Daily World from Opelousas, Louisiana • Page 1

WORLD 1 978 Opalovios, Ntwipoptn, kit; ad righh reserved VOL. 39 NO. 183 0 0 A MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1 9 7 8 (U 1 4 6 9 4 0) FIFTEEN CENTS DA Cleanup Begins In Path Of Twister from the tornadoes and one in a storm-related drowning more than 200 were injured and hundreds of homes and other buildings were damaged or destroyed. Despite the extensive property loss in Bossier City, two young sisters who were asleep when the storm hurled a car through their bedroom window were the only fatalities in the northwest Louisiana city. "He (God) must have been with us," said Mayor Marvin Anding.

"I can't believe we had only two deaths with the miserable, miserable mess we have out there." The unusual late-autumn tornado hit before dawn Sunday. It was caused by unseasonably warm air that settled over northwest Louisiana in the path of an approaching cold front. The temperature was down to 33 degrees as workers assembled today for the massive job of removing trash and restoring utilities. The city's first freeze of the season was forecast for tonight. 'National Guardsmen armed with rifles and billy clubs patrolled Bossier City today, where a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed.

To prevent another outbreak of looting, the city was closed to all except residents and emergency personnel. outside and was swept away by high water. At least four tornadoes touched in the Mississippi communities of Rena Lara and Poppersville. One person was injured, two house trailers were overturned and several buildings 1 Still more tornadoes ravaged Taylortown, and Marianna, Ark. Bossier City clearly was the scene of the most destruction.

"The amazing thing about this disaster is the amount of damage to buildings the structural damage throughout the area and the so few casualties," said Maj. Gen. O.J. Daigle Jr. of the Louisiana National Guard.

"When you fly oyer and see some of these houses completely dismantled, you wonder," he said of the death count. "I'd say there was over $100 million worth of damage." Looters appeared in the area 20 minutes after the tornado, prompting a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. State police and guardsmen sealed off the area, allowing only emergency personnel and residents with proof of addresses to enter.

A downpour during much of the day hampered searches for victims and made the debris soggy and smelly. Debbie Thomas, 15, was asleep when the tornado slammed into her neighborhood, one of the heavily damaged subdivisions. "The whole area looks like something huge was dragged across the top of it," she said. "I didn't hear anything and then the whole house kind of shook like something was rocking The front of her house, away from her bedroom, blew away. Guard Failed To Show Pilot Refuses To Fly Cult charged with cutting the throats of Mrs.

Amons and her children, Lee Ann, 11, Martin, and Christa, 7, at the Temple's Georgetown headquarters at the same time the cult members in Jonestown began drinking a cyanide and fruit drink potion Nov. 19. He also is charged with the attempted murder of 9-year-old Stephanie Jones, allgedly because she witnessed him killing the Amos i -M -A Takes Car, Man For Ride BOSSIER La. (UPI) -National Guard cleanup crews and utility repairmen worked in near-freezing temperatures today along an eight-mile tornado swath containing $100 million damage and the damaged or destroyed homes of 1,500 people. The tornado was one of a series that struck scattered communities in northern Louisiana, southern Arkansas and western Mississippi early Sunday.

Five people died four Saving The Kathey Brown salvages a Christmas tree tornado hit Bossier City early Sunday. Four Into the millions. (UPI Telephoto) Today Weather Frost warning tonight. Protect vegetation. Clear and cold tonight with low in the mid 30s.

Fair and not so cold Tuesday with high in the upper 50s. Winds calming tonight. In the Nation' PRESIDENT Carter, already committed to spending more monev on modernized tanks and better ammunition to equalize Europe, is promising to equalize his austere Budget restaints "among all our people." In the State A LIBERIAN tanker carrying more than 411,000 barrels of crude oil was aground at the mouth of the Mississippi River today at New Orleans and awaiting better weather and seas before unloading some of its cargo into barges. ABOUT 150 Ku Klux Klan members gathered at a hotel in Baton Rouge Sunday for a meeting, but a black reporter who attempted to cover the INCOME! Guaranteed, while you're disabled and cannot work! KEMPER INSURANCE COMPANIES (One of the line companies we represent) Insurance 221 E. Madison In Heflin, a small farming community near Bossier City, one man died and six people were injured.

About 100 miles to the northeast, in El Dorado, a tornado swept out of a storm about 3:30 a.m., killing Lurlene Helms, 53, and injuring six people, including five members of her family. The winds drove a dozen pine and oak trees into the Helms' combination frame house-mobile home, police said. In a storm-related death in eastern Arkansas, a 7-month-old boy drowned high water in his front yard at Helena. Officials said the parents of Charles J. Sparks left their mobile home to check the level of flooding near their house caused by the same storm system that spawned the tornadoes.

The door to the house was left open and the child apparently crawled Up Larry Layton, accused of the killings of Rep. Leo Ryan and three journalists, which triggered the Jonestown mass suicide. Beikman, who under Guyanese law is entitled to hear all court proceedings against him, was brought into the Georgetown courtroom for a brief appearance as his case changed hands from Magistrates Demsond Christian to Charles Fung La Fatt. Beikman, of Indianapolis, is 7 Was Airborne' Tornado BOSSIER CITY, La. (UPI) -Policeman S.D.

Porter put his car in park, but it took off like a jet anyway. Porter was on patrol about 1:50 a.m. Sunday when a tornado roared out of a rainstorm and flattened a 16-square-block section of Bossier City. All he could do was duck as the twister took him for a ride. "The wind started picking up and the rain started coming down pretty hard," he said.

"I pulled over on the side of the road, put my car in park and laid down on the seat and just held on. Backing Judgeship be located in Monroe. But a comparison of the caseloads in the northern and southern ends of the district resulted in the judges' recommendation that the seat be located in Opelousas. The new judge will reportedly handle casework from the overburdened Lafayette Division, as well as taking over the Opelousas docket which is presently handled by Judge Nauman Scott of the Alexandria Division. Carter, probably at the recommendation of Senators Russell Long and Bennett Johnston, will make a nomination for the judgeship to Congress when it convenes in January.

The nomination will then be subject to approval by Congress. they did not vote a certain way in the Nov. 7 run-off election. When one of the teachers aides lost her job following the election, a friend of the fired aide made the report to the FBI. The FBI spokesman said 1 the Lafayette office would discuss the matter with the U.S.

Attorney's Office for the Western District of the Fifth Circuit to see whether the matter warrants a federal investigation. "Normally," the FBI spokesman said, "a federal investigation comes about only if a federal office was involved in an election. But another factor which could bring federal investigation would be if the civil rights of a person were violated." GEORGETOWN, Guyana (UPI) -Authorities today were trying to send home 19 members of the Peoples Temple death cult left in Georgetown Sunday because a jetliner pilot refused to take them without an FBI guard. The pilot was quoted as making the decision after Guyanese authorities searched the cult members and took away three knives they were carrying. Charles E.

Beikman, the exMarine accused of the slitthroat slayings of Temple spokeswoman Sharon Amos and her three children, made a brief appearance before a judge and was quoted by his son as denying he killed the Amos family. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said authorities were trying to send home 19 people who were removed from the Pan American jetliner because of the pilot's concern for the safety of his other passengers. The 19 people mentioned by the embassy differed from the 20 reported Sunday, which included two 1 adopted sons of the Rev. Jim Jones who were alleged to be trained members of the cult's security force.

Some 64 survivors of the Peoples Temple mass suicide remain in Georgetown, including Beikman and Federal Seat Bar Assn. Shaw For The St. Landry Parish Bar Association voted Friday to recommend John Shaw for the new federal judgeship for the Western District of Louisiana which is tentatively scheduled to be located in Opelousas. Shaw, a 47-yearrold Opelousas attorney who has practiced in the city for 21 years, reportedly received the overwhelming approval of the local bar association. The group also vbted to request the new judge's seat be situated in Opelousas, as recommended by the four active judges in the Western District.

The new judgeship, which was created by an act of Congress and signed into law by President Carter in October, was originally scheduled to Vote Pressure Claimed People family. The Jones girl is no relation to the Rev. Jones, Beikman made no public comment during his brief appearance in the courtroom, filled with several cult members including his son, Thomas, 31, who hugged and kissed his father as he was brought into the chamber. "Dad told me, 'If only one person can know the truth, it is 1. 1 did not kill Thomas Beikman said.

glass breaking, I heard metal ripping and when it was all over with I was in front of the K-Mart parking lot in a ditch wrapped around a telephone pole and I looked around and a house trailer had barely missed my car flying across Highway 80. Up There "The next thing I know I was airborne and I was flying across High-way 80." The storm tracked U.S. 80, one of the main roads through the northwest Louisiana community of 50,000. "I heard several crashes, I heard 1 1t's Chilly f- ill I rj I jfT7 jjiSitr ml in inwi jriC Ihmb Yule Tree from relative's destroyed house after a persons were killed and damage will run meeting was barred. Bill Wilkinson, a Klan leader from Denham Springs, refused to discuss what the meeting was about.

A CABLE support boom broke while a ship was being unloaded in the Port of Baton Rouge Sunday and the boom fell, crushing longshoreman, Camello Gendusa, 49, of Port Allen. A MAN FELL from a barge and was missing In the Mississippi River today. The Coast Guard said the man, whose name was not released, fell several miles upriver from New Orleans. A CHILD who ran from behind a truck into a street and into the path' of an oncoming car was struck and killed Sunday. State Police identified the child as Michael E.

Carroll, 6, of Baker. The accident occurred on Louisiana 67. Now You Know The song "Happy Birthday to You," written in 1893 by kindergarten teacher Patty Hill and her sister Mildred but not copyrighted until 1935, still is not in the public domain and generates royalties to the Hill Foundation in Evanston, 111., every time it is broadcast or used in any theatrical production or movie. UTTON MICROWAVE OVEN COOKING SCHOOL Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

OLINDE'S Hwy. 167 South Evangeline Election Under Probe By FBI it a 1 BANK mmmmm tmmmm mmmm am mmt aaaa Had The Lafayette office of the FBI has been called in to investigate possible Irregularities in a school board election held recently in Evangeline Parish. A spokesman for the FBI said that office has received a call today asking that allegations concerning pressuring of school employees to support a candidate or risking the loss of their jobs be in vestigated. The race involved in the dispute was that between Forrest Fontenot Jr. and Dale McBride.

According to information received by the Daily World this morning, the allegations made to the FBI are that teachers aides in the Mamou area were told they would lose their jobs if With the wind chill factor dropping this morning's 38-degree temperature dowa below freezing, a telephone lineman works draped in plastic to get a little relief from the cold. The photo was snapped about i a.m. today at the corner of I nion St. and Cresswell Lane here. Frost warnings are out for tonight, when the actual temperature is expected to drop to freezing.

(Staff Photo by Billy McCarthy).