Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/212

 served until the close of the exposition in these positions. Up to the 1st of January, 1894, the Commissioners had expended $132,500, including the sum of $12,500 paid to the Iowa State Band which was employed at the exposition.

On the afternoon of July 6, 1893, on the west side of the Little Sioux River, Cherokee County, the people observed a dark cloud lying low in the western horizon. When first seen it presented no unusual appearance but as it slowly arose, with varying currents of air frequently shifting suddenly, angry clouds were seen in the southwest rapidly approaching another swiftly moving cloud from the northwest which seemed to be driven by a strong wind. The distant roar of thunder and sharp flashes of lightning indicated the gathering of a severe storm. The two light colored swiftly moving clouds soon came together and a great commotion was observed. Soon the funnel shape indicating a tornado descended towards the earth and a distant roar was heard. The storm did its first damage in Rock township where two women were killed. The iron bridge over the Sioux, a one hundred twenty feet span, was hurled from its piers into the river. As the storm neared the Buena Vista County line the cloud lifted for several miles and no damage was done, when it again descended to the earth and destruction again began. It crossed the county about half a mile south of the town of Storm Lake, plowing through the waters of the lake, raising a waterspout nearly a hundred feet in height and wrecking a steamboat. The tornado kept nearly parallel with the Illinois Central Railroad and far enough south of it to miss the villages along its line until Pomeroy, in Calhoun County was reached. Several miles west of the town it is described as presenting an appearance quite similar to that observed when first discovered in Cherokee County. A steady roar was heard and great masses of white clouds were still rushing swiftly together from the northwest and southwest.