The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-06-29
WE'RE IN COLORADO CYCLONE.
Former Decatur County Residents
Have Cyclone Experience
in Colorado.

Have Cyclone Experience
in Colorado.
Mr.. and Mrs. j. w. Moore, OF north
of Leon have received the following
letter telling Of the experience OF
their sons, Orlo and Frank IN cy-
clone which visited Colorado on
June 18th, and in which they both
lost considerable property, but are
mighty glad they escaped WITH lhei'
lives: ., ,o,c
Plains, Colorado, June Il, 1910
Dear Ones:-I will now try to give
Won more complete account or the
cyclone through which we passed 4o
hours ago, or on last Monday even
ing A storm had been brewing all
afternoon. We were just about READY
for s1pper. Eva had picked our hfst
meas and was delaying supper 10
churn some butter for them. l Was
anxious to see it rain and went IN
the west room to watch the cloud.
paul and Ruth went with me. no
ticed a twister about 40 RODS vice
coming up the road towards us from
the west | called, eva just come
and see this" She started in, leav-
ing Virginia in the high chair, but
an impulse made her turn ana get
her too. We watched the tWlster
come within so rods, whirling dust. l
said cit is breaking up" NO, II Is
gathering again. 1t came dellDer-
ately toward us. 1t did not look PAD
or scare me much. Just about the
time it got nearly to us | saw chlcken
coops going toward it in the ar,
breaking as they went. A second
later hay began to go by. Eva al
wavs sits down with the baby in any
had storm. This habit possibly saved
her life, as she sat down behind
fall chiffonier. The hay had hafdly
started past till our roof went llght
as feather. Not till then did ! rea-
lize our danger. | swept PAU ana
Ruth toward Eva with one arm ana
stood lowering over them. l salo
Good save u.s. Almost as the ROOT
went the walls began to crash. i saw
the north wall falling over us: l Put
I'M nv right hand to check It,. wy
hand never touched it. 1t WaVereo
second. then fell outward instead OF
inward. saw something flying TO-
wards Eva's head, put out my lett
hand, but knew l had only partlally
broken the blow. The children were
ali crying. Eva and tried to COM
fort them by telling them Coo Woulo
take care of us. l saw blood on the
baby's hand, and thought she was
hurt. A little later l noticed Evas
head was bleeding badly. Thlngs
were still crashing about us. IN
few moments the wind got more quiet
and | stuck my head above the ruins
and saw the barn and stack gone ana
the team running about, one tied 10
each end of the 2x6 of the manger.
Then / noticed the windmill, tower
and all, lying prone near the house.
We crouched little longer, then IL
began to rain harder SO we craWled
out and ran for the remains OF the
stack for shelter. After / got the
folks to the stack went back tor
Quilts to wrap up in. Noticed Jalke's,
Crowder's and Parker's still standing.
Saw funnel southeast and rushed
back to the stack. In a little while
looked again, the sky was clear. put
Crowder's were moved to the earth.
We staid at the stack little while.
It rained hard and lots of hail stones
as large as hen eggs fell. We were
cold, wet and unstrung, so decided to
start lOI JAIME lOI oAC1IC1. vi eAAS
way saw several more tunnels and
Rugged the ruts ready to lie down
quick, but arrived safely. They were
in the cave. He had been to Crowd
er's and found they were alive. AS
Eva and Virginia seemed only slight
" hurt Jake and 1 hitched up his
team and started for Franks to see
how they were. Heavy clouds soon
brought darkness. One mile south
of Franks we found Lacey's house in
ruins. That scared me. A little
further we ran into team. It prov
ed to be Frank going for the doctor.
Mr.. Elliott had stopped at Lacey's
out of the storm as he went home
from work. a When their house went
Mrs. Lacey was badly hurt so Mr..
Elliott took them to Carson's, her
fathers, and had brought back word
to Frank that the doctor, on another
mission, had luckily been stopped at
.Carson's. Frank said she was bad
hurt SO turned back with him while
Jake took his team and went back
to Carson's to get the doctor for US.
Frank had taken refuge in Murphy's