Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 1

hum HOME Edition Mississippi's Leading Newspaper For More Than A Century Established 1837 AP Leased Wires Wirephoto JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1971 VOL. CXXX1II NO. 269 24 AGES PRICE 10c HE WAS IN EYE OF STORM Traveler Gave Aid At Inverness WEATHER Clear to partly cloudy through Wednesday. Lows, Tuesday near 30, high upper 50s. High Wednesday in 60s.

Reservoir: west to northwest winds 10 to 20 knots. Pearl River at Jackson 19 feet, up 4.6 ft. High Monday 53, low 38. ing and I stopped my car," he recalled. Campbell said he believed he was in the eye of the storm because neither he nor his car He said he walked on downtown and found "people running around in circles, not knowing what to do.

So I started organizing search parties, community seven miles southwest of Belzoni where a tornado touched down and did extensive damage, John Davenport was an eyewitness to the destruction of his own home. Davenport said he saw the funnel cloud as it came down and flattened his home, his mother's home, and four other buildings were exploding, trees fell all around me some just split, and some were ripped out of the ground by their roots." Going back to the noise Campbell said "the drone sounded by a "zillion" bees. And sitting briefly in the safety of his automobile, he declared was like "sitting in a bottle By CHARLES HILLS JR. Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer INVERNESS A first aid instructor from Rayville, was among the first to give a helping hand to this stricken, nearly wiped out town of 1,100 persons. U3 was Skipper Campbell who was traveling through Inverness at the very moment the tornado hit.

Miraculously, he was unhurt. Campbell said the first thing h'2 became aware of was a droning noise "like a gigantic bunch of bees." "I realized what was happen i 1 "luwe ud" iJulu" vvK Ollt. By a miracle the Community House was left standing, and Campbell ordered it turned into first aid station, and several residents began helping him treat the injured. Describing the wind, Campbell said as the storm passed through Inverness "roof tops were going everywhere, glass was flying through the air, rm floating in a rough sea." Officials in Inverness estimated that 75 per cent of the residential area has ben destroyed, and 90 per cent of the business district is gone. Over at Gooklake, a rural 0 Orders ixon Tw As 1 1011 77 Confirmed Dead As Cleanup Begins By ELSIE MAY CHAMBERS And CHARLES M.

HILLS, JR. Casualty lists continued to grow and property damage estimates to mount as a gigantic cleanup campaign got under way in eight counties where tornadoes swooped down Sunday afternoon and night. President Richard M. Nixon, acting on requests from BATTERED SENTINELS Storm-lorn trees frame view of tornado damage at Inverness where an estimated 75 per cent of the homes and 90 per cent of the business district, were destroyed i Sunday twister. Photo by Robert E.

Lee. Mississippi's Congresional delegatiaon, declared the storm ravaged section a major disaster area Monday. House Conference Will Map Aid Plans Gov. John Bell Williams will meet with Gen. George Lincoln, head of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, Tuesday morning at 8 a.m.

at the National Guard Headquarters at Thompson Field to coordinate plans to aid the areas hit by tornadoes Sunday. Also present at the early morning conference will be Gen. Harold Biddy of Grenada; Lt. Gov. Charles Sullivan: Millard Dent, head of the Mississippi Civil Defense: Wiiliam Holloway, director of Region 3, OEP; George Hastings, director of Region 5 OEP; Harris M.

Pope, regional director for Region 3, Civil Defense; and Enso V. Bighnatti, national director of disaster services, American Red Cross. The group is expected to tour the storm ravaged places later in the day. Sections of the ravaged areas have been already been declared a national disaster area, according to Sen. James O.

See AID PLANS Pg. 2 On Care Day Mrs. Hines Dies Here Mrs. Hulon Hunter Hines, 86, of 321 West Northside Drive, died at 5:10 p. m.

Monday at Baptist Hospital in Jackson after a long illness. Funeral services will be held at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Wright Ferguson Chapel with the Rev. Larry G. Rohrman, pastor of First Baptist Church, officiating.

Interment will be in Lakewood Memorial Park. Shs was born March 16, 1885, at Florence, and was one of the twin daughters born to William E. Odom and Mrs. Mary Frances Teasley Odom. She was the widow of Hulon Hunter Hines who preceded her in death Oct.

31, 1969. Mrs. Hines was the mother of eight children all of whom sur House By JAMES SAGGUS Associated Press Writer The Mississippi House voted were hurt. "I watched houses on both crac rf rnnrt hointT Ho. stroyed they just completely caved in or exploded out.

I could have sworn I saw a body flying through the air, but thore was so much confusion I'm not sure." Campbell said as soon as the storm subsided he left his car and "pulled a couple of people I saw out of the wreckage of their house." AT UMC HERE njure By JEAN CULRERTSON Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer One boy came into the emergency room at University Medical Center Sunday night with a plank through his chest. An 18-year-old girl just coming out of shock Monday after noon knew that three of the members of her family were dead after the tornado near Belzoni. Hospital authorities thought one of the bodies in the morgue was a member of her family but simply couldn't bring themselves to call upon her for identification. Another victim told nurses, "I kept telling my son not to go outside but he went anyway. He just "blowed away" while she watched.

Sixty-two people came to UMC in Jackson Sunday night after tornadoes all over the state. They came not only in I amubulances but also in two tion, but said a group from Houston, had departed for Paris on such a mission. Mississippians attending the rally adopted a resolution to establish a Mississippi Committee to Free Mississippi and American Prisoners of War to lead the effort. Perot told the crowd that the j25 Mississippi POWs and MIAs Mi tt-- J.Jtt- Lrrrs IS" Of i a I residences. "We saw it coming and got in my truck and outran it.

If we had stayed there, they would have had to bury us all." He added that he saw a "lot of bodies" as he fled the killer storm. local property owners to handle claims. The dead by counties are: Sharkey, 24 dead. 2C0 injured Leflore 22 dead, 200 injured. Warren, 2 dead, 6 injured.

Sunflower, 17 dead, many injured. Yazoo, 7 dead, many injured. Humphreys, 5 dead, some in juries. Lafayette, none dead, 40 in jured. Pontotoc, no estimate.

Gov. John Bell Williams and Col. Millard Dent, state director See TORNADOES, Page 2 Homeless Sheltered, Aid Rushed By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Mississippi Red Cross Monday established refugee centers in at least 10 towns to shelter the homeless victims of a killer tornado storm. A Red Cross spokesman said relief centers had been set up in Indianola. Inverness, Moorhead, Cary, Rolling Fork, Vicksburg, Yazoo City, Greenwood, Delta City, and Belzoni.

George Peterson, a Red Cross disaster relief official from Atlanta, said communications difficulties prevented an estimate of the number of homeless. It was known, however, that at least 400 people were being housed at the community center at Indianola and 300 were being sheltered at Moorhead. At least 2.500 cots were See RELIEF, Page 2 Little Yazoo photo by R.E. VXsW.i i I Senate By BILL CRAWFORD Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer Fire and disaster insurance ments and subsitituted a rewrit- See MISS. SENATE Pg.

5 INDEX 75-36 approval Monday of a bill for state schools, both public to protect young children by and private, would be provided licensing day care centers. jfor if the bill approved by the Handlers, who had expected I Senate Monday is enacted, an uphill fight, found they had The measure includes all broad support when they beat scno1 properties in the BEACH back a barrage of crippling plan, the program now provid-amendrnenls. "'S insurance in the coast The bill, which still must be region-released to the Senate, provides All insurance companies op-for inspection by fire and health eiatin2 in the stale would be departments to determine safe- required to participate an ty and sanitation. pool wnich would It also requires licensing by equitably distribute the insur-the State Welfare Department. fce re(uests of schools amonS which would certify one of four coyamsr categories for a facility.

Those Lnf act no sdlo1 could rendering only custodial or in. be refused insurance, fant care would need only to Pernn Purvis of Tupelo pass safetv and sanitation ins- id Ht De.Ce" of zoo Sections by fire and health de- the flor. Dartments measure, called it from the ta- Tn nn muvni wnere il was Placed Friday TO add UIHEKS length debate. They then The welfare department committee amend- 2,000 Applaud Perot Plan To Press For Humane Care, Release Of POWs vive her- Mrs. C.

W. Baley of Jackson; Dr. Merrill O. Hines. of New Orleans; Robert H.

Hines, Baton Rouge, See HINES, Page 5 R. M. Hederman Ls 'Doing Well' Tell orror school buses, in cars, and sta tion wagons by the load. By Monday night, 30 were still there. Fourteen had been released and 13 transferred to other Jackson hospitals as the University Hospital filled up.

Five were dead on arrival. SMALL COMMUNITIES They came from places with names like Pugh City and Swiftown, places that nobody ever heard of before but will long remember. Ollie Mae Thomas of Swiftown near Belzoni was in the kitchen around 5 o'clock Sunday, cooking supper for her husband and six children. First the window pain blew out and then the house was gone. "It happened so fast," she said, that she really didn't know what happened, Mrs.

Thomas and her hus band were both hurt, but their See INJURED, Page 2 Expressing his conviction that unremitting pressure would produce results with the North Vietnamese, Perot said Americans should continue to negotiate with them but "be sure you twist (their arms) while you talk." Recalling his own monumen- tal efforts on behalf of the POWs. Perot said that since his Christmas trip four times as much food has been permitted shipped to the prisoners and that 80 per cent of the mail volume has been since that time. registered The speaker emphasized the mistreatment to which prisoners have been subjected, saying they have been starved, tortured and beaten. He sketched See POW RALLY, Page 5 rJ 1 FAIRHOPE, Ala. (AP) R.

spirit in his determined cam-M. Hederman, Jackson, jpaign to obtain better treatment newspaper publisher, was re-j and release for Americans Dorted doimr we 1 Mondav at a tairhope hospital. A enntfitman saiH Heder- Nixon's move releases i vast federal forces and monies in assistance to the hard-hit areas. The President said that. William H.

Holloway, regional director of the Office of Em ergency Preparedness, Region 3, will coordinate the federal -state disaster agreement. Nixon telegraphed Gov. John, Bell Williams of his action in authorizing federal relief, re covery, and assistance in the af fected areas. He asked Gov. Williams to "extend our deepest sympathy to those who are adversely affected by these tragic storms." Civil Defense headquarters in Jackson reported Monday afternoon that 77 persons had been confirmed as dead, and CD said that a conservative estimate of the property damage would be in excess of $5 million.

But, W. D. Swift, manager of property claims services for the American Insurance Association, estimated insured losses to fixed property and contents in Mississippi as 6li million. He said the General Adjustment Bureau has sent ten adjusters to Indianola to assist IDENTIFIED CASUALTIES DELTA CITY Mrs. S.

H. Ausborn, 84. Jesse Ausborn, 57. Ruby Ausborn, 48. Lebron Crawford, 55.

Sam Crawford, 58. Mrs. Tom Price, 78. Mrs. Euna Price, about 65.

Charles Hogan, two years. Phillip Pillow See CASUALTIES, Page 2 There were no injuries would add regulations for more sophisticated operations involv ing educational and other services, subject to approval by an advisory board which could veto regulations too restrictive. The nine-member board would include one person named by the state health officer and eight named by the governor. Four gubernatorial selections would be parents of children in centers, while the others would be named from See MISS. HOUSE Pg.

5 man was in no discomfort. He Prisoners Day" rally Monday at represent twice the state's pro-became ill Saturday while at- the Jackson City Aiiitodirum. portion by population and that it tending a meeting of directors Perot, data processing com- i represents the extent of the of the Southern Newspaper pany president and philanthro-' stale's contribution to the war Publishers Association. Heder- pist. asked Mississippians to jin Vietnam, man is a former president.

jsend a delegation containing i Calling attention to the great Attending physicians said he representatives from every city patience of the Orientals, Perot would be hospitalized several and town in the state to a place stressed and re-stressed the days for tests and observation, of its choosing to demand re-' movement, saying it might be Hederman is publisher of iease of tfie prisoners of war. necessary to go back a second, The Clarion-Ledger and Daily) He did not suggest a destina- third or a fourth time, even 50 News in Jackson. tion for the Mississippi delega- times from 50 states. i Amusements 12 Classified Ads 18-23 Comics 14 Editorials 6 Financial 16 Miss. Notebook 6 Radio-TV Logs 13 Sports 11-17, 24 Women 8-9 By BILLY SKELTON Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer More than 2,000 Mississippians enthusiastically applauded H.

Ross Perot's never-sav-die missing and captured in Southeast Asia as the Dallas billionaire sparked a "Free the 5n 1 I ty MT-: 3C i "-7 i i iissBsss.swaK.sr Htt mju UESTRLCIION Scenes from three communities show the awesome destruction of Sunday's tornadoes that struck Mississippi. At left. First Baptist Church of Little Yazoo lies in ruins behind a car thrown about by the violent winds. Center photo shows de- struction at Evana Plantation near Cary. Two per- sons were beileved drowned in the bayou, back- ground, when a nearby home was demolished.

Other members of the family were blown across to the other bank. In Delta City, right photo, Jeff Arring- ton, in cap, stands where 13 persons huddled on the floor as the storm tore the house down about them. Lee, Cary and Delta City photos by Claude.