The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and TornadoMarshall, Logan
History
The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado
Marshall, Logan
Floods -- Ohio River Valley; Omaha (Neb.) -- Tornado, 1913
"The cloud wheeled and made towards South Omaha. We were not far behind,
but our way was blocked by the debris the tornado had thrown on the
tracks. Then, too, we stopped frequently to pick up the injured. There
were some with their limbs torn off and all were cut and bleeding."
A Chicagoan, who withheld his name, told of the scenes at Omaha when the
train stopped there. He said:
"I was just recovering from what I had seen on the train when we pulled
into Omaha with the injured. It was night then, but such a night. The
sky was lighted with a red glare, and the streets were filled with
people who acted as though they were mad. Frequently the cries of the
wounded, unloaded at the station, were drowned by terrific peals of
thunder."
It is difficult for any one who has not lived through a tornado to have
any conception of what such a storm can do. Tornadic force means
anything more than one hundred miles an hour. There have been instances
where tornadoes have shaved off the stone sides of buildings as if they
had been sliced away by a stonecutter. Forecaster Scarr, of New York,
said that the tornado that wrought destruction in Nebraska may have been
of the resistless kind that simply ground stone and brick to dust and
carried up its electrified funnel the remnants of every building it
struck. The tornado finally became almost like a mass of whirling steel,
revolving faster than the blades of the swiftest planer and cutting
everything to pieces in its course.
YUTAN A SUFFERER
The tornado first struck the little village of Yutan, southwest of
Omaha. Yutan was practically wiped off the map and its population of
four hundred left desolate. After the buildings had been razed the
wreckage caught fire. "The town is burning! We'll all be killed!" some
kept crying, and this added to the fears of the others. Many persons
were killed and many injured. Waterloo, a village of about equal size to
the northeast across the Platte River, suffered like damage. Wires were
snapped off in all directions, and it took many hours to gather and
circulate news of the disaster.
Leaving desolation behind it the tornado swept at a rate of possibly one
hundred and fifty miles an hour into Berlin. This little village had a
population of about two hundred. The storm killed seven and injured
thirty. The habitations were virtually wiped out. A church, an elevator
and part of the residence of State Senator Buck were all that remained
standing of what was a prosperous town.
THE TUMBLING HOUSES OF BENSON
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account