12 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
" "~~ TORNADOES AND SEVERE WIND STORMS IN MAY. 
The past month has furnished more than the usual number of wind 
storms for the state. While the amount of damage to property has 
been considerable, yet, fortunately, densely populated towns were missed, 
and only one death has resulted. The most severe storms occurred on 
the 11th and 12th, though from the 21st to the 29th local storms occurred 
in various sections of the state, causing damage to small buildings, 
windmills, trees, etc. 
In each case the storms accompanied quite well developed cyclonic 
areas which were passing over the Mississippi Valley. On the after- 
noon of the 11th a tornado occurred in Dubuque and Delaware counties. 
It apparently originated about six miles north of Cascade, on the south 
border of Dubuque county, about 1 o'clock, and moved northwestward 
toward Worthington, then northward over Dyersville, from which place 
its course was northeast, the last point of contact being at Holy Cross. 
Mr. B. C. Wise, at Cascade, reports that the storm path was about 150 
feet wide, and that the position of objects, laid prone by the wind, indi- 
cates that there was no whirling motion, but that it soon widened to a 
half mile and assumed the tornado type. The Dyersville Commercial, of 
May 15th, gives a detailed account of the damage done. The greatest 
destruction occurred before passing Worthington. Two farms, John 
Mauser's and John Durga's, were stripped of barns, sheds and corn cribs. 
The havoc wrought on Mr. Durga's farm is expressed in the words of 
the "Commercial:" "There was not enough lumber left to build a hen- 
house." There was considerable damage done at Dyersville and Holy 
Cross, but the losses were minor ones. At about the same hour a storm 
with the appearance of a tornado, struck seven miles north of Muscatine, 
but its path was short and the damage was not great. 
The most destructive storm, and the one concerning which reports 
are most complete, occurred on the 12th, over a strip of country extend- 
ing from Watson, Mo., to a point about six miles northwest of Clarinda, 
crossing the southeastern corner of Fremont county, west of Northboro 
and Coin, skipping a space from a point due west of Coin, but striking 
again six or eight miles west of Clarinda. In Fremont county all build- 
ings on the farms of Will and Bert Higgins, and also a schoolhouse, were 
destroyed, while in Page county, John Wieland, E. L. Benedict, Olaua 
Myers, Geo. Dalbey, Tom Anderson and Cliff Carpenter lost all their 
buildings. In some instances nothing was left, while in others the 
wrecks were left on the ground. 
To an observer in front of the storm, aebris of all descriptions could 
be seen whirling in the air. Many peculiar pranks of the wind are 
reported. A horse was left unhurt in a cellar where the family had 
taken refuge. The storm seemed to show its greatest fury at the Myers 
home, where, on the southwest side of a large oak tree, straws were 
driven into the bark a quarter of an inch; a rock weighing more than 
a ton left standing on a sled was moved with the sled about fifty feet 
to the southwest; soil was removed from the fields to a depth to 
which it had been plowed; an iron pump was taken from a cistern; the 
rim of a wheel from a new wagon destroyed on the Myers farm was 
