--- title: Times and Seasons description: Issues of 1839 to 1840. authors: - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints editors: - Ebenezer Robinson - Don Carlos Smith - Smith, Joseph, Jr. - Taylor, John collections: - periodicals tags: - newspaper - times-and-seasons - nauvoo - nineteenth-century periodical: Times and Seasons volume: 1 number: 7 published: 1840-05 publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois language: en type: article reference: "“Dreadful Visitation of Providence,” *Times and Seasons* 1, no. 7 (May 1840): 104–105." printed_title: DREADFUL VISITATION OF PROVIDENCE. source: url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1840-05_1_7 transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v1n07.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair) identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1840-05_1_7 start_page: 104 end_page: 105 curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement. rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1840 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1840-05_1_7 publication_year: 1840 --- # Dreadful Visitation of Providence About 1 o'clock on Thursday, the 7th inst., the attention of the citizens of Natchez was attracted by on [an] unusual and continuous roaring, of thunder to the southward, at which point hang masses of black clouds, some of them stationary, and others whirling, along with under currents, but all driving a little east of north. As there was evidently much lightning the continual roar of growling thunder, although noticed and spoken of by many, created no particular alarm. The dinner bells in the large hotels had rung, a little before two o'clock, and most of our citizens were sitting at their tables when, suddenly, the atmosphere was darkened, so as to require the lighting of candles; and in a few moments afterwards, the rain was precipitated in tremendous than drops. In another moment the tornado, in all its wrath, was upon us. The strongest buildings shook as if tossed with an earthquake. The air was black with whirling eddies of house walls, roofs chimneys, huge timbers torn from distant ruins, all shot through the air as if thrown from a mighty catapult. The atmosphere soon became lighter, and then such an awful scene of ruin as perhaps never before met the eye of man became manifest. The greater part of the ruin was effected in the short space of from three to five minutes, although the heavy sweeping tornado lasted nearly half an hour.-For about five minutes it was more like the explosive force of gunpowder than anything, else it could have been compared to. Hundreds of rooms were burst open as sudden as if barrels of gunpowder had been ignited in each. As far as glasses or the naked eye can reach, the first traces of the tornado are to be seen from the Natchez bluff down the river about ten miles, bearing a considerable west of south. Sweeping across the Natchez island it crossed the point below the plantation of David Barland, Esq., opposite the plantations of P. M. Lapice, Esq., in the parish Concordia. It then struck the Natchez bluff about a mile and a half below, the city, near the mansion called the 'Briers,' which it but slightly injured, but swept the mansion late of Chas. R. Green, Esq., called the 'Bellveu,' and the ancient forest in which it was embosomed into a mass of ruins. It then struck the city through its whole width of one mile and included the entire river and the village of Vadalia on the Louisiana shore-making the path of the tornado a little more than two miles in width. At the Natchez landing on the river, the, ruins of dwellings, stores, steam boats, and flat boats, was almost entire from the Vadalia ferry to the Mississippi Cotton Press. A few torn fragments of dwellings still remain, but they can scarcer be called shelters. In the upper city, or Natchez on the hill, scarcely a house escaped damage or utter ruin. The Presbyterian and Methodist churches have their towers thrown down, their roofs broken and walls shattered. The Episcopal church is much injured in its roof.-Parker's great Southern Exchange is level with the dust. Great damage has been done to the City Hotel and the Mansion House both being unroofed, and the upper stories broken in. The house of sheriff Izod has not a timber standing, and hundreds of other 'buildings are in the same condition. The Court House at Vandalia, parish of Concordia, is utterly torn down, also the dwelling houses of Dr. M'Whorter and Messrs. Dunlap and Stacey, Esqrs. The parish jail is party torn down. From the ruins of the Steam Boat Hotel, Mr. Alexander, the landlord, his lady and bar-keeper were dug out alive, and also Timothy Flint, the historian and geographer, and his son from Natchitoches, La., besides Dr. Talifero and many others. Mrs. Alexander is considered dangerously injured. Two of her children were killed in her arms. As many as nine dead bodies have been dug out of the S. Boat Hotel. The number of burials which have taken place to-day is about fifty, and many are still in a very dangerous and dying condition. As soon as possible we shall publish a list of names of the killed wounded, and those missing whose bodies have not been found. Meanwhile we beg the indulgence of our kind friends and patrons for a few days in which time we shall be able to get our office in some order. The Free Trader office building has been crushed in and much shattered. We are all in confusion, and surrounded by the destitute, the houseless, the wounded and the dying. Our beautiful city is shattered as if it had been stormed by all the cannon of Austerlitz. Our delightful China trees all torn up. We are peeled and desolute [desolate ?]. The neighboring planters are generously sending in large gang's of slaves to assist in clearing the streets and digging the dead from the ruins. The estimate of the number of lives lost, by intelligent men from Natchez, is from 500 to 1000: but it was impossible to assertain [ascertain] the number with any thing like certainty, untill [until] the rubbish was cleared away, which will require several weeks. It has been assertained [ascertained] that there were 104 flat boats at the landing, only seven of which were saved. At the principal hotel, the boarders to the number of 60 or 80, were at dinner, and only 7 or 8 have been seen since. At the Steam Boat Hotel under the hill, about 60 were at dinner-only six have been found alive.