The Weekly Orb

Arizona is free from tornadoes. In fact, the whole Rocky mountain region is a stranger to the cyclone. The Mississippi valley is the home of the storm king. During the past eight years twenty-four destructive tornadoes have visited the central states and the Atlantic seaboard. From 1889 to 1896 property to the value of $31,000,000 was wrecked by tornadoes, as much as $23,000,000 of this damage being effected by three tornadoes which passed through regions of dense population. These were the Louisville tornado of March 27, 1890, which destroyed property to the value of $13,000,000, and the tornado hurricane of September 29, 1896, which traveled from Cedar Keys to Washington, D. C., doing damage to the amount of $7,000,000. The rotary velocity of the St. Louis tornado was 175 miles per hour. To produce the effects observed in the case of the Eads bridge and heavy buildings which it destroyed, it must have exerted a pressure of 60 to 90 pounds to the square foot.