For a space there will be a very high wind and some damage, but no such disaster as the tornado has previously wrought.

Out of the clouds will come occasional heavy missiles and deluges of water.

Then down goes the tornado again crashing and scattering by its own force and adding to its destructive power by a battery of timbers and other objects brought along from the previous impact.

Relieved of these masses, it again gathers up miscellaneous movables and repeats its previous operation.
The force with which these objects strike is best seen when they fall outside of the tornado's path, since the work done by the missile is not then disturbed by the general destructive force of the storm.
Thus, near Racine, Wis., I have known an ordinary fence rail, slightly sharpened on one end, to be driven against a young tree like a spear and pierce it several feet.

The velocity of the rail must have been something enormous, or otherwise the rail would have glanced from such a round and elastic object.
Many of the settlers in the tornado districts of Southern Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska excavate a deep cellar beneath their houses and cover it with heavy timbers as a place of refuge for their families when a tornado threatens to strike them.