TORNADOES RAZE TWO TOWNS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22318, 1 May 1947, Page 5

TORNADOES RAZE TWO TOWNS

DEVASTATION IN MISSOURI & ARKANSAS DEATH ROLL OF 20; OVER 60 INJURED (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (10 a.m.) NEW YORK, April 30. The village of Worth, Missouri, was reduced to rubble and 14 persons were killed and 59 injured when a tornado struck it today. The population of Worth is 233. At least two persons were killed, one injured and another missing after a tornado struck the town of Brightwater, six miles north of Rogers, Arkansas, Brightwater, whose population is about 100, is reported to have been demolished.

Four persons were killed and many injured when a tornado swept through farmland near Garfield, 15 miles northeast of Rogers. The Arkansas tornado is the second to strike the Central States in the last 24 hours. The tornado cut through the centre of Worth, destroying every business house, the school, church, community hall, railway station, telephone office, and nearly every residence. An alert woman school teacher, who saw the cloud approaching about five minutes before it hit, herded all the pupils into a fruit-cellar, saving them from possible death or serious injury. Because of the destruction of the telephone office, Worth was virtually

isolated from the outside world for several hours. The tornadic funnel was visible for fully seven minutes before it struck the village, turning daylight into almost total darkness. It took a grievous toll of those residents who either failed to see the menacing cloud or could not reach storm shelters in time, reducing most of the village to rubble and twisting motor cars and heavy trucks into fantastic metal heaps, parts of which lodged in trees that survived the blow. The tornado was confined to a limited area. The only other community seriously hit was Clio, a village across the State line in lowa, where the property damage was extensive, but there were no fatalities.