The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado | Page 2

. . . . . . . . . . . 197
CHAPTER XVII
The Death-Dealing Tornado at Omaha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
CHAPTER XVIII
Struggles of Stricken Omaha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
CHAPTER XIX
Omaha: "The Gate City of the West" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
CHAPTER XX
Other Damage from the Nebraska Tornado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
CHAPTER XXI
The Tornado in Iowa and Illinois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
CHAPTER XXII
The Tornado in Kansas and Arkansas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
CHAPTER XXIII
The Tornado in Indiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
CHAPTER XXIV

The Tornado in Pennsylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
CHAPTER XXV
The Freak Tornado in Alabama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
CHAPTER XXVI
The Flood in New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
CHAPTER XXVII
The Flood in Pennsylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Flood in the Ohio Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
CHAPTER XXIX
The Flood in the Mississippi Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
CHAPTER XXX
Damage to Transportation, Mail and Telegraph Facilities . . . . . . 277
CHAPTER XXXI
The Work of Relief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
CHAPTER XXXII
Previous Great Floods and Tornadoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
CHAPTER XXXIII
Lessons of the Cataclysm and Precautionary Measures . . . . . . . . 308

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The Unleashed Gods
By Percy Shaw
Iron and rock are our slaves; We are liege to marble and steel; We go
our ways through our purse-proud days, Lifting our voices in loud
self-praise-- Forgetting the God at the wheel.
We build our bulwarks of stone, Skyscraper and culvert and tower, Till
the God of Flood, keen-nosed for blood, Drags our monuments into the
mud In the space of a red-eyed hour.
Kings of the oceans are we, With our liners of rocket speed, Till the
God of Ice, in mist-filled trice, Calls to us harshly to pay his price As
we sink to the deep-sea weed.
Muscle and brain are our slaves; We are liege to iron and steel; But
who shall say, tomorrow, today, That we shall not halt on our onward
way To bow to the God at the wheel?
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[Illustration: HELPING HANDS]
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CHAPTER I
THE GREATEST CATACLYSM IN AMERICAN HISTORY
THE UNCONTROLLABLE FORCES OF NATURE--THE
DEVASTATION OF OMAHA--THE TERROR OF THE FLOOD--A
VIVID PICTURE OF THE FLOOD--THE TRAGEDY OF DEATH
AND SUFFERING--THE SYMPATHY OF NATIONS--THE
COURAGE OF THE STRICKEN--MEN THAT SHOWED
THEMSELVES HEROES.

Man is still the plaything of Nature. He boasts loudly of conquering it;
the earth gives a little shiver and his cities collapse like the house of
cards a child sets up. A French panegyrist said of our own Franklin:
"He snatched the scepter from tyrants and the lightning from the skies,"
but the lightning strikes man dead and consumes his home. He thinks
he has mastered the ocean, but the records of Lloyds refute him. He
declares his independence of the winds upon the ocean, and the winds
upon the land touch his proud constructions and they are wrecks.
He imprisons the waters behind a dam and fetters the current of the
rivers with bridges; they bestir themselves and the fetters snap, his
towns are washed away and thousands of dead bodies float down the
angry torrents. He burrows into the skin of the earth for treasure, and a
thousand men find a living grave. Man has extorted many secrets from
Nature; he can make a