Search For Bodies As Tremors Continue

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28979, 21 August 1959, Page 13

Search For Bodies As Tremors Continue

WEST YELLOWSTONE (Montana), August 20. A big force of searchers moved back into the still-shaking earthquake area of south-western Montana today to renew a perilous hunt for more victims.

Landslides are raining rocks and dirt down the mountain slopes.

The ground parties will search above and below Hebgen Dam, the hardest-hit area in Monday night’s shocks.

Searching crews said they would not attempt to dig into the 50-million-ton landslide below Hebgen Dam until the comparatively slight tremors subsided. The bodies of eight earthquake victims have been recovered from the devastated mountains and canyons. Reports from survivors indicate that the toll may rise to 13. They told of seeing a car with a man and a woman and a crippled boy in it buried by an avalanche. Sheriff Donald Skerritt said he was sure that Mrs Grace Miller, aged about 60, had drowned. Her lakeside home was washed away in a wave of water propelled by the landslide. Sheriff's deputies reported later that Mrs i Miller was safe. After her house washed away she had walked 15 miles to a ranch. They had believed her drowned earlier because until last night there was no word of her.

Coroner Charles Raper said he believed the body of Mrs Thomas Towe of Sandy, Utah, was in the Madison river. He reported that the family car and her belongings had been found in the stream. Her husband was killed ’Officials have said they believe more bodies may be found by digging into the landslides and searching Hebgen lake and the

Madison river.

Skin divers are planning to go into the lake when the muddy water clears. They will check a report that two persons drowned in a car submerged in dirt and water. All of the known survivors—about 300—have been moved out of the earthquake area. Some roads, buckled and twisted by the earthquake, have been made passable by the use of bulldozers. Many highways in the western part of Yellowstone National Park were blocked by landslides and the damage there was expected to run into millions of dollars.

But the park was allowing tourists to come in over the roads which remained open.

As the last of the survivors came out they brought more harrowing tales of the earthquake's violence and horrifying effects.

Seventy-one-year-old Grover Mault, of Temple City, California, told how his trailer was hurled into the Madison river by the shock. He and his wife climbed on top of the trailer and then grasped tree limbs. “We clung to the tree, our bodies in the water almost up to our necks,” Mr Mault said. “My wife went under three or four times. The last time she was gasping for breath but I managed to pull her out. She wanted me to let her go. But I told her if she went, I'd go, too. “While we clung there I could see the mountains sliding and falling every few minutes. 1 thought the world had come to an end.

“In the morning they came for us in a boat. If they'd been another 10 minutes I couldn't have held on,” he said.