Newspaper Page Text
Forecast
Clearing
Map Page 7
Twister toll in Georgia at 15;
Nation’s deaths pass 300 mark
Georgia
By United Press International
Death-dealing tornadoes left
at least 15 persons dead, 85 in
jured and millions of dollars in
damage in their wake across
north Georgia today.
The twisters, barreling into
the state after nightfall, were
part of a storm system which
claimed about 300 lives across
the nation, at least 143 of them
in the South.
And today, much of north and
west Georgia was still under a
tornado watch running until 11
a.m.
The National Weather Service
said at least three tornadoes,
perhaps more, struck Georgia,
with one of them accounting for
seven deaths at Resaca in Gord
on County—including four mem
bers of one family.
There were two others killed
in a Dalton Trailer park, four
in the Yellow Creek community
on the Dawson-Pickens county
line and two at Juno in Dawson
County.
Those who lived through the
night of terror will never forget
the experience.
“I seen a trailer sliding toward
me,” recalled Ricky Powell, a
17-year-old resident of a Dalton
trailer park that was wiped out.
“If I hadn’t been running it
would have wiped me out.”
Two persons died in that trail
er park at Dalton. Seven more
died at Resaca, north of Cal
houn in Gordon County. Four
died in the Yellow Creek com
munity on the Dawon-Pickens
county line. And two died at
Juno in Dawson county.
Scores showed up at hospitals,
but all but a few were treated
and released.
The Gordon county dead in
cluded Trammel Gobel, his wife
Roberta, and their two small
daughters, Carol and Laura —
all crushed when their brick
home collapsed. A 9-year-old
son, Randall, survived the
storm.
Another Resaca couple, Pres
ton and Etta Gravitt, died along
with Mrs. Ben Miller, who was
visiting in their home.
The tornado that hit Yellow
Creek cut a three-mile-long path
Eckerd’s
to open
The Eckerd’s drug store
chain hopes to open its store in
Griffin next Thursday.
It will be the second business
to begin operating out of the
North Gate shopping center at
the North Expressway and
Mclntosh road intersections.
Courtesy flower shop was the
first business to open in the
center.
Food Giant also plans to open
next to the Eckerd’s store soon
but plans have not been firmed
up.
jfl ■■ VMr
1 w
“Folks pray the way they file
their income tax — quick if they
expect something back, later if
it’s going to cost them.”
Patricia’s parents stunned; calls dad liar. Page 18
through the farming community.
Jimmy Kirby of Yellow Creek
was rushed to a Marietta hos
pital with head injuries. He later
was pronounced in satisfactory
condition, but his wife, 3-year
old son, and 3-year-old daughter
lay in morgues in North Geor
gia.
Also killed at Yellow Creek,
in another house, was Harry
Roper, 25.
Gertie Summerour, 56, of Daw
sonville had a job at Juno caring
for Effie Tatum, 82. Winds dev
astated Mrs. Tatum’s home, kill
ing both of them.
Gabriel Torrez, 24, of Dalton
and an unidentified woman in
her 20s were killed when the
Nancy Hills Trailer Park near
Dalton was wrecked by the
storm.
Frieda Sutton, a bride of eight
months, sat outside her demol
ished trailer and moaned that
“my wedding band is in there
somewhere — and that trailer
was my wedding present.”
Watch
posted
The National Weather Service
in Atlanta today posted a tor
nado watch that included
Spalding and surrounding
counties. It was to be in effect
until 4 p.m. today.
A tornado watch means that
conditions exist for tornadoes to
develop.
The watch followed a warning
line from Columbus, Ga. to
Greenville, S. C.
——— —
— ft'
S '■■
A fl e z-r • ’ *
■k. 8 Hk. Br w
1
Vl nSEIH
'oHHHBI
Griffin High students used regular voting machines today
to cast ballots for a student body president and vice
president. Spalding Ordinary George Imes, Jr., (1) and
voting machine official 0. B. Turner (r> show Kay
Watkins and Wayman Ray how the machine works. Four
tickets with a president and vice president nominee were
in the election. Three were on the machines and one ticket
will be a write-in. The tickets listed on the machines were:
Kevin Moore, president, Jeff Whitaker, vice president;
Steve Harrison, president, Phillip McCrary, vice
DAI LY# NEWS
Daily Since 1872
/ /777X 7
■Pt • • S s-' / I
NANCEY HILLS, Ga. — Civil Defense worker searches
through the twisted remains of mobile homes in search of
a person missing from the Pineview trailer park after a
Tornado hovered over Pike
By Roger Dlx
A tornado roared between
Williamson and Hollonville in
Pike County yesterday about 6
o’clock. It did not touch down.
The heavy thunder cloud that
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Thursday, April 4, 1974
came out of the southwest was
moving toward north Spalding
and Henry County.
Some hail fell in the William
son-Hollonville area. It was only
a small amount.
president; Newton Galloway, president, Fluffy Morgan,
vice president. The write-in ticket has Portia Vaughn,
president, and Grant (Mule) Crawford, vice president.
Ninth graders were voting in the election. The ninth
graders will be in Griffin High next year and come under
the student body government. This will be the first year
they have had a voice in picking next year’s leaders. They
voted at Spalding Junior High on paper ballots. Results of
the voting are expected to be known by late tomorrow
morning.
tornado struck. Three persons lost their lives in the
complex. (UPI)
Several people in the Hollon
ville area heard the roaring of
the tornado. Some took
precationary measures in the
event it touched down.
The tornado apparently
Vol. 102 No. 81
remained well off the ground.
Lanier Johnson, a Pike
County commissioner who lives
in Hollonville, said he listened
to the tornado for several
minutes. He said it sounded as if
it was over Hollonville.
There was very little surface
wind when the sound reached its
peak.
It was almost calm with light
rain and some hail as the storm
passed over.
Some people in the area saw
the funnel-shaped cloud.
Sheriff J. Astor Riggins was
in the Concord area of Pike
when he saw the tornado for
ming. He said it remained in the
air.
Transportation
meeting set here
Georgia’s detailed plan for
overall transportation develop
ment within the next two
decades is being taken before
the people in a series of public
information meetings
throughout the state.
Wednesday, April 17, is the
date scheduled for a meeting of
citizens represented within the
Mclntosh Trail Planning and
Development Commission area
(Fayette, Henry, Newton,
Spalding, Butts, Pike, Lamar
and Upson counties). The
meeting will get under way at 7
p.m. in the Commercial Bank
Building, Griffin.
The general public —
especially those with an interest
in their state’s future tran
sportation needs — is invited
and urged to attend the session,
when information on the plan
will be presented by members
The nation
The worst cyclonic onslaught
in almost a half century
slashed through 11 states and a
city on the Canadian border
during eight fright-filled hours
Wednesday. The death toll shot
above 300 today and bodies
were still being recovered.
In the wake of almost 100
separate tornadoes, 318 persons
were known to have died in the
night of storms that swept the
South and Midwest extending
from Alabama and Georgia
north to Windsor, Ont., just
across the border from Detroit.
Kentucky had 78 dead,
Alabama 68, Tennessee 55,
Indiana 43, Ohio 39, Georgia 15,
North Carolina 4, Michigan 3,
West Virginia 2, Illinois 2, and
Oklahoma 1.
Eight died in Windsor, Ont.,
when winds unroofed a skating
rink and a wall crushed the
victims into the ice during a
curling match.
Cities were shattered. Some
towns were all but wiped out.
Thousands were homeless.
An incomplete list of the
injured soared to more than
2,000 with the heaviest reports
from Indiana, Alabama,
Tennessee and Ohio.
It was the greatest tornado
disaster since 1925, when 689
persons died in storms that
struck Missouri, Illinois and
Indiana. The next worst was in
1964 when twisters killed 271 in
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and
Wisconsin.
As dawn broke, Monticello,
Ind., a resort town of 5,000, was
without electricity, water and
cooking gas, the result of a
four-minute assault which the
mayor said came “with a
of a roar.” The courthouse lost
its upper one and one half
stories, downtown sidewalks
were too full of debris to walk
on and some badly damaged
stores and homes were listed
for demolition.
The search went on for a
number of missing persons
including six of the seven
occupants in a Volkswagen van
plucked off a bridge and thrown
into the Tippecanoe River and
20 to 25 missing workers feared
of the Georgia Department of
Transportation’s Division of
Planning and Programming.
Invitations to attend and
participate in the meetings
have also been extended to Gov.
Jimmy Carter, DOT Com
missioner Downing Musgrove
and DOT Deputy Commissioner
Emory Parrish.
Much research and study has
gone into development of the 20-
year plan, with DOT staff
personnel working with
members of Georgia’s 18 Area
Planning and Development
Commissions and with city,
county and other regional of
ficials to obtain the necessary
technical and general informa
tion.
The plan itself, according to
EXIT, is “multi-modal” — that
is, it will cover not only roads
and state and interstate high-
Inside Tip
Nixon
See Page 6
trapped in wreckage of a
factory.
Damage to the 11 states was
certain to total millions of
dollars.
Allen Pearson, the chief
severe storm forecaster with
the National Weather Service,
said the tornadoes were bom of
a “mother low” —an unusually
deep low pressure system —
which began building over
Wyoming Tuesday.
Pearson said the jet stream
“acted like a giant pump”
jerking thunderstorms up to
55,000 feet where they were
twisted into tornadoes and
launched. The National Weath
er Center counted 50 tornadoes
between midafternoon and
midevening Wednesday, and
later revised the figure to 80.
The storm chief said, “the
savage onslaught of the last
eight hours has produced more
fatalities than tornadoes in the
last three years combined.”
Only 143 were reported dead
from twisters during that
period for the entire country.
Gov. Wendell Ford called it
“the most tragic day in
Kentucky history.” Twisters
there hit 20 north and central
counties and ripped through the
downtown section of the Ohio
river town of Brandenburg,
where upwards of 30 were
dead. “People were being
carried out on doors,” a state
trooper reported.
Pupils gather
in basement
The pupils at Griffin Christian
School, 1411 Atlanta road,
gathered in the basement
around noon today when school
officials heard of tornado
warnings from two directions.
The Rev. Paul Stanek,
principal, notified the local
American Red Cross office that
in case of any disaster, the
school and First Assembly of
God Church is equipped with a
cafeteria and other facilities to
help dislocated residents.
ways, but also the various other
modes of transportation now
existing or planned in Georgia,
including mass rapid transit
and rail, shipping traffic and
commercial and general avia
tion.
Contained within the plan is a
specific set of formalized goals
for the Department of Tran
sportation to follow in its work
during the next 20 years and
beyond. These goals cover such
areas as effective use of
resources, environmental
quality, economic growth,
funding, management and
others.
Statewide information meet
ings will continue through April
18, well before the July deadline
directed by the governor and
the 1973-enacted Transportation
Code of Georgia for completion
of the plan.