Barber County, Kansas.  

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Barber County Index, May 4, 1944.

Tornado Hits Near Pratt

Medicine Lodge residents are ready to call it quits as far as the rain is concerned but they may be thankful that their storms have been confined to rainfall as tornadoes were reported east, southwest and north Saturday night.

Four and one half miles east of Pratt the buildings on one farm were completely wiped out and left only the house on another. Slight damage was done in north Pratt. A twister was sighted near Wichita, one near Protection and another west of Muskogee, Okla., but they did no damage.

The farm buildings of Mrs. Robert Rolf, four and one half miles northeast of Pratt were demolished by an angry twister that struck at 11 p.m. Saturday night. An hour earlier, a cyclone hit the Gordon Faulkner home, two miles northwest of Croft, sweeping away all the buildings but the house. The J. R. Fulton home at 907 North Oak St., Pratt, the Walker second hand store and the Sinclair bulk station nearby were slightly damaged by wind.

Damages at the Rolf farm were almost complete. The large two-story completely modern farm house was flattened and twisted. The barn, machine shed, garage, cattle shed, chicken house, wash house and other buildings also were wrecked.

Reports from Coldwater said a hail storm that pounded the north part of Comanche county just about riddled the roof at the Ray Emerson farm home. Chunks of ice the size of croquet balls were hurled through the roof. All window panes on the north side of the house were smashed.

At the Bosley farm northeast of here, sought refuge from the large hailstones against a bank of the creek bed. The eight inch cloudburst with the hail storm made the creek a torrent, and two cows were washed down stream and drowned.


Thanks to Shirley Brier for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article to this web site!