Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-25
cToRlEs OF EYEWITNEssEs.

Chicago, March 24.=Stories replete
With thrills and pathos were related in
Chicago, today, ty eye witnesses of the
great tornado which swept over parts
cf Nebraska. Iowa and Illinois, last
night, killing and injuring hundreds.
Tetror-strieken, the narrators of
these stories had sat fascinated in the
coaches o. a Chicago, Burlington &
great dark cloud skipping Enthusiastically
on It's work of destruction. In several
villages they helped pick up the dead
and dying.
The wounded and the dead were plac-
ed IA seats and in the aisles of the cars
until the tram, which had passed
through the beginning of the track of
the NhirlWind that struck Omaha,
reached the latter city.
on the way in, the injured narrated
neart-rendine tales of suffering and
vivid descriptions of escapes which
seemed to them miraculous
" a Coon, president of an auto
mobile company of Lincoln. Neb.. gave
graphic dc scription of what he saw
from the platform of the observation
ear.
Ser miles" he said, "it seemed as If
he tram We're being pursued by the
storm We were approaching Ralston,
Neb.. when / first noticed a strange,
coppvr-col3red cloud moving toward
the sky. Before that it had been clear.
The cloud grew rapidly, and was trav
cling at tremendous speed. 1t assumed
ha k,.t,t,1 of 10 a n w g
illed with curious piercing noise
Then the funnel seemed to grow black
and the smaller end-that near the
ground-was about half mile in di-
ameter. 1t swished across the railroad
track and swept toward the little town.
Then the storm struck the town.
Houses collapsed as though they were
Of paper The roofs went sailing away
and the sides fell in. The passengers
sat as though glued to their seats when
the cloud struck. Then as they compre-
nended the dissolution wrought cry OF
horror went up from every one. 1t wac
q terrible sight
when the engineer brought the engine
to stop and the passengers ran over
to the wreckage of the houses we could
near the ElOdIiS u uAitfS men anu NV
walls and shrieks of injured women and
children. | entered a house, or rather
what had been q house, and in 1t lay
woman, dead. We got all of the injured
out of the ruins and brought them to
the train.
1--WE were about to leave when our at
tention was called to little house some
| distance from the others, 1t had been
wrecked and moved from it's founda-
tons. but we found a mother and her
! little baby lying upon bed uninjured
"a man was in the basement of his
home when the house was carried away
bodily and he was left standing there
uninjured.
s'There was big threshing machine
standing near one of the houses ano
when the cloud struck it it shot straight
up into the air and was carried about a
rods.
Houses We're rolling and tumbint
along the ground. | saw box car car
ried along by the terrific air current TO
a quarter of a mile. When it split opei
six or seven men who turned out to b
part of a repair gang, dropped out
Some of them lay very still while Others
feebly crawled about,
s"rhe next station our train passe'
through was Benson, where the scene
were still more appalling. There had bee
several large factories there, and the
were all strewn in heaps. We picked u
a lot of injured and | don't know hoy
many dead we left behind Then tn
cloud wheeled and made towards sout
Omaha.
1--WE were not far behind but our wa
was blocked by the debris the tornad
had thrown on the tracks. Then, toe
we stopped frequently to pick up the III
iured. There We're some with their limb
torn off and all were cut and bleeding
Another passenger was Mrs. Geors
]. Aldervent of Syracuse, n. Y, wh
boarded the train at Lincoln. She stl
showed traces of the experience throug
which she had passed.
.When the houses began to fall sh
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