TERRIBLE CYCLONES IN AMERICA.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1062, 20 July 1883, Page 2

TERRIBLE CYCLONES IN AMERICA.

On Sunday, May 13, a terrible cyclone or .tornado passed over Kansas City, Missouri, United States, killing four - persons, injuring fifty, destroying or injuring 142 houses, and causing a loss of some 300,000 dol. (£60,000), Trees as thick as a man’s body were snapped off and whirled about like straws, and roofs and heavy timbers were carried across two or three streets. A carriage containing a lady and gentleman was carried, with the horse attached to it, about thirty feet. The track of disaster was about 150 feet wide, and travelled from west to east, and it is marvellous thas only four persons were fatally injured. Substantial brick residences were demolished, while fragile wooden structures beside them would escape. In the main track of the storm nothing escaped except young trees that could bend to the earth before it, A lady once, resident in Patea, was negotiating the purchase of a house, which happily had not been concluded when it was demolished in a moment. A house at which she was visiting, the residence of, one of her brothers, received a gentle touch from the zephyr, and lost its roof, and suffered damage to the tune of 2000 dols. (£400). One of the happiest escapes was at the German Chapel where 100 children had been dismissed at four o’clock, all of whom would probably have been killed half an hour later, as the heavy brick building was torn to pieces as if a hundred tons of dynamite had exploded there. A similar and still more destructive cyclone passed over New Orleans and its vicinity on April 23 by which four small towns in Mississippi were swept away, and hundreds of people were killed and wounded. Beauregard, a village of 600 people, had every house destroyed ; the town could not be recognised. One family of six persons (all of whom were killed) were carried 300 yards from their home. A rumbling sound like that of earthquake preceded the cyclone, and then came thunder, lightning, wind and rain, sweeping everything in their path.