BLOWN INTO THE RIVER
Jim Murray, employed on the Anchor Line wharfboat, was
sitting on the wharfboat when the tornado descended on the Levee. Foreseeing the danger,
Murray made a run for the shelter of the elevated road. The wind gratified his desire to
seek this shelter, but not before it had some fun with him. Murray was lifted off his feet
and blown over the "apron" of the boat into the river, landing in a dry dock
moored close by, used by carpenters to repair the hulls of vessels. The next instant the
dry dock, which is a hollow affair about 10 feet wide by 15 feet long, was blown westward
out of the water, tearing off a portion of the railing of the I apron. " It was
driven with great violence against the iron supports of the elevated railway, dumping
Murray out unceremoniously upon the ground. The dry dock was again taken up in a return
current of wind and carried out towards the river almost to the water's edge, where it was
caught by a reverse current, whirled high into the air and dashed to pieces against the
roadbed of the elevated, scattering debris all over the wharf. Murray was dazed and pretty
sorely bruised, but not injured otherwise, and he held on with a death grip to the
Terminal elevated support until the storm had spent itself.
