A TERRIBLE CYCLONE.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9430, 30 May 1896, Page 7

A TERRIBLE CYCLONE.

A WRECKED GITY.

FIFTEEN HUNDBED PEOPLE KILLED.

MANY TOWNS AND VILLAGES DESTROYED.

Pcssj As«siaUon—By Telegraph-Copyright,

New York, May 28. A cyclone swept over St. Louis, Missouri. Many hotels, elevators and buildings were razed to the ground. All the steamers lying alongside the wharf were sunk and a thousand people were killed. Several villages were almost entirely destroyed.

Washington, May 28. Fifteen hundred people were crushed to death in St. Louis. The place resembles a town which has been bombarded. The devastation caused by the cyclone is appalling. Lightning set fire to many buildings. The electric light failed, and the city was enveloped in darkness. The state of panic is described as awful. Many towns in Missouri, Indiana and Illinois were destroyed by the same cyclone.

May 29. Four hundred corpses have been recovered in St. Louis. Estimates of the damage done range from t9n to thirty million dollars. The cyclone devastated a district in the southwest of the town half a mile wide, and four long streets are choked by the debris. The main damage was on the river front. Churches and hospitals were razed to the ground. One incident of the catastrophe was the presence of mind displayed by an engineer, who saved a train while crossing a falling bridge by driving it at full speed. In all twelve trains were blown over in the suburbs.

Congress has unanimously agreed to come to the relief of the sufferers.