THE LOUISVILLE CYCLONE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 9090, 29 April 1890, Page 5

THE LOUISVILLE CYCLONE.

AN EXTRAORDINARY STORM. ITS APPALLING FURY. [Per San Francisco mail.] Louisville, the capital city of Jefferson County, and the chief city of Kentucky, with an area of thirteen square miles, and a water front of eight miles on the Ohio, was visited by a terrific cy clone on March 27, and the entire western portion of the city was razed. The portion destroyed was devoted partly to business houses, and in part to residences. In West Louisville not a business house was left standing, and but one dwelling could be seen after the passing of the storm. The estimated property losses are about one million, and the loss of life may be placed at one hundred. The storm was predicted by the signal service officer, but no attention was paid to his warning ; and if there had been it would have availed nothing. The cloud that did the mischief looked like a black double funnel, the middle being the narrowest part. Its course was a peculiar one. It did not move in a direct line, mowing down a path before it, but went in zigzag fashion, so that it is almost impossible to measure tbe exact track it traversed. Its roar could be heard long before it struck the city. The papers are full of descriptions of the horrors of the scone, aud surprise is expressed that the lose of life is so small, considering the terrible force of the wind and the irresistible manner in which it carried everything before it. Brick buildings crumbled into heaps when the cyclone struck them, and iron roofing, rolled like sheets of paper, flow off like that flimsy substance into the darkness of the night. One of the most barrowing incidents of the storm was the killing of the Rev E. S. Baruwall, of St John’s Church, and his young son Dudley. The church edifice was shattered throughout; there was nothing but a mass of bricks and splintered beams. The rectory was next to it, and here Mr Barnwall met his death while reading with his family. His body was bruised and mangled beyond recognition.