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 storm struck Altoona on Tuesday, March 25th. With a crash that
alarmed the entire neighborhood, eighty feet of the 162-foot steel stack
at the Pennsylvania Central Light and Power Company's plant was blown
down. The wind tore madly through the city and the rain fell in
torrents. Many houses were unroofed and a number of smaller buildings
were entirely demolished. No one was injured, but damage to the extent
of at least $2,000 was reported.
FURIOUS WINDS IN WILLIAMSPORT
A heavy wind and rainstorm swept through Williamsport on the same
afternoon, following a few hours of clear weather that came in the wake
of twenty-four hours' rain. It unroofed a number of houses in the west
end of the city, blew away the roofs of several cars in the Newberry
Junction railroad yards, partially demolished a car inspector's office,
sent twenty men in a panic from the second story of the New York Central
offices, which they feared would be blown to pieces; blew in the front
of a store on Grove Street and scattered canned goods for a block down
the street and swept a path through a grove in the same section,
prostrating a dozen giant oaks.
Train service through Williamsport was seriously deranged all day
Tuesday. A landslide that covered both tracks of the Pennsylvania
Railroad for sixty feet, with a mass of mud five feet deep, three miles
east of Renovo, completely upset the train schedule on the Susquehanna
Division.
The slide occurred about seven o'clock in the morning, and it was not
until eleven o'clock that the eastbound track was opened and passenger
trains were let through. The westbound track was not cleared until the
morning. While the blockade existed special trains were run from
Williamsport.
HEAVY STORM IN SHAMOKIN
A terrific wind storm from the northwest swept through Shamokin Valley
and Shamokin, followed by rain, which fell in torrents. This storm also
occurred on Tuesday. Crops in country districts were torn up and badly
damaged, while lowlands were flooded. Roofs on a number of barns and
out-dwellings were blown away, and telephone and telegraph wires were
put out of commission.
COLUMBIA IN DARKNESS
Columbia was struck by a severe electric storm accompanied by a downpour
of rain on Tuesday evening. Lightning struck the local electric plant,
doing considerable damage and putting the town in total darkness for the
night. Many residents and storekeepers were compelled to resort to
candles to help them out during the evening.
A VERITABLE TORNADO IN SCRANTON
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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