Jackson County IL Archives News.....DESCRIBES SCENE AT DESOTO, ILL., AFTER THE STORM March 19, 1925
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Mary Riseling riseling@insightbb.com July 13, 2006, 5:59 pm

St. Louis Post Dispatch March 19, 1925


    It was hardly more than a rain cloud that hovered above DeSoto yesterday
afternoon.  The population of nearly 1000 was unwarned of the tornado until it
was upon them with all its fury.  In less than five minutes after the storm
struck nothing remained of the village, except ruins, not a single building
escaped the winds of destruction and there is not more than three or four where
tottering skeletons are standing.  Fire is still eating the piles of lumber and
debris, which fills the townsite.

    Thousands of persons are at the scene, but hardly a resident of the town can
be found among them.

    When bodies were taken from the wrecked schoolhouse and laid out, row after
row, there was no one to claim the lifeless forms.  The children's parents were
either dead or on the way to hospitals.  The school principal, who escaped
death, was called upon to identify the children.  His clothes were torn and
there were many marks on his body to tell of his narrow escape.  Apparently he
was dazed as he stepped from one bundle to another in an effort to identify the
dead.

    In a field on the outskirts of the town, two babies about seven months old
were found.  The bodies had been crushed.

    A tourist on the highway was caught by the twister and his Ford sedan was
picked up and hurled against the railroad embankment 50 yards away and both
occupants instantly killed.  Box cars standing on the tracks were lifted from
the wheels and trucks and carried away, leaving the wheels in place on the tracks.

    One home near the school was flat on the ground and only a bird dog remained.

    Surviving members of various families do not know the fate of the persons
living under the same roof with them.

    There was a spot swept clean with a lone smoke-blackened man standing on it.
 He turned his eyes skyward and exclaimed, "Here was my home, my wife, my mother
and my baby--I wonder where they are?"

    Not even sufficient clothing is left to clothe the survivors.  They may be
seen picking up various articles of wearing apparel from the wrecks and from
wire fences as they wander about in the cold biting wind.

    The state highway yesterday afternoon was alive with automobiles which
tourists readily offered to take injured and dying to the hospitals at DuQuoin
and Carbondale.  All other traffic was held up by officers to give right-of-way
to the cars of mercy.  This traffic grew until there was a line of standing
automobiles six miles in length.  The license plates on these cars proved they
were from many states.

    The Illinois Central Railroad Co. rushed trains of coaches to the scene to
care for the dead and injured.  Officers of the company from Carbondale,
together with the employees, gave assistance.

    A large garage, in which there were many stored cars, was completely blown
away.  The cars were twisted into indescribable shapes.  One car, standing on
its wheels and the least damaged of the lot, was a new sedan.  In some manner
all four tires were torn from the wheels and were lying across the street.

    A passing tourist's car was picked up and whirled against a railroad track.
 The driver and owner of the car was dumped out.  The car, with others of his
family were carried away.

    High voltage wires were down and tangled up in the wreckage which made
rescue work a serious undertaking.  Debris was carried for miles from the scene.
 In Elkville, nine miles north of DeSoto, boards and bits of clothing fell for
several minutes.  Lighter articles fell in DuQuoin and Tamaroa, the latter
place, almost 25 miles from the demolished area.  A strange happening was the
fluttering to earth of a piece of paper in Tamaroa, which contained a photograph
and description of the cyclone of 1917.  The sheet was from the Literary Digest.




Additional Comments:

Widely considered the most devastating and powerful tornado in American history,
the Great Tri-State Tornado ripped through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on
March 18, 1925. In its 219-mile-long wake it left four completely destroyed
towns, six severely damaged ones, 15,000 destroyed homes, and 2,000 injured.
Most significantly, 695 people were killed, a record for a single tornado.
 
 
Transcribed by Mary Riseling from grandfather C. E. RISELING's collection of old
newspapers.

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