Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1925-03-26

| denees and 100 business houses were
! leyeled.
One of the buildings destroyed was
new $4,000 Baptist church, where
funeral was being held when the
tornado struck. Another was a new
| $685., 900 addition to the high school.
Chief of Police Joe Boston found
| the body of his daughter in these
ruins. The dry grass on some of the
lawns was actually uprooted
Soldiers Fire at Looters.
Looting began early at West Frank
| fort and guards fired several shots in
| the darkness at providers in the ruins,
but none were wounded or captured.
| West Frankfort is without water,
except that hauled in.
| Thirteen persons are said to have
! burned to death when they fled to the
basement of Murphysboro restau-
rant A woman and her small twins
were found side by side, dead, in
| field near De Soto.
! There the disaster fell largely on
persons of limited means, some out
of work because of the shut down of
coal fields. Many women and children
and a score of babies appeared on the
! death lists. Entire families were wiped
out. One man, searching through
morgue for his wife and three chill
dren, found the bodies of his babes
side by side in one room, his wife in
another.
Identity Dead by Jewelry.
Many of the bodies were mangled,
SCARED or burned, some beyond recog-
milton. Identification in many in
stances had to be made by rings or
other personal belongings.
/ The government, Red Cross, state
| troops, private institutions and individ-
uals combined in the huge task of car
ling for the injured, giving shelter and
hunting bodies.
In Murphysboro, where lat bodies
have been recovered, 5000 persons, or
two-thirds of the population, were
homeless. One hundred city blocks
were demolished there and the power
plant wrecked. Seventeen students
were killed in the destruction of school
buildings.
Woman Blown into Treetop.
Forty-five bodies had been recovered
at De Soto, which virtually was oblit-
Grated. More than a dozen other Illi-
nois towns reported from one to forty
| deaths. At De SOTO woman with
baby in her arms was blown to the
top of tree, where she chung until
the storm passed, and then descended
virtually without injury.
Soldiers Patrol Wreckage.
Soldiers are everywhere on duty in
the area of suffering and citizens have
organized themselves and are digging
in the ruins of their homes. Some who
probe the wreckage are seeking to
retrieve little part of what were
once their belongings
Witnesses said the towns in the
storms path were wrecked in few
minutes One described the deadly
visitor as a greenish black funnel,
slanting at an angle Of 40 degrees A
deluge of hail followed in it's path.
"A committee from the Illinois state
legislature visited the stricken area
with Gov. Len Small.
Relief Work in Indiana.
In Indiana relief measures also were
going forward rapidly under the di-
rection Of Gov. Ed. Jackson. OF five
towns struck in that state, Griffin,
Posey county village, suffered most.
With Az bodies recovered, it was be-
lieved that the death list might
mount to 125 Griffin virtually was
wiped out, and systematic work at
rescue was held up for time because
few were left uninjured in the village.
Military lines have been drawn about
| the entire area.
dead. the 100000 shops of the South
ern railway were destroyed, throw
ling 400 persons out of work. Most OF
/ the homes destroyed were those of
workingmen.
1t was announced from Washington
that national headquarters of the Red
Cross, with it's chief, President Cool
| idge, taking the initiative, had set in
motion its entire machinery of mercy
| to the injured and homeless.
From Chicago additional nurses and
physicians, assembled by DR.. Herman
N. Bundesen, departed for southern
Illinois with medical equipment. Plans
were made to raise 100000 as Chi
Cages relief quota.
Sees Children Die in School.
Centralia, nl-A dramatic eye-wit-
ness story of the Death of score or
more of children in the school at De
Soto and of the virtual destruction of
| the town was told here by Lax Burton.
Burton is telegraph operator for the
| Illinois Central at Tamaroa, few
miles from De Soto. and on receiving
flash of the destruction he motored
| there, being the first outsider to ar
rive. and found the town a mass OF
debris, with dead and injured strewn
| in the streets.
All Houses Destroyed.
cit seemed to me there was not an
entire house in the town. Burton said.
| People were hurrying out on the
| road. north and south, with few be
longings clutched in their arms, more