Charleston, South Carolina, USA
1938 - 25 DIE, 340 HURT IN CHARLESTON STORM. MANY FAMOUS OLD LANDMARKS BLOWN DOWN BY TORNADO.

Damage Estimated At $2,000,000 As Tornado Strikes Historic City Unawares; Vast Scenes Of Wreckage; St. Michael's Church Battered; Fine Trees Uprooted in Battery; City Hall Roof Blown Off; Colleges Not Hit.

CHARLESTON, S. C., Sept. 29 - (AP) - A destructive tornado whipped through Charleston early today, killing at least 25 persons, injuring an estimated 340, and doing property damage unofficially estimated at $2,000,000.

Striking shortly after 8 a. m., the storm threw the city into confusion. Telephone and telegraph communication was disrupted.

Traffic through city streets was impeded by fallen trees and by live electric wires. The city power station failed completely.

Many historic landmarks were damaged, some severely. An undetermined number of small cabins were leveled. The number made homeless was unestimated. Most of them were Negroes.

A portion of the old city market crumpled. Several of the identified victims met death here.

Fifteen dead were identified. Hospitals were swamped in caring for the injured. And no list of the latter was available hours after the blow had passed. Their number was place at more than 300.

Soldiers and marines, by order of President Roosevelt, joined National Guardsmen in helping municipal authorities preserve order. The Red Cross offered its services.

The storm did not touch the colleges and schools of the city.

On Sullivan's Island, resort community across the harbor, a score of houses were reported blown away but no one was injured.

Federal Judge Frank K. Myers telegraphed President Roosevelt -

"During the emergency following the tornado this morning please authorize troops now assembling for protection of government property to cooperate in general patrol work with the city administration through the mayor or a committee of safety now being organized."

Some of the victims of the storm today were identified as follows:
MRS. RUTH MEHRTENS, 26, IRVIN H. MEHRTENS, 3, MIRIAM ZEIGLER, 14, and FLOYD SINGLETARY, 9, all of 25 Market street.
AUDIE T. REDMOND, 35, 22 Pitt street.
S. L. WESTCOAT, 65, 4 Kenilworth street.
G. F. HEATHINGTON, 54, Meggett.
MARION HJ. JOSEY, 45, GRACE BELLE JOSEY, 36, MARY BELLE JOSEY, 16, WALTER FRANKLIN JOSEY, 5, and GARDENIA DRIGGERS, all of 45 State street.
BARBARA GRAHAM, 17, 7 Fludd street.
CHRISTINA OLIVER, 29 Market street.
EVA REEVES, James island.

The storm lasted "no longer than a half-minute," MANNING J. RUBIN, Charleston newspaperman, said.

He said that telephone lines were down and live power lines and trees blocked streets, making it difficult to obtain information immediately.

The storm struck only in spots. The section at Broad and Meeting streets, where are located St. Michael's Episcopal church, city hall, county court house and post office, was badly hit.

Roofs were taken away from St. Michael's, the city hall and Timrod Inn, RUBIN said, and all trees in the city hall park were uprooted.

"At least a half-dozen buildings in the upper section of Ashley avenue are reported down," the newspaperman said, "including a Negro church at Sumner street and Ashley avenue."

Names of the dead persons were not immediately available. Three or four, RUBIN said were killed at the city market, which was badly damaged. One was reported killed in Ladson street.

At Columbia, the WPA made arrangements to assist the storm-stricken.

Georgetown, reported struck also, experienced only a high wind and heavy rain.

An emergency call was sent out from Roper Hospital, Charleston's largest, for all physicians to report there immediately as the injured were being brought there by every available conveyance.

Many of the city's history-steeped buildings were in ruins, St. Michael's episcopal church, erected long before the Revolutionary war, was considerably damaged as well as the old market place.

A Negro Baptist church in the heart of the city was demolished but it was unoccupied at the time.

The roof of the city hall was blown away, and time-honored Timrod Inn, a small hotel, in the same vicinity, was badly damaged.

Charleston's beautiful battery, a mecca for tourists, was stripped of many fine old trees and debris littered the park.

In every direction as far as the eye could see, there was a vision of unroofed buildings and other wreckage.

MANNING J. RUBIN, city editor of The Charleston Evening Post in which vicinity of Meeting street, the tornado did much damage, said he was "dazed by the sudden fury with which the storm struck."

"I was on my way to work and had just parked my car in a torrential downpour," he said, "when I heard an almost deafening roar."

"I did not see any buildings collapse, it did not last more than thirty seconds or a minute at the most in the neighborhood I was in. As soon as I got to the office, a stone's throw away, I saw that all the electricity was off."

"Looking from the window, I noticed the roof of the Timrod Inn had disappeared. The nearby market place was badly damaged. As far as we could see from the windows of the office, Charleston presented wrecked buildings and uprooted trees. A person in a nearby building struck by the storm didn't have a chance, so violent, unexpected and swift was the attack."

"The storm apparently dipped into all parts of the city with a toll of wreckage every where it touched."

The dead may run beyond 22, but that many already are in the morgues. The injured probably will reach three hundred or more but there is no way of telling the exact amount as the hospitals are glutted with activity in trying to take care of the situation. All power plants are out of commission and telephone connections are badly disrupted.

J. E. LOCKWOOD, U. S. meteorologist, said he believed two tornadoes struck the city a few minutes apart.

The first apparently roared in from the west across the Ashley river bridge, he said. It did not approach the weather bureau near enough for the instruments to record it.

The second came in from the southwest a few minutes later and struck the Battery. A wind velocity of 72 miles an hour, just three miles less than hurricane force, was recorded for this blow, LOCKWOOD said.

On South Battery fine old colonial homes, many of them bought by wealthy northerners in recent years, were badly tattered.

Two companies of South Carolina National Guardsmen assisted in maintaining order. Detachments of soldiers from Fort Moultrie and marines from the navy yard were ordered out to augment their strength. Shipping in port escaped undamaged. Except for the Battery, where a number of beautiful trees were blown down, the waterfront was unscathed.

The city's water systems continued to function without interference.

Gastonia Daily Gazette
North Carolina
September 29, 1938

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