Walthill, NE Tornado, Sept 1928

CHILDREN CAUGHT BY STORM THAT KNOCKS DOWN BUILDING

Twenty-Six in Schoolhouse When Tornado Crushes It Like Matchwood.

Ruins were being searched today by volunteer workers, who also buried dead livestock and arranged to care for the destitute. Late last night the Burlington railroad dispatched a special train to Walthill, Neb., with doctors and nurses aboard.

CHILDREN HURT

Walthill, a little Indian town and one of the hardest hit by the tornado, today was taxed to the utmost in caring for its injured, which included many school children. The hospital was filled to overflowing,and the Fuller hotel and two nearby residences were pressed into service as emergency hospitals.

Twenty-six children were in the Lamere school, five miles from Walthill, when the twister struck and crushed it like so much match wood. None of them escaped without injuries, and MARY IRMA BELT, nine, was crushed to death. Several others may die.

TEACHER SAVES MANY

Had it not been for the heroic efforts of the teacher, Miss Phyllis Stewart, and Eugene O. Keyser, thirty-four, a farmer, whose sons attend the school, the number of dead, it is believed, would have been larger.

Together they organized the twenty-six children into a compact group. Miss Stewart instructed the children to join hands and drop to the floor. This they did and she sat down to the piano and played a popular tune. As she struck the first notes the tornado hit the frame building. The walls collapsed and the roof fell in. Some of the children were pinned in the wreckage. Others were hurled as far as three hundred feet. Not a board of the school remained standing.

SHE IS INJURED

Miss Stewart herself was so badly injured that her recovery is doubtful. Caught under the piano, she suffered a broken ankle and internal injuries.

Despite the fact that he, too, suffered injuries, Keyser remained to direct the rescue work. After the last child was taken to the Walthill hospital he himself became a patient there, delirious and in a semi-conscious condition.

Reno Gazette, Reno, NV 14 Sept 1928
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Transcribed by Audrey. Thank you, Audrey!