Year: 1877

DEATH AND DESTRUCTION.


A Cyclone Visits an Illinois Town.
<Mt Carmel Ill., c0frsspS1sSsn'' spssss Chicago Times


From out of the soft, showery sky of a
calm summer afternoon on yesterday
sprung very black wind-cone, pregnant
with destruction, and within five minutes
it laid this then happy and thriving little
town in ruins. This place, with a popu-
lation of about thirty-ive hundred, we'll
built, thriving, and indeed wealthy for its
size and age, was, before the advent of
this furious hurricane visitor, one of the
most prosperous and contented little com.
m,mities in the state. Situated upon
lolM bluff some seventy feet above the
Wabash river, running fully half mile
broal at its feet, Mt. Carmel seemed a
little tower of stength, enjoying both COM
merciA success and social distinction
above aer sister towns, but the awful wind
storm of Monday afternoons fatality
that turned the sunset Of peace into the
sombcr shadows of the tomb for many in
nocent and unsuspecting ones-has
changed all this. Whether the power Of
the storm took its rise from the seeming
ly placid bosom of the broad river, or
whether it had lurkcd around the recess
ses of the hilly country from amidst Which
broken arc Mount Carmel stands out as a
beacon, until fletting and surging into
ungovernable chaos, it cast its mighty
weight upon the little town that bore its
awful burden wherever from or what
ever the cause the people here know little
and care less. They know that its feroc-
ity has made some of their hearts dcsolate.
their hearts sick with mourning, and their
smiling heritage naked waste. They
know that upon that cheerful Monday
afternoon, when the streets were alive
with townsmen and throngs of country
people, when trade was brisk and sales
good, and the sober justices held their
solemn session, chopping law together to
the awe of all the country,-they know
that when everything was thus thrifty and
cheerful and of good part, the wild hur-
ricane came upon them like thief in the
night and left with them as its brand of
remembrance the bitterness of ashes and
death.


In reference to the appearance Of this
dcath-dealing hurricane, Mr.. Charles
Ridgeway, agent of the Cairo and Vim
cennes railroad, an eye witness, expresses
his observations of the occurrence with
much reason and undoubtcd accuracy.
He says about thirty minutes before the
fatal stroke was felt the weather indicator
Of the Christian church pointed east to
dark approaching cloud. In perhaps
twenty minutes this indicator turned due
west to another black and swiftly moving
cloud, and he said to some persons with
him: "If these clouds meet, we shall
have terrible Storm" In few minutes
they met, and he says they rose and then
fell and dashed and twisted in various di-
rcctions. He told the persons with him
to come into wheat field near his office,
as the hurricane was coming direct to the
office. Just as they reached the wheat
field. the visible double-funncled shaped
whirling cone shccrcd to the southeast.
and thence started directly east along
Fourth street, carrying death and de-
struction in its rapid flight, house tops
and trees being taken two and three hum
dred feet up in the air, bursting into
atoms and falling scattered ruin. The
scene which has resulted from the fury of
late. For the width Of more than square
through the town on each side of Fourth
street, ruin is prevalent. Some of the
brick buildings arc, or rather were, three
stories in height. All of the business
blocks were of brick and the dwellings
frame.


The town was full of people when the
cyclone struck it. She came booming
along like great buzzing wind saw Of
resistless power and keen as a razor. She
came from the southwest and travelled
due northeast for a mile, and then the fu-
rious wind current burst upon Fourth
street with appalling violence and the
crash heard resemblcd some great timber
crash. Immediately afterward the air
was full of debris ard thick clouds of
dust, flying roofs, tottering walls, and
split and rent ruins on every side. Many
Of the chaotic heaps were the graves or
living tombs ofinnoccnt but doomed peo-
pie. As the binding dust cleared away
it was found that fully hundred bust
ness, public, and dwelling structures had
been lost. Some portions Of the wreck
were carried more than mile from the
town. The great force of the hurricane
was spent on the line Of Fourth street,
running northeast to the wards west of
the river where the wind was again raised
from the earth and pursued its course
into White river, which empties into the
Wabash mile above town.


A considerable distance was traversed
by the hurricane before it entirely lost its
fury ,and for miles these were torn up and
woods broken down and bent down. The
devastation beyond is not ascertaincd yet,
because all the interest and sympathy
hereabouts have of course conferred upon
the desolation of this point. Nearly a
square above Main street, on Fourth, the
furious storm swept the lofty steeple of
the Methodist church, which is one hun
dred feet high, and eddying around
with its column finally carried it az though
it had been toying with some little play
thing a comfortable distance of three
hundred feet away, the bell dropping IN
to the middle of the street. Some school
boys were taken off their feet and carried
for blocks and people were badly injured
by being thrown down with great violence
into the street and against houses, and
struck with fragments Of the falling ruins.
The great fury Of the storm was spent in
the centre of business portions of the
street. In some cases the buildings were
only unroofed, but the destruction of
dwelling-houses were complete. The
Presbyterian church, a substantial brick
building, is now an undistinguishable
mass of rubbish.


The fire broke out Immediately after
the crash had come and the wind had left
1t commenced in Edgar's store, and was
subdued with difficulty. The loss of
property is expected by careful compila-
ton to foot up $5oo,000, but the human
agony of those who have lost near and
dear ones, and the suspense and distress
for the unfortunate wounded is so general
that the people here care little about the
property aspect of the matter, for they
are too sick at heart to care about being