Various Towns, AL, TN, MS Tornado Damage, Apr 1920

TORNADOES KILL AT LEAST 130 PERSONS.

THREE SOUTHERN STATES DAMAGED BY STORMS.

MISSISSIPPI WITH 100 DEAD IS HARDEST HIT -- HUNDREDS ARE SERIOUSLY INJURED AND WIRE SERVICE OUT.

Montgomery, Ala., April 21. -- At least 133 persons were killed and a property loss of millions of dollars was caused by the tornadoes which ripped and smashed their way across the states of Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee Tuesday.
Forming in western Mississippi, the windstorms crashed eastward thru these states, leaving paths of desolation in their wake, tearing their way thru more than a dozen communities.
Mississippi was hardest hit. It is estimated that the dead in that state will number 100. Thirty persons were killed in Alabama and three in Tennessee.
The Mississippi counties which suffered the greatest damage were Oktibeha, Union, Chickasaw, Alcorn, Neshoba, Jasper, Lauderdale and Monroe. Sections of Colbert, Marion, Madison and Franklin counties were the storm centers in Alabama. The greatest damage caused in Tennessee was in Maury and Williamson counties.
Hundreds of persons were injured, many of them seriously. The death list for Meridian and Aberdeen, Miss., number twenty each.
Wire communication with many cities and towns remain entirely cut, but the gradual restoration of telephone and telegraph service brings reports which houly add to the story of death and destruction caused by the "twisters."
Recover Score Of Bodies.
The loss of life in Alabama was heaviest in the section around Waco, Little Cove, Sheffield, and Gurley where more than a score of bodies have been recovered, eighteen in Marion county, one at Waco, three at Little Cove, three at Gurley and five in the Nehama section of Colbert county.
In Mississippi the storm reached its height in the eastern and southern parts of Meridian. There twenty persons, mostly women and children, lost their lives. At Aberdeen, the loss of life is placed at twenty one. First reports of the tornado came from Bay Springs, Jasper county, where the death toll was seven. The tornado swept over and demolished the Deemer lumber camp, near Philadelphia, Miss., leaving twelve dead, in its wake. In Alcorn county, in the Glenn section, ten lost their lives. At Rosehill, Jasper county, and in the Ingomar vicinity in Union county, twelve more are dead. Other known casualties are five at Egypt, Union county, five at Baker, Union county, three at Amery, Morrow county, and two each at Keownville, Union county and at Runnels Bridge, Lauderdale county. The Starkville section of Oktibeha county reports five missing.
In Tennessee two were killed near Burwood and one in Williamson county. In a number of these places, towns and villages were nearly swept away, in some cases entire falling victims to the storms. Hundreds of injured today are overtaxing the energies of local physicians and nurses and outside aid is needed.

Fourteen At Meridian.
Meridian, Miss., April 21. -- Fourteen dead, ten of them white, and seventy injured, some of them fatally, is the toll taken in Meridian by yesterday's tornado. The property damage will run above a quarter of a million dollars in this city. Reports from Bay Springs, about thirty miles northwest of here say nine people lost their lives and nine others were seriously injured in that place.

Evening State Journal Lincoln Nebraska 1920-04-21
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!