The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1919-06-25
Fergus Falls Is
Victim Of Storm
FIRST REPORTS GIVE NUMBER
KILLED AS 200: 400 INJURED.
COMMUNICATION DIFFICULT

More than 200 persons are believed
to have been killed in a tornado which
swept Fergus Falls and Western Min
nesota Sunday night Four hundred
persons are said to have been injured,
and hundreds of buildings demolished,
IN Mlnnesota's greatest disaster since
the forest fires which swept part Of the
state last year.
With telegraph and telephone con-
lnections disrupted throughout the en-
tire area over which the tornado pass
ed, and no telegraph line standing
nearer than So miles to Fergus Falls,
reports from widely scattered locali-
/ ties agreed as to the number of dead
and injured.
In the havoc wrought by the wind
Is the destruction of the Grand Central
hotel in Fergus Falls, in the ruins of
which rs persons are thought to be
buried; the demolishing of the Nor
thern Pacific passenger and freight
station, and the overturning of the
Great Northern "Oriental Limited"
near Carlisle, where eight coaches fill
ed with passengers were blown into a
ditch.
Latest available reports said that
three blocks in the business section
Of the city had been wiped out.
Relief agencies were at work with
in short time after news of the tor
nado was received in Minneapolis, Gov,
ernor Burnquist, Adjutant General
RhinoW, Major Bellows, and 80 mem
bers of the Fourth Minnesota infan-
try, National guard, left the Great
Northern station In Minneapolis for
Fergus Falls at | a. m. A corps of
doctors, 80 nurses, and residents of
Fergus Falls were also on the train.
At the same time railroad wreck
ing crew left from st. Paul a second
special relief train left for the scene of
the disaster by way of Moorhead and
throughout the western section of the
state docors and nurses and supplies
were speeding toward Fergus Falls
early today.
The telephone operator at Wahpe-
ton, town on the North Dakota line,
about fifty miles west of Fergus Tails,
said that reports there placed the loss
of life in Fergus Falls at 200. Seven
hundred houses and other buildings
were destroyed by the storm or by
fire which followed, doubtless caused
by the collapse of buildings in which
fires were being used for various pur-
poses.
The telephone operator at Battle
Lake, abou. 18 miles west of Fergus
Falls, reported that the entire town
between the Grand Central hotel and
the brewery had been wiped out. The
operator also reported that 200 per-
sons had been killed. The brewery is
in the west section of The city, the
hotel in the eastern district, indicat-
ing that the tornado cut wide sWath
through the town
1t was regarded as Significant that
reports from widely separated local.
ties practically agreedkas to the num-
Der of the killed and injured in Fer
gus Falls, and as to the path IF the
Storm.
The message from Battle Lake gave
the number of dead at 200. and esti-
mated those injured at 400.
From a telegraph operator at Alex
andria came report giving The same
figures.
Detroit, with which Minneapolis was
in touch throughout the night, wired
that 200 persons had lost their lives
and that twice that number had been
killed.
Sank Center telegraphed report in
agreement with the above
figures.