WEATHER-RELATED DISASTERS
FIRE-RELATED DISASTERS
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ARTICLES PERTAINING TO CYCLONES, TORNADOES, FIRES, AND OTHER
DISASTERS IN ST. FRANCOIS COUNTY, MISSOURI. |
WEATHER-RELATED DISASTERS
FIRE-RELATED DISASTERS
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MISCELLANEOUS
 THE ST. LOUIS CYCLONE OF 1896 -
Ranked as one of the top 10 deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history. Four hundred killed
and twelve hundred injured is the record of the cyclone which struck St. Louis and its
suburb, East St. Louis, on the afternoon of Wednesday May 27th, 1896. During the same
fateful half hour or less thousands of families were rendered homeless and property was
destroyed to the extent of fifty millions, or nearly so. It was the most disastrous storm
of modern times, and the destruction it worked was far more appalling than that of the
Charleston earthquake, generally quoted as the most terrible disaster of the
generation. Block after block of residence property for miles in succession was
blown to the ground. Houses were demolished down to the foundations. Others were left with
but fragments of wall, or with fractions of the floor of the first story remaining. Hundreds
of miles of electric wires and thousands of telephone aud telegraph poles were dashed to
the ground, adding not only to the damage and wreckage, but increasing to an alarming
extent the danger to life. Trees of half a century's growth were uprooted and hurled a
distance of several blocks. Heavy iron fences were twisted as though they were composed of
a sheet of tin. Masonry at the approach of one of tile most substantial bridges ever
constructed was blown away, steamboats were dashed across the river, broken in half and
the fragments hurled high up onto the opposite banks. There was nothing either on land or
afloat strong enough to resist the pitiless fury of the awful wind, which attained a
velocity of eighty miles an hour and brought havoc, ruin and death along with it. |