MANY KILLED IN U.S. TORNADO

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 100, 8 April 1936, Page 6

MANY KILLED IN U.S. TORNADO

Tops Tom from Big Buildings

THREE SOUTHERN CITIES STRUCK

By Eeetrie Telegraph—United Frees Association—Copyright. NEW YORK, April 6. A tornado, one of a eerlee of stonna which for several days have taraseed elx southern States, to-day struck three cities with great force, leaving behind it many dead. At least 243 have already been identified. Galnsville (Georgia), Tupelo (Mississippi) and Columbia (Tenname) were the hardest hit, although numerous other towns suffered badly. The storm not only tossed about vehicles and smaller headings but sheared off the tops of modern steel and brick structnree, cutting a swath of considerable depth through State after State, leaving wreckage and dead in a tangled mass. Gainesville alone suffered property damage estimated at 6,000,000 dollars. * The destraction at Tupelo was enormous and it is known that the deed there are already in excess of one hundred. ; Alabama. Arkansas and South Carolina are among other States affected by the storm. I \ The known dead include 124 at Tupelo and 75 at Gainesville. The wreckage still makes impossible the determination of all the deaths. I 1 The storm did its damage within three minutes at Gainesville, the streets were crowded with people going to work in the ■owning, | The buildings housing most of the fire-lighting apparatus were demolished and when fires broke out all over the wrecked areas the city firemen’s only weapon was dynamite.

' .Over one thousand persons were injured at Tupelo, where the tornado struck late last night. The city might I have been consumed by fire, as numerous conEtagratiions occurred immediately. Fortunately, however, a tor•sntial downpour followed, adding to the difficulty of the rescue work but ■putting out the fires.

A section of the city two and a-haif ttilee long and nearly half a mile wide > was wiped out and 2000 persons are homeless. Soup kitchens manned by the Civilian Conservation Corps havo been established and supply trains

from various larger centres of the State manned by troops and carrying physicians and nurses have arrived. Late to-night the dead totalled 300 and the injured between 1500 and 2000. The damage will exceed 8,000,000 dollars. Freak weather punished many parts of the country to-day. The temperature was 109 at Catarina (Texas), 15 degrees below at Parshall, North Dakota, and snow covered much of the West, while gales pounded the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Further floods occurred along the Ohio river.