The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-08-30
STORY OF WRECKACE
RELATED By kATOlTE
RUDOLPH ROLFsCN DESCRIBE
SCENE OF RUIN AT TYLER
Says There Was No Foundation
For Report That Fire Had
Started

Scenes in Tyler simply rival des-
cription, stated Rudolph Robson, bag
gageman at the Omaha passenger de-
pot this morning. Mr.. Robson re-
turned last night from Tyler after
having made flying trip to the
stricken town on the special train
which left here yesterday at noon
Tyler about four o'clock and the
nurses at once went to work in a
temporary hospital which had been
established in one of the school
| houses in the village.
While every effort was being made
to get things running with some mark
of order, Mr. Robson stated that
| there was great deal of excitement
and confusion. He said no effort was
| made to keep track of the number OF
injured. Helpers were glad to assist
them to a place of safety and give
them medical aid When he left the
town thirty six dead bodies had been
taken from the ruins.
Whole Village Damaged.
"The whole village is damaged, the
business section is fat" he stated.
ut is just as if Front and Second
ruins and debris, where buildings
were blown over"
| People in the frame buildings suf-
fered less than those in the brick
and stone structures as there was no
weight to fall and crush them. Mr..
Robson is of the opinion that all the
| bodies will not be recovered for sew
eral days. He says it will take con-
siderable time before the huge piles
of stones and wrecked buildings can
be removed and systematic search
made for the dead.
Engines On the Track.
! At Tyler a roundhouse with two
engines for the Northwestern line
was located. The engines are still on
! the track, Mr. Robson states but the
roundhouse has not yet been found
in whole or in part. At one home he
| told of seeing huge oak plank
which was driven far into the wall by
the force of the wind A small silver
of wood has struck this plank WITH
|
drivn half way through the heavy
/ board
| National guard companies FROM
Pipestone and Worthington were al
ready on the scene when the Man
lato relief workers arrived and were
assisting a great deal in the rescue
work. Mr.. Robson said that as far
as he could see there was no founda-
ton for the reports that fire hai
broken out in Tyler and was raging
among the ruins. He stated that he
did not see a single evidence of fire
or smoke at any place.
| Freaks Of The Storm
| A. M. Clements and w. H. Hamley
motored to Tyler yesterday, after
noon to view the wreck left by the
cyclone. They report that the roads
were fine and they arrived in the
stricken city il time to see the ruins
lin their completeness before any
changes had been made. Some queer
freaks of the storm were noted by
the Mankato men.
! An American flag, about two by
three feet in size, had been handled
rather patrioticly by the storm, and
the staff of the flag driven into q
large tree, so that Old Glory hung at
the proper angle and foated in the
breeze after the storm had passed
Stats and other substances had also
been driven into the same tree. A
house had been lefted clean from its
Foundation, and could not be found
anywhere. In the basement where
the house had been a horse was
found, uninjured, having evidently
been carried some distance py the
wind and dropped there. The six
people who had been living in the
house were reported TO have been
/ killed. An automobile winch was
being driven into garage was
left standing uninjured, while the
garage was taken away bodily Oy
the storm One nice dwelling was
left standing with one side taken
away as cleanly as if it had been
sawed from the building, leaving the
! uninjured interios nicely furnished
exposed to the elements. A rooster
twas wandering around the streets
Totally blinded, and with the feathers
torn from: his body as though he had
been picked clean by the storm.
/ Larger trees had been uprooted
but the smaller ones were standing
tall and bare, minus branches and
bark, which had been torn away by
the wind A widow and her children
who had retired to the rear bedroom
Iof their dwelling escaped death
lmiraculously, the entire front of the
building being demolished. One OF
the men of the village who had been
knocked down by the force of the
wind thought he had been struck by
| lightning. He struggled to his feet
at once, and saw the twister reeeding
lin the distance. He looked again
and saw that all the houses in the
direction of his own home had either
disappeared or been blown down, and
he ran toward his own home, expect
! ing to find his family either gone or
killed, but was overjoyed to find his
house still standing and none of his
family hurt, although houses all
Iaround them were in ruins. Many
other odd things done by the storm
fwere noted, and the town was
thronged with visitors.
| kato Red Cross Helps.
| Mankato Red Cross ladies who
went WIN the relief train to Tyler
yesterday found that their services
were most timely offered. They were
taken to the improvised hospitals and
found that all patients but one had
already been nicely cared for, and
Mankato Red Cross workers took