Litchfield Enquirer

Tornado.—We learn from the Columbia, Ten. Observer, that the lower part of Maury county was visited on the night of the 12th inst. by a most violent hurricane, by which eight persons were killed, and 15 or 20 wounded. We take the following extract from the Observer:

“We have since visited the scene, and have never in our life witnessed such desolation. Houses are torn from their foundations and scattered before the winds—fences are levelled—trees are uprooted and piled together—every thing is swept to the earth, and fragments of furniture, buildings and timber, and bodies of dead animals, lie scattered promiscuously over the ground. We noticed one of the ground sills of Degraffenreid’s house lying one hundred and fifty yards from where the house stood—there is nothing remaining of the house but the bases of the chimneys, the chimneys themselves having been blown away. Some of the dead were found blown upwards of a hundred yards from the house: and a part of the roof, we understand, has been found three miles distant. Some conception of the velocity of the wind may be had from the fact, in a great linn tree, near Mr. Eusk’s dwelling, is to be seen sticking about 20 feet from the ground; a broad piece of poplar plank, firmly driven in to the depth of apparently four or five inches, and at an angle of about 45 degrees across the grain. Several other houses were unroofed and blown down, but we have heard of no additional loss of life.”