The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-13
STORM

Continued from rage Onel
One of the miracles of the disaster. the
fact that very little wheat was dam
aged, was reported from Wamego.
Some livestock was killed. However,
the number of head was small.
Communication with the district
northwest of Wamego is cut off from
practically all points by the Vermillion
river which is flooded high. The storm
which swept up this stream carried
heavy hail and rain. Crops here were.
badly damaged.
The little villages of Louisville,
Boderick and Laclede were in the path
of the violent winds. Rural property
damage was exceedingly heavy for sew
eral miles up the Ver1nilIion valley.
After suffering much from the effects
of the hail. crops We're further dam
aged today by high water. A num-
Der of persons are said to be home
less.
Motor Parties to Rescue
A. J. Mackey, manager here for the.
Southwestern Bell Telephone COM
pany. said this morning that motor
parties from his company had been
dispatched into the Wamego district.
All lines. he said, between Wamego
and Belvue are down. including
total of seventeen circuits. Two miles
of poles are. down in one place.
From Wamego and st. Marys the
storm area spread out fanlike with
the western border west of the Fermil-
lion river and the eastern extreme
making straight line between st.
M-rys and Onaga. So far as can be
learned the Wamego twister went
northward two or three miles.
From that point the twister merged
into a violent straight wind and
spread out.
The smallest of the two tornadoes
formed about five miles southwest of
in he
it's life was short, as it Travelled a little
less than a mile. Three or four farm
houses in its path were exploded like
bombshells or rolled across the coun-
try.
Orphans Had Close Call.
At the farm of the late Andrew
Erickson near Belvue, where six
orphaned Erickson children dwell, the
house was turned upside down and
was left resting upon its roof. All six
of the children We're on the inside and
they were churned about like dice in a
box. All We're bruised considerably.
One girl was driven into Mysteries. Up
right furniture held the floor off the
children and it is to this they owe their
lives. Arthur, the oldest of the six.
dug way out of the mass of wreckage
after the storm passed.
The Frank Weeks farmhouse, also
in the path of the smaller tornado, was
demolished.
Efforts to communicate farther
west than St. Marys today ended in
confusion with the exception of some
long distance calls the State Journal
was able to detour. The Western
Union service was hard hit, it was adj
mitted by officials. They had no wires
into Wamego from Topeka, officials
said. The Postal also had trouble.
Several efforts were made between
II and o'clock this morning by re-
lief parties to get into the neigh
tborhood of the storm from St
Marys. They were able to get
six miles west but here they We're
blocked by Lost creek which, during
the storm, was turned into raging
torrent which swept away bridges and
inundated lands and roads.
Eye Witness Tells of 1t.
r. P Morrison, Glasco, Kan, who
Travelled thru the Wamego and St.
Marys district this morning in a mo-
tor car from his home town to To-
| peka. was the first to bring an eye
| witness story of the tornado's havoc
to this city.
| For the first two miles this side
| of Wamego there was little damage
except to telephone and telegraph
/ poles" Morrison said. The next
/ three miles east evidence of the
storms havoc was everywhere.
have been thru the Menoken district
and the damage at Wamego appears
/ to be as extensive as there.
/ I'm this three-mile stretch trees.
farm buildings and telegraph poles are
blown fiat In some places houses are
blown one way and barns another.
Il ran into one instance of the
storms activities that was freakish in