The tornado seemed to spring out of the southwestern part of the city as if it came from the swollen waters of the Wabash River. It first smashed into Gardentown, a suburb of the city, where a great many working people live, and every building in its path crumpled down before it. The lightning sped over building after building, setting many of them on fire. Parts of the Root Glass Company's plant were flattened. The end of the foundry room of the Gartland Factory, a solid brick wall eight inches thick, was caved in. Brick and stone structures suffered alike.
MANY BURIED UNDER WRECKAGE
In the streets were tangled masses of twisted electric wires spluttering out warnings of death for those who, careless of the first alarm, had rushed in to rescue those who had been buried under roofs and walls. Policemen, firemen and a host of volunteers struggled through the debris, sidestepping the live wires that had been torn from their fastenings.
The heavy downpour of rain extinguished many fires, and the city of Terre Haute was thereby saved from destruction by fire. The large Greenwood public school was shattered and torn. The tornado, like a huge auger, bored into the roof and tore the shingles and rafters away and every window was hurled from its casing. This building was later converted into a hospital and morgue.
SLEEPERS HURLED FROM BEDS
In many instances death came to those who were asleep in their beds when their homes collapsed about them. In other cases the bodies were picked up as if by giant hands and hurled either to death or to terrible injury. Some were thrown more than a hundred feet.
Above the roar of the wind and the rattle of the rain could be heard the screams of frantic women and children. The scenes were pitiful. Men and women were looking for loved ones, and when a torn and mangled form was taken from the debris, a woman's shriek would tell the story of a lost one found.
Copyright by George Grantham Bain. Hundreds of buildings were demolished by the tornado at Terre Haute, Indiana, and many lives were lost