ELEVEN DIE IN A CYCLONE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 87, 14 April 1899, Page 5

ELEVEN DIE IN A CYCLONE.

TEN VICTIMS BLOWN FOR HALF A

MILE.

BODIES TORN TO PIECES,

BIRMINGHAM (Ala.), March 19

Details of .last night's tornado near Edwardsville were received here late to-night. . The path of the storm was. about 200 yards wide, and it traversed the country for twelve miles, beginning in the northern part of Cleburne county, near Iron City, and moving southward. There was an immense funnel-shaped cloud that bounded along like a rubber ball, rising at intervals and leaping for several hundred yards without doing any damage. Then, when it descended, it wotild pick up houses and crush them to pieces, uproot trees, or twist them on: the ground and swept 'all before, it. Lewis Coffee's residence, a strong double log house situated on a little hill, was swept away and the timbers scattered for a mile. Ten of its eleven occupants were instantly killed. Except the body of the baby, which was found under the ruins of the chimney, the corpses of the victims were carried half a mile, and nine of them were found heaped together. Every body had been stripped of its clothing. One was twisted around a stump, and two others were' headless. Beside the body of the father lay Bessie Coffee, the only member of the famity not instantly killed. She was unconscious, and her arms were around her dead father's neck. She is unable to talk, and will die. In the same nighbourhood the residences of J. W.- Wilder, J. H. Cason, Andrew Steiphan, and ■ Ben Stenzell were wrecked, and their occupants injured. Near Heflin a white woman whose name cannot be learned was killed and five persons in the same family hurt. .It is estimated that about fifty buildings were destroyed, between fifteen and twenty persons were injured, and over a score of farms devastated. The storm k>st its force just south of Heflin, near which place a dozen buildings were wrecked.

The path of the storm presents a terrible scene of havoc. Timbers of wrecked houses are scattered in every direction. Some were carried high into the air, and others were driven deep into the ground or through trees. Many heads of cattle were killed. One dead cow was found with a shingle driven through her back. But for the fact that the country over which the storm passed is sparsely settled, the loss of life would have been much greater. There were- many marvellous escapes. . J. H. Cason and his wife were blown through a window as their house was falling, and after the storm found themselves in a field a hundred yards away, both badly hurt.

WAYNESBORO (Ga.), March 19.—A tornado passed over Burke county at 3 o'clock this morning. In the vicinity of Waj'nesboro four people were killed. Several houses were demolished and much damage done.

There were eleven houses blown down on Walker McCathern'syfarm, six miles from Waynesboro. One house near town was completely demolished while it was occupied by eight negroes, but they all escaped uninjured. BISMAKCK (Ala.), March 19.—A terrific windstorm, accompanied by rain and hail, passed through the extensive plantation of Samuel Curry in Chilton county last night. Eleven tenement houses were blown down and two negro boys were killed. Seventeen other ne£*ro tenants were injured. PINE'BLUFF (Ark),-March 19.— Further details of the fearful storm which swept over portions of Arkansas yesterday reached Pine Bluff today.. At Walnut Lake three persons were killed. Every house on Judge Parker's plantation, extensively known as the Fish place, was demolished.