FEARFUL CYCLONE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1266, 4 June 1896, Page 36

FEARFUL CYCLONE.

FOUR HUNDRED CORPSES RECOVERED.

Nkw York, May 28. An appalling cyclone has swept over the district of St. Louis, in Missouri. Many hotels, elevators and buildings were razed to the ground, and all tho steamers lying alongside tho wharf were sunk.

Fifteen hundred people were crushod to death.

St. Louis resembles a town which has boon bombarded, Tlic devastation caused by tho cyclone is appalling". Lightning sot liro to many buildings. The electric light failed, and tho city was enveloped in darkness, The state of panic is described an awful. A!,my towns in Missouri, Indiana and Illinois have been destroyed by tho same cyclone, Washington, May 29. Four hundred corpses have been recovered in St, Louis. The estimates of the damage range from 10,000,0U0 to 30,000,000d01. The cyclone devastated a district in the south-west of the town half a mile wide and four miles long. Tin- streets are choked by debris.

Tho main damage was on tho river front. ClmrclK's ami hospitals were razed to the ground.

One incident of tho catastrophe was the presence of mind displayed by an engineer who saved a train whilo it was crossing a falling bridge by driving it at full speed. In all l:i (rain.-; were blown over in tho suburbs.

Congress has unanimously agreed to come to the roliof of tho sufferers.

N'icw York, .May 30. Hyilie cyclone ill Missouri oW persons were killed and 700 injured. The Mayor's estimate of the loss of properly is 20 million dollars. The 'eastern portion of St. Louis city suffered most.

St. Louis, a port of entry of Missouri, is tho chief city and commercial metropolis of tho central Mississippi valley. It was a well and regularly built city, and for many years has been the centre of a vast trade. The principal buildings comprised courts, customs and mercantile houses, arsenal, libraries, hospitals, universities, more than 100 churches, several very largo hotels, and many manufactories.