Evening Star Newspaper, May 3, 1929, Page 4

TORNADOES STRIKE NEAR WASHINGTON 11 Killed, 19 Hurt in Mary- land and Virginia Towns Around Capital. (Continued From First Page) L. Wachter, near lacerated. Mrs. Martin L. Wachter, bruised and shock. Miss Dorothy Doll, 17, near Fred- erick, cut about face and limbs. iiss Helen McGlow, 18, near Fred- emck, shock. ‘The home of Shank, a two-story frame building, was demolished and the timbers scattered several hundred yards. Mrs. Shank’s body was found about 150 feet from the foundation of the build- ing. Shank, unconscious, was found by his wife’s side. He died at the Fred- erick City Hospital early this morning. Mr. and Mrs. Fout occupied Rich- field, the birthplace of the late Admiral ‘Winfield Scott Schley, naval hero of the Spanish-American War, near Harmony Grove, which was badly damaged by the storm. Mr. and Mrs. Fout were in a second-story bedroom when the tornado hit. They were injured about the face and body. They were taken to the hospital, but their condition is not con- sidered serious. Windows Are Blown In. Mr. and Mrs. Wachter received lacer- ations about the face and hands, when windows of their home on the farm of Thomas Hayward, near Harmony Grove, blew in. They were taken to the hos- pital and released. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Doll, near Frederick, was wrecked and their daughter, Miss Dorothy Doll, and a friend, Miss Helen McGlow, were in- Jured. Mr. and Mrs. Doll and members of the household were asleep when the storm struck. The two girls were re- moved from their beds after the room had fallen about them. Neither was injured seriously. The residence of Evan C. Biser, near Frederick, was damaged. The barn near the house was wrecked. At Mount Pleasant the tornado cut a narrow path through the town and demolished the barn, garage and out- buildings of Millard Crum. The wind swept through the property of William Burrier and uprooted two rows of mature apple trees in the orchard of Wilbur Smith, a neighbor. Rail Tracks Washed Out. ‘The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad track at Garrets Mill, on the Washington- Hagerstown branch, was washed out at 6 o'clock last night and a passenger train bound from Washington to Hagerstown was held up pending re- pairs. Automobiles were sent to the scene and removed passengers and crew from the train. Frederick city homes and theaters were in darkness last night for nearly four hours when high-tension lines of the Potomac Edison Co. were destroyed near this city. Heavy damage was reported to prop- erty in Brunswick. Until a late hour this morning but one telephone line connected this city with that town. Virginia Counties Hit. ‘The devastating tentacles of two twisters dipped into Fauquier and Rap- pahannock Counties, in Virginia, within a period of five hours late yesterday, killed five persons. left nire others critically injured and laid waste the countryside and the towns of Catlett and Woodville. ‘The known dead are: Charles I. Al- len, 50, of Catlett: his twin daughters, about 16 years old; H. B. Laws, 35, a farmer of Catlett, and Marshall Haw- kins, 14, of Wocdville. The injured are: Miss Mary Eliza- beth Browning, 13, of Woodville, who has both arms broken and a sprained shoulder; George W. Pulliam, 12, of ‘Woodville, cut on the head and in- ternal injuries; Mrs. Charles I. Allen, cut about the head and injured in ternally; Mrs. Emma Allen, 56, of Cat- lett, cut about the hips; her husband, Luther Allen, 58, who has a broken leg and a mashed finger which doctors think will have to be amputaed; Harry Allen, their son, suffering from severe cuts about the forehead and a broken left arm; Mrs. H. B. Laws, wife of one of the dead, badly cut about the scalp; Arabella Laws, 10, her daugh- ter, who has a broken ankle, and Tom Freen, colored, who is suffering from abrasions and exposure. Miss G. C. Beasley, night supervisor of the Fauquier County Hospital, where the injured were taken, said that the condition of all the patients, with the exception of the Laws girl, was serious. &oy’s Body Found in Debris. The first of the two twisters struck about 3 o'clock in the afternoon in ‘Woodville, Rappahannock County, and swept the Woodville School, a frame building, a full half mile from its foundation. Marshall Hawkins, 14- year-old schoolboy, was found dead in the debris. S. L. Pulliam, a merchant, said the twister swept out of the southwest and blew for about three minutes. It tore down his two-story brick home, leaving him homeless. | Pulllam was standing in the hall-| way of his home when he heard the| terrific roar of the twister, and he| rushed into the yard with his family. Seeing the schoolhouse across the road | torn away, Pulliam rushed to the wreck- | age and found his son George and one | of the teachers, Mrs. L. R. Browning, | the latter unconscious. Another pupil, Elizabeth Browning, who is not re- lated to the teacher, was found hurt. Pulliam took the trio to a nearby colored man’s dwelling and later they were brought to a local hospital. It was reported that the teacher was re- moved to Charlottesville. The Episcopal Harmony Grove, and Baptist churches and four other | homes at Woodville were demolsihed while many houses were unroofed. Laws’ Home Wrecked. The Warrenton firemen accompanied by Drs. W. G. Trow, John T. Sprague, S. W. Maphis and W. O. Bailey of this city, and Drs. Marsteller and McBride of Mannassas, and Knight of Brister- burg, went to Woodville to aid in the | relief work. Dr. Martin Hardin, Dr. George H. Davis and John L. Thornton, | performed the surgical work when the injured were brought here. Culpeper firemen and Sperryville police also joined forces with the War- renton workers. The second of the twisters struck about 8:30 o'clock last evening at the home of H. B. Laws at Catlett, in Fau- Horses Electrocuted By Electric Wire Loosened by torm es were vietims of the morning when they cuted as they were en ahead of a wagon near Ridge road They stepped on = high tenston-electric power wire owned by th Potomac Electric Power Co., according to the re- port of the seventh precinct police The horses were the property of the Westcott Nursery Co. of Falls Church, Va., and were being driven by R. B. Griffith, colored, of Herndon, Va. being dri on an estate na W street. noon. them. The home of Pete Laws at Catlett, Va., near Warrenton, Va. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D, C.” FRIDAYF MAY 3,"'1929. All that was left of the home of William H. Childs, Three members of the family met death. & £ 2 2 er the tornado passed yesterday after- —Star Staff Photo, Five persons lost their lives in this area, Laws among Photo, bodies of dead chickens, horses and cows. —Star Staff Allen was injured and his store completely wrecked by the wind. Another view of the Laws' home. A freak of the storm. This new automobile was stripped b{ the wind. e e —Star Staff Photo. and the motor torn out from under the hood and thrown 50 feet. DEVASTATION WROUGHT BY TORNADO IN NEARBY COMMUNITIES Two twisters hit this area and the countryside this morning was strewn with the The body was lifted off and carried away 'ROOF OF PORTABLE. SCHOOL DAMAGED Wesley Heights Structure Hit {by Storm—Some Pupils Dis- missed for Safety. The windstorm which raged last night took its usual toll from the por- table buildings when it tore off a sec~ tion of the roof of one of the four | portables in Wesley Heights. The buld- | ing adjoining the damaged structure is | one in which Betty Ballou, daughter of | Dr. Frank W. Baliou, superintendent of | schools, attends the sixth-grade class. A sector of the south end of the most westerly of the Wesley Heights group of four portables was ripped off and hurled to the ground some distance away. The damage probably was done, schools officials are convinced, after the rain had ceased falling, for the wall- board of the one-room structure was dry. The puplls of the bullding were housed for the first two hours of today in the other portables of the group, but by 11 o'clock, at which time the wind increased, Robert L. Haycock, assistant superintendent. ordered dismissal for the rest of the day of all the puplls quartered in that group. Check-up Is Made. Meanwhile a city-wide check-up was made on the 75 portables in use, and all were reported undamaged by the wind. ‘The puplls in the Kalmia road portable, at Fourteenth street, were or- dered dismissed, however, until 1 o'clock, when Dr. E. G. Kimball, supervising principal, and his field principals agreed upon the dismissal as a safety measure. They reported. however, that neither of the two buildings showed signs of weak~ ening. 'A% soon as the damage to the Wesley Heights portable was discovered Mr. Haycock notified the District repair shop and by 8 o'clock workmen from that department were making repairs. The building probably will be in use | again_tomorrow. ; Of the 75 portables now being used by the schools, 60 are 10 vears old, hav- ing been purchased in 1919. The re- maining 15 have been in use at various localities since 1909. Stephen E. expressed concern over the regularity with which windstorms exact damage from the flimsy structures. He de- clared, too, that his feeling is enter- tained by officers throughout the school system. e i —Star Staff Photo. Can Use Discretion. ‘When the last storm visited Washing- ton and damaged two of the portables Dr. Ballou issued orders to every super- vising principal in the system to excuse their classes if in their opinions they were endangered during storms. Mr. Kramer, Mr. Haycock and the field offi- cers lost no time today in exercising that discretion, although the only two groups of portable classes which were dismissed were those in Wesley Heights and Kalmia road. School officials said today that pend- ing permanent school building con- struction, which is scheduled to be com- pleted by next February, they will re- move 19 of the portables from use at their present localities. This, however, does not mean that that number of the frame and composition board structures will be permanently eliminated from further use, for already there is a list | of applications for portable groups in outlying sections which even now cai not be filled by the authorities withy the existing number of portables. The' 19 which will be taken out of service at_their present stations follow: Four at the Grant road site, two at the Petworth School, one at the Ta- koma School, five at the Park View School, one each at the Maury and Kingsman Schools, two at the Orr School, three at the Phillips School | and two at Burrville. —Star Stafl Photd. | wests made recentiy by the board of quier County. Laws was killed instantly when a falling beam struck him on the head while the entire house, a 14-room brick structure, built a hundred years ago, was demolished along with every building on the farm, including a con- crete silo, dairy house, chicken house and several farmhand dwellings. Mrs. Laws was pulled from the debris by workers soon after the house col- lapsed. She was pinned beneath a pile of bricks with her child Arabella, 10, clinging to her. Both were rushed to the hospital here. Many head of cattle on the Laws farm were injured by the twister and many hogs, cows, calves, ponies and colts were slain to end their agony. Others, however, escaped notice in the excitement and darkness and this morning were seen limping over the farm, some with gaping holes in their sides, torn by flylng bricks and timbers. Automobile Is Destroyed. An automobile stored in a garage was blown 300 yards across the road and left in a crumpled heap. The garage could not be found. The twister next touched the farm of Charles I. Allen, across the road from the Laws property. Allen was killed by fiying debris, as were his two daughters. His wife was badly cut and hurt internally and brought here to the hospital. Mrs. Allen was found about 300 yards from her home and her twin daughters about the same distance in a different direction. The twister also swept the home of Luther Allen, a brother of Charles Allen, and he, his wife and son re- | ceived minor injuries. They were brought to the local hispital. The dwelling in which Tom Green lived could not be found last night. | Searchers came upon Green about 7:30 this morning lying in a nearby fleld, suffering from cold and cuts about the head. The Summer home of Mrs. Belle Coates of New York City was destroyed. The house was unoccupied. T. W. Cowne’s home was blown from its | foundation and badly damaged. It re- mained intact, however, and its occu- | pants escaped injury. the Burroughs dwelling was blown away and all of the small buildings were demolished. No one was hurt. Fruit and shade trees were uprooted, however, and flelds were laid waste. Outbuildings and a tenant house on the farm of French Hobbs, near the Burroughs farm, were levelled and the Hobbs dwelling was damaged. A colored man, Preston Ashe, was badly injured when a twister wrecked his house at Purcellville, Va., in the Virginia storm area yesterday after- noon. - The twister started about & mile from Hamlilton, Va., and went in a northerly direction, cutting a swath half a mile wide and wreaking havoc on everything in its path for a distance of about 2 miles. At Ketockin, the Union Church was demolished and the barns on the farms of J. Forrest Manning and Arthur Phillips were wrecked. Goose Creek, below Leesburg, went out of bounds and flooded many acres of valuable farm lands. Ashe was found under debris of his demolished house after his wife had extricated herself from the wreckage :nld crawled to & neighbor's house for elp. Trees Uprooted Here. ‘The wind struck here at 9:50 o’clock with a velocity estimated in excess of 60 miles an hour. rooming house at 318 C street was de- molished, threatening the occupants; two boys were shocked by coming in contact with a trolley pole believed to have been charged by wire damage, trees were uprooted and stripped, tear- ing down phone and light wires and causing traffic tie-ups where they fell across streets, and windows also suf- fered. The blast was of such suddenness that instruments at the Weather Bureau registered the velocity only 21 miles an_hour, but officials there were satis- fied that the figure was in excess of 60. Mrs. Christine Sage, proprietor of the C street rooming house, said that she spent a frantic time running trom floor to floor in the 18-room dwelling, holding windows in the back and on the side of the house, which for a time threatened to give way to the high winds and be Excitement Kills Woman. the excitement here, Mrs. | _ During James William Jefferies dropped dead | from a heart attack shortly after being told about the twister's work. J. E. | Sudduth, local undertaker, was taken il with a stroke of paralysis whiie embalming the body of Mrs. Jefferies | and the work had to be finished by an- | other member of the firm. Nervousnes | from the excitement of the storm wa | said to be the cause of Sudduth’s being stricken. | The driving rainstorm started in Warrenton about 8:30 o'clock last night | and, although there was a high wind, 1no damage has been reported here. W. W. Brown, jr, manager of the | virginia Public Service Co.'s branch at | Manassas, with a gang of emplo: alded in the rescue work at Catl hile other employes of the company restored electric light service in the {stricken area within 30 minutes after ithe line between Remington, Manassas |and Catlett had been swept down. Fields Laid Waste. | The same twister which visited the Childs home near Laytonsville, Md., and the Haight home near Brookville, is believed to have been responsible for torn from their heldings. Girl Is Frightened. Dorothy McCoy, 18, who, with her 13- | year-old sister Amy. occupies the room | on the top floor of the house where the fire wall was blown away, was sitting in | her room reading when the blast struck | the rear and side of the house and hur- Mrs. Sage. so frightened I didnt know what to do,” the girl said this morning. “The house actually began to rock and | I thought it would be blown down. “I was never in anything like it be- {fore, but I imagined it was going to be terrible since my father; who was in the Florida hurricane of 1926, had told me of the terror of the winds.” The house, which was an imposing structure in the last century, was the home of John C, Fremont, first Repub- lican candidate for the presidency. Auto Is Blown Block. Two boys, Ed Nolan, 14, of 3835 Wis- consin_avenue, and Preston King, 13, 2712 Wisconsin avenue, were bowled search for 1 street when they touched the trolley pole. Both were treated for shock at | the wreckage at the farm of George E. | Burroughs, near Unity, Md.. about five miles {rom Laytonsville. The roof of their homes, police of the seventh pre- cinct reported. The wind plaged muu* tricks with ‘The fire wall on the fourth floor of a | ried hysterically to the first floor in | over on Wisconsin avenue near Fulton | automobiles parked downtown. One machine was blown east on Pennsyl- vania_avenue from Fifteenth to Four- teenth street and brought up against the street, car loading platform on the southwest corner. The identity of the owner was not learned. Crowds leaving a theater near F and Fourteenth streets last night saw the wind peel the fabric top from a sedan parked at the curb and drape it over the rear end of the car. ‘The broad streets of the National Capital gave the gale a clean sweep at shade trees ranging the thoroughfares, and 65 were uprooted, while many others were stripped of limbs and branches. The Street Cleaning Depart- ment was busy today clearing away the ebris. Street Cars Blocked. The Police Department was swamped with calls for help from various sections of the city, where automobiles and trol- ley cars with early theater crowds were tied up by fallen trees and debris. A tree across the car tracks at First street and Virginia avenue delayed traffic for several hours. Busses were pressed into service from Peace Monument, past the Union Station, to Eighth and F streets northeast. Traffic was hampered thrown across the street. In the 1700 block of Twentieth street a tree fell across a parked automobile, while an- other parked car was damaged in the 1700 block of R street when a telephone pole fell across it. A number of trees were blown against houses and across lawns, obstructing private entrances, but wreaking only slight damage, according to Police and Fire Department reports. In many cases trafic was delayed while detuils of police and firemen chopped trees from across the streets. At 10 o'clock last night an order was issued to municipal vehicles to use care in crossing street intersections, due to the danger of falling trees and flying debris. Full crews of linemen were out last night and this morning repairing dam- aged light-wire systems. CFifty phones were put out of commis- sion in the Cleveland Park section, the only local area to be thus affected, it was reported. Although the Fire Department sent engine companies to several localities to chop away trees, no cases of live wires being down were reported. No. 2 Truck Company chopped away two | trees, one near 1705 Twentieth street | and another in front of 601 Fifteenth | street. Other trees at 511 Second street northeast and 205 C street were cleared away by Engine Company No. 1. Trees Down in Northwest. In the northwest section of the city trees were reported down by the vari- ous police precincts as follows: At Chain Bridge road, in the 3100 block, two trees were uprooted, while four others were reported down at Twenty-sixth and F streets. Others were reported at Virginia avenue and G street, Twenty-fourth and G, Nine- teenth and E, Eighteenth and C, Eight- eenth and Virginia avenue, Seventeenth near C, Nineteenth and E, 3706 Four- teenth,” Ogden and Oak streets, Thiry teenth and Spring road, Howard and | Reservoir roads, 3400 Fourteenth street, | Klingle and Adems streets, three trees at Rock Creek Ford road near Ne- | braska avenue; two trees each at New sireet and Third and C streets; one tree at Second and D, 400 Third street, First and C, Third and Pennsylvania in the 1900 | block of R street when a tree was| Jersey avenue and F street, 700 Sixth | avenue, Arthur place, 205 C street, Swann and Fourteenth, Champlain and Kalorama road, 2200 Champlain, Nine- teenth and Oregon avenue, Nineteenth and R, B and Fourteenth, Twelfth and K, 2400 Chain Bridge road. Foxall and Hawthorne streets, 3900 Cathedral ave- nue, Twentieth street near R. In the southwest trees were down at Eighth and I streets, 424 Eighth, 616 Eighth, Eighth near F and 210 Tenth. In the southeast, 650 I street, 515 Eighth, Eleventh and G, Eleventh and D and 510 Sixth. In the northeast, 100 Second street, first block of Third street, Seventeenth street and Benning road, 300 C street, Fourth and_ Massachusetts avenue. Fourth and Maryland avenue, Second near I street and 700 E street. Officials of the Office of Public Build- ings and Public Parks were checking up today on storm damage and ex- pressed surprise that so little damage was done, Frank T. Garside, chief of the maintenance division of the office, said that one of the big trees was struck down a short distance south of the White House, just east of Seventeenth and B streets. One tree was down in the Smithsonian grounds, two were down in West Potomac Park, two more in East Potomac Park and the others were scattered. Reports from Rock Creek failed to record any extensive damage, although all through the park there were branches down, officials said. The United States park police sald no_injuries to persons were recorded within their jurisdiction as & result of the storm. None of the roads under the super- vision of the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks were blocked by fallen | trees, Mr. Gartside asserted. ChLnE e |DEBRIS OF RYE COVE SCHOOL MAY HIDE TORNADO VICTIMS (Continued From First Page.) | T really became alarmed before the | building collapsed.” Mr. Noblin told a similar story. ley and ran into the building,” he said. “The schoolhouse collapsed just aftel I entered and I knew nothing mote until I had been pulled from the wreckage."” The Red Cross had taken over relief work today and the unit at Bristol was being reinforced from Washington and Cincinnati. Tetanus anti-toxin sent from Knoxville and nearby cities was administered to those suffering from lacerations, while all available physi- clans and nurses at Bristol and Kings- port were called into service. The list of know: Cove tornado follow Ava Carter, 24, a teacher of Co Creek, Va. Bruce Cox, 18, of Gate City. Polly Carter, 14, of Rye Cove. Nonnie Fletcher, 14, and Bernice Fletcher, 8, of Rye Cove. James Carter, 14, of near Rye Cove, Eertha Mae Darnell, 12, Rye Cove. Emma Lane, 6, and Ethel Lane, 14, of Rye Cove. Della Bishop, 10, of Cove Creek. Little Lee Carter, age and address unknown. Miss Willie Stone, Cove, who died in a Bristol hospital to- day. ‘Three unidentified dead. “I saw the storm coming up the val- | dead in the R}'El student, of Rye ERIE GALE DAVAGE PUT AT STO00 |Lake Is Lashed by One of Worst Storms of Its History. | By the Associated Press. CLEVELAND, May 3.—Lake Erie was | commencing to settle down today after | one of the worst storms in its history, | while owners of lake front property | along the entire shore line from Cleve- | land to Toledo counted losses incurred | by the pounding of waves that swept |unchecked past hopelessly inadequate | breakwaters. Damage was estimated at $100,000. Fanned by a wind that sometimes | reached a velocity of 60 miles an hour and accompanied by rain, hail, sleet and snow, the turbulent lake tossed vio- | lently throughout the night. Apparently the worst of the storm violence was in the vicinity of San- | dusky. Rushed back into Sandusky | Bay, lake waters forced the bay levcl as much as 5 feet above normal. Dock: were broken, piers awash and lowlands | inundated. | i Similar conditions prevailed at Put- n Bay. | At Point Place, a Toledo suburb, Maumee Bay, lake waters rose 5 fe above normal and surrounded 17 homes. Heavy damage was done at Cleve- and. | | At Port Clinton, Huron, Vermillion {and Lorain similar damage was done. ONE KILLED IN FLORIDA. | Twister Injures 12 in Suburb of Jacksonville. By the Associated Press. JACKSONVILLE, Fla, May 8—A | small twister struck Jacksonviile Heights | yesterday, killing one man and injuring | more than a dozen persons before blow- | |ing out through Ortega, another suburb. | Matt Hoefer, 55, was killed when the tornado picked up his house and dropped |it into a nearby field. | Property damage was estimated at, about $75,000. | | The storm cut a path about 2 miles | Tong and 400 yards wide. HEARING IS POSTPONED. | Three American Aviators to Be Tried on May 9. TUCSON, Ariz,, May 3 (®).—The pre- | liminary hearing of three American | aviators, ‘charged with conspiracy to| | viclate the neutrality laws, was post- | {poned” until May 9. when' they were alled before a United States commis- | oner here yesterday. The men, W. L.| itchell and R. H. Stanley, Big Springs, | x., and W. L. Fields, Los Angeles, arc | rged by the government with con- ksplnnz to turn an airplane over to the | insurgent forces in Mexieo: TUG DRIVEN INTO MUD. NEW YORK, May 3 (#).—A gale that swept the North Atlantic seacoast today | carried the Navy tug Iuka with 60 men | aboard, into the mud flats near Fort Lafayette, Brooklyn. was standing by. | The vessel went aground as a heavy | storm was letting up over the harbor. | The storm continued along the coast, however, and the wind was of whole- gale force at sea. ‘The tug, which is about 100 feet long, ‘was undamaged and was expected to be refloated at high tide late this after- noo; Glorious Spring i3 here! health of Scotland among school chil- dren has proved, it declares, that ma- chine-skimmed milk rations to pupils promote growth. 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