New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-04-21
East Mississippi, North.
western Alabama and
South Tennessee Hit
With Deadly Swiftness
Rose Hill, Miss,
Totally Destroyed
Entire Families Perish
and Property Damage
in Stricken Area Runs
Into the Millions

DlRMINdI1AM "A w, AID, April EU.-
"A death list which tonight stood at
more than 140 and property loss of
many millions of dollars was the toll
exacted by tornado which to-day
swept score Of towns, villages and
isolated farms in eastern Mississippi,
northwestern Alabama and the
southern counties of Tennessee.
Communication with many of the
stricken districts was difficult, but
fragmentary reports agreed that the
tornado swept down with deadly sud-
denness, obliterating everything that
lay in its path.
In at least one case.-that of Rose
Hill, Miss.-practically the entire
town is believed to have been de-
stroyed, and in several instances all
members of family were reported
to have been killed.
Sweeps Over Mississippi
Striking first, apparently, in Lau-
derdale County, Miss, about 10
o'clock this morning, the storm swept
narrow path across the state, car
rying destruction to a dozen or more
communities. About the same time
death and damage from the same, or
3 similar, disturbance were reported
from counties in the northwestern
corner of Alabama, the extreme
force of the wind being expended be-
fore the Tennessee line was reached.
IN Williamson and Maury counties.
Sixteen persons were killed, scores
injured and property valued at hun
dreds of thousands of dollars destroyed
by the storm in the northwestern part
Of Marion County.
Twenty-one persons were killed on a
single plantation near Aberdeen, Miss.
Harbold's hog ranch, near there. one
OF the largest in the South. was wiped
out, 500 Of the stock being killed
Meridian, Miss, the heart of a rich
farming district, suffered heaviest, ac-
cording to late reports, with a known
death list of 21 The village of Glen.
Alcorn County, numbered its dead at
10; Aberdeen, 10; Ingomar, g; Egypt,
5; Baker, 5, and Bay Spring. Z. A
lumber camp near Philadelphia, Neshoba
County, lost IL workers killed and 80
injured, several probably fatally.
In Alabama, the rural districts
around Sheffield, Gurley, Little Cove
and Waco felt the full force of the
storm. and with some sections still cut
Off score Of bodies have been re-
covered
Three Dead in Tennessee
Across the Tennessee line, 16O miles
from Meridian, near where it origi-
mated, the storm still had force sutfi-
elent to wreck houses and farm build
lngs, and to cut swath through for
est and field. Only three deaths are
known to have occurred in the state,
however
The wide territory covered by the
tornado led to belief tonight that
tnere was more than one mospheric
d'sturoance. Reports to-day describe
tnc local destruction as having been
eonnned to path measuring from 100
to 500 yards wide, within which the
cyclonic wind, when at it's height, left
nothing but the most solid structures
standing
Assistance from the outside world is
urgently needed in districts which
were IN the direct path of the tornado.
hundreds Of injured require medical
attention, the force of physicians and
surgeons available locally being In
adequate. Tents and other temporary
structures will be necessary for those
~nhose homes were destroyed and a
snortage Of food is feared.
hoads traversing the track of the
ssorm are completely blocked Dead
sa,tie and horses may be seen in every