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

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 little use of a few of its forces; but he is impotent before its power.
Thus we pause to reflect upon the most staggering and tragic cataclysm of Nature that has been visited upon our country since first our forefathers won it from the Indian--the unprecedented succession of tornadoes, floods, storms and blizzards, which in March, 1913, devastated vast areas of territory in Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska and a dozen other states, and which were followed fast by the ravages of fire, famine and disease.
THE DEVASTATION OF OMAHA
The terrible suddenness and irresistible power of such catastrophes make them an object of overwhelming fear. The evening of Easter