Banner Graphic, Volume 14, Number 179, Greencastle, Putnam County, 4 April 1984 — Page 2
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The Putnam County Banner-Graphic, April 4,1984
10 years as ter l Xenia residents can laugh now as they look back at tragedy
c. 1984 N.Y. Times News Service XENIA, Ohio The city official clicked his way through a batch of color slides showing the devastation that whirled from the skies through this town 10 years ago Tuesday afternoon. “Look at that,” someone said, “A refrigerator out in the middle of nowhere. See. they were out of beer anyway.” Everybody laughed, then caught themselves. "How about that?” said the official. “We’ve come so far we can even laugh about it.” “It” was a killer tornado that roared through here at 4:40 the afternoon of April 3,1974. In the last 3,652 days, Xenia (pronounced ZEEN-yuh) has gone from normality through terror and death, shock and desperation, resignation and determination, disappointment and grumbling and back to normality. “It’ll never be the same again,” said Robert Stewart, the city manager, who hid from the 325-mile-an-hour winds in the hall of City Hall, then led the anguished reconstruction of this southwestern Ohio city of 25,000 people. Last week, when they heard of the tornado devastation in the Carolinas that killed 61 people and injured 1,100, Xenia residents were reminded of all they had accomplished since 32 of their neighbors died in such a storm. Monday at noon the new disaster sirens sounded in their regular monthly test. Tueday morning was the annual prayer breakfast. And later came the city tour for a handful of industrial magazine reporters flown to this
25 tornadoes, six-inch rains spawned by spring storm
By RON SIRAK Associated Press Writer A furious spring storm hammered its way across the Southeast today after hurling two dozen tornadoes at the Mississippi Valley and pouring up to 6 inches of rain on Florida, while efforts to reopen snowburied roads in Colorado were hampered by 45 mph winds. ' For the second time in less than a month twisters tore through northeast Arkansas on Tuesday, striking 12 communities. About a dozen homes were destroyed, and a church near Bowman was turned\ to rubble. Tornadoes also touched down in Missouri and Illinois, where the tops were torn off a church and a house, the National
Banner-Graphic “It Waves For AH" USPSI42-020 Consolidation of The Dally Banner Established 1850 The Herald , The Daily Graphic Established 1883 Telephone 653-5151 Published daily except Sundays and lOlldays by LuMar Newspapers, Inc. at 100 lorth Jackson St., Greencastle, Indians 6135. Entered in the Post Office al ireencastle, Indiana, as 2nd class mail matter inder Act of March 7,1878. Subscription Rates •er Week, by carrier *I.OO ■er Month, by motor route *4.55 Mall Subscription Rates R.R. in Rest of Rest of Putnam County Indiana U.S.A. 3 Months *13.80 *14.15 ‘17.25 6 Months *27.60 *28.30 *34.50 1 Year *55.20 ‘56.60 *69.00 Mail subscriptions payable in advance . . . not accepted In town and where motor route service is available. Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is entitled exclusively o the use for republication of all the local tews printed In this newspaper.
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Weather Service said. No injuries were reported. The weather service warned of flash flooding in Florida today after rains soaked Apalachicola with 6 inches in a 9-hour period ending Tuesday night. The Suwannee River was above flood stage from its source in the Okefenokee Swamp to the Gulf of Mexico, officials said. Colorado authorities, meanwhile, said they have accounted for all motorists missing during a near-blizzard that dumped up to 15 inches of snow on the eastern part of the state Tuesday. But Interstate 70 and 12 other major highways in the east-central part of the state remained closed as winds hin-
VET CENTER APPROVED INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Vietnam Veterans Civic Council said its proposal for a veterans hospital medical stress center has received tentative approval from the Veterans Administration. Council chairman Ron Stamps of Indianapolis had proposed the center to deal in part with delayed stress syndrome resulting from the Vietnam War. The proposal has been tentatively approved by the VA’s medical director from District 15, which includes hospitals in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Marion and in Danville, 111., Stamps said. The proposal is scheduled to be reviewed in Washingtonby Nov. 1.
strategically situated city to hear a special message of rebirth for potential investors: “Come bloom with Xenia.” “There’s a lot more to a tornado than meets the eye,” said Stewart, who had just hung up the phone that afternoon when Paul Larch walked in with words that chill the blood of any Midwesterner: “A twister is coming!” Severe storms are part of life in this region, especially in the climatically tumultuous change in seasons. Thunderstorms 12 miles tall rage across the land, their surging currents of hot and cold air mixing violently and releasing more energy than a 20kiloton atomic bomb. In another era grandparents told frightened youngsters it was nature’s way of reminding humans who was boss. But every now and then, for reasons the frightened adults had no time to explain, a thunderstorm would get out of hand. The wheels of wind would move faster and faster, creating the weird roar etched in the memory of all survivors. A tornado is one thing on the evening news. But it is quite another when a bouncing finger of consuming black cloud comes right down Trumbull Street, twisting giant trees out of the ground and shredding them. Windows explode. Roofs and whole houses disintegrate. Cars disappear, some forever. Water coolers fly around a room like a deflating balloon. Dreams are shattered. Nightmares are born. “I was scared for three days,” one youngster wrote in a collec-
dered clearing away 6-foot snowdrifts. Sixty-one people were killed when a series of tornadoes cut a path of death across Georgia and the Carolinas on March 28. But for northeast Arkansas, Tuesday was a flashback to March 15 when twisters there killed six people. Besides Gosnell, tornadoes were reported in or around Oil Trough, Salem, Tuckerman, Grubbs, Otwell, Paragould, White Oak, Laredo, Marked Tree and Blytheville. More than a dozen tornadoes slammed into Missouri on Tuesday, the weather service said, most of them darting around the towns of Senath, Cardwell, Honersville and Arbyrd in the state’s boot heel.
True confessions 'Quiet, religious' woman admits drowning daughter
ACTON, Mass. (AP) Neighbors said they were stunned by the arrest of a “quiet and religious” woman who allegedly blurted out to a bishop that she drowned her daughter a decade ago to shield the girl from the kind of abuse the woman said she herself once suffered. Nancy Cross, 41, was indicted on a first-degree murder charge Monday in the death of her 8-year-old daughter Wendy Lynn, who drowned Sept. 20, 1973, off Cape Cod, authorities said. The drowning had been ruled accidental, even though police had noticed a discrepancy of two hours between when the drowning occurred and when it was reported. But the case was reopened after Mormon church officials persuaded Mrs. Cross to go to police two months ago, based on her alleged admission to the bishop during a counseling session, investigators said. She faces arraignment April 24 and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted, officials said. “We would have never known,” said one neighbor, asking anonymity. “She was so quiet and religious.” Mrs. Cross “was friendly but distant,” another neighbor in this rural Boston suburb said Tuesday. “She was sweet to our little girls, but she hardly ever spoke to us.” “I thought she was running a Bible group or something,” said the first neighbor. “I know she was very religious, and she always had something religious out on her door.”
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Dogs, of course, are supposed to be man's best friend. But the closeness of this canine companion seems to be the extreme, young Marshall Lucas and his dog
tion of essays preserved by Louise Hutchinson at the library. In 120 seconds a 3,300-foot wide wall of wind wreaked SSOO million in damage. It demolished half the city’s businesses, 70 percent of the police cars, nine schools and 1,249 homes, severely damaging 3,000 others. It also perched Richard Montgomery’s car on top of a concrete wall, drove a wooden pole into the transmission and deposited a toaster in the back seat. For a while residents concentrated on cleaning up small things like tidying a kitchen without walls, because the big things were too much to comprehend. When Montgomery, an insurance agent, went to his office at the top of the stairs to check his files, they were gone. So was his office. The old Xenia, hundreds of tons of it in unorganized rubble, was buried in a nearby limestone quarry where rabbits now run and grasses and scrub brush grow. With huge federal and state aid, Xenia has rebuilt. A new mall replaced much of downtown. The last major project, a Rodeway Motel, opens in August. And forced to think in new ways, Xenia is planning an economic future like few communities its size. “It took us 171 years to build what we had,” said Stewart, “We pretty much rebuilt it all in just 10 years at a time of national economic uncertainty. That’s not too bad, you know. And we still have Little League.” Still, scars remain. Few trees are as large as a man’s arm. Some vacant lots, with evidence of a foundation enfolded, still
lucky were cheek to cheek when they settled down for a spring snooze on a nippy afternoon this week. (AP Wirephoto).
Mrs. Cross allegedly revealed the killing last fall while talking with the bishop about the Biblical commandment “Thou shalt not kill,” a church elder said Tuesday. “In the process of doing that, she had this problem that had been bothering her for a number of years,” said R.L. Pitcher, the president of the Nashua, N.H., Mormon ward. “She says, ‘I want to tell you about this incident.’ “She was very sorry, very emotional, about what she claimed she had done in killing her daughter,” he said. Pitcher said he and Bishop Ferris Taylor of the Littleton First Ward of the Mormon Church urged Mrs. Cross to go to the police. She did so two months ago, a written statement in hand, authorities said. The investigation was reopened, and police investigators said Mrs. Cross described the drowning to them in detail. “Apparently the girl was very sweet and gentle, and the mother just carried her out to the beach and held her under the waves,” said State Trooper Michael McComiskey. “She told police then that a wave took her out,” he said. “But she told us that she was afraid her own child would be abused. “She was abused as a child herself, and she had such serious emotional and psychological problems, she didn’t want the same thing happening to her daughter,” said McComiskey, who interviewed Mrs. Cross’ ex-husband, Marshall Cross of Stow.
200 ships reportedly involved
Soviets in naval maneuvers
LONDON (AP) A NATO official says more than 200 Soviet naval vessels, led by the nuclear-powered battle cruiser Kirov and including an estimated 20 submarines, are taking part in what may be the biggest Soviet seaborne exercise ever. He said the maneuvers in the North Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea were intended to demonstrate the Soviets’ ability “to protect the homeland.” The NATO naval source in London said Tuesday night that the exercise included battle groups from two Soviet fleets and surpassed any previous show of Soviet naval strength in the Atlantic. But he said it was believed to be “primarily of a defensive
nature.” A main object of the games, expected to end next week, is to test Soviet antisubmarine capabilities, he added. The source, who asked not to be named, said the maneuvers involved ships from the Soviets’ “Red Banner” Northern and Baltic fleets. At least 25 major surface warships, led by the 22,000-ton Kirov, are at sea from Norway’s North Cape to the Faroe Islands north of Scotland, the source said. They are supported by amphibious warfare ships, auxiliary supply vessels and submarines. US. officials said Tuesday the exercises involved at least 100 warships. A “significant” number of
bear unanswered “For Sale” signs. There were conflicts over application of new zoning laws to places where people just wanted to rebuild their old homes. At one hearing a man asked, tearfully, “Why can’t it be like yesterday again?” Some people and businesses never returned. Others did, but found the rules changed: less local ownership, tougher competition, fewer meetings on the sidewalk and more parking in vast paved lots created where houses were swept away. Xenia officials learned some lessons they hope they never need again. “Take your time rebuilding your city,” said Joy Wright, a city officer, “You’ll never have the opportunity again.” They learned to limit use of mobile homes for temporary housing; they tend to become permanently temporary. They realized the average citizen had more fortitude than anticipated. They learned not to stack 4,000 wrecked cars in a vacant field six cars high; insurance adjusters complain. And Montgomery learned that a tornado passing through leaves fertile territory for future insurance sales. In one way, at least, the big winds can be helpful markers. “Yeah, the old tornado,” said Jerry Shumaker, looking back over the years, “I always remember this day because it’s my wife’s birthday and we...” Shumaker paused, stricken. “Geez!” he said, rushing. “Excuse me, I’ve got to get some flowers.”
New York to Mondale
NEW YORK (AP) - New York loved Walter Mondale beyond his fondest expectations, and the former vice president insisting the Democratic presidential race remains “very even” is moving on to Pennsylvania with a formidable delegate lead over Sen. Gary Hart. Mondale won a New York primary landslide, with an 18 percentage point cushion. Equally surprising was Hart’s margin over the Rev. Jesse Jackson 1 percentage point. “We have been successful; we’ve run a good campaign,” said an exuberant Jackson. Hart said the race was only half over and predicted he would “come on strong” the rest of the way. “I’m not taking anything for granted,” Mondale said. “I would guess in Pennsylvania we’re about even.” The candidates did not tarry after the New York votes were counted. All were heading to Pennsylvania to begin campaigning for the 172 delegates at stake in next Tuesday’s primary. Hart salvaged something from the day with a victory in Wisconsin’s non-binding presidential preference vote. Capitalizing on support from independents and cross-over Republicans, Hart captured 46 percent of the vote compared to 42 percent for Mondale. Jackson had 10 percent. Wisconsin Democrats will begin selecting delegates in caucuses Saturday. The rough and tumble New York campaign ended on a bitter note as Hart declared that Mondale “got me down to his level ... He won’t do that again.” The Colorado senator attributed his New York defeat to “a full month of very, very negative campaigning by Mr. Mondale... That can work in the short term. It cannot work in the long term.” New York Democrats gave Mondale a lopsided triumph in the state that will send the second largest delegation to the Democratic convention in San Francisco next July. With 99 percent of the vote counted, Mondale had 605,080 or
Soviet warplanes, including the new strategic Tupolev bomber codenamed “Blackjack” by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, are involved, the NATO source reported. British naval intelligence sources, who asked not to be identified, said the exercise is designed to test defenses around the Kola peninsula adjoining Norway’s border with the Soviet Union and the big naval base at Murmansk and to test the Kremlin’s command control of far-flung naval operations. The United States is carrying out exercises called Global Shield 'B4 coincidental to the Soviet exercises, Marine Maj. Jim Pisciottano, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday night.
Reagan in TV outing WASHINGTON (AP) - President Reagan will hold a news conference Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST at the White House. Reagan last held a news conference on Feb. 22. The Wednesday session with reporters will be available for live television and radio coverage.
45 percent; Hart 368,767 or 27 percent and Jackson 343,687 or 26 percent. Mondale won 133 New York delegates compared to 72 for Hart and 47 for Jackson. With nearly half the committed delegates to the Democratic nominating convention now chosen, Mondale has 861.25, while Hart has 512 and Jackson 140.5. It takes 1,967 to win the nomination. In Wisconsin, there also was a Republican primary, with voters facing the alternative of voting “yes” or “no” for President Reagan. “Reagan Yes” won 95 percent of the vote. Hart focused on the fact he and Mondale hive won about the same number of states. “We have essentially divided the first half or this race,” said the Colorado senator in a television interview. “I expect to come on strong in the second half.” Hart told supporters at a midtown hotel, “This campaign goes on to Pennsylvania. It goes on to Nebraska, Oregon, to Texas and to California, and with your help it goes on to San Francisco and on to the White House.” A large black turnout gave Jackson one-third of the vote in New York City and just over a quarter of the statewide total. "Tonight we’re in a dead heat for second place in New York," Jackson told supporters. “New York City politics will never be the same, never again.” In the jubilation of his strong showing, Jackson dubbed his Rainbow Coalition the “Rainbow Express.”
Other Defense Department officials stressed that the U S. exercises have no connection to the Soviet sea maneuvers. The U S. exercise calls for the air force to launch two intercontinental ballistic missiles, scramble its B-52 bombers, fire an air-launched cruise missile and drop dummy bombs. Pisciottano said. At the same time, key military of ficers and government officials will speed to alternate command posts where they can ride out a mock attack. Officials denied the Soviet maneuvers caught Western allies napping. Sources said the ships were under surveillance almost from the jnoment they left port.