While a hundred church bells were announcing the closing service of the "feast of feasts," and a hundred thousand Omahans were preparing for the evening celebration of the resurrection, there rushed upon the city one of the most terrible combinations of the destroying elements. A tornado, the most furious and destructive ever recorded in America, tore its way through the heart of the residence portion of Omaha---a city of 140,000 souls.

Out of a mildly overcast sky a black cloud dropped, and a great bank of yellowish clouds formed a sinister background. With a grinding roar the death-dealing cloud made its way across the city, traveling faster than a mile a minute, and leaving in its wake a murky blackness, lighted now and again with lurid lightning that revealed a path of wreckage seven miles long and a quarter of a mile wide.

In an instant confusion reigned throughout a large section of the city. It would be hard to imagine a more complete paralysis of the city's normal functions. In the stricken district was chaos and suffering and consternation. In the down-town business district it was at least an hour before the man in the street and the lounger in the hotel lobby realized that a calamity had come upon the city. Street cars stopped, the lighting partially failed and telephones went out of commission.

Then the skyline was seen to be aglow to the north and west, and the shriek of the siren clang of the fire gong, and the swift whir of the motor ambulance impressed upon the business section the fact that something more than the ordinary fire had broken out.

Inhabitants of the devastated area were stunned by the force of the blow. Each one thought that his particular neighborhood was the most seriously hurt and no one knew that a tornado had traversed the city from side to side until nearly midnight.

THE PATH OF THE STORM

From the corner of Forty-sixth and Poppleton to Cutoff lake the path of the tornado was almost a direct line, though there were some places where it was wider than others. The centers of greatest damage were Bemis park, Sacred Heart academy, and Twenty-fourth and Lake streets. The railway trestle over the lake was partly carried away, and the storm continued its work in Council Bluffs.

In the West Farnam and Bemis park districts the property damage was great because of the fine residences which stood in the path of the tornado. Some of the finest residences in Omaha were either partially or wholly demolished.

Tragedies were not lacking in the homes of the rich although the death list was not large, due to the fact that the houses were farther apart than in the poorer district, where wreckage was piled in great heaps in the streets. G. L. Hammer of the Byrne-Hammer Dry Goods company, was so badly injured that his leg had to be amputated. Mrs. Hammer was badly injured, and the magnificent Hammer residence was piled into a heap of tangled debris.

The George Joslyn castle one of the sights of Omaha, was damaged, and the Joslyn gardens and conservatories, in which many thousands of dollars were invested, were ruined beyond repair.

The J. E. Trainor home was ruined. The solid granite, brick, and steel residence of R. B. Busch, vice president of the Crane company, was turned into a wreck.

When Judge Slabaugh's residence was scattered over several blocks, his young daughter, Miss Grace Slabaugh, suffered injury to her right wrist that may cut short one of the most promising of musical careers.

RELIEF STARTS AT ONCE

Within two hours after the twister had torn a path through the city every agency available was being rushed through the darkness to the relief of the victims. About the first organized aid to reach the scene consisted of 200 soldiers of the regular army stationed at Fort Omaha.

When Major Carl F. Hartmann saw the tornado passing over the city he knew there would be work for his men to do. He did not wait for the unwinding of military red tape nor for interchange of messages, nor the formal establishment of martial law. He ordered his men to the storm area on double-quick, and on the run they made the mile and a half between the fort and the dark, twisted ruins about Twenty-fourth and Lake streets. When they got there the work was at hand.

Flames were breaking out among the ruins up and down the belt of horror, and victims were pleading for someone to help them before the fire should reach them.

The entire fire and police departments of Omaha were rushed to the scene, and the men scattered over wide areas of desolation. Council Bluffs was called upon, and the firemen of that city arrived while nearly a score of fires were burning.

For half an hour it seemed as though the entire storm-swept area would be devoured by flames, which were fast spreading from wreck to wreck. In the region of modest residences along Franklin and Decatur streets the flames spread rapidly, and the homeless victims who had escaped from the ruins retreated toward the city.

To one approaching the burning rows of houses from the south the spectacle was one to terrify. Hundreds of men and women, leading or carrying children, were hastening along, they knew not where. Many were dazed by the calamity that had befallen them. Some of the women were hysterical. Scores of the victims were bleeding from numerous wounds received when their homes were destroyed.

REFUGEES GATHER

At the top of a high hill overlooking the burning lines of wreckage 300 refugees from a large storm-stricken area had gathered. Some were silent, some wept as they surveyed the ruin spread out below them, and some frantically implored aid in searching for missing relatives.

The firemen were unable to get their engines within half a mile of the fires, and ran stumbling through the darkness, carrying their hose upon their shoulders. Arrived at the fires they often found water plugs covered under tons of debris, and usually threw away their hose so that they might advance the urgent work of rescue.

WILD RUMORS AFLOAT

Rumors of a moving picture theater having been destroyed near the corner of Twenty-fourth and Lake streets, spread faster than any other information in connection with the storm. Persons who wished to render service, heard all along the line that a picture show house had collapsed in the storm, burying alive hundreds of spectators.

While these rumors proved to be untrue, as all patrons of the show had escaped alive, it served to concentrate the rescuers where they were most needed--near Twenty-fourth and Lake. In an area covering four blocks, having its center at this corner, perished nearly half of those who were killed instantly by the tornado. In this district also many of the heroic rescues were made.

During the hours that followed the terrible work of the storm hundreds of heroic deeds were done. Lives we're saved at the risk of life by men and boys who had never laid claims to heroism. Those whose lives had been spared by the storm collected their scattered wits, saw their families on the way to some temporary shelter, and set about the work of dragging from the ruins those who had had no chance of escape.

RAIN PREVENTS FIRE

A heavy downpour of rain prevented the spread of the fires after 8 o'clock, and by 9 o'clock only smoldering piles of ruins marked the section that had threatened a general conflagration.

Every ambulance, hearse and taxicab in the city was engaged in the rescue work, or other work in connection with the storm, between 8 o'clock and daylight.

Daylight showed a list of nearly 100 killed. The list has since grown to nearly 140. Hundreds of the injured were treated at emergency hospitals established in wrecked buildings, where doctors and nurses spent the night in providing emergency treatment for victims. Many of those who suffered minor injuries did not report their names to any institution or organization. The number of injured whose injuries were serious enough for extended hospital treatment, reached 350.

The tornado's path included the homes of the very wealthy in the West Farnam and Bemis Park district, homes of hundreds of middle-class business and professional men, dwellings of many foreigners on Franklin and Decatur streets, and residences of negroes in the vicinity of Twenty-fourth and Lake.

Five school buildings were badly damaged, eleven churches wrecked; three convents partially destroyed, one hospital damaged, and a children's home almost demolished. Street car, telephone, telegraph and railroad companies suffered loss of millions of dollars. In Ralston, which is practically a part of Omaha, almost every business, including some large factories, was wiped out.

STYLISH RESIDENCE RUINED

In the Bemis Park district hundreds of homes lay in shapeless ruins. Some of the city's most substantial business men were missing from their offices Monday morning. They were busy nailing boards across the front doorways of their homes, which the day before were resplendent in Easter' holiday decorations.

Society women who shone in the "Easter parade" on Sunday were picking up their silverware out of the grass, digging keepsakes out of ditches and looking longingly up into the trees at the remains of their Easter finery.

Hundreds of society women and business men, wedged closely between those of humbler station in life, waited hours in line at the "information stations," for passes, so that they might not be turned away from their homes.

R. B. Busch, vice president of the Crane company, had a hammer in his right hand, and pounded vigorously to board up the windows, of his residence at Thirty-eighth and California. His is one of the finest residences in that neighborhood, and was built three years ago under the personal direction of Mr. Busch. The Busch residence was whipped about on all sides by the twister, and timbers driven endwise through walls.

The Genoa apartments, three-story building at 3830 Cass street, were blown out like a candle. The building was not demolished, but every apartment was swept clean of furniture and hangings. Every window was blown out and pieces of the furniture were hurled through walls a quarter of a mile away. Six families were moving--they had not much to move--out of the apartments early Monday morning.

The big Catholic cathedral, in course of construction, did not suffer the loss of a brick. Bishop Scannell's residence at Thirty-sixth and Burt streets, was badly damaged. Bishop Scannell was at home, but was uninjured. St. Cecilia's school building had many windows broken, and fences about it were torn down.

The Methodist hospital presented a desolate picture, and the walks leading to it were crowded with anxious relatives who pleaded with lines of guards to permit them to visit a sick person dear to them. Paler faces might be seen coming in at the front door than on the white cots that were huddled together in the dismal wards, their narrow confines crowded to the limit with storm victims taken to the hospital during the night because they must be taken somewhere and a hospital with the windows broken out was considered better than the open roadside.

Miss Ella Holmes and Miss Flora Cassell, nurses at the Methodist hospital, were seriously injured when the walls of the nurses' home, 803 North Thirty-fifth street, crumbled in the wind. Miss Cassell's right foot was amputated and she died two days later.

A STOICAL VICTIM

G. W. Stipe, laborer, stood outside of his burning home at Twenty-eighth and Franklin, with his young son beside him. Both were slightly bruised, and what clothing they had managed to save was scanty and torn. With his hand on his son's shoulder, Mr. Stipe received the consolation of casual passers-by with excellent spirit.

"I feel. like one of the richest men in Omaha," he said, "though I have no hat, and there goes up in smoke all the savings of my life. I have worked hard many a year for that little home, but somehow I can't cry about the loss of it. Here is my son, safe and more or less sound, and my wife and daughter are visiting in Lincoln. I would not have had them witness this for any money. So you see I am indeed fortunate."

Not a dollar's worth of goods was left of Stipe's possessions.

STREET CAR WRECKED

Street car number 862, on the North Twenty-fourth street line, was almost totally demolished by the cyclone. It was caught close to the corner of Twenty-fourth and Lake streets. There were ten passengers on the car, and all were injured.

Conductor Charles J. Caldwell, residing at Forty-first and Fowler streets, said: "I was on the back platform, when I saw the cyclone coming. I gave the signal to stop, shouted to my passengers that a cyclone was coming, and ran for a basement of an unfinished building. I jumped into the basement, and three or four passengers were beside me. Wreckage flew over us, and a lot of boards were piled on top of us.

"It seemed to me that the horror lasted about two minutes. Then I crawled out and picked up two of my passengers, a man and a woman, who were lying unconscious in the street."

How anybody, could live in the car of which Caldwell was conductor is a mystery to those viewing the wreck. Every window was broken out, bricks and debris of all kinds, were piled inside the car and every seat was torn loose. A scantling was driven through the car and wedged between the seats and the side of the car.

Caldwell did not secure the names of any of his passengers. "I didn't quite have time to make out accident reports, as required by the rules of the company," said Caldwell; "but I am complying with the rule about not deserting the car." He stayed by his wrecked car all night, and until 4:45 the following morning. A horse and buggy were wedged under the car.

HOW THE STORM SPREAD DESOLATION

Decatur and Franklin streets were filled with debris and lined with blazing homes for three quarters of a mile, immediately after the cyclone. As the fires spread the destitute families wrapped their wet and ragged garments about them and hurried toward the central portion of the city.

The high hill overlooking the scene of desolation in the Decatur district was early crowded with the destitute and injured victims of the storm, scores of men and women weeping silently as they watched the wrecks of their homes lighting up the lowering sky.

Many of the victims, exhausted and almost hysterical, gathered together in family groups and sat on the sidewalks through the cold rain that followed the cyclone.

For three hours the fires lighted up the sky. As the light died down the refugees from the stricken district wandered aimlessly on, unable to command the services of any vehicle unless there were a very badly injured one in the family.

Mrs. G. E. Medlock was about to give birth to a baby, when her home at Twenty-ninth and Decatur streets was blown to atoms. Her husband was badly cut about the head, and two little daughters were injured. Most of the clothing was torn from the bodies of all members of the family.

DRENCHED FOR FOUR HOURS

Mrs. Medlock, attended only by her children and injured husband, lay in a roofless house for four hours, drenched with rain. A motor hearse was stopped by the injured man, and took Mrs. Medlock to the home of a friend. She is reported to be in serious condition.

Mr. and Mrs. Planteen of 2710 Decatur, rushed to the basement when they saw the storm coming. With their arms locked about each other they waited, while their home crashed about their ears.

When they had been rescued, Mrs. Planteen, standing amid the wreckage of her house, wept bitterly because two dogs, "Raffles" and "Toddy," both registered and worth about $500 each, were killed. Mr. Planteen, a carpenter, was keeping the dogs for a friend.

The family of John Gotisdinner, 2610 Franklin, fared badly in the storm, though none was killed. Three sons, John, Abe, and Joseph, were severely injured, and the house was demolished.

Miss Mary Lieberman, 2827 Franklin, was cut by flying glass.

The home of Walter Petersen, a two-story brick structure standing on a high hill at Twenty-eighth and Decatur, was completely demolished. Neighbors searched in the ruins, but found no trace of anyone, living or dead. There were seven children in the Petersen family.

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The excerpts you are reading are from a small book entitled "Tornado - Omaha, Easter Sunday, March 23rd - 1913" and was distributed by the Omaha Daily News. You can read the entire booklet by clicking HERE

Shorthly thereafter, another one was published, this time from the Omaha Bee - You can see that one by clicking HERE