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Tornado left its mark in Gainesville.
Griffinites safe
in Gainesville
Mrs. Lou Anne Hightower,
native of Griffin, said her little
dog “Puff” warned her that a
tornado was about to hit near
Gainesville yesterday.
When the dog started to howl,
Mrs. Hightower lay down on the
floor of her living room seconds
before the twister swept
through the neighborhood
Gainesville damage tops $2-million
GAINESVILLE, Ga. (UPI) -
Civil defense workers were help
ing residents clean up Thursday
night after a tornado swept
through parts of Gainesville
and Hall County, causing more
than $2 million in damages.
No deaths were reported, but
26 persons were injured when
the twister touched down about
12:30. Eight of the injured
persons required
hospitalization.
“You wouldn’t believe what
was done to those houses and
trailers,” said Hall County Civil
Defense Director H.B. “Buck”
Ward. More than 44 homes were
known to be destroyed in the
tornado, which also hit two
trailer parks in the northern
part of the city.
Ward said a church was par
tially destroyed and two down
town business establishments, a
carpet sales company and an
appliance company, were de-
Latest power rate increase
didn’t affect city customers;
they already had one coming
The Georgia Power Company
rate increase approved by the
Public Service Commission
yesterday will not affect City of
Griffin electric retail
customers.
However, electric customers
of the city will have a 14 percent
rate increase show up on
billings after Jan. 1.
But this increase was an
nounced last summer.
The Griffin City Commission
ers put electric customers on
notice then that it would have to
pass along a wholesale rate
increase allowed by the Federal
Power Commission. The in
crease allowed was 26 percent
and the city of Griffin decided to
up its rates 14 percent to offset
where she lives.
The tornado skipped over her
house but others around her
were blown away or heavily
damaged.
Mrs. Smith said heavy rain
and hail were falling and the
clouds were black just before
the storm hit.
The tornado hit about 12:30
molished.
He said the estimate of dam
age was only a “ball field” es
timate because the situation
could not be evaluated so soon.
“A lot of times you couldn’t
tell whether a lot had a house
on it or was just a cleared out
place,” he said.
Motor boats at Lake Lanier
were overturned by the winds,
he said. Some were smashed to
pieces and others were sunk.
“And the timber damage was
unbelievable,” Ward said, ex
plaining that trees were up
rooted, broken off and thrown
against houses.
“We’ve got everything pretty
well settled down,” Ward said.
“It’s just a question of cleaning
up and estimating damage.”
He said people who were left
homeless had been taken in by
relatives or friends, and some
people were still touching up
the increase the city will be
charged on the wholesale level.
The rate increase still is in
litigation with the Federal
Power Commission. Rates will
be adjusted to accommodate
the final settlement which the
federal authority allows.
The Georgia Public Service
Commission which approved
the Georgia Power rate in
crease yesterday is separate
from the Federal Power Com
mission. The PSC is a state
regulatory agency and the FPC
is a federal agency.
The state agency yesterday
approved a S6B-million rate
increase for Georgia Power.
Including an earlier temporary
GRIFFIN
DAILY
Daily Since 1872
while Mrs. Hightower was at
home for lunch. She works with
the TEA office in Gainesville.
Her husband, Bobby, also a
native of Griffin, works for
Dundee-owned Chic diaper
plant in Gainesville.
The mill is in another section
of the city and was not damaged
in the storm.
their roofs or taking their be
longings to shelter.
An emergency center, set up
by the Red Cross and Salvation
Army, was only being used to
fix food for policemen and civil
defense workers who were still
on the job.
The state patrol sent extra of
ficers to the scene to prevent
looting and traffic problems, he
said. And the Federal Disaster
Assistance Administration was
to survey the area Friday.
Ward said, “It was an unusual
tornado. It was narrow in width
but it hit in so many places.”
He said it was nothing like
the 1936 twister that “came in
on one side of town and just
covered the town” killing 200
persons.
“We were real fortunate we
didn’t have any fatalities con
sidering the damage we had,”
he said.
rate hike the decision means an
11.8 percent rise in the electric
bill for all customers of Georgia
Power.
In Spalding County there are
about 1,800 Georgia Power
customers who will be affected
by the new rates, beginning
with billings after Sunday.
Georgia Power had sought an
SB6-million rate increase. The
PSC approved a temporary Ill
million hike this summer.
Yesterday’s ruling adds a 4.8
per cent rate increase to the
temporary hike, bringing the
total rise over rates charged
earlier this year to 11.8 percent.
Georgia Power serves some
900,000 customers in the state.
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Friday, December 14, 1973
Hightower is the son of Mr.
and Mrs. Otis Hightower, and
Mrs. Hightower is the daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Smith,
all of Sunny Side.
The four along with Laura
Lee Smith, Lou Anne’s sister,
went to Gainesville last night to
see about the Hightowers.
They found the couple and
their home in good shape,
considering the house was in the
path of the tornado.
Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Schuler
live near the Hightowers. A tree
fell on their home in the storm.
Schuler is the cousin of Mr.
and Mrs. A. H. Schuler, former
superintendent of Spalding
County Schools.
Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Wages
live in the area, too. Their house
had damage to the roof. Mrs.
Wages is related to Mr. and
Mrs. Oscar Ballew of Griffin.
Mr. and Mrs. Donnie Carder
who have relatives in Griffin
live in the storm area. A tree
fell on their house.
None of the Griffin related
people were injured.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY
65, low today 37, high yesterday
70, low yesterday 44, high
tomorrow in upper 40s, low
tonight in 30s. Sunrise tomorrow
7:39, sunset tomorrow 5:29.
8
SHOPPING DAYS
TO CHRISTMAS
“Are you sure you’re right? —
So were many accident victims
now in our cemeteries.”
NEWS
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People pick through the rubble of a smashed lakeside home near Gainesville.
i.Vetrs highlights
By United Press International
Saxbe approved
WASHINGTON (UPI) — After the Senate Judiciary
Committee approved the nomination of Sen. William B.
Saxbe as attorney general Thursday, Saxbe said, “After
the swearing-in I’ll tell you how I feel.”
The approval was given with the expectation of new
assurances of the independence of Watergate Special
Prosecutor Leon Jaworski by President Nixon.
6 charged in bogus setup
NEW YORK (UPI) — Assembly Speaker Perry B.
Duryea, with three members of his staff, plus Assembly
Majority Leader John E. Kingston of Westbury and
Assemblyman Alfred A. Delli Bovi of New York were
arraigned before state Supreme Court Justice Jawn
Sandifer and released in their own recognizance Thurs
day.
The six were charged in a two-count indictment of
setting up a bogus committee to get votes away from
Democratic candidates in last year’s elections. All
pleaded innocent.
Kissinger meets with Sadat
In an effort to lay the groundwork for a Middle East
peace conference in Geneva next week, U.S. officials
traveling with Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger
reported the secretary held a “most constructive”
meeting today with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
Kissinger now flies to Saudi Arabia on the third leg of his
seven-nation tour.
Prime Minister Golda Meir said Israel may not attend
the conference unless a list of Israeli POWs being held by
Syria is supplied.
Lee resigns
WASHINGTON (UPI) — Seventeen months before his
term comes to an end, H. Rex Lee, the Federal
Communications commissioner, said he had submitted
his resignation to President Nixon, to be effective Dec. 31.
He is the second Democratic commissioner to resign in 10
days.
Price named director
STATESBORO, Ga. (UPI) — Everett E. Price, 41, a
former member of the state Division of Investigation, was
named director of public safety for the city of Statesboro
Thursday.
Price, who has also worked as a chief inspector of the
Savannah Bureau of Drug Abuse Control, will assume his
new duuties Jan. 1.
Store starts campaign
for self service pumps
The Kwickie convenience
store at U. S. 19 and Ethridge
Mill road near the airport has
started a petition campaign for
self service gasoline pumps.
The store operates the only
three self service pumps in the
city. A convenience store on the
North Expressway operates self
service pumps, too, but have not
come under fire from local
service stations. The pumps on
the expressway are outside the
Vol. 101 No. 295
city limits.
The petition campaign being
operated from the Kwickie
store apparently was in
response to another one by
service station operators op
posed to the self service pumps.
They distributed petitions
against the pumps after the
Griffin City Commissioners put
on first reading a business
license ordinance for self
service pumps.
Two men arrested
in bank robbery
Two men have been arrested
and a third was being sought for
the armed robbery of the
Concord Banking Company
Tuesday. Around $5,000 of the
$ more than SB,OOO taken in the
robbery has been recovered.
x Pike Sheriff J. Astor Riggins
x- said that Michael Jerome
Banks, 19, of 50 Mt. Zion road,
Apt. 1, Atlanta, and William
$ Mack Smith, 26, of 3670 Gordon
road, Atlanta, were arrested in
Clayton County yesterday. The
arrests were made by state
Division of Investigation agents
and Clayton County lawmen.
$ A warrant has been issued for
a third suspect, identified as
Robert Lee Green of a Macon
address. Green is a former
x student at Griffin Tech. A
X; nationwide lookout was posted
for Green who is thought to be
the man in a green Cadillac who
allegedly picked up the robbers
after they abandoned their
getaway car several miles
■x south of Concord.
Sheriff Riggins said the men
X; were arrested after the aban
xj doned car was traced to Banks.
The morning of the robbery,
Riggins said, Banks had
x ; reported to Atlanta police that
•x the auto had been stolen.
•x Banks and Smith were
£: transferred from Clayton
•i; County to the Pike jail where
they were being held without
bond.
The bank was robbed
$ Tuesday morning by two black
x men, one armed with a sawed
off shotgun and the other with a
.38 caliber pistol.
They herded nine persons,
•x including four bank directors
and three tellers, into a storage
Jx room and fled with more than
SB,OOO from the teller’s cages,
x- The robbers abandoned their
;!;■ car in a wooded area about two
;X miles away and were thought to
•x have been picked up by a third
suspect in the green Cadillac.
The vote for the ordinance
was 3-2. It faces another
reading and vote.
Service station operators
have indicated they will keep up
their campaign against the
pumps.
They argued the self service
pumps are not safe.
The self service pumps sell
gasoline cheaper than the
conventional pumps.
Inside Tip
Energy
See Page 2
Britain
crunch
is worse
LONDON (UPI) - Britons
began a crisis campaign to
conserve dwindling energy sup
plies today, bracing for a three
day work week, power black
outs and the hardest Christmas
since World War 11.
Church leaders called a day
of prayer for the nation.
Citizens switched off washing
machines and refrigerators.
Thousands of commuters
stayed home.
“In terms of comfort we shall
have a harder Christmas than
we have known since the war,”
Prime Minister Edward Heath
said Thursday night in a grim
nationwide television address.
A refusal by coal miners to
work overtime, a slowdown by
railroad engineers and Arab oil
cutbacks caught up with Britain
this week bringing what gov
ernment officials called the
nation’s worst economic and
social crisis in decades.
The rail and coal slowdowns,
aimed at getting pay increases
in excess of the government’s
anti-inflation ceilings, meant
sudden, critical fuel shortages.
Store display window lights
were doused. London’s usually
blazing Piccadilly Circus was
browned out. Busy rail lines
came to a halt.
Heath went before Parlia
ment Thursday to unveil a
package of fuel-saving meas
ures providing the biggest
economic cutback in Britain’s
peacetime history.
The prime minister an
nounced an immediate reduc
tion in industrial operations
with firms only allowed to use
electric power for a total of five
days until the end of the year.
He said industry will be
placed on a three-day week
after Jan. 1 with only one
exception—big companies using
long-term processes, such as
steel mills, will be able to stay
open, but must cut power 65
per cent.
The British leader ordered
the nation’s two television
networks off the air at 10:30
p.m. nightly—two hours before
normal — every day except
Christmas and New Year’s
Eve.
He also called on Britons to
help by using electric heaters
in only one room of their homes
and then only if absolutely
necessary.