Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1914-09-17
ELECTRIC LIGHT PLANT
CYCLONE DESTROYS
Many Other buildings Destroyed Dur
ing the Severe Storm Late
Sunday Night

A cyclone visited Audubon shortly
after one O'Clock Sunday night that
completely demolished the electric
light plant and a number of barns,
uprooting trees and doing more or
| less damage to outbuildings. The
storm came from the southwest and
travelled practically the same path
taken by the severe hail storm that
visited this section last year about
| this time.
The storm swept a section about
| four to six blocks wide The first
damage of any consequence was the
destruction of the brick building used
| by Mr.. Weiland for his light plant
The roof and smoke stack were
thrown across the Rock Island tracks
and the four walls were torn down
almost to the ground. Only a small
portion of the walls remain standing
on the west and north sides The
machinery was not damaged to any
great extent and ii is believed that
Extra and Audubon will have lights
within the next week.
The feed barns of Andrew Christ
Jansen and Geo. Henriksen were bad
ly damaged and parts of the build
| ings were scattered over consider
able space. Both lumber yards suf-
fered heavily. lumber being scattered
everywhere. The residence of DIR.
| Hollenbeck was somewhat injured
and windows broken out. Coming
up Broadway the plate glass in the
harness shop of ID. II, Soar was brok-
en- out. Only a few limbs We're
broken from the trees in the park.
Just north of the park, the feed barn
of Geo. Brady was severely damaged.
The barn along the alley was COM
pletely turned over and set on the
opposite side of the alley onto c. H..
SIMPSONS property.
The top of large tree in front of
Frank Sunberg's house was broken
off and driven through the side of II.
b. Wilson's house doing considerable
damage. Perhaps the worst damage
of all was done TO the magnificent
residence of NJ T. Foley. The tall
chimneys were blown down and on
the north side the brick fell onto the
large porch completely demolishing
1t and doing damage to the side of the
house. His damage is estimated at
$1,000 to $500.
| A large tree in trent of the resi-
dence of f. w. Smith was torn out
| by its roots and the big shade trees
on the corner of the Stewart man
sion were completely topped. Many
wind mills were blown down, one at
the edge of town, used by the John
son Grain Co.
| The storm was practically con-
fined to the town of Audubon. How
ever, A. j. Shup and Peter Mathiesen
southwest of town and Geo. Foley
northeast of town suffered the de-
struction of outbuildings and shade
trees.
| Telephone and electric wires were
down and the service greatly i'm
paired Mr.. Weilands carried $500
| insurance on his building through
| the agency of Arnold, Ross & Ras-
mussen. On Tuesday the firm paid
Mr. Weiland $1404.70, who now has
a sufficient force of men at work
erecting temporary quarters so the
town will be lighted up during fair
week. In the meantime he will com
mence the erection of a new brick
building. His loss is estimated at
$500.
The storm came so sudden that
| people were not able to seek refuge
in their cyclone caves and cellars.
If the wind had come nearer the
\ ground there is no doubt but that
the town would have been completely
swept away and there would have
been great loss of life.
Another Bad Storm Last Night
| Another bad storm swept over
! Audubon about seven o'clock last
night. We had a heavy rain but be-
tween here and Des Moines cloud
burst did considerable damage. Five
miles of track is washed out near
Atlantic and we were unable to get
any mail this morning. Five feet of
| water in the Rock Island round house
at Valley Junction has greatly de
molished railroad traffic and il will
be several days before the Rock Is
land will be able to run their trains
on schedule time. The storm was
accompanied by strong wind and
much lightning.