MANY KILLED IN U.S. TORNADOES

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31681, 17 May 1968, Page 11

MANY KILLED IN U.S. TORNADOES

t X Z P A.-Reuter—Copyright) LITTLE ROCK (Arkansas), May 16. Tornadoes roared through 10 American States last night, killing at least 55 people and injuring hundreds more. The tornadoes left a trail of damage running into millions of dollars. Telegraph poles were snapped like matchsticks, buildings were torn down and cars swept off the roads. Worst hit was the university town of Jonesboro, seat of Arkansas State University, where 13 persons were killed. An elementary school in the town was destroyed, but there were no children there at the time.

In Oiltrough, Arkansas, a minister ad- | dressing a church I meeting warned > his audience to take ; shelter under the pews. The church was completely destroyed, but only a few of those inside were hurt. Driving rain, flooding and pitch darkness because of power cuts hampered rescue operations. In Charles City, a Red Cross leader, Mr Glen Haydon, said the tornado made that which killed six persons there in 1966 “look like a Sunday school picnic”. Last night’s tornado cut a path seven or eight blocks wide for a mile and a half through the town. One official said: “It has wrecked half the town.” Hundreds of cars were smashed to pieces. One motorist, driving in the town when the storm suddenly burst, said: “I just lay on the front-

I seat and held on to the brake." He escaped with only [a cut elbow. 1 In Jonesboro, State police said so many people were injured they had to transport some by bus to a hospital in Memphis, about 70 miles away.

More than 600 people were injured in the State of lowa. The authorities in Charles City, a community of 10,000 people, say there were 10 confirmed deaths there and 300 injured. And in the town of Oeliwein, where hundreds of I homes and stores were (wrecked by the violent | storms, National Guard troops [were ordered to duty and a curfew was imposed until i dawn.

The tornado damage in lowa is estimated at the equivalent of 5NZ16,964.300. In Lonejack, Missouri, 30 miles south-east of Kansas City, a school bus was blown off the road after the child ren had abandoned the vehicle. Half of a freight train was

blown off the track near Milford, Illinois, and 50 aircraft were damaged at the Eppley airfield, near Omaha, Nebraska. In March, 1925, in the worst tornadoes in world history, nearly 700 people were killed in the southern central States of America. Four persons were killed and more than 50 injured in Freeburg. Illinois, where many of the victims lived in a caravan camp. According to an eye-witness all 10 caravans on the site were hurled into the air. One woman, Mrs Larry Kessler, said: “There was almost no warning. The lights began to flicker, then there was a roar and then the walls began to bulge. Then the whole caravan was picked up and twirled around like a merry-go-round."