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Author: chaliapin
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Classification: queries
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http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.indiana.counties...
Message Board Post:
I found the following text by Googling "tornado, Porter county, IN, 26 May
1917" There was also a site given with photographs, they seemed to be from
postcards, which showed the devastation in Kouts, IN. This was the URL for
that site:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~innwigs/ImageArchive/Kouts/KoutsImagesN...
I hope this is of some interest.
Eugene M. Wiese
838 Linlawn Drive
Wabash, IN 46992-3903
emwiese1(a)comcast.net
EVENT TEXT: THE TORNADO -- From Kouts Centennial Book (1965)
The longest officially recorded tornado traveled 293 miles in Illinois and
Indiana on May 26, 1917 and lasted 7 hours and 20 minutes. Its forward speed
was 40 mph which is about average. But tornado speed had varied from 5 to
139 mph, and this tornado found Kouts.
It was a hot May Saturday becoming sultry in the afternoon, the storm clouds
began to gather, the winds rumbled faintly in the west and steadily grew
more audible. The black clouds gathered to the northwest and hung heavy. As
the thunder became ominous, the strong southeast wind stopped blowing and
not a leaf moved. An observer noted that the black clouds had two funnels as
they roared in from the west after devastating Hebron and countryside. It
then struck a bewildered townspeople most of whom were gathered for supper
for the hour was 6 p.m.
In the town it dipped and rose and on one dip it completely destroyed the
Christian Church and on another dip the Catholic Church, creamery and roller
milles. Not a business building nor home in town escaped undamaged.
Accompanying the furious wind was a hail storm with some stones as large as
hen's eggs and a torrential rain. The once beautiful trees in the
Pennsylvania Park were felled or sheared off or were wrapped in corrugated
metal roofing from the coal docks two miles west of town. Other trees
throughout the town were uprooted, twisted and snapped off.
But the countryside near Kouts perhaps was the scene of the worst damage.
The farm house of Joseph Cannon north of Kouts was twisted and torn away
from the foundation, and the furnishings scattered to the four winds. All
the members of the family were more or less injured.
South of the Joseph Cannon home, the John Dunkle home was destroyed and the
son injured. And on the road running east, south of the Cannon home, the
power of tornado seems to have bent all its energies. Here the homes were
swept away completely. Since they had no basements, scarcely any mark of
their whereabouts could be found. In this area the storm brought death to
D.B. Resh, and aged farmer, and Julia Lane, fifteen, when their respective
homes were swept away, and Wilbur Dunkle and the lane baby were
hospitalized.
Dr. Dittmer's home at Kouts was used as an emergency hospital. Here those
suffering with minor injuries, were treated and a comfortable home found for
them.
The storm then proceeded northeastward toward Wanatah; here it turned and
came back and struck Marshall Grove, causing heavy loss at the homes of John
and Tom Hannon, John Welsh, George Koontz, Nelson Hughes and Jerome
Bartholomew.
Few of those in the stricken district were protected by tornado insurance
for the great majority had never believed this protection necessary in this
part of the state. After the storm the agents had all they could do to
attend to the demands upon them for policies.
And a tornado of much lesser proportion did strike Kouts on May 28, 1935.
From Agatha Riley (2002)
The tornado that hit the Hannon farm tore down everything except the family
home. There was a checkbook found in the yard from Chicago.
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