Grinnell Visited By A Cyclone (1882)

MERRILL, SNOW, PERRY

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 5/15/2011 at 23:00:20

The Grinnell Herald; Tuesday, June 20, 1882

DEVASTATION & DEATH!

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GRINNELL VISITED BY A CYCLONE LAST SATURDAY NIGHT!

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A Fifth Part of the Town In Ruins.

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30 Persons Killed Outright, Others Dying, and many Wounded.

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West College Building Razed to the Ground--Wind and Flame Complete the Destruction of Central College.

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Our City Hall Turned Into a Morgue, and School Building into a Hospital.

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The most terrific disaster in the history of Iowa is the one of which our now desolate town of Grinnell is the victim. The peculiar aspect of the sky was a matter of common remark on the streets yesterday afternoon. An hour or more before sunset the northern sky was hung with conical, downward-pointing clouds the likes of which none of us had ever seen. After sunset, and even after darkness was gathering the western horizon and the western sky half way to the zenith was lurid and brilliant and unearthly,--an ominous sight which fascinated while it filled one with ill-defined dread. Almost ere the brilliant apparition in the west had disappeared, the storm broke. It was accompanied with a roaring like thunder, or perhaps more like the rumbling of a dozen heavy freight trains. Chimneys, trees, houses, barns, began to fly like leaves. People took to their cellars.

The rain came in floods, as if a water-spout had burst, which in fact was probably the case. The wind and rain and blinding lightning continued so furious for near a half hour that it was scarce safe for those whose roofs staid over them, to open their doors; but the damage was probably done in a very few minutes,--probably not more than five. The north west quarter of town was laid flat. The path of the storm was comparatively narrow, but scarcely anything was left standing within its limits. Word comes of occasional farm houses destroyed several miles west of Capt. Merrill's, but the fury of the storm was most terrific in the portion of the village north of Fifth Ave. It first entered the town from the west and moved a little north of east until it reached Main St. It then curved to the south-east, whipped up the College buildings, and several houses on the east side of town. It then seemed to bound into air passing over Mr. Snow's and Mr. Perry's. It crossed the C.R.I.& P. about a mile and a-half east of this city where it met a westward bound freight train which it completely demolished. As it passed south of east across the county it demolished farm houses, fences and barns, as far as we have been able to trace it. It struck Malcom in its northern half and wrought destruction as complete as in Grinnell. The track of the storm center as it crossed the city averaged about two blocks in width. The damage outside that narrow track was comparatively small, although in this respect, the tempest seemed as freakish as lightning. It would occasionally dip down and catch up a roof or cornice, as for instance in the case of the Hatch Building and Child's Livery Stable.

The storm seemed to have an explosive force, not infrequently carrying out one side or end of a house. Within the space of twenty feet one house would be thrown to the west and another to the east. Most of the buildings were crushed like egg shells and reduced to splinters; a few were lifted bodily and turned round. It is marvelous that the loss of life was not greater than it was. The storm came up with such a roar that many betook themselves to their cellars. This saved them, as their houses disappeared from above their heads. Even the foundation walls in many cases were brushed off even with the surface of the ground.