544 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



• 



like multiplied Niagaras until the Northwestern shops were struck, when 

 the roar was combined with a tremendous rending and crashing^ and in ap- 

 pearance was like a fountain of debris in the air. As soon as the storm 

 passed the shops I went to the street where a downfall of oak leaves was 

 in progress; these had evidently been carried from the woods to the south 

 by the storm. 



My wife, who was at home on South Story street, tells me that there was 

 continuous brilliant lightning in the cloud and tha shorly preceding and 

 during the passage, there was an intense hot wave. 



I am not positive as to the exact duration of the storm, but it seemed to 

 me to be not over five minutes from the time I first saw the clouds to the 

 south untli they had passed through the shops to the east. 



Mr. Reid had a self-recording barometer or barograph at his residence 

 a little less than half a mile from the storm. This showed an abrupt 

 fall of .20 inch in a 40-minute period just before 7 a. m., then a rise of 

 .10 inch to 10 a. m., then a gradual fall of .05 inch till 2 p. m., then an 

 increasingly rapid fall of .15 inch in the two hours just preceding the 

 storm, after which it rose quite steadily .25 inch by midnight. 



The storni passed on northeastward through Boone county, the north- 

 west corner of Story county, the southeast corner of Hamilton county, 

 diagonally across Hardin county and disappeared in the northwest part 

 of Grundy county near Wellsburg about 5:15 p. m. The total path was 

 about 67 miles in length. Its greatest breadth was 2^ miles near Hub- 

 bard. However, eyewitnesses state that there was more than one tornado 

 in this vicinity at the time and R. R. Swallum who was watching the 

 storm says he saw at least five. Its average breadth was a slightly more 

 than one-half mile. The total duration was 1 hour and 30 minutes and 

 the average rate of progress was about 45 miles per hour. 



In Des Moines township outside the city limits of Boone 2 persons were 

 injured and the property loss was $74,000. In Jackson township one 

 person was injured and the property loss was .$2500. In the northwest 

 part of Story county near Story City there was considerable damage but 

 it has been impossible to obtain estimates. 



In the southeast corner of Hamilton county, at Ellsworth, 2 persons 

 were injured and the property loss was .$6,000. In the vicinity of Radcliffe, 

 Hardin county, 6 persons were injured and the property loss was $5,000. 

 Near Hubbard the damage was $85,250 but there were no injuries nor 

 deaths. In the vicinity of Eldora the property loss was $150,000, one per- 

 son seriously injured and 9 slightly, but no deaths. Near Steamboat Rock 

 H. J. Finster was killed, one person was injured and the property loss was 

 about $8,000. In the northwest part of Grundy county, near Wellsburg, 

 there were no deaths or injuries but the property loss was about $15,000. 

 The total deaths in this storm were 10; injured, 91; damage, $897,980. 



3. Tornado, Prairie City to Tama. 

 Starting from a few miles south of Prairie City, Jasper county about 3 

 p. m., a tornado dipped down at intervals along a northeasterly course 

 diagonally across this county and headed for Tama, Tama county, but 

 turned abruptly eastward, passed south of the town and soon disappeared. 

 (See storm track No. VII, page 37. The chief damage was done in the 

 town of Newton, where it amounted to $200,000. One George Reid, lost 



