The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1917-05-31
TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY
EIGHT KNOWN DEAD TODAY.
THOUSANDS MADE HOMELESS
Heaviest Loss of Lives Was in Ma
toon, Illinois, Where Sixty-five
Were Killed and Five Hundred
Were Injured.

nadOeS which swept Illinois and In
diana on Saturday, part of Arkansas,
Kentucky and Alabama on Sunday,
and Kansas on Friday.
Thousands are homeless and des-
titute. The total property damage
amounted to millions of dollars.
The casualties are listed as fol
lows:
Illinois, one hundred and twenty
eight dead, seven hundred and fifty
injured. Kentucky. fifty dead and
forty injured. Alabama, one
hundred and twenty dead.
Arkansas, nine dead and twelve
injured. Indiana, seven dead and
two hundred injured Tennessee,
six dead and fifty-three injured.
The heaviest loss Of life was in Ma
toon, Illinois, when Saturdays storm
killed at least sixty-five and injured
upwards of five hundred. Mayor
Swan of NATION has appealed to the
people of Illinois for aid, saying that
there are thousands of people home
less in NATION.
Charlestown, Illinois, just east of
Matoon, was badly wrecked with a
loss of fifty lives and upwards of one
hundred injured.
Rescuing of the bodies of the dead,
aid to the injured, relief work among
| the homeless and suffering of the
survivors was proceeding rapidly to-,
day. nf .nrr,.... .r.r
An appropriation of 100000 was
to be asked of the Illinois legislature.
Forty Killed in Alabama.
Birmingham, May 28.-The death
list in Alabama from Sunday nights
tornado may total 40. 1t tore a path
through the northern part of Jeffer-
son county ten miles long and two
miles wide.
Special trains were run from Bir-
mingham to the stricken district.
A detachment of militia men were
ordered out to prevent looting.
Complete Report Today.
Memphis, Tenn, May 28.--A COM
plete report today showed that thir-
ty-five persons were killed and one
hundred and fifty injured in Arkan-
sas and twenty-nine killed and two
hundred injured in Tennessee by
| Saturdays cyclones. Communica-
ton with the stricken district is still
Interrupted.
Sixty Killed.
Paducah, Ky, May 28.-At least
sixty persons were killed and more
than one hundred injured by the
tornado which swept western Ken
lucky and Tennessee yesterday, &C
cording to reports received here this
afternoon. The storm swept from
South Dyersburg, Tennessee, to
| Hutsman, Kentucky: The towns
suffering the worst were Clinton and
Bardwell.
Work of Rescue and Relief.
Springfield, ILL.,, May 23.--Every en-
| ergy of the state government was
thrown into the work of rescue and
| relief at Nation, Charleston and 9TH
er Illinois towns where vagrant tor
lives and RACED block after block of
business and residence buildings.
Governor Lowden and Adjutant Gen
eral Dickson conferred on measures
of relief, after which General Dickson
sent to Mattoon every cot and blanket
when reports were received from mil
itary officers at Mattoon stating that
100 persons We're dead, between 300
and 400 We're injured and 453 families
We're homeless.
Many Dead at Nation.
Mattoon, H., May 2S.--After
sleepless night of uncertainty and an
guish Mattoon sorrowfully face the
light of day and reckoned her dead,
the toll of the worst storm in the
history of the state.
Accordingto the best obtainable fig
ures, in the absence Of any official sta
tistical agency, 4S bodies have been
recovered, 46 of which have been iden-
titled. Between 10 and 20 persons are
unaccounted for. Three hundred per-
sons are badly, though not fatally,
hurt. Two hundred more are suffer
Ing from slight injuries and approx
mately 20 are expected to die.
Relatives Seek Dead.
The work of identifying the dead
and listing the wounded and injured
has been sadly handicapped through
the lack Of any central clearing house
of Information. The, bodies of the |
dead. as rnpidly rs they were recoy-
cred from the wreckage. we're taken
g The four undertaking establish I