THE STORM

Perhaps the most vivid single description of the tornado's havoc was
given by John Porter:

"I stood on the rear porch of my home when the great cloud of the storm
began its race across the city," he said. "Before it rushed the
traditional 'ball of fire,' which was in reality a yellow cloud,
spherical in shape.

"My wife was visiting at the moment in the home of her father. I saw the
house caught in the vortex of the cloud. It rose straight up into the
air, its walls shattered and broken, but holding partially together. I
am sure that I could not have moved an eyelash, if my life had depended
upon the exertion.

"From the risen house I saw a myriad of black specks falling to the
earth. Then I watched that home soar upward. It hurtled five blocks
through the murky twilight, sustained at a height of one hundred and
fifty feet.

"The Sacred Heart Convent was the target at which it was hurled. It
struck the fifth story. The convent was demolished. The home of my
father-in-law became splinters.

"Then I recovered my senses partially, and ran to the site of the
structure. God himself must have directed that storm, for my wife, her
father and her mother had been dropped behind, only bruised."

CHAPTER XVIII

STRUGGLES OF STRICKEN OMAHA

A BLIZZARD-LIKE STORM--COUNTING THE COST--"THE GREATEST CONCEIVABLE
BLOW"--SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD--A DAY OF FUNERALS--MORE CASES OF
DESTITUTION--PLANS FOR REBUILDING.

As if the storm of Easter Sunday were not enough calamity, a
blizzard-like storm descended upon the city of Omaha on Tuesday, adding
to the grief and horror. The storm, which began shortly after midnight,
and continued with gathering force, seriously hampered the work of
rescue. More than three inches of snow covered the debris in the section
of the city struck by the cyclone. It rendered uninhabitable the houses
of many who had prepared to retain temporary homes in partly demolished
structures.

Women tugging at heavy beams, hoping against hope to find dear ones
beneath the wreckage, men gruffly cheering their sorrowful mates,
sniveling children wrapped about with shawls and blankets were the
scenes which the sunrise this morning disclosed to the federal soldiers
as they patrolled the afflicted district.

Later, city officials gathered within the lines drawn around the
district by the soldiers and distributed clothing and other necessities
among the sufferers who had been rendered homele