New Richmond, WI Tornado, Jun 1899 - Scenes of Death

SCENES OF DEATH.

APPALLING DESTRUCTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY IN WISCONSIN.

DEAD NUMBERED BY SCORES.

SEARCHING FOR BODIES IN THE RUINS OF NEW RICHMOND.

RELIEF PROMPTLY OFFERED.

MILWAUKEE AND OTHER TOWNS RENDER AID TO THE STRICKEN SUFFERERS -- EYE WITNESS TELLS THE STORY OF THE HORROR -- GOV. SCOFIELD MAKES AN APPEAL FOR AID -- LIST OF THE KNOWN KILLED AND INJURED.

Careful estimates of the casualties in Monday's storm are as follows:
Lives Lost In Storms.
New Richmond, Wis. -- 120.
Boardman, Wis. -- 4.
Onalaska, Wis. -- 2.
LaCrosse, Wis. -- 2.
Herman, Neb. -- 12.
Clear Lake, Wis. -- 3.
Persons Injured.
New Richmond, Wis. -- 320.
Barron, Wis. -- 2.
Clear Lake, Wis. -- 2.
Buildings Destroyed.
New Richmond, Wis. -- 300.

New Richmond, Wis., June 14. -- It is difficult to fully describe the situation and horrors at New Richmond. Those who worked all day and evening in the ruins Tuesday estimate the loss of life at about 100, while nearly 200 buildings were destroyed and a loss entailed of over $500,000.
No account of the storm is exaggerated. A space at least one-half mile square -- the entire business portion of the city -- is devastated, not a single brick remaining upon another. The horrors of the tornado were added to by the fires which followed, and the burning of many human beings, whose bodies are still in the debris.
The fire is still burning in the debris, and with the one fire engine from St. Paul, and with the firemen doing all they can, they are as yet unable to quench the flames.
A large force of men is now at work clearing away the remnants of buildings and bringing out the bodies. The men are working with vigor and energy, and every few minutes another body is found and another chapter added to the horrible catastrophe.
A large percentage of those injured and killed were crushed in the wrecked buildings. Many of the houses which remain standing in the residence district, both to the north and south of where the tornado passed, are badly demolished. On some the shingles are torn off, windows are broken in, porches are lifted, and additions have been carried distances of from ten to fifty feet.
The railroads promptly furnished supplies and brought in nurses and physicians. After the relief trains arrived from St. Paul and Stillwater, the doctors and nurses organized into squads and visited the houses which had been turned into improvised hospitals. The Congregational and Catholic churches are the main wards, and parts of the buildings are used for morgues, nearly a score of undertakers being at work preparing the bodies for burial.
Nearly every house in the city has from two to eight injured people in it. The number of injured will be 300 to 400, and possibly more than that.
A complete list of those who have been taken from the ruins is almost unobtainable, inasmuch as they are scattered to so many parts of the place, but the following are known to be dead all being from New Richmond, unless otherwise stated:
List of the Dead.
HAROLD H. BIGELOW, photographer, age 26.
EARL BIGELOW.
MISS CORA BUTLER, age 20.
MICHAEL BLATZ, Stillwater.
W. W. BIXBY, undertaker.
WALTER BROWN.
CHARLES BERCE.
CARL BROWN, age 14.
LORRIE BRIDGE, Star Prairie.
BERNARD BROCKBANK.
JOSIE BROCKBANK.
ESSIE BROCKBANK.
DOMINICK BARRETT, farmer.
MR. BARDON, farmer.

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