A Tornado in Illinois.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume X, Issue 1908, 19 April 1888, Page 2

A Tornado in Illinois.

(From the St. James's Budget.)

A destructive tornado swept over Illinois on Sunday, February 19, by which two-thirds of Mount Vernon, a town of about 4000 inhabitants, were literally swept out of existance within a few minutes. It had been thundering and raining for some time. Suddenly a low rumbling noise was heard, and a black dense cloud that 6eemed to touch the earth swept over the town, and it became very dark. As soon as the cloud passed the sky brightened, and the survivors realised the shock and loss they had sustained. Hundreds of houses were blown down, and many people were crushed in the ruins. The town is about two miles long east and west, and the course of the tornado took in about two- thirds of the east end, the western portion escaping. The large portion of the business pare known as the square, was totally destroyed. A fire broke out immediately among the ruins, and raged with great fury, adding horror to the situation. Cries and groans were heard in all directions. Two churches lay a mass of ruins. The public school building and the hotel were also gone, and of a long row of business houses on one side of the square not one was left standing. The town looked indeed as if had been visited by a violent earthquake. The survivors had to leave the' injured and dying in order to fight the flames, which were only subdued after a stubborn contest of several hours. Forty-one persons are known to be killed, and many others injured. The scene at midnight was peculiarly distressing. Through the great heaps of rums men, women, and boys were struggling in their efforts to reach those imprisoned beneath the timbers and bricks. Cries came from every pile of debris. Iv Rome streets, where great clouds swept with resistless force, the dead lav in the warm rain, which mingled with their blood. Above the scene of desolation the sky was red from the conflagration, and the wind, which was blowing strongly, was laden with the blazing brands. Such a picture appalled the stoutest heart. Many of the survivors thought of nothing but them* selves. With the flames roaring behind and upon all sides of them, they fled in uncontrollable terror over the bodies dead and injured, and the mass of ruins which pinned them to the earth. .For hours it looked as though the victims would be burned where they lay. As nighc wore on the survivors oecame braver, and plunged into the ruins, where many hapless creatures lay groaning and praying 1 . Torches, lanterns, and lamps flickered over the desolate tract as far as the eye could reach. There was no means of identifying many of the dead and wounded, all were so horribly crushed. In some places blocks of bouses were blown as though they bad been made of cards. It was in this district that the most distressing scenes were witnessed. Whole families were buried under their roofs without warning. Remarking on the tornado which swept over Illinois on Sunday, the Morning Post mentions that in the tornado which raged in Illinois on the 22nd May, 1883, the lifting power of the wind was so great as to remove a school with its teachers and scholars, a distance of 30ft, the weight of the.building being 30,0001b. The windows and roof were damaged, but the school itself ..was not overturned. A farmhouse , was lifted and carried 40 yards, when it w'as'dashed to the ground and demolished. Among the killed was one whose body had been torn to pieces. Animals, horses, bullocks, and so on were carried hundreds of yards. In South Carolina, on the 19th of April, 1879, great damage was caused by the Walterborough tornada. A church, weighing 50,000ib., was carried 20ft and demolished ; the velocity of the wind required to accomplish this amount of work being 116 miles per hour, hut it is supposed the velocity was really more than 200 miles per hour. A cart weighing GOOlb was carried up in a whirling cloud, torn to pieceß, and the tire of one wheel

was piokrd up 1820 yards away. Sheep were found with their wool cleaned off them, geese were as bare of feathers as if plucked by band, and ft number of other things took which to outsiders may appear to be exaggerated accounts. The time ocenpied in the worl« of destruction — that is, while the greatest violence is experienced, is less than one minute, while a con pie of miles away from the centre the movement of the wind does not indicate the nearness of the tornado.