled with
the shattered trunks and limbs OF the
splendid old trees that made Bemls
park as pretty and inviting spot
for a home as ever the eye OF the
artist Toasted upon.
AS if gathering new impetus, the
funnel cloud on scaling the hill back
at Fortieth and Farnam streets came
hurtling north with a queer qulVelnS
of the eastward wing, wrought, It
seemed, to an Unsuitable fury, so now
it rears it's sable head over the Bemis
hills and up the steep incline OF the
old Creighton farm abutting on Thir-
ty-third street and extending east.
Wreckage on the lowland.
Aha, from the summit of this last
elevation it looks down upon its COM
pletest conquest, the low plateau to
the north!
Speed on, thou wanton perveyor OF
death, speed on! Feed thy ravishing
passion upon the precious lives OF
men! Tear thy way to them through
this dense forest of homes built by
their frugality and skill! Snatch them
from each other in the quiet of an
Easter Sundays communion and re-
gale myself in their blood.
And so it did 1t passed down
Parker and Blonde streets eastward
to Twenty-fourth street, here en-
panding the width of its path to about
six blocks and as far nOrh as Lake
1nVo a.
ton. 1t took house after house and
converted it into kindling wood,
strewing streets with mass of rub
bish and splinters, which but few
seconds before composed dwellings,
for hundreds. And in these somber
ruins were to be found the largest
toll of victims, dead, dying or badly
injured.
Apparently Split Twice.
Some descriptions of the cloud in
dictate that it separated twice, once
at orty-eightFh and Leavenworth,
spur taking down the Belt line, and
again on North Twenty-fourth street,
the more destructive part moving
along Lake, Ohio, Maple, Locust and
Binney streets until it crossed the
river on the east. These apparent sep
arations must have been the widen
ing of the path. as, for instance, Ill
the vicinity Of Fortieth and Farnam
streets, when, at the time it veered
eastward the western extremity was
at Saunders school on Forty-first and
Cass streets and the eastern away
over near Thirty-siXth street and fur
Their north.
1t was no respecter of persons or
things, and besides making a clean
sweep most of the way, shook out
windows and some doors blocks dis
tant from it's regular line of travel.
Wherever buildings withstood it's raw
ages at all, they were, mostly, the
brick or stone structures. AS a rule
the frame simply crumbled up like
egg shells. no matter how we'll built.
One illustration of the relative resist
ance of frame and brick house un-
der simila. circumstances is found
on Thirty-eighth avenue near Farnam,
where a two story frame, or the
crushed remnants of it, lie hurled
against a brick, comparatively free
from serious damage. or course,
there is room here for freak of the
storm also.
centers Of Chief Damage.
The centers of chief damage We're
around the Fortieth and Farnam Sec
ton from Fortieth to Forty-second and
from the Child Saving institute on
Howard north to Dodge; in Bemis
park and for radius of a few blocks
around Twenty-fourth and Lake. or
course, the damage done the scores
of most costly dwellings on Thity'
ninth, Thirty-eighth and Thirty-sixth,
from Farnam to Cumins, was extens-
i've, chiefly because of the great values
of the buildings, but the density OF
destruction while tremendous and
complete in splits even here, was not
to be compared with the devastation
in Bemis park, along Cumins street
and over in the north bottoms, where
for whole blocks houses were simply
leveled.
Here. too, was the greatest loss of
life. In Idlewild hall, 23O7 North
Twenty-fourth. the largest single body
of lives was lost, thirteen in all. This
was an old two-story structure, not
far from Lake street, owned and pat
ronized by colored men. Some were
in playing pool, others for refuge
from the storm, but most of them
were buried in the basement when the