energy of despair amid rain, hail and gathering darkness, guided by the cries and groans of the sufferers imprisoned by fallen timbers and crippled by ghastly wounds, not ceasing until all were cared for. All through the night search among the ruins for the dead went on as assistance from the surrounding country and neighboring towns came.
Dr. D. J. Townsend, one of the physicians who was prominent in attending upon the wounded, gives a vivid description of the peculiar character of the injuries that came under his observation. He says:
“The wounds were not of a class that were met with in any other calamity than a tornado. The tissues were bruised, punctured, incised, lacerated with the addition of having foreign matter of every conceivable kind literally ground into the flesh and broken off in such a manner that no matter how proficient the surgeon, they would escape his notice. Inflammation and pain in a certain region did not always justify exploratory incisions, as many were contused from one end of the body to the other. The dirt and sand were plastered upon and into the skin in such a manner that it was extremely difficult to remove them.”
Such was the terrible nature of the injuries that had suddenly come upon more than a hundred people. From a population of more than a thousand but twenty-one families were left with no dead or wounded of their own to care for. The dead in the village numbered forty-two the day after the tornado.
Governor Boies issued an appeal for aid and the people of the State responded generously, not only furnishing all the temporary assistance needed but sufficient to rebuild the homes destroyed and to supply furniture, clothing and food. Besides providing a large amount of lumber, provisions and clothing, nearly $70,000 in money was contributed for relief of the sufferers. The total number of deaths from the tornado along its entire path of about one hundred miles, was seventy-one in all, of which there were in Cherokee County twelve, in Buena Vista six, in Pocahontas four, in and around Pomeroy in Calhoun County, forty-nine.
