CYCLONE
SAT. EVENING
Passes
Near Codell Doing Immense Damage
A small but wicked cyclone visited
southeastern Rooks county Saturday evening about 7 o’clock. It started about three miles south of Codell
and traveled northeast for about fifteen miles. At the John Hoskins place about nine miles due east of Plainville
where it done the most damage it appeared to be nearly a quarter of a mile
wide.
It first appeared at the Henry
Overholser place where Arthur Hoskins lives and tore his stable all up.
At Werner Overholser’s, a son of W.
F. everything is reported torn up, including three wagons.
At Willis Johnson’s it took a few
shingles off the house, got Mr. Johnson down and tore down a stone cow barn 50
or 60 feet long.
Crossing Paradise Creek at Wilber
Overholser’s it moved his barn from the foundation, tore up a surrey and badly
damaged his apple and cherry trees.
It passed about ten rods east of
George Otis’.
J. L. Hoskin’s house seemed to be
right in the center of the storm’s path but fortunately it was spared, though
large patches of shingles were torn from the roof and the porch destroyed. Mr. And Mrs. Hoskins saw the cyclone was
going to hit the house and started to run thinking they could get outside of
its path but did not get thirty feet from the house, as Mrs. Hoskins was so
excited she fell and they hastily got behind a small shed nearby for
shelter. Something may have struck her,
but they were not sure as everything happened so quickly. The windmill crashed down only a few feet
behind them. The cement roof of the
smoke house adjoining the house was lifted off and about 400 pounds of meat
attached to the ridge pole was scattered about the yard. A bucket of eggs underneath was
unmolested. A tin lid left on a jar in
the tinroofed building. Mr. and
Mrs.Hoskins were both injured some, but not seriously. Mr. Hoskins says he could but take $2500.
And replace the damage done. He
especially feels the loss of his orchard, which it has taken him years to
secure. It was one of the finest in the
county. Great plum and apple trees up
to eighteen inches in thickness were torn up by the roots. One was landed in a pasture a quarter of a
mile away. His garage entirely
disappeared and his auto is sticking upon the side of a large tree with only
the engine, front axle and radiator left of use. A deep furrow five or six feet long as if plowed with a lister
marks where the auto first lit. A stone
weighing about 200 pounds, buried underneath the ground to which a wire brace
on the garage was attached was lifted out and carried several hundred
feet. He had about twenty-five tons of
alfalfa in his barn and attributes this to saving it although it was partly unroofed
and twisted out of shape. Practically
all of his sheds, granaries and various farm buildings were wrecked. Tuesday about twenty-five members of the
Codell I. O. O. F. Lodge, to which Mr. Hoskins belongs and a number of others
went out and worked all day putting things to rights. They got the house fixed up, the barn straightened and most of
the buildings repaired and the most necessary work done. It will take him some time yet to get
straightened out.
At Frank Jones’ nearly as much
damage was done. The main path of the
storm seemed to be a little east of the house.
A large shed about 40 feet square was destroyed. The large barn with stone basement was
completely wrecked. Two windmills, two
wagons, a surrey and buggy were destroyed, leaving Mr. Jones without a rig of
any kind. He estimates his damage at
$500 or $600 and Mr. Demetz about $1500.
As a result of some kind of a presentiment he did not understand, Mr.
Jones rushed his chores that evening, attending to his horses first and turned them
out of the barn into the pasture without feeding, as was his usual custom. He had barely got to the house when his wife
remarked “There is a cyclone coming.”
She saw it on the hill south of Mr. Hoskin’s. The ground was wet. It
looked like a large whirlwind. There
was no debris or dust flying. Chas. Carmichael a quarter of a mile away saw it
and thought it simply a whirlwind and did not even tell his wife about it. Mr. Jones and wife each took part of the
children to the cave and ran back to the house after his mother and had just
got in when the storm passed over. A
minute or so later when the noise had ceased he looked out and saw the big
whirlwind passing over the hill northeast of the house. He did not see any debris flying, probably
because it was too high up. He did not
imagine any damage was done until his wife called his attention to the barn and
shed being destroyed.
Some damage was done at A. J.
Yowells on the Andreson place.
At Art Besseys a windmill was
destroyed and the walls of his house were spread out in a manner hard to
fix. Header boxes, outbuildings, etc.
were damaged.
The last damage heard of as being
done was at Tom Barnett’s one and one half miles east of Laton.
At the time of the storm Guy
Hockett, Blaine Hoskins and a boy were passing the Hoskins place. The boy got out of the buggy and started to
get behind a big cottonwood tree standing beside the road. They would not let him and pulled him back
in the buggy and just reached the top of the hill as the storm passed a few
rods behind. It was the last rig that
has passed over the road. The big
cottonwood, about two and one half feet or more in diameter fell across the
road entirely blocking the way. If the
boy had gotten behind it he would have been killed.
Further details of storm are given
by our Codell correspondent.
The first damage done was at Arthur
Hoskins, where the stables were badly damaged, and also his brother’s
automobile. Next came Werner
Overholser’s where the house was torn to pieces except one room. Mr. Overholser and family got into the cave
and were thereby protected. The washing
machine and debris were dumped into the cave.
All their clothing, bedding and every household effect in the part of
the house struck was swept away. Three
wagons, hay racks and all machinery were destroyed, together with the windmill,
chickens, chickenhouse, barn, cattle shed, etc. It is said that after the cyclone passed over a board was found
with a nail in it and chickens heart sticking on the nail. A calf tied to a tree was taken about half a
mile and dropped unhurt in a wheat field.
The next in the path was W. H. Johnson’s three quarters of a mile east
of town. Mr. Johnson was cooping some
little chicks and did not see it until a rod or two away. He fell to the ground. The force of the storm pinned his there
tightly. His barn, stablings, corral,
woodshed and windmill were all about totally demolished and a calf killed. A quarter of a mile north it struck W. J.
Overholser’s barn moving it seven inches off the foundation and twisting it
considerably and took his windmill. It
took his surrey up some distance and when it hit the ground it was only a pile
of wreck. The heaviest force of the
storm was east of the barn where it twisted large trees up and one of them came
down top foremost and were driven into the ground.
The next place it struck north of
Frank Jones’ was A. J. Yowells where his binder, three wagons, and other things
too numerous to mention was totally wrecked and dumped into a pond of 3 or 4
feet of water. Rev. Robert Parker
pastor of the M. E. Church at Codell had been out to E. N. Sidwells on horse
back and was returning when he saw the cyclone. He had no time to dodge it so jumped from his horse and lay that
to the ground. It seems almost a
miracle that no one was killed.
A heavy rain had just proceeded the
cyclone and the air was simply full of mud.