Effects of a Tornado on A RAILWAY. ■ ■ •

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 214, 14 August 1883, Page 3

Effects of a Tornado on A RAILWAY. ■ ■ •

The force of the tornadoes that have recently been devastating parts of the United States is illustrated by an account supplied by Mr R. Perkins, of the Cairo Short Line General Freight Department, with headquarters at St Louis. He visited the region struck by the tornado that swept through Mis sissipi m the vie n ty of Brook haven on 22nd Aprilj.ditectl/ after the wind had spent its lone, on a locomotive sent by tbelilnois Central Railropd, and was astonished at what he saw. In travelling oyer the track of the tornado he saw a freight car that had been lifted bodily from the ravine and carried almost directly skyward thirty feet on to an elevation. In this car three negroes were playing cards at the time it was struck , m addition to a white man and his wife, who had fled to it for refuge. All bat the white man were instantly killed, and he was.llown, with fragments of the oar, among the limbs of a tree, sustaining bruises m his flight that caused his death shortly afterwards. When the explorer began to look after the property of the railroad company he found that the station building had been blown away, together with its contents, tickets, iron benches, and all. Thers was no station-house there at all, and nothi-g to indicate where its ruins were likely to be found . He discovered a woman lying near the rains of a house, who had evidently 'attempted to escape. She was m a dying condition, Lut from her ftiends he learned that a baby had been torn ■irom her arms, and^that its body could not be. found m any place m the neighbourhood. , The telegraph operator of the place sought refuge m an hotel, but was blown, away with it, and was so badly injured that ; it was thought he would certainly die. Mr Perkins al* though not m the tornado, was near encugh m its track to bear the noise and seethe clond, which was intensely black. The teky looked like a lake of molten lead. A piano was blown 500 yards fiom a house. Mr Perkins says that he never saw such a sight before, and never cared to look upon such a spectacle again.