The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1913-03-27
OMAHA STORM
Some of the Mysteries and APP
palling Wonders of the
Great Tornado.

Omaha, March 27.-The Omaha
storm impresses one with the incredib Die
power of wind. Under tornado condi-
tions wind becomes a thing equal in
devastating might to dynamite, cannon
fire, or thunder bolts-and all msgni6ed
to a hundred dismeters. Tornado
moved a path across the city of Omaha
five miles long and a block wide.
Within that zone the destruction is in
describable. Not a house escaped.
Entering the city, it plowed through
the wooden houses of the poor and
moderately we'll TODD in the suburbs
and wrecked them. Then it attacked
the brick and stone mansions in the
best residence part of the city-and
wrecked them. Slate and tile roofs
west like Shingles. Stone and brick
were crushed like paper. The show
place of Omaha i3a castellated mansion
which would look at home on the cliffs
of the Rhine and cost 81, 900, 900. It's
roof went and its battlements crumbled
in the same explosive blow that carried
away the frame house in the next
DNC~s AhNAO ~ ohCh Nullk as d
tornado proof building. And it is all a
mere matter of wind-the same force
as the gentle breeze of summer.
This Is the physical mystery and won
der OF the tornado.
Brick and stone houses were shearei
of like cheese. their materials came
crashing down in chaos The people
were in the houses, kept there by the
threatening weather. Why we're there
not thousands killed, instead of hun
dreds' This is another wonder. One
exploring these ruined districts, with
houses crowded together. the streets
filled with wreckage, cellars filed
with stone and brick, wires tangled
across the streets, electric poles snapped
in pieces and hurled through roofs.
roofs themselves carried long distances
and dropped at random, can scarcely
believe that these dwellings were all
occupied aud this havoc was all done
IN a moment.-and only about 1870
killed and less than 800 seriously in
juIed.
The Omaha storm came at a time of
the year when tornadoes are not ex.
pected. The houses all had fires burn
irR. From the cellars of the wrecked
houses arose the smoke of a thousand
furnaces. PeIhsps this is the only tor
nsdo which ever visited a city under
such conditions. The live wires sent
out their flames of discharging cleo
tricity and the furnaces smoked and
went out-and yet there were few
fires and none of any magnitude. |
This is a wonder, too. The citizens of
the city saw the flames spring up iu
several places and thought, az the led
glow illuminated the lurid sky of the
storm, of the fires that wiped out San
Francisco after her buildings were
wrecked by an earthquake; but the
Omaha holocaust did not come. This
is owing to the torrents of rain that |
came with and followed the tornado
and which soaked the debris of the
storm.
Wherever tor nadoes of the past
have made people homeless and ex-
posed the interiors Of their homes to
the weather. ii has been in summer. |
They were not called upon to suffer
from cold, at least. But here, as
this is written, a snowstorm is raging |
and the landscape looks like January. |
The snow lie sitting down through !
wrecked floors on pianos, oriental
rugs, bric-a. brac. treasures import ted
from all lands to grace the homes of
ths rich. Ii is falling on rich car
pets and fine Libraries. 1t is filing
the little living rooms of the poor,
too. and covering the furL iture on
which the installment man will ask
for payments the first of the month
When this sEow melts, ii will soak
the bedding and clothing aud destroy
the paintings and rugs. Destruction
is awful when it out of the
whirlwind. but when it is followed by |
snow and cold and dreariness and
cloudy expression, it is far worse.
Theie was some looting and the dis
trict is now under strict martial law.
But the wonder is that there WIS not
more. For a few hours after the dis
aster these thousands of homes were |
open to the entry of anybody. Strang-
ers went FROM house to house and,
usually stepping through the wide
openings where the plate glass had
been burst out, they called their in
quiries MS to the welfare of those who
had passed through the storm. "Any-
body hersH" Anybody hurt here"
such we're the shouts all through the
scourged region.