East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1913-03-24

StrOyed by flames. The electric plant
failed and the city was in darkness
for hours. Lanterns were brought in
to play and a search for the victims
started.
Storm First Observed.
The storm was first observed just
before six o'clock coming from the
southwest with the speed of an ex-
press train. The roar could be heard
long before it struck. Ahead of the
storm was a huge fan-shaped cloud.
1t grew darker and gradually narrow
ed to a funnel shape, dipping earth
ward and wherever it struck it kill
ed, manned and razed.
People in every section of the city
watched the approach of the cyclone.
The streets through which it passed
are piled high with debris today. I'm
injured rused to the aid of the in
injured rushed to the aid of the in
and wagon were pressed into service
and the injured were rushed to hos
pitals. Every undertaking establish
ment here and in South Omaha is
taxed to the limit caring for the dead.
Homes of the fashionable residents
and others were thrown open to the
two thousand homeless. Weeping
women and children are massed atthe
undertaking rooms seeking missing
relatives and pathetic scenes were en-
acted. The soldiers who guarded the
corner of Twenty-fourth and Lake
streets all night reported seven corps
es recovered before their arrival and
women and childrn are massed at the
er thir arrival.
Two babies were picked up, blown
away from the Child Saving Institute
where foundlings are cared for. This
institution was the center of the
storms path. One of the rest rooms
in the Webster Telephone exchange
was converted into a morgue and an
other room was set aside for the in
! jured. F. Z. Russell. 63, lay on the
floor of the exchange, his face fright
| fully crushed. He had been buried
| by brick WALL
Rev. Judge, pastor of the Sacret
Heart Catholic church, remained in
! the telephone exchange comforting
the suffering and offering prayers
for the dying. The Sacred Heart con-
vent located on high ground in the
west part of the city. a school for
girls, was demolished but the students
had a miraculous escape from injury.
so Bodies Recovered.
h With eighty bodies recovered at
noon and scores of outlying towns
cut off from communication. it SEEM
ed certain that the fatalities would
reach at least two hundred. Hun
dreds are injured and the death list
subsequently will be swelled by lat
er reports. More than two hundred
and fifty houses are badly damaged.
Decatur and Fr,,uKi.l streets are
filled with debris. These streets were
lined with blazing homes for a quar-
ter of a mile following the storm.
Refugees rushed to the hilltops OF
both streets and watched their homes
:. burn. The fires lighted the city for
more than three hours.
I Mrs. G.. E. Medluck was about to
I give birth to baby when her home
, in Decatur street was badly damaged
q by the storm. Her husband was Sc
n riously cut and two daughters were
injured the clothing being torn from
n their bodies. Mrs Medlock lay for
Z four hours in a roofless house in a
{ drenching rain, attended only by her
q husband. A friend then took the
@ woman to the home of friend in a
Q wagon. Her condition Is critical.
, C. f. Planteen and his wife found
4 shelter in the basement after the
storm had destroyed the upper par
n of the house.
o. The home of Walter Peterson wa:
II demolished and Peterson and his sew
en- children are missing.
4 Lincoln. March 24.-The lowe
d house of the legislature will recess
> and go to Omaha in a body to investi
If gate the havoc wrought
Money for Relief.
n The city commissioner appropriat
10 ed twenty-five thousand dollars 70
d the relief of the sufferers. An in