Great Disasters and Horrors in the World's HistoryGodbey, Allen Howard
History
Great Disasters and Horrors in the World's History
Godbey, Allen Howard
Disasters
stalks, and whatever light matters were in its way, and circling,
perhaps, wider and stronger for a time, has borne them onward and upward
toward the heavens, where at length its force was dissipated, and it
mingled with the surrounding air. Similar movements were excited along
the southern limits of the storm area, which we are describing; and
hence, not one cyclone, but more properly speaking, a multitude of
little cyclones--tornadoes independent of each other, but dependent on
the main current, or great eastward traveling storm center--swept
through points in Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky; all
rushing toward the line of the lowest barometrical depression, the
actual and advancing storm center. Not since the Signal Service had been
established had the barometer at St. Louis stood so low as 28.46, which,
reduced to sea-level, means 29.08. Toward this region of rarefied
air--this partial vacuum--the cyclonic movements from the south rushed
with inconceivable fury, and as the nucleus of the storm was rapidly
moving eastward, the cyclonic movements were turned from a north to a
northeast course. All these varied movements simply result from the
effort of a disturbed atmosphere to restore an equilibrium.
The illustration of the fire used above also affords a good example of
the way rotation may result from rising air. Any one who has watched a
great fire in calm weather knows that sparks and smoke do not rise
straight up, but in spirals and whirls, the warmer centers rising
faster, just as the middle of a stream flows faster than the edge.
But the powerful winds and the damage done were not all the work of the
marginal whirlwinds. A storm center moving so rapidly must necessarily
have carried a steady high wind. Leaving Wyoming, by Wednesday evening
the storm was in the middle of Colorado; on Wednesday night, it moved
well into Kansas; on Thursday, it crossed States of Missouri and
Illinois, and Thursday night it was passing over Indiana.
The climax of energy was apparently not attained until the storm reached
Illinois. In Missouri, more or less damage was done to fences and
buildings, from Sedalia to St. Louis. At the former place, a roof or two
was blown off, and the teachers in one of the schools were so alarmed
that they dismissed the children. Jefferson City, sixty miles further
on, made a record of damaged roofs and shattered windows. At St. Louis,
there was a deluge of rain at three o’clock in the afternoon, lasting a
half hour; and the wind blew with fury during the evening and greater
part of the night. It drove in and smashed some plate-glass windows,
blew off an occasional roof, and from the top of the corner of St.
Patrick’s School, hurled to the sidewalk a stone weighing, probably,
four hundred pounds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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