New Britain herald., 1927-10-01
FR|SB|E WITNESSES ST. LOUIS TORNADO
New Britain Man Escapes Injury
 When Storm Breaks
CALLS CONDITION AWFUL
Houses Blasted as If by Siege Guns While Air Is Filled With Clouds of Swirling Debris Like Leaves in Autumn Gale.

To be right in the center ot the path of the awful St. Louis tornado, yet escape without even a scratch was the experience of Robert T. Frisbie of 179 Vine street who ar rived home this morning shortly be- fore Il o'clock after business trip which had taken him to tle city which, almost on the instant of his departure, was to be stricken with the terrible castastrophe.
 Mir. Frisbie's knowledge of the swath Of destruction in St. Louis is limited to what he was able to see from the window of his Pullman car. He was on New York bound train, just pulling out of the railroad sta ton, when the tornado swoopcd down upon the city.
 Mr. F'risbie explains that when he boarded the train, about l D. m, Thursday, the sky was almost cloud less, the air was mild and balmy- a typical Indian summer day. The train slowly pulled out of the sta ton, and then it suddenly became noticeable that a peculiar atmos- pheric change was taking place, With hardly any warning the sky became darkened. First an oninous grey, turning rapidly to a peculiar greenish hue and then the storm broke in all its fury.
 Tracks Blocked.
 So quickly did the tornado sweep aCros; the city that it was obvious ly impossible for anyone in its path to escape. As MT. Frisbie explained : it. first 1t was pleasant, and then the tornado was al the height of it's fury. As the cyclonic gale swept across the railroad tracks, carrying with it vast quantics of dust dirt ana heavy debris, the train was compelled to stop and 1t was more than an hour before the tracks had been cleared and the train proceed ed.
 In leaving the St, Louis railroad station, the train proceeds for some distance through a deep cut. lined on either side with warehouses, tenement houses and other buildings. It was through this cut that the full force of the tornado swept, it's path being, MT. Frisbie judged, probably a sixteenth Of a mile wide.
 From his car window he saw several large sized houses unroofed and the roofs soaring through the air as a leaf is whirled about by a summer breeze. The air was filled with limbs of trees, broken bits of timber, logs and all sorts of debris. Mir. Frisbie says the aspect might best be described as giving the same effect, but on a gigantic scale, of turning an air hose onto the ground dust. dirt and leaves which would be swirled into the air would repre- sent the larger debris torn and twisted about by the tornado.
 Passengers Stay on Train
 Mir. Frisbie did not leave ihs train. nor were the other paSsen- gers permitted to do so, and about an hour after the storm subsided the tracks had been cleared and the express proceeded on its way.
 All through the district swept by the storm, through which the train passed, Mr, Frisbie saw scenes of wreckage and desOlation. Rows of houses were demolished. Apartment houses appeared 10 have been bat tered with siege guns. so complete was the destruction, while the streets were literally filled with rubbish, bricks poles, twisted wires and other wreckage, with occasionally q stranded automobile partly buried beneath a pile of bricks.