TORNADOES IN AMERICA

Otago Witness, Issue 3818, 17 May 1927, Page 29

TORNADOES IN AMERICA

SEVERAL STATES SUFFER.

MANY LIVES LOST.

NEW YORK, Mav 9. A message from Dallas, Texas, states that at least 50 people were killed and mor e than 100 injured by tornadoes in the Middle West and South West States, lhe damage to property i s estimated at more than 2,000,000 dollars. Texas was the hardest hit, with 25 people killed and 50 injured.

Cyclonic winds and rain storms caused damage in sections of Missouri, Kansas Nebraska, Texas, lowa, and Colorado’ Fifty lives were lost and the injured numbered 300.

The winds demolished farmhouses, and uprooted trees. The damage to property is at present estimated at 1,400,000 dollars. The Red Cross, which is already burdened with flood relief work, is being called upon to render assistance to the victims A. and N.Z. Cable.

HORRORS INCREASED BY (FIRE. NEW YORK, May 10. News from Kansas City states that over 1000 people were killed, many hundreds were injured, and damage to the extent of 2,000,000 dollars was done as the result of a tornado which originated in Texas on Saturday evening. It swept sections of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Illionis, and Indiana on Sunday and Monday. It struck its worst blow at Poplar Bluff, Missouri, on Monday evening-, crumpling up large buildings. The hurricane devastated the entire business section, causing approximately 100 deaths. Two hundred and fifty are known to be injured. Many wandered amongst unlighted ruins, crying for assistance, which was not forthcoming until a relief train arrived from St. Louis. Fire added to the horrors of the night. Seventeen are dead as a result of tornadoes which struck the Arkansas oil

belt. They were the worst in the history of the section.

Latest reports show that 81 are dead and 550 injured as a result of tornadoes. SAD PROCESSIONS. DEATH ROLL OF 200. NEW YORK, May 10. Long lines of relatives and friends are passing through the temporary morgues at Poplar Bluff, Missouri, inspecting the victims of the cyclone; but the task of identification is rendered difficult because many of the bodies are mangled almost beyond recognition. School buildings and churches are serving as temporary hospitals for the injured. . The only regular hospital left standing is in Broadway, the town’s principal business street, which was previously lined with neat brick buildings, but is now a ghastly tangle of telephone and telegraph wires, twisted timbers, and fallen walls.

An occasional building withstood the storm, but most were unroofed and wrecked. Every hotel was demolished or badly damaged. Five children were killed in the wreckage of one schoolhouse. The damage in this town alone is estimated at 5,000,000 dollars, and of its population of 10,000, 100 were killed and 250 injured. Of the 60 bodies recovered only 21 are at present identified. The latest figures show that 200 people are dead and 800 injured in the States of Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Illinois, with scattered deaths in other Mid-Western States.

Relief work has now begun, with the whole area taken over by’ national guardsmen. The damage to property will amount to millions of dollars.