TORNADO TRAIL

Northern Advocate, 21 March 1925, Page 5

TORNADO TRAIL

FEARSOME DEATH ROLL.

MAY AGGREGATE A THOUSAND.

LOOTING STERNLY REPRESSED.

(Received 9.5 a.m.)

NEW YORK, March 19.

Twenty-four hours after the disastrous tornado, details of which are coming in, only intensify the horror of the tragedy which claimed so large a toll of life in five States.

Reports from Tennessee now indicate that 30 were killed there.

No- fewer than 31 towns were completely or partially destroyed and the damage to property is as yet untold. Presid'eat Coolidge immediately ordered the national Red Cross to marshal all its efforts for relief work, and .this organisation along with Federal, j State and private institutions combin- ■ ed- in the great task of caring for the injured, sheltering the homeless, hunting-. for bodies in the tangled debris, helping families to identify their dead an*l improvising; morgues. Many little towns and villages were filkrl- with victress-: While 4 makeshift hospitals were founded physicians and nurses were working incessantly, taking reo rest.

One hundred and fifty car loads of suppliffa and. provisianß have been despatched: to various afflicted centres. The burials in most places will be wholesale there being' neither time nor opportunity for individual interment. The presence of troops at various places prov-ed a God-seisd, as looting was going on, six- arrests already being reported. Tfcoopers, moreover, pressed sightseero into service- with axes, shovels and as stretcher-bearers. Water and light proved two great needs, since rescue work was: impeded at night due to the severeiice of all electric wires, while broken water mains increased i£he risk of pestilence. Women and children provided the greatest number of deaths.

The storm came 1 with such suddenness that any preparation against danger was impossible. This area, which is often subjected' to cyclones and windi sff generally provided with adequate means of protection in the' shape of so-called cyclone cellars to which people hasten on the first sign.' of a disturbance, but this tornado caught the populace unawares.

With more authentic reports arriving the casualties and damage to property are steadily mounting. It is thought that the' deaths range from 700 to 1000 and that: the injured' exceed 3000.—A. and NI2K.