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Griffin Daily News
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NOEL, Mo. — A large hole was made in the ground
after an explosion was apparently touched off by a
fire on a freight train in Noel, Mo. early Sunday. An
One Killed, 40 Injured
As Explosion Rips Town
By SYDNEY REIBSCHEID
NOEL, Mo. (UPI)—It was a
resort town nestled beside a
small lake in the shadow of the
Ozatk Mountains. Today the
only visitors were National
Guardsmen.
Besides the unusual quiet
brought by the evacuation of
nearly all the 1,000 residents,
there were 200 damaged
buildings, a 20-foot deep gorge
and the guardsmen patrollng to
prevent looting as mute
evidence of two vicious, unex
plained explosions Sunday.
Not only was the cause of the
blasts unknown, even the exact
circumstances surrounding
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10
Monday, August 4, 1969
them were tne subject of
controversy among investiga
tors.
One thing was certain. The
explosions left one person dead,
40 injured and Noel practically
a ghost town.
A crater 20 feet deep and
some 50 feet long marked the
spot of the explosions.
Initial reports were that the
larger blast was a huge
propane tank at a storage depot
of the Trl-State Gas Co., near
the railroad tracks.
Roads Sealed Off
However, a spokesman for
the Empire Gas Co., at
Lebanon, parent firm of Tri-
State, said “It was not our
eouipment which blew.”
The highway and all other
roads leading into Noel were
sealed off by troopers who
turned back thousands of cars
of Sunday night sightseers.
Some state troopers at the
scene said one or more small
propane tanks aboard a truck
exploded but that the main
blast was on a railroad car,
carrying ammonium perchlor
ate, a chemical used in the
manufacture of munitions. The
cargo was owned by the
Defense Department and bound
for a plant at either Marshall
or Karnak, Tex.
Asst. Fire Chief Dick Easter
said no propane “blew" al
though gas around valves or
“blow holes” on the tanks
caught fire.
(CPI TELEPHOTO)
exploding propane tank similar to the ones in back
ground was thought to have caused the explosion.
He said a small explosion
proceeded the main bla&t,
which occurred at 4:05 a.m.
(CDT) Just as the fire
department arrived. He said
firemen were so busy at the
time, warning residents to flee
to safety, that “no one really
saw what happened.”
William N. Deramus 111,
pfesident of the Kansas City
Southern Railway, said ammo
nium perchlorate is not explo
sive. But chemists said it would
explode if heated to tempera
tures around 200 degrees.
While the train was stopped
at Noel to pick up a brakeman,
crew members spotted a glow
apparently from a fire. Dera
mus theorized it spread to
several cars of dehydrated
alfalfa behind it. He said he
believed a trackside warehouse
containing ammonium nitrate,
an explosive fertilizer, contri
buted to the blast, possibly
touching off the main explosion.
However, state troopers said
the warehouse appeared to
have been (Urnaged by the
explosion without contributing
to the blast.
Crumpled walls of the ware
house lay bn the ground and
bags of fertilizer hung from the
limbs of nearby trees, but
sacks of the explosive material
also remained inside the
structure, apparently un
touched.
A state trooper said five
demolished boxcars in the 126
car train included one which
“vanished” except for a few
pieces of debris burled in the
earth. An axle, apparently from
this car, was found a quarter of
a mile away. The wheel from a
car ripped through the roof of a
house several blocks from the
track.
Mrs. Roxie Miller, 48, the
only fatality, was struck in the
chest by a metal shard which
had been part of a window
casing ripped out by the blast.
The Highway Patrol said 31
homes were destroyed, 58
others were heavily damaged,
and 55 less badly damaged.
Eighty-eight businesses were
damaged. One church was
demolished and another heavily
damaged. Only one business in
the town, the State Bank of
Noel, showed no exterior
damage.
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Mt, Rushmore
can’t take more
WASHINGTON (UPI) -
George Washington, Abraham
Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and
Theodore Roosevelt, whose mas
sive faces adorn Mt. Rushmore
in South Dakota, are not likely
to be getting any company.
Not even the faces of our
moon conquerors.
Or so, at least, reports the
National Geographic Society.
Through the years, the
National Park Service has re
ceived hundreds of suggestions
to add figures next to the giant
sculptures of the four Presidents.
A recent request proposed the
late General of the Army Dwight
I). Eisenhower.
“All the granite suitable for
carving a colossal head has been
used in the present design,” ac
cording to Lincoln Borglum,
whose late father, Gutson Bor
glum, carved the masterpiece. It
took him 13 years.
The Mount Rushmore sculp
tures—the faces 60 feet high
have been the most colossal ever
created by man and are visible
for 60 miles. Lincoln's nose
alone is longer than the entire
face of Egypt's Sphinx.
Corpsmen Learn
Homebuilding
SAN MARCOS, Tex. (UPI)
Corpsmen at Gary Job Corps
Center are building a three-bed
room split-level dream house—
but no one will ever live in it.
The house is one of eight
projects showing corpsmen the
various stages of homebuilding.
It is the only one of the housing
units which will be completed.
The other units will be dis
mantled and rebuilt with each
class of corpsmen.
pied
“READY WHEN YOU ARE”
25 Killed
In Weekend
Accidents
By United Press International
Death claimed at least 25
lives on Georgia roads during
the past weekend, and one per
son drowned.
The worst, mishap was a five
fatality wreck on U. S. 27 near
Attapulgus Sunday. Authorities
said a car crossed the center
line, sideswiped another car and
collided head-on with a third.
Killed were Charles William
Jones, 22, Bainbridge, driver of
one car; James R. Burton, 70,
Indianapolis, Ind, another driv
er; Lucille Burton 60, Indianap
olis; Mary J. Porter, Tallahas
see, Fla., and Franklin Ritter,
44, of Tallahassee.
George Clyde Walton, 17, Rey
nolds, was killed Sunday night
in a collision on Ga. 28 near
Macon.
A three-car collision in Cobb
County Sunday killed Mrs.
Douglas L. Haines, 20, and
Charles R. McFarling, 28, both
of Marietta.,
Herbert Daniel Waldrop, 40, of
Decatur was killed in a two
vehicle crash near Jackson on
Georgia Highway 36.
A collision at Georgia High
way 1 in Roopville killed Ray
Allen Knot, 21, of Union Springs,
Ala., and Clifford Phillips, 53, of
Roopville. Officers said Phillips
failed to yield the right of way.
Harrell Lynn Rogers, 16, of
Eastman was the victim of a
collision on Georgia Highway 87,
about 1.5 miles south of East
man.
A two-car crash two miles'
east of West Point, on Georgia
Highway 18 took the life of Paul
D. Hicks, 33, of Lanette, Ala.
Bobby Leon Garren of Wales
ka, who died Saturday night in
a two-car smashup near Canton
on Georgia Highway 140, was
added to the state patrol’s fatal
ity list Sunday.
Other accident victims report
ed Sunday included Elia Simp
son, 74, of Hapeville and Dana
Daloney, 19, of Birmingham,
Ala.
David Lee Chatfield, 24, of
Macon drowned in a lake near
Macon Saturday. Bibb County
authorities said he jumped from
a fishing boat and attempted to
swim to shore.
QUICK QUIZ
Q —Which is the largest
natural harbor in the world?
A— San Francisco Bay.
Q —How did the tropical
fish, guppy, get its name?
A—lt was named for the
Rev. R. J. L. Guppy, who dis
covered the fish in 1866 on
Trinidad.
Q —Which American pres
ident once killed a man in a
duel?
A—Andrew Jackson, who
killed Charles Dickinson, be
cause he had made some
derogatory remarks about
Mrs. Jackson.
Q —Do any birds nest ex
clusively in one kind of
tree?
A—The pinon jay nests in
the pinon pine so exclusively
that it takes the same name.
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Humphrey Says Russia Aims
To Catch Up In Arms Race
By WILLIAM GREENWOOD
WASHINGTON (UPI) —
Hubert H. Humphrey, recently
returned from the Soviet Union,
cays the Russians feel the
United States is ahead of them
in developing multiple warhead
missiles. As a result, he said,
they are delaying arms limita
tion talks until they can catch
up.
In an exclusive interview with
UPI at his Washington office,
Humphrey said “the overriding
concern in the Soviet Union
today is about security. They
don’t advance the discussion on
China, but once it is open they
are very concerned about the
border problems with China.”
“And they are very con
cerned,” he added, “lest we
seem to be playing off China
against the Soviet Union. They
want to know where we stand...
>»
Humphrey said the Soviets
understand the United States
has the economic power to
surpass them when America
puts a priority on a project
such as getting a man on the
moon. Because of that, he said,
they realize they cannot win
any arms race.
Agreement Stalled
But an agreement on halting
the arms buid-up, he said, is
being stalled because of the so
ca’led MlßV—multiple indepen
dently targeted re-entry vehicle
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—or multiple warhead missile.
The MIRV is intended to
increase the firepower of
existing missiles by putting
more warheads on them and
sending them after different
targets wbeu the missile re
enters the earth’s atmosphere.
“It’s my view that the Soviet
Union has—and I’ve never said
this to anyone before—that the
information they have on our
MIRV indicates to them that
we’re ahead in the multiple
independently targeted nuclear
warheads and that they’re
stalling for some testing Os
their own so that when they go
to that bargaining table, they’re
in a position of equals.
“Now does this mead there
will be no negotiations? The
answer is no. I think that those
negotiations will start very
soon.
**. . . Soviet leaders I think
now are more concerned about
their relationship With the
United States than eVer before
and I believe that this now Is a
fortuitous moment for ■us to
proceed to discuss a number of
items.
Caii Start To Negotiate
■“I think we’re now at the
stage where we can start to
reaVy negotiate more seriously
than we have in the past with
the Soviet Union on space
technology and cooperation.”
Humphrey added the Soviets
seem to be more concerned
about the MIRV than about the
antiballistic missile system
(ABM) which has taken up
most Os the public military
debate in the United States
recently.
When asked about a come
back in politics, perhaps via the
U.S. Senate seat from Minneso
ta being vacated next year by
Eugene J. McCarthy, the
sparkle •in Humphrey’s eyes
was more revealing than his
answer:
“One never knows. This is an
uncertain time in which we
live. I really haven’t made up
games with a serious matter
like the Senate. I am giving it
serious consideration ... I like
the Senate ... but I need to
take a big look at what I want
to do with my life.”
Chief Touts Police
HELSINKI (UPI) - In
burglary cases, Finnish police get
their man more often than any
other police in Europe, according
to Police Chief Fjalar Jarva.
Jarva said statistics show Fin
land solves 52.6 per cent of its
burglary cases. Austria was sec
ond, with 38.2 per cent. Holland,
Italy, West Germany, England,
France, Sweden and Denmark
solved less than 20 per cent.