Durant, OK Tornado, Apr 1919

Eleven Persons Killed in Vicinity of Durant.

Special to The News.
Durant, Ok., April 9.—A tornado carrying death and destruction in its wake swept through Bryan County this morning about 2 0’clock. The best reports obtainable tonight are that there are eleven known dead, with the possibility of several more being dead in scattered parts of the county. Thirty to forty persons are known to have been seriously injured and several of these are expected to die. The known dear are:

Mrs. John MURPHY, wife of a farmer, and her two children.
Sam O’CONNOR, a hired man on the Murphy farm.
Mr. and Mrs. W. B. NEAL, farmers.
---- ISAM, farmer
---- MORRETT, employe of ISAM.
John INMAN, farmer.
Beulah INMAN.
Mrs. VINSON, wife of a Baptist minister who lives near Albany, about twenty miles southeast of Durant.
All except Mrs. VINSON live near Durant.

Reports which can not be verified, as all telephone and telegraph wires are down, are that three persons were killed at Yarnaby, two at Kemp and six east of Achille, all small inland towns in this county to the south and southeast of Durant.

The tornado passed Durant at the closest place about three miles to the east. It started in North Texas, first striking in this county just north of the Red River at Albany, Yarnaby and Kemp. Storm cellars prevented a larger loss of life and injury. At least twenty-five homes were totally wiped off the face of the earth, pieces of furniture and bedding and clothing being found in treetops and scattered from Red River to several miles of Armstrong, which is five miles north of Durant.

Great destruction was wrought at Armstrong, where the city water plant of Durant was greatly damaged and is out of commission today. The school-house, one store building and several dwellings were demolished Most of the people were saved by fleeing to storm cellars.

The path of the storm ranged from one-half to a mile in width and swept over a distance of something like twenty miles. All schoolhouses, residences and barns in the storm’s path have disappeared.

Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 10 Apr 1919

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List of Those Reported Killed by Storm Wednesday.
Following is a list of the identified dead:

At Durant, Ok.:
Mrs. John MURPHY and two children.
W. B. NEAL and Wife.
Mrs. VINCENT.
Mr. INMAN.
Sam O’CONNOR.
Mr. MOFFETT.
Beulah INMAN.
Mr. ISHAM.

Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 10 Apr 1919

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Eleven Deaths at Durant.
Special to The News.

Durant, Ok., April 10.—Eleven persons are dead as a result of the storm which swept through this county Tuesday night, as reported yesterday. A careful investigation fails to verify reports of other deaths, although several other injured persons have been found and much more property damage has been learned of. Committees have raised a sum of money today to relieve the suffering of the afflicted ones.

Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 11 Apr 1919
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