Ute, IA Tornado, Apr 1899

TORNADO’S ROAR

WARNED THE PEOPLE OF ITS APPROACH – FIVE KILLED AT UTE, IOWA.

Ute, Iowa, April 28. – This section of Monona County and the whole of the Soldier River Valley was swept by a terrific tornado about midnight, and the list of killed and injured is extensive, while the property damage is incomparably greater than anything of the kind that ever visited the state.

The Killed – HANSON SEVERSON, HARRIS FERRIN, MRS. GEORGE FERNE, AND UNKNOWN MAN BELIEVED TO BE A TRAMP NAMED SHIELDS, AND JAMES AMERSTON.

The great funnel shaped cloud which carried devastation and death through Monona County seemed to follow the valley of the Soldier River and even curved in and out among the numerous bends of the stream. The terrible ravages of the tornado were scarcely realized until daylight divulged the extent of the wind’s damages. It was a twister in every sense of the word.

ROAR WAS FRIGHTFUL.
The people of this section were first made aware of the approach of the cyclone by the roar as it came up from the Missouri River. The terrifying noise could be heard for 20 miles, and many people were up and outside their homes gazing in the direction of the approaching tornado before they realized the death dealing nature of the approacaing [sic] funnel. This accounts for the large list of injured who were struck by flying timbers. Eye witnesses testify that the air was so full of twisted trees, pieces of houses, picked up in its path, and other debris that any one exposed for a second to its fury could not escape injury. Great quantities of dirt were scooped up and carried along with the storm, and bodies of dead cattle thickly strewed the storm’s path.

Lima Daily News, Lima, OH 28 Apr 1899
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Transcribed by Jenni Lanham.