Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1913-03-27
Destructive Storm Sweeps Over
City During Night and Does
Enormous Damage.
MANY PEOPLE ARE KILLED
Wind Carries Away Many Homes
and Kills and Injuries Hundreds
Of People in its Path.

/ Omaha, March 24.Full horror of
last nights tornado broke upon grief
stricken Omaha at noon today when
Governor Moorhead, Mayor Dahlman
land Police Commissioner T. j. Ryder
anthoritatively stated that the death
1 list would reach the appalling figure
of 200 in Omaha alone, exclusive of
Ralston Council Bluffs and other
towns, and the list Of injured probably
mount to one thousand. Only one
l third of the dead have so far been
identified. The property loss Is now
| conservatively estimated at $10.00n,s
900.
! A canvass of every tornado insur.
ance firm leads to the belief that the
loss is covered BY only S500,Oo0 in.
surance.
This is due partly to an old Indian
4 prophecy handed down for centuries
that Ohama was immune from css
i clone.
1 This has been the confident belief
Of every reEident as the city has fre-
guently been visited by high winds
but had never received any damage
until last night
One hundred thousand grief strick-
en-, sobbing, horrifad people assailed
every source of information for as.
surance that relatives or friends had
not perished in the storm
: Guards at the scene OF the wreck
are keeping the crowds back by force
!. clearing the devastated region for d
), block on each side Of the path.
. At noon Governor Moorhead, who
had rushed to Omaha on a specia
tram with Adjutant General Hal
2 llade tour of inspection along the
{ path of the cyclone.
Tears stood in the executives eyes
= as he viewed the ruins of what hat
once been Omaha's finest residence
district. The sight that presented it
self to view is unequaled in the his
tory of the state.
The damage in Omaha alone is
5 Two hundred lives lost; 1000 person
injured; 150 houses demolished, /,
churches wrecked; $50 houses dam
g aged.
q
Omaha, March PA proclamation
by the mayor to the people of Omaha
i "A great calamity has struck ou
= city. Many lives and homes hav
: been destroyed.
.'The authorities, with the assis
i ance8 of 200 troops from Fort Omaha
:. are doing all that can be done /
= guarding property and rescuing tn
!. dead and injured.
1T will be necessary to properly ps
troll this district which extends owe
: several miles Of territory, until ma
:. ters can be adjusted SO that propert
: may be protected, and men have a
- opportunity to clear the wreckage.
- mo one will be allowed inside tn
lines unless properly authorized, S
| call on the public generally to b
2 patient. Thousands of volunteers al
: doing all they can. ! appeal to tn
= people in this hour of distress to fee
y and house all that need help unit
- other arrangements can be made.
3, (signed)
tn
ch
MT
m. Omaha, Neb., March "a Sixty-fiv
q. persons are positively known to /
dead, millions Of property damage We
le- done, many buildings being absolutel
i'd destroyed, 500 persons were seriousl
nd and at least 1000 are homeless as tf
hn result. of the worst tornado that evt
struts Nebraska, which swept a STR
he five miles long through the fashio
on able northern part Of the. city la
W evening at 6 o'clock.
as After a night OF terror in whis
nd women and children frantic wi
.st grief, walked the streets, cold al
homeless, Omaha woke this ;;nnornir
Ell TO q scene Of unbelievable damage
en- Ralston, a suburb fifteen miles fro
ve- the city was entirely wiped from Il
imap.