A REGULAR TWISTER PASSES THROUGH CO.

WEBER, HEINS, OTTO, KENT, MCDANIEL, CONNOR, WERNER, BROWN

Posted By: Judy Kelley (email)
Date: 10/4/2015 at 15:55:48

Farm Buildings, Orchards and Trees Leveled by Wind.

FAIR GROUNDS DAMAGED

The Main Wind Storm Passed North of the J. H. Weber Farm and a Smaller Twister Passed Between the Heins and Otto Farms--Cloud Raised After Crossing River and Came Down South of Grandview.

Two tornadoes originated northwest of Wapello Monday afternoon about 1:30, one going north of the J. H. Weber farm and the other passing south of that place. Neither one of them resulted in the loss of lives to humans or live stock, but outbuildings, windmills, orchards and trees were demolished in their path.

The larger cloud which passed in the vicinity of Bard and then traveled east was the worst of the two, and was plainly visible from the streets of Wapello as it traveled. It would draw up into the clouds and then shoot down again, and seemed from here to be above the earth most of the time.

The storm struck with full force at the J. L. Kent farm, the orchard being totally destroyed and several outbuildings and trees blowed down. Mrs. Kent was out in the yard and was quite severely injured by a flying limb which struck her on the head and shoulder, and also scratched her hands quite badly. Dr. Chittum was called in the evening to dress the wounds inflicted.

McDaniel's place suffered the worst damage inflicted by the storm. The chimneys were torn from his home and the barn utterly demolished. Timbers from the barn were carried by the force of the storm and driven against the south side of the house utterly wrecking one room. The porch was twisted off.

The engine house, pump house and other small outbuildings were blown over or destroyed and trees were uprooted. Two horses were in the barn when that building was wrecked but these escaped all injury by some freak of the storm and were found later standing unharmed in the midst of the debris.

McDaniel, when the storm was upon him, ran from his place into the timber and threw himself upon the ground, hoping thus to escape injury, which he might have done had not a flying bough of a tree struck him upon the head. He was not seriously hurt.

The houses of Austin and Elmer McDaniel escaped damage by the wind except for the loss of all the chimneys, which were in every case blown off. Outbuildings on their places shared the fate of those on the Tom McDaniel farm, however, and were overturned or leveled.

On the farm of Everett Connor, further along in the course of the storm, everything on the place was blown down but the house and the barn.

Outbuildings were wrecked and trees uprooted on the Ed Werner place. Many other farms suffered minor damage.

In this vicinity the most damage was done at the fair grounds, where fences and sheds were blown down. The smaller twister played havoc with Benj. Brown's orchard and destroyed many other trees in its path. In Wapello the wind blew a regular gale and scattered limbs of trees everywhere, also demolishing some trees. A heavy rain followed the storm here.

Source: Newspaper clipping with handwritten date of May 3, 1915.