Page 39 - 1913 May - To Dragma

194 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

T H E O M A H A DISASTER O F EASTER D A Y . 1913

EXTRACTS FROM PERSONAL LETTERS

Easter was a peculiar day, rather warm but with a cool damp
breeze and threatening clouds though this did not deter many from
going out in their Easter finery—and to which many owe their lives.
Leslie and I left home soon after live to do some work at the office,
some four miles away. While on the car it began to sprinkle and
when we reached down town it was very dark and raining hard.
While at work we heard the rain beating down and then a roar—
like thunder on thunder. Then after some hail and more rain it
began to get lighter. The tornado had passed through the longest
section of Omaha at 5 :50 in a perfectly straight line, destroying
everything before it. The telephone brought us the first news. "The
western part of the city is afire." etc. The reporters came rushing in
with the news of loss of life, homes destroyed and burning. The
city was in darkness and rescue work dangerous. The streets down
town were crowded with people unable to either get home or get
news from home. I t was pitiful to see big men with tears in their
eyes ask about his home and to see him told, "We don't know." No
cars or streets lights and with trolly wires down made it dangerous
for people to go near the devastated district. We passed the night
in the office filled with many injured and others telling unbelievable
things. I t was always the same story— the first and only warning
was the mighty roar like thousands of wagons filled with bricks
pulled rapidly over a rough brick pavement, pitch darkness, a crash,
and the roar died away, leaving a path of debris about a quarter of a
mile wide and between five and six miles long. I t passed over Omaha
in four minutes it has been estimated. As morning came reports
grew worse instead of better. We started home soon after 5 A. M . —
and we could hardly believe what we saw. We went up five streets
before finding one we could pass through and then the soldiers had
to direct our chauffeurs and we rode over debris of all kinds. After
one and one half hours sleep and our breakfasts we started down
town again. Then the real horror of it all struck us. Houses
turned on their sides, standing on their roofs, others crushed flat as
though a heavy weight had dropped from above. Some were en-
tirely burned up while others were just piles of kindling wood, and
everything was plastered with sand and mud. Comparatively few
houses can be repaired at all, and those have the second story torn
off, holes through the walls, plaster cracked, doors broken, and
everything covered with mud and sand.

Relief work began at once and is doing wonderful work, but the