The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1920-04-01
SUNDAYS STORM
HAS MANY VICTIMS
THOUSANDS MADE HOMELESS IN
SOUTH ATLANTIC AND CEN
TRIAL WESTERN STATES

OIL nearly lWo uunoiSu'
Telegraph and telephone service
with many isolated communities in
the Middle West had only been partly
restored yesterday and indications
were that the toll of death and de-
atruction would be augmented.
The known death in six central
Western States numbered 95, while
55 we're killed in Georgia and Ala
bama. The property loss in the Chi
cago area alone was estimated at
s6,O00,0O0 while in the other States
affected the material loss was large.
Elgin, ILL.,, suffered the heaviest loss,
the damage there being $4,00O,OOO.
Illinois was the hardest hit Of the
Central States with thirty dead, more
than one hundred injured and two
thousand made homeless.
Indiana reported twenty-eight ia
tilities and Ohio twenty-six. Nine
were killed in Michigan and one each
in Wisconsin and Missouri.
Dead in Georgia
The death list in Georgia was placed
at thirty-eight, and in Alabama at
seventeen.
At Joliet, Ill.,, three persons were
probably fatally injured, fourteen
riously hurt and the property loss
was estimated at half million dol
lars.
The Health Commissioner of Chica-
go, mobolized every available surgeon
and nurse and sent them to the strick-
en- areas. Mayor Thompson acted
with the city council In raising funds
by public subscription and Red Cross
headquarters were opened.
Legion Lends Aid
In several places American Legion
posts sent volunteers to watch for
looters and assist in relief work.
Henry ]. Cox, weather forecaster
for Chicago, said the tornado was the
result of a combination of two storms.
One developed in Alaska, travelled
through British Columbia and joined
a storm from the Southwest, which de-
veloped in the arid plateaus of South
ern Arizona and Nevada. This COM
bination, Prof. Cox said, resulted in
a rotary motion which formed eddies
and caused tornado.
Although the tornado travelled for
ward at rate of about fifty miles an
hour, the wind at the core Of the tor
nado was estimated to have had a
velocity of from two hundred to three
hundred miles an hour.
Relief Work in Georgia
Relief work is actively under way
in the storm swept cities of La
Grange and West Point, Ga, where
htornadoes that also caused heavey
damage Sunday afternoon in other
parts of Georgia and in Eastern Ala
bama had taken a heavy toll of life
and property.
Reports from Lagrange, the heav-
lest sufferer, tended to tone down the
actual loss of life, putting the known
dead at 26. This would make the
total known dead SIS, divided as fol-
lows:
LAGRANGE 26, Alexander City, Ala.
in West Point 10, Agricola, Ala. 5,
Macon 1, Miner, Ga, 1, Cedar
Springs, Ala. 1.
The number of injured was known
to run into the hundreds, and after a
night Of, darkness and confusion at
tendant upon the wreckage of the
power plants, the injured at LAGRANGE
and West Point were being cared for
in improvised hospitals with the aid
of the Atlanta Red Cross and army
authorities here.
Property Loss Heavy
Property loss at LAGRANGE was
estirAated at s5oO,OO0 with that at
West Point said to be Hundreds OF
thousands" The tornado that swept
through West Point shortly after 4
o'clock Sunday afternoon wrecked the
business part of that town even more
severely than did the floods Of last
December, according to report here
At LAGRANGE the chief damage was In
the mill section where several hundred
shomes of mill workers were destroyed
Property loss near Alexander City
7Ala., was put at nearly $4,000, while
= the loss in Alabama was expected te
be increased as details of more dam
age come in from isolated commune
ties.
Macon, Ca, suffered heavy propert!
losses and one negro woman was klllel