Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/73

 power as a tornado after having traveled more than four hundred miles as a whirlwind, and a hundred and fifty miles additional as a sever hail, rain and wind storm. When it is remembered that in 1860 the larger part of the country over which the tornado passed was sparsely settled, the magnitude of this greatest storm that ever visited the northern latitudes can be realized.

From the most reliable information obtainable, the following estimate was made of the destruction of life and property:

Hardin County—Killed 7, wounded 27, houses destroyed 37. Loss $75,000.

Linn and Marshall Counties—Killed 22, wounded 51, houses destroyed 26. Loss $175,000.

Cedar County—Killed 3, wounded 13, houses destroyed 8. Loss, $15,000.

Jones County—Killed 9, wounded 30, houses destroyed 13. Loss, $30,000.

Clinton County—Killed 74, wounded 155, houses destroyed 168. Loss, $450,000.

Illinois—Killed 26, wounded 53, houses destroyed 60. Loss, $200,000.

Total—Killed 141, wounded 329, houses destroyed, 312. Loss, $945,00.

Many of the injured died of their wounds, bringing the fatalities up to nearly two hundred. The storm crossed the Missouri River at Sioux City at about two o’clock p.m., on Sunday, striking Camanche at seven and reaching the northeast corner of Ottawa County, Michigan, at about midnight, a total distance of about five hundred and sixty miles in ten hours, or an average velocity of fifty-six miles an hour. But it was observed that during the time the storm traveled as a destroying tornado it swept over the country at a velocity of about sixty-six miles an hour. It is estimated by several meteorologists who made