FIERCE STORM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22389, 8 April 1936, Page 13

FIERCE STORM

CITIES WRECKED HEAVY DEATH ROLL AMERICAN VISITATION OUTBREAKS OF FIRE many people homeless Br Telecrnph—Press Association—Copyright /{Received April 7, 7.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 6 One of a scries of storms which for several days have harassed six southern States of America struck three cities to-day with great force, leaving behind it many dead. Gainesville in Georgia, Tupelo in Mississippi, and Columbia in Tennessee, were the hardest hit, although numerous other towns also suffered badly. The storm not only tossed about vehicles and small buildings but sheared off the tops of modern steel and brick structures, cutting a track of considerable depth through State after State and leaving wreckage and dead people in a tangled mass. Gainesville alone suffered damage to property estimated at 5,000.000 dollars and the total damage is estimated at 8,000,000 dollars. The destruction at Tupelo was enormous. /Alabama, Arkansas and South Carolina are among other States affected by the storm. The dead now total 300, those at Tupelo numbering 124 and those at Gainesville 75. Wreckage still makes it impossible to determine the full total of the deaths. The injured are estimated at nearly 2000. The storm did its damage within three minutes in Gainesville when the streets were crowded with people going to work in the morning. Buildings, houses, and most of the fire fighting apparatus were demolished, and when fires broke out all over the wrecked areas of the city the firemen's only weapon was dynamite. More than 1000 people were injured at Tupelo where the tornado struck late last night. Numerous fires broke out immediately, but a torrential "downpour of rain followed. This added to the difficulty of rescue work but extinguished the fires. A section of the city two and a-half miles long by nearly half-a-mile wide tvas demolished and 2000 people are homeless.

Soup kitchens manned by members of the Civil Conservation Corps have been established and supply trains from 6ome of the larger centres of the State, manned by troops and carrying doctors and nurses, have arrived.

Gainesville, a growing city of Georgi.4, is situated about 53 miles north-east of Atlanta. Several valuable mineral springs are to be found in the vicinity and the city is a popular health resort; Tupelo, which is situated in the State of Mississippi, about 100 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee, and Columbia, Tennessee, are smaller cities. FREAK WEATHER MANY AREAS SUFFER / CONTRASTS IN TEMPERATURE (Received April 7, 10.5 p.m.) / NEW YORK, April 6 Freak weather punished many parts of the country to-day. The temperature was 109 degrees at Catarina, Texas, but 15 degrees below zero at Parshall, North Dakota. Snow covered much of the West, while gales pounded the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Further floods occurred along the Ohio River.