Banner Graphic, Greencastle, Putnam County, 4 April 1974 — Page 3

THurtdqy, April 4,1974

Banner-Graphic, Graancastle, Indiana

Pag* 3

HUNDREDS KILLED

DEATH TOLL MOUNTS; DAMAGE IN MILLIONS

T ornadoesRip N ation

By JERRY GARRETT Associated Press Writer Hoosiers began digging out today after a herd of deadly tornadoes gouged through Ind i a n a Wednesday, killing scores, injuring hundreds and leaving possibly thousands homeless in the state’s worst natural disaster since the Palm Sunday tornadoes in 1965. At least 63 persons were known dead, and as many as 1,000 injured. At Monticello, where a five block section of downtown was completely obliterated, eight were confirmed fatalities with five more believed drowned in the Tippecanoe River after a Volkswagen bus with members of a church group was blown ott a bridge. More than 300 were injured, most at the Bryan Manufacturing Co., where 140 persons were working on the building’s third floor when tornadoes hit. An eye witness called the area “a scene of total devastation.” Running water, electricity and natural gas service was still out by early morning. At least a half dozen smaller communities were literally wiped off the map, state police reported. Martinsburg, in Washington County, “just isn’t there anymore,” said a state trooper. Shortly after the brunt of the tornadoes hit, an earth tremor, registering 5.C on the Richter scale jolted most of western Indiana and eastern Illinois. No damage was reported. National Weather Service officials said some theories associate earth tremors with intense low pressure systems, as the one that spawned Wednesday’s tor-

nadoes.

In Indiana, Gov. Otis R. Bowen ordered the National Guard in six counties where tornadoes heavily damaged scores of small towns in the central and southeastern portions. Depauw, a town of 500, was leveled. Temporary morgues were set up. Nine communities were without telephone service and Indiana Bell said it would be days and perhaps weeks before communications could be fully

restored.

Dozens of people were unaccounted for and officials feared the death toll would go higher as searches intensified today. The major thrust of tornadoes was along four wide swaths through Indiana from the southwest to the northeast corner of the state. The Monti-

elec-

cello area tornado cut a

up to two miles wide. Communications and

tricity were still out in some areas, but those believed hardest hit were Jefferson County. Fulton County, and White Coun-

ty-

Death tolls mounted today in the paths of tornadoes that smashed a deadly trail from the Deep South, through the Ohio Valley and into Canada. More than 260 persons were killed, hundreds were injured and damage ran into the millions of dollars. The twisters struck late Wednesday, dipping into villages, cities and rural sections. They left areas in shambles in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan and Windsor, Ont. The vicious winds destroyed half the town of Xenia, Ohio. They demolished neighborhoods, leveled buildings, blew over railroad freight cars, trac-tor-trailer trucks and autos. Rubble stood five feet deep in some business areas. Siren-screaming ambulances rushed victims to hospitals while terrified survivors huddled together in grief and shock. Telephone communications were knocked out in most areas and National Guard units were called up to help evacuation efforts and to prevent looting. Heavy rains ? id hail also struck the storm areas. “We had about 30 seconds warning before it hit," said Gary Heflin, a grocery store manager in Xenia. “All you could hear was the wind, the crashes and people praying.” Half the town of Xenia, Ohio, was destroyed. “It’s complete devastation," a Red Cross worker said. Another witness called it “worse than any of the bombings in Germany” during World War II. At least 1,000 persons were homeless. Rows of bodies were arranged in the rubble-strewn streets. More victims were believed trapped in overturned cars, but heavy equipment was unable to get through the streets to lift the vehicles. The vicious winds demolished neighborhoods, leveled buildings, blew over railroad freight cars, tractor trailer trucks and autos. Rubble stood five feet deep in some business areas.

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KENNARD Ind. (AP> - Marilyn Leavelle heard the sirens and thought it must be another fire. It turned out she was wrong. The wailing of emergency vehicles’ sirens announced the impending arrival of a tornado that eventually would level a large portion of the rural community where she lived. “I was in the house,” Mrs. Leavelle said. 'And I heard a siren that made me think, ‘My gosh, there’s another fire.’ ” Her husband, Elbert, had left home earlier in the afternoon to join fellow volunteer Kennard firemen on a call. Mrs. Leavelle stepped outside her house and saw it was- hailing. “It was real large hail, so I went back and got my cam-

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era to take a picture for our son who is in the service." “All of a sudden, it got real quiet.” Moments later her husband rushed home and said a tornado was headed their way. The Leavelles rushed to their basement, and the tornado ripped off a large chunk of their home. “It used to be a beautiful home,” she said later as firemen tacked down tarpaper where green roofing shingles had been. Less than a block away, the Kennard school stood against the evening sky like an embattled war relic. Wind-torn trees, an overturned school bus and debris littered the playground. The brick school building itself had been torn apart by the funnel cloud. The children, however, were safe. Clocks in the central Indiana community of 400 stopped at 3:15 p.m. moments before children attending the town’s only school had boarded two buses for the daily ride home. Luckily, someone saw the funnel approaching, and the youngsters were rushed back inside to the safety of the school basement. At least 14 homes, two churches and the grade school were severely damaged or destroyed. The narrow Kennard main street was strewn with splintered trees, parts of houses, business signs and battered automobiles. A state police trooper who saw the tornado coming said it “must have been a tenth of a mile wide, with other little funnels around it.” The trooper, Sgt. Ernie H. Alder, who lives in the stricken area, said he was on patrol, heard the severe weather warnings, and headed home. Driving east on Interstate 70 he saw a massive black twister rumbling across farm fields toward the highway. “I was going to stop traffic back away from where it was going to cross the road. “But it was raining so hard I was afraid if I stopped, I would cause an accident.”

else I can say about it.”

MONTICELLO Ind. (AP)Monticello woke up this morning only to find that most of it was no longer there. Few buildings in the community of 4,800 people, about 25 miles north of Lafayette in northern Indiana, escaped a destructive tornado that slashed through the town late Wednesday afternoon. There were eight confirmed deaths and a National Guardsman said the count could reach as high as 20. White County sheriffs deputies estimated 300 injured, and said 41 were hospitalized, Bat White County Hospital at Monticello and the rest in Lafayette hospitals.

A. Hager for the grim chore of identifying them, notifying relatives and ultimately the press. Most of the bodies were found in the rubble of this community of 1,600, the Meade County seat and the town hardest hit as funnel clouds raked the state Wednesday afternoon and eve-

ning.

Late Wednesday night crews dug through the debris by searchlight under a moonlit sky, and the bodies continued to turn up. Rain came about midnight and the search slacked off until morning.

County Judge James Greer said 28 bodies had been brought to Central Elementary School, which was used as a temporary morgue. And police officials agreed soberly that daylight would turn up more. Kentucky appeared to be the hardest hit, with 73 known dead and hundreds injured. Sheriff David Ridenour said he saw the twister coming. *1 got a call they were touching down,” he said. “I saw it forming, and that’s when I called

Judge Greer.

Judge Greer was in his office on the top floor of the county courthouse when he got Ridenour’s call. “I saw it going up and down but when it finally set down it stayed down. It took it about five minutes to cut through

town”

“Many of the dead were young,” said Greer. And Sheriff Ridenour said 'There were babies in there that were not more than six weeks old.” Today was to be a day of reckoning for Brandenburg, for

counting the dead and assessing the damage. Donated machinery cleared most of the streets of rubble Wednesday night, pushing it off to the side. But Greer said, 'It will take a month to clean it

up.”

Greer said he couldn’t sum up the damage. “I thought I could. But that was before I saw it all. I thought a third was destroyed at first, but it’s more than that.” After that for Brandenburg, the weary judge added patiently: Lord, 1 don’t know.”

BRANDENBURG Ky. (AP> — The dead of Kentucky’s tor-nado-blasted Meade County were brought today to the funeral home of Coroner Kenneth

♦♦ State-By-State Death Toll ♦♦

Here is a state-by-state death toll from the tornadoes which struck a

wide area Wednesday:

INDIANA: 63 dead, at least 1,000 injured. Damage estimated at at least $25 million, hardest hit areas Hanover, in southern Indiana, and Monticello and Rochester, in north-central Indiana. National Guard called up. Telephone service down in stricken areas. KENTUCKY: 77 dead, at least 280 injured. Heavy damage at Louisville, Frankfort and Brandenberg. National Guard called up. Telephone service down in stricken areas. ALABAMA: 69 dead, at least 350 injured, Damage estimated in millions. Hardest hit Huntsville-Decatur area, Athens, Jasper, Moulton, all in northern Alabama. TENNESSEE: 55 dead, hundreds injured. Heaviest damage at Cleveland and Etowah in southeast and Cookville and Nashville area.

National Guard called up.

OHIO: 30 dead, more than 500 injured. Town of Xenia, near Dayton in Southwest, half destroyed, thousands homeless. National Guard called up. Cincinnati damage estimated at $15 million to $20 million. Telephone service out in stricken areas. GEORGIA: 15 dead, more than 60 injured. Heavy damage throughout northwestern area. ONTARIO, Canada:8 dead at Windsor, at least 10 injured. NORTH CAROLINA: 4 dead. Damage at Murphy and Stecoah in

western section.

MICHIGAN: 3 dead. Most damage in Hillsdale, southeast of De-

troit.

ILLINOIS: 2 dead, 22 injured. Damage estimated at $1.2 million in Decatur area. WEST VIRGINIA: I dead. Two tornadoes hit the town of Meadow Bridge about 50 miles southeast of Charleston. Several were injured.

CHARLOTTESVILLE Ind. (AP) — “We won’t have to worry about looters tonight,” said the man in the blue work shirt. 'There’s nothing left to take.” He stood Wednesday afternoon at what had been a trailer park. Moments before it was torn apart by two tornadoes that destroyed everything in their path from Fountaintown north to Charlottesville in central Indiana—a distance of more than 12 miles. Mrs. Lincoln Myers, whose home near the trailer park wasn’t touched, saw the twisters come. She told her neighbors she heard the sound of the wind and “saw the timbers flying and tree limbs whirling through the air.” She and her husband lay on the ground and clung to fenceposts to keep from being swept away as the tornado flattened the 11 homes in the park. Officials said seven persons were injured. Charlottesville volunteer fireman Roscoe Wooten stood by the road outside the park. He was there to help, but mostly, he could only tell his friends their homes were gone. Wooten said there were two tornadoes. “One came from the west and the other from the south at about the same time. Those concrete slabs there are all they left of the trailers.” Just west of Charlottesville in Stringtown, several men stood together outside the roofless Stringtown Church of the Nazarene. The clock in the church had stopped at 3:07 p.m. On a winding, blacktopped country road near the trailer park, two tearful housewives— Nancy Rowland and Linda Snofford—dazedly tugged at tom sweaters, muddy towels and ripped pieces of clothing stuck on a barbed-wire fence. They were a few feet from what had been a two-story home owned by their father. Dale Copple. There was nothing left. Another man who lost his home was Donald N. Johnson. All that was left of his house on U.S. 40 in Charlottesville was a spiral staircase. “Fd just finished remodeling this place,” he said. “I was ready to move my family in next week. I don’t know what

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