Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 1

WEATHER Oar and colder through Sunday; low Saturday morning near 32, high 53. Reservoir Northerly winds 5-15 knots. Pearl River at Jackson, 19.1 feet, up 1.1 feet. mum HOME Edition Mississippi's Leading Newspaper For More Than A Century Established 1837 AP Leased Wires Wirephoto JACKSON', MISSISSIPPI, SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1968 VOL. CXXIX NO.

56 PRICE 5 ore Dead Found In Rubble Sri HH tii. Left In Tornado's Destructive Path RACE STRIFE MARS RESCUE EFFORTS HERE 61 Known Dead, 497 Injured, 19 Critical By JAMES BOXXEY Associated Press Writer The death toll inched up Friday as rescue workers checked the tracks of a tornado that skipped across central Mississippi. The highway patrol said 61 were known dead and 497 injured 19 critically. The storm's final punch Thursday night killed onet Acting Gov. Carroll Gar-tin said here late Friday that a racial disturbance had occurred at Alcorn College for Negroes at the height of rescue work following tornado destruction in the state.

"As if it were not enough that all of our law enforcement agencies are employ, ed saving lives and property, Charles Evers, field secretary for the NAACP has instigated a demonstration Gartin said. "We have had to pull out highway patrolmen to watch a demonstration of some 200 or more persons, and, make about 200 arrests for invasion of the all negro school," the lieutenant governor said. man in Manama and in Tornado jured 11. The twister touched down in Jackson suburb at dusk. It was erratic.

The deadly funnel would snake down from the 4Bcyond tumultuous clouds for a short, destructive spurt, then lift. Where it plowed through a shopping center here and a Belief By CHARLES M. HILLS Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer Death and destruction in the wake of a major tornado which struck Jackson and Mid Mississippi shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday was described hera by Acting Gov. Carroll Gartin as "horrible beyond belief." The lieutenant governor, wha toured the stricken area by air Friday morning, told newsmen at an afternoon press confer WRECKAGE Route Easily Traced By CARL McINTIRE Sunday Editor Following the route of the tor nearby industrial section, the1 tornado left lanes of fantastic damage.

In open farm country, it left herds of dead cattle and slashed swaths through tumber. In the industrial area, across Pearl River from Jackson in Rankin County, it demolished three big industrial plants. Relatively few lives were involved because workers had been sent home early due to the severe weather warning issued by the Weather Bureau. STREAMS OVERFLOW A warm sun shone on the rescue workers Friday and small streams in the storm area, some swelled to overflowing by Thursday night's torrential rain, 1 mi 11 Ml miM't'l' nado in a helicopter is easy- it is just difficult to understand ence that the devastation was the most terrible he had evep seen. However, the official, wha is acting in the absence of Gov; why there were not more killed and thousands more injured.

PATH OF TORNADO Paul B. Johnson, said that state agencies have been quick to respond to needs of the rav ished area and cooperation on a grand scale is preventing un subsided. At the Candlestick Park shopping center in Jackson, where 12 were killed, bulldozers pushed the rubble of a dozen stores into piles. Wrecked cars, which the twister threw around From southwest of Candlestick Park across south Jackson to east Flowood, the twisted trees, wrecked homes, overturned cars and wildly scattered litter trace the path the twister weaved. lander Center laundromat, number five is the Beauty Circle, number six is Neal's barber shop, number seven is the Liberty Market, number eight is and Electric and number nine is Fred's Dog 'n Suds.

Staff Photo. This is the path taken by Thursday's tornado through Candlestick Park in southwest Jackson. Numerals indicate establishments leveled or damaged by the twister. Number one is the office of Dr. Hilton M.

Fairchild, number two is Southwest Drugs, number three is Family 5 10, number four is High like Ding pone balls, were necessary discomfort for tha citizens of this area. IN FLORIDA Gartin said that Gov. Johnson, who is in Florida on an industrial acquisition trip, is keeping in close touch with lo TRACES LEFT The route is unmistakable and almost unbroken. Even over water, the traces have been left. Floating debris covers more than half the surface of one strewn in every direction.

The storm path was, at the most, less than a quarter-mile wide. Across the street from the shopping center, located at the southwest fringe of Jackson, a line of homes stood undamaged. Half a mile east of the center, the tornado "exploded" the modern brick Woodville Heights Baptist church. A little further on, the twister cal situations by telephone, arei has made available every "fa arge pond and other basins cility of the state for assistance Grisly Results Of Tornado Daze Hundreds Of Homeless Victims The lieutenant governor, fol along the Pearl River, now flood filled, contain litter. lowing a first hand inspection Grabbing its loot with tena cious fingers, the double tun neled storm swirled the mass dipped down again, tearing the overhead, ground it into bits and sprayed it like confetti over roof irom a series oi cuimta-icu stores, severely damaging several homes and cars, splintering big pine trees.

the countryside. Most of the way, the path appears to be about a quarter Our Home Folks, God Bless 'Em, Storm-Tested, Are The Greatest of a mile wide, through in spots it seems narrower and sometimes wider. By WILLIAM L. CHAZE Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer As. the rays of an early March sun poked through grey skies Friday, the curious and the injured eyed the grisly results of a killer tornado which dropped from the sky less than 24 hours earlier.

The day dawned cloudy and damp and as the hours passed, the weather brightened but failed to minimize TREES LEAN Trees lean toward the north (AN EDITORIAL) east in the Candlestick Park area. They lie heading northwest just south of Flowood said that destruction is much more widespread than he had at first thought. He said that first estimates of property damage would eclipsa $12,000,000 for the area. Gartin said that destruction and crippling of livestock in tha rural areas was greater than could be immediately estimated. One farmer owning 41 head oi cattle, told Gartin all had broken bones.

MOBILIZED He said that National Guardsmen, hospitals, highway patrolmen, and other state agencies had marshalled forces even before official calls were issued, going to the scene of troubla to take charge as soon as tha scope of the storm's damaga was realized. Gartin said that the staff in the governor's office had been in the thick of action sinca the storm struck, and that executive forces of state would Continued On Page 12 the stark portrait of death along the new and yet incomplet Wills, 19, of 3138 Adrianne Ave HITS POWER STATION It smashed a power substation, throwing the downtown section of Mississippi's capital city into darkness for nearly seven hours. Across the Pearl, the tornado wrecked the plants of Continental Can and the Jackson Tile Co. The Knox Glass Co. plant was severely damaged, with eight of its trucks and trailers smashed.

A steel skeleton frame, longer than a football field, was all that remained of the tile plant with many of the girders twisted like wet noodles. Before hitting the plants, the twister overturned a string of six railroad boxcars. Wills, a tall, muscular youth, ed levees of the Pearl. Their twisted, leaning trunks indicate was among the survivors. Fn the turn the storm made to day he walked over the ruined shopping center and wondered ward the north as it crossed the river.

On east the Lees- and destruction etched by the twister. Friday became a day of sifting the rubble, wondering how and why it happened and trying to shake off the numbing shock of a disaster so complete that it is difficult to comprehend. aloud how he survived. burg trees were leaning "I have been thanking God northeast again. since last night," he said as he It would be impossible to knelt to peer into a pile of rub count from the air just how ble.

"I was inside the slot-rac many homes and other build Thousands of Jackson resi- ings were wrecked. One cannot Continued On Page 12 Continued On Page 12 ing course when all the excitement began. "We were looking at this little car I had bought for the slot track when a small boy rushed in and yelled that, there was a tornado coming. I went outside and, sure there it I ran back inside the building because I figured that the worst thing that could happen would be broken glass. BACK PINNED "I hit the floor and put my hands over my head, The build AT LEAST 59 DEAD The twister snuffed out the lives of at least 59 persons in central Mississippi and others are feared dead.

Hundreds were injured. Survivors of the twister in the Jackson area became eloquent Friday in their silence. They silently, numbly walked over the scenes of destruction, shaking their heads in disbelief and giving muted thanks for their lives. The view at Candlestick Park In Jackson's suburban Oak Forest subdivision was a distillation of the damage to be found Miss. Valley Gas personnel, on company business and as individuals possessed of special training and-or equipment useful for the emergency, pitched in with special zeal.

Red Cross, Civil Defense, Jackson Auxiliary Police, Citizens Band radio volunteers, Salvation Army, Vicksburg and Clinton fire departments, special volunteers of Continental Can company crews, the list could go on and on. This newspaper would have to have its own special list, including Thomas Alewine, and Junior of the Rankin County News, where first copies of our Friday paper were printed, administrative and service personnel of the power company, who pressed efforts for restoration of electric current, volunteer photographers and reporters, particularly John Mc-Laurin, who helped at strategic points. Last but certainly not least, the personnel of our newspaper family, editorial, mechanical, circulation and managerial forces, all rose to the occasion and performed in the highest tradition of service to our readers. Bless 'em all, they're the greatest! No folks anywhere excel the people in and near our home town when the time of testing comes, as was the case with the tornadoes which hopped and skipped about middle Mississippi counties Thursday afternoon. Not only do we have kind hearts and gentle people, but we have folks who are brave and resolute people, capable of rising to emergencies in whatever strength and skills the situation demands.

The honor roll of this weekend is a long one and we certainly could not begin to designate the folks who earned that distinction Thursday and Friday. But we cannot let the opportunity pass to list some of them. The immediate response of Jackson's fine police force and fire department, the close cooperation of Hinds deputies and Highway patrolmen, the unbelievable flexibility displayed by our hospitals, physicians, staffs and volunteers, should be written in shining letters on our honor roll which includes also ministers of all the faiths, medical aides of varied abilities, members of both races. Mississippi Power and Light, Southern Bell Telephone, ing began shaking and I was sliding cross the floor, The noise was terrible. When the noise stopped my back was pinned When I got myself free I then Continued On Page 12 INDEX in parts of Mississippi.

Oak Forest is a neighborhood of moderately priced homes, fanning out from the Candlestick Park shopping Center: When the twister hit at 4:30 P. suburban housewives were doing their shopping at the center's large grocery store. Local teen agers crowded a root beer stand while others congregated fit a hobby shop featuring a miniature race track for model cars. SURVIVAL A WONDER Ont of the teens was Dudley Affairs Of State Amusements 15 Classified Ads 19-23 Comics 16 Editorials 8 Financial .18 Radio-TV Logs 17 Sports ....13, 14, IS, 17, 24 Women 9, 11 Ohurchel 10 AT CANDLESTICK Lt. Gov.

Carroll Gartin and Wilma Arender view scena of destruction at Candlestick Park. Mrs. Arender, a nurse with Dr. Hilton M. Fairchild, hid under a table as the tornado hit the physiclan'i office.

A portion of the brick wall fell on her leg and trapped her, but she was not seriously Injured. Photo by Kim Sutherland. IS i hf.