Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-03-20
Thousands Homeless

Carbonate. Ills, March 19-(By A.,
P0-More than half thousand per-
sons are known to be dead and cons
sentative estimates tonight place
total loss of life at from 900 to ,1000.,
as the result Of the tornado which,
devastated a score of Illinois and
Indiana cities and towns yesterday.
In addition to the loss of life, be-.
tween 1000 and 5000 persons were
injured, scores of them probably
fatally. Thousands were made home
less and enormous property damaged
done by the freakish play Of the
elements.
Tonight the federal government
state, Red Cross and private institu-
tons and individuals. were combined
in the great task of caring for the
injured, giving shelter to the home
less and hunting for bodies yet con-
cealed in the tangled debris.
Improvised morgues in a dozen lit
tie towns and villages were packed
to the doors tonight with long lines
Of victims of the storm who had re-
NAMED uncared for. as the minis
trations of the hard pressed UNDER
tdhSl anu pily WcIc 6lfeu W
the injured and dead.
In many towns where the tornado
struck, rescue workers toiled tonight
in utter darkness.
Further relief on a wholesale scale
in immediate prospect tonight.
From Chicago a medical regiment,
of 800 men, IL carloads of supplies,
eight carloads of rations, and 60!
Pullman cars, were dispatched to the
stricken district. Extra nurses and
doctors hurried here late today from
Chicago, st. Louis and other nearby
cities.
The disaster fell most heavily upon
women and children.
In the West Frankfort list were
the names of a dozen babies, and in
that Of De Soto appeared the names
of 80 school children. ..s ..-.'i
Murphysboro. West Frankfort, De
Soto, and Gorham, all within a radius
of % miles of Carbonate. in the
southern Illinois softcoal fields, bore
the brunt of the disaster.
At Murphysboro tonight 141 were
known to be dead, with the total loss
of life estimated at 800 and upward
of 500 injured. Property damage
there was 100000.
West Frankfort had upward of 100
dead. with five times that number in
jured.
De Soto, a village of 500, six miles
from here, was virtually obliterated.
OF it's inhabitants 11S, including 80
school children, are dead, $50 more
are injured and not half dozen
houses are left intact.
The little town of Gorham. west Of
Murphysboro. suffered heavily. Nine
ty of it's 500 inhabitants are known
to be dead and 200 more are injured.
More than a dozen other Illinois and
Indiana towns and villages reported
from one to 40 dead.
Murphysboro, town Of Is, 600, COW
ering approximately five and one half
square miles, had two fifths of its
area in charred ruins tonight, 100
business houses wrecked or seriously
damaged and 1000 homes destroyed.
With about 1000 persons homeless.
The city was without gas and
light, although desperate efforts were
being made by public service COM
pany officials to repair broken cables
and wrecked power plants.
Fifty square blocks, including two
square miles of the residence section.
were a mass of tangled debris. while
firemen still fought smouldering fires
in a dozen places.
Half a dozen arrests were made for
looting. Troopers pressed sight seers
into service with axes and shovels
and also as stretcher bearers.
West Frankfort was struck almost
as hard as Murphysboro. All traffic
into the town has been halted. Mill
tary passes have been issued to those
whose business necessitates their
presence in the city and troops to-
night patrolled the devastated area.