The date April 15, 1921, doesn't ring many bells, unless you know your Arkansas tornado facts, in which case your brain is going, "Ding-ding-ding-ding!"
That's the date of one of the state's worst storms, a complex of twisters blamed in the deaths of 64 Arkansans. Almost 100 people died across the South. Hempstead and Miller counties were clobbered.
The Arkansas Gazette and Arkansas Democrat carried the same sort of outrageous anecdotes we've read about the storms in our lifetimes — a puppy blown a quarter of a mile but landing unharmed; a woman stripped naked by the wind while clinging to a tree; a house lofted over a fence and obliterated, leaving the fence; a family huddled on their porch spared while the rest of the house ripped away; a church shredded like coleslaw, but its piano still upright ...
For those who grow numb to death tolls yet can't look away from "disaster porn," the April 15 twisters are immersive. Adding value is the fact that Gazette reporter Fletcher Chenault reported the death of a man who wasn't dead, and that afternoon's Democrat reported it too — having read the Gazette.
The April 17, 1921, Gazette carried a harrowing first-person account. Here it is, word for word ... except for two words that, out of concern for the sanity of our copy editors, I have replaced in brackets:
Children Sob, Woman Prays as Tornado Rocks Train
Wailing of fear-stricken children, rising intermittently between uncanny shrieks of the wind, while mothers, school teachers and men, among them a dozen prisoners, sought to allay their terror, made the most lasting impression of all those that flashed through the mind of a Little Rock resident who, with more than 100 other passengers on a Missouri Pacific train, rode out Friday's tornado at Dolph, Hempstead County, five miles northwest of Hope.
Unable to proceed, the train sat out the terrific storm that laid many trees in regular array across the right-of-way; that hurled huge hailstones through every window of two coaches; that plastered the car sides with litter and fragments of leaves until they appeared beautifully camouflaged, and that, at its worst frightful moment, plucked two cars from the train and piled them up in the ditch.
Boyd Cypert, well known Little Rock athlete who had been to Nashville on business and was returning to Hope to catch a train back to Little Rock, was one of the fortunate passengers of the ill-fated train, and yesterday graphically described his sensations with two words, "never again."
AIR FILLED WITH LEAVES
"It was raining and hailing hard at Washington when the train pulled out," Cypert said, "and I first thought that a bad storm was approaching when I noticed the air filled with small leaves and twigs that seemed to have been blown in from a distance. I was discussing the leaves and appearance of the clouds with a fellow passenger when my attention was called to a little girl who got off the train at the last minute, and we learned that she had left her friends among the Texarkana students aboard, after having received a telegram from her mother telling her not to start home because of a storm near that city.
"We spent several minutes looking at the clouds and guessing what was coming, but could make no definite deductions further than that something unusual was 'in the air.' Several of us were growing 'leery' at this time and admitted it, and predicted that the train should not proceed, but it did, running slowly for two or three miles, and gradually slowing to not more than 8 or 10 miles an hour, as we pushed on.
"We had stopped at the small station at Dolph, in the middle of a large tract of pine timber, when the gale proceeding the tornado hit us. Looking out of the rear of the coach I saw several trees fall across the right-of-way, and saw others, their tops clipped off and carried away, suddenly stand upright grotesquely as though relieved of the burden of their wind-driven foliage.
"Then the first large hailstones came, and as I took my seat again watching the school children who were showing signs of fear, a window back of me crashed. Others went out quickly, and the stones as large as one of my fists pelted the car with a rattle, like a riveting machine.
MAN [LIES] DOWN
"Darkness had settled, to such an extent that it was barely possible to see through the deluge of rain and hail, and most of us had given up trying to look out of the car, when the speed of the wind increased with a sudden burst that produced a decided jolt to the train. A man up in the front of the car put on his raincoat and [lay] down on the floor, and several of us began trying to get the school children to do likewise, but they were so scared that they paid little attention. They did not seem to be panic stricken, but were just crying and wailing, and each time the wind shrieked in a most unusual way the crying seemed to increase just as much.
"One of the women began praying during the worst of the storm, while the remainder of the passengers, who were not trying to quiet the children, just sat there and waited.
"I do not know how long the storm raged, for the minutes, of course, seemed longer, but it must have been 15 minutes before the break came and we were able to get outside. The train crew promptly checked up all passengers and found no one hurt, and after an investigation, discovered that a box car and a car loaded with cotton had been picked up out of the middle of the string of cars and blown into the ditch on the side of the track opposite that on which most of the trees had fallen. The couplings had not been damaged, and the train was quickly connected and started out of the woods.
MULES EATING QUIETLY
"As we ran into the cleared section of the country, we passed one small farmhouse that was badly damaged. The train was stopped and we made inquiry, learning that eight [people] had been in the house but were not hurt. Over a hill I saw the remnants of a barn, a complete interior, stalls, manger and wagon alley and two mules munching hay, while in all directions people could be seen running about, always toward the wreckage of some building, a house, a shed or a barn.
"We saw no injured, however, and ran on into Hope, where a crowd met the train at the station and first mention was made of the strange camouflage of leaves and twigs that plastered the windward side of the cars.
"Hope had learned of the storm and preparations then were underway for relief work. The same train that passed through the tornado later made the return trip, carrying physicians and searching parties into the storm belt.
"It was a most unusual experience, and I shall always recall those kids and their behavior during the worst minute any of them have passed through. I am glad no one was hurt in our crowd, and it is 'never again' for me, if I can help it."
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Dear Reader, tornado season is upon us. Pray that nothing so interesting happens.
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