died before they could be freed from wreckage and others who were
removed died afterward.

NATIONAL GUARD ON DUTY

A company of the Indiana National Guard was placed on duty in the
devastated district early Monday morning while the work of searching the
ruins for dead was still in progress. Over the entire area were
scattered all kinds of household furniture, wearing apparel, beds and
bedding.

Looting began within a few moments and the police were at first too busy
caring for the injured and removing the dead from the debris to protect
property, but the members of the National Guard soon established an
efficient patrol and the looters were not in evidence afterward.

TOWN OF PERTH LAID WASTE

The tornado which visited Terre Haute also struck Perth, in the northern
part of Clay County, about ten o'clock and then vanished in the air. No
lives were lost there and only one person was injured.

Nearly every building in the little town of 400 population was wrecked
or damaged. A brick store building, five two-story houses and seven
cottages, the Congregational church, a school house, a three-story
structure, barns and outhouses were completely demolished.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE TORNADO IN PENNSYLVANIA

STORMS THROUGHOUT THE STATE--ALARM IN ALTOONA--FURIOUS WIND IN
WILLIAMSPORT--HEAVY STORM IN SHAMOKIN--COLUMBIA IN DARKNESS--A
VERITABLE TORNADO IN SCRANTON.

The disturbances in the atmosphere which wrought such havoc in Nebraska,
Iowa, Illinois and Indiana were also at work in Pennsylvania. Altoona,
Williamsport, Marietta, Columbia and Scranton were among the towns
suffering the greatest damage. The flood situation throughout the
Keystone State will be treated in a later chapter.

ALARM IN ALTOONA

The storm struck Altoona on Tuesday, March 25th. With a crash that
alarmed the entire neighborhood, eighty feet of the 162-foot steel stack
at the Pennsylvania Central Light and Power Company's plant was blown
down. The wind tore madly through the city and the rain fell in
torrents. Many houses were unroofed and a number of smaller buildings
were entirely demolished. No one was injured, but damage to the extent
of at least $2,000 was reported.

FURIOUS WINDS IN WILLIAMSPORT

A heavy wind and rainstorm swept through Williamsport on the same
afternoon, following a few hours of clear weather that came in the wake
of twenty-four hours' rain. It unroofed a number of houses in the west
end of the ci