The Minneapolis Star from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 45

'DESTROYER' STRIKES Aug. 7, 1969 THE MINNEAPOLIS I Alt 5D I It was all over minutes St -n 10 in By EDWARD SCHAEFER Minneapolis Star and PAUL PRESBREY Staff Writer ritolos by Paul Preshy and a main lodge. There also were an automobile service area, a garage, two utility buildings and a private residence. All were destroyed. George Zier, owner of the resort, said: Exploded "The cottages literally exploded.

I don't know how anyone got out alive. We had a report from a forest ranger that a tornado had touched down in the Backus area and was headed our way. "I went down to the cabins to warn people not to go out on the lake. Then 1 went back to my place and got my family. "There was a big black cloud that came roaring in and we just made it to the basement.

The house was swept from over our heads." Richard E. Ward, 11021 Queens Curve, Bloomington, and his wife, June; sons Rick, 15; Larry, 12; and Douglas, 8, were in a cabin at the Simmons resort. With them, in an adjacent cabin, were Webster T. Jones, 2224 Overlook Bloomington, his wife, Jean; and daughter, Nancy, 17. Thousand trains Jones said; "There was a strong wind, dark clouds, with wind blowing from the east, clouds moving in from the west.

Then we heard a noise like a thousand trains. At 6 p.m. Wednesday Roosevelt Lake, near Outing, was a typical Minnesota resort area haven, with older persons resting and children playing. Then a tornado hit from the west, cutting a path a quarter-mile wide. Ten minutes later, there was little left but wreckage.

Huge Norway pines, some 200 feet tall and nearly a yard in diameter nt the base, were snapped like matchsticks. Demolished were four cabins on Roosevelt Lake owned by the Bethany Fellowship, 6820 Auto-club Bloomington. They were used chiefly as summer vacation homes for staff members of the fellowship, a spokesman for the organization said. Of the six families at the cabins when the tornado struck, five are headed by ministers, and four are connected with the fellowship's training center in Bloomington. Staff members H.

C. Strand, treasurer of the fellowship, said the Harold Carlson family, the LeRoy Dugan family, the Arthur S. Olson family, and the Harold Brokke family were employed as staff members at the training center. The four families were on a vacation of two weeks, and had arrived at the Roosevelt Lake site Sunday, Strand said. The other two families were the Kenneth Dugan family of Canoga Park, and the Richard Dugan family of Huron.

S.D. The two men, both ministers, are brothers of Rev. LeRoy Dugan, a source at the center said. The three families met at the lake as part of a family reunion. On the west side The Bethany cabins are located on the west side of the lake on a point of land.

The cottage on the outermost point of land was the one occupied by most of the families when the tornado struck, and was carried about 200 yards. It hit the water about 75 yards from shore and disintegrated. The patriarchs of the gathering were the Rev. and Mrs. Arthur S.

Olson, who lived at 7021 Augsburg Richfield. They were lifelong missionaries, and had spent time in China where Mr. Olson was branch director of the Lutheran World Federation. He has been retired since 1963. The Olsons were the parents of Mrs.

Harold Carlson, whose husband is the superintendent of the fellowship. At the Simmons Log Cabin Camp, also on Roosevelt Lake, about 50 persons were registered. They were in 10 cottages Arrow in photo above indicates path of tornado that demolished Simmons Resort on the west shore of Roosevelt Lake. Debris from the wooden cabin littered the shoreline, its trees broken and snarled by the storm. At is a close-up of the same resort.

Csrs and belongings are buried under trees. Rescue workers continued to search the Roosevelt Lake area for survivors and communications are sporadic. Twelve persons died in tornadoes that raked the northern Minnesota vacation area. and opened the windows and crawled under the beds. I think the thing that saved us was opening the windows.

The cabin rocked and started to rise, and then it settled back on the foundation, minus the roof." Arthur Bikers, 1894 Sargent St. Paul, who is building a cabin on Lake Roosevelt, said he had purchased insurance on the half-built cabin on Tuesday. Insured "I called the banker in Deerwood and he said 'you're covered' even though I hadn't signed the final papers," Bikers said. The cabin was destroyed. Mrs.

John I vers, 6271 Trinity Drive, Fridley, and her four children were staying with friends on the lake when the tornado struck. She said the experience of the 1965 Fridley tornado, in which she lost some shingles from her home, told her to get into the basement. She did, and neither she nor her children nor the friends were injured when the house lifted away in the winds. Destruction of the Bethany Fellowship Bible Camp at Outing by last night's tornado is the second time weather has caused heavy-loss to the religious group. In 1952, fire started by lightning destroyed a toy factory operated by the fellowship at its quarters at 6820 Autoclub Bloomington.

The Fellowship is a colony of communal-living Christians who pool their resources to further the cause of missions and the training of missionaries. Its chief source of income is from its woodworking, electrical and printing shops whose products are sold through commercial channels. PICKING RASPBERRIES Grandmother hacks way to vanished cabin home gone. There was no trees standing nothing it was absolutely flat," she said. Mrs.

Busby found her daughter and the three grandchildren injured. A fourth grandchild, two-year-old Susan, later was found dead. the road goes to the cabin, but I had to walk and crawl a mile and a half from there. Big trees "Big trees were piled up all over everything. When I got to the place where I had left the cabin, it was cabin, which was on the shore of Reservoir Lake, about 11 miles east of Outing.

"When I got near the trail into my place I found the road blocked by trees and I had to get out a bucksaw and an axe from my car. I got down to where "We ran into a cabin Associated Press AT ROOSEVELT LAKE deputy sheriff there BEER BREAK MAY HAVE SAVED 5 A grandmother out "picking raspberries" when the tornado struck her cabin home near Outing, had to use a bucksaw and an axe to chop her way back to her cabin, only to find it wasn't there. Mrs. Isabel Busby, who refused to give her age, was brought to a hospital at Crosby, with her daughter, Mrs. Eleanor Marko, and three grandchildren, Daniel Marko, 10, Pamela, 5, and Jean, 3.

Mrs. Busby said she "was out on Half-Mile Hill picking raspberries and I heard that express train go through and ran for cover. "Then the sun came out, and I thought it must have been a pretty bad storm, and that I should get back to the cabin to see if everything was all right." She started towards the Steelworkers win automation plan PITTSBURGH, Pa. (UPI) The United Steelworkers of America said today it had reached agreement with 11 major steel companies on an "unprecedented" plan to supplement the earnings of workers whose jobs are affected by automation. The plan wil Iprovide quarterly income benefits to make up the difference between a worker's wages in any quarter and 85 percent of his average quarterly earnings in the previous year.

Taking a work break for a cold bottle of beer may have saved Arthur Bikers' life yesterday. Bikers, 1894 Sargent St. Paul, was building a cabin on Roosevelt Lake. He and his wife and three children were working on it yesterday when a neighbor invited him over for a beer. He went and took his family.

"When it hit, we ran into the neighbor's basement," B'kers said. "He lost a few trees, that was all. My home was destroyed." Bikers got an added stroke of luck. He bought insurance on the cabin Tuesday. Although he has not signed any papers or made any payments yet, he said "the banker in Deerwood (Minn.) told me I was covered immediately." OWNER PICKS THROUGH REMAINS OF HIS CABIN 'Cabins, homes, everything; all were said a Tornadoes have hit state from March to December Although Minnesota tornadoes are usually thought of as a summertime thing, they actually have a history of occurring in the state anytime from March through November.

June, however, is the biggest month for the spewing storms with July, May and August following in that order. Three-fourths of all reported tornadoes occur during the months of May, ROAD WILL BE PLANE STRIP A landing strip for emergency flights was designated on a portion of Hwy. 6 in the Outing area today. The Minnesota Highway Patrol in radio broadcasts also said flights other tha nemergen-cies were banned in a 30-mile radius of Outing. Some emergency aircraft, including the Hennepin County helicopter, were using the airport at Longville, as a base.

June 22, 1919 in Fergus Falls, 59 killed. July 20, 1951 in Hennepin County, 5 killed. May 6, 1965 in North Minneapolis and northern suburbs, 14 killed. June 13, 1968 in Tracy, 9 killed. In 19G6 there were 23 tornadoes and no.

reported deaths; in 1967, 29 were reported with 14 killed and in 1968 there were 30 with 10 dead. ROBBINSDALE MAN INJURED OUTING, Minn. UP)--The retired principal of Robbins-dale High School and his wife were injured Wednesday while visiting a friend who was killed in the tornado. Milo Mielke, 66, and his wife, Lavina, 61, were listed in fair condition today in a Crosby hospital. The Miclkes were at the Lake Roosevelt cabin of Mrs.

Rae J. Knighton, who was killed June and July, and four times as many tornadoes occur in the southern half of Minnesota than in the northern half. In the 16-year period from 1953 to 1968, according to records of the weather bureau's state climatolo-gist, 80 such storms have been spawned in June; 59 in July; 55 in May and 30 in August. Records indicate a large increase in the number of tornadoes in the last five years in comparison to earlier years, but this is due chiefly to increased efficiency in reporting the storms, the climatologist says. March 18, 1967, was the earliest in the season a tornado was reported and the latest on Nov.

16, 1931. Some of the outstanding tornadoes reported in Minnesota include: Aug. 21. 1883 in Rochester, 31 persons killed. Apr.

14, 1886 in the St. Cloud-Sauk Rapids area, 74 killed. Aug. 21, 1918 in Tyler, 36 killed. The home of Mr.

and church camp near Lake formerly lived in Fridley. Mrs. William Kleinschmidt, near the. Bethany Roosevelt, was destroyed. The Klcinschmidts their guests, Some members of the Kleinschmidt family and was injured.

Minneapolis star Photo by Paul Prcsbrcy the John lvers family of Fridley, were pictured above. None Mrs. Kleinschmidt was the only one at the home at the time..