Anderson Herald from Anderson, Indiana • 1

THE ANDERSON HERALD In Its Second Century Of ServiceTcs Public VOLUME 116 NUMBER 154 ANDERSON INDIANA WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14 1977 PRICE 15 CENTS WEATHER: Showers this morning with highs in the mid to upper 40s Clearing and cooler tonight with lows in the mjd 30s Partly sunny and mild Thursday with highs around high 42 (6C) low 37 (3C) A 1 Evansville Team Perishes In Crash EVANSVILLE Ind (AP) A chartered DC 3 carrying the University of Evansville basketball team crashed in rain and heavy fog and burst into flames shortly after takeoff Tuesday night State police said three persons among the 31 aboard survived the initial crash but two of them died en route to Deaconess Hospital and the third described as a young white male was reported in critical condi tion Other bodies were removed from the crash site in a railroad boxcar The identities of the victims were not immediately available The university had no comment but state police Sgt Paul Montgomery confirmed that the plane was carrying the team A spokeswoman for the service Mary Hartford said there were 26 passengers and a crew of five aboard Montgomery said We can confirm a DC 3 originating in Indianapolis arrived in Evansville where 31 persons boarded These 31 comprised the Evansville basketball team It crashed within two minutes of The airplane chaptered from National Jet InCTSf dianapolis was en route to Nashville The Evansville basketball team was scheduled to play Middle Tennessee State" University in Murfreesboro tonight already called twice to say they were going to be a little later then a little said Middle sports information director Jim ree man Some bags scattered around the crash site were marked "Evansville the team's nickname reporters at the scene said A temporary morgue was set up near the crash site which was just off the main runway at Evansville's Dress Regioftal Airport Workers were hampered by a steady rain and muddy conditions (the pilot) took off on the runway heading due said Rick Notter an employee of Metro Beechcraft at the airport who heard the crash "As soon as he made the liftoff he started making a left turnout a hill about 300 400 feet above the airport level about a mile away The plane into the fog and about a minute and a half later 1 heard his engines cutting out and he down Isaw it explode in The Evansville Aces fivetime winner of the NCAA Division II basketball tournament moved up to Division I this season and announced would drop out of basketball competition in the Indiana Collegiate Conference in hopes of joining a major conference Tuesday crash of a plane chartered by the University of Evansville basketball team continued a string of air tragedies that have involved sports personalities and clubs for a number of years Some of all time greats have met their deaths in plane disasters including Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente whose aircraft disappeared on New Eve in 1973 while on a mercy mission to the earthquake victims in Nicaragua Unbeaten former heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano was killed on the eve of his 46th birthday when a light plane carrying him crashed near Newton Iowa on Sept 1 1969 Golfing star Tony Lerna was killed on July 24 1966 when the small plane carrying him his wife and two others went down in Lansing Mich on July 24 1966 College football coaching legend Knute Rockne met a similar fate at a Kansas cornfield in 19311 Tragedies of team wide impact have included the crashes involving football teams from Wichita State Marshall University and Califomia Poly of San Luis Obispo and the United States Olympic igure Skating team Other air victims are Chicago Cubs second baseman Ken Wendell Ladner of New York Nets and auto racing driver Graham HUI A 7 Dormitory ire Kills Seven Screaming Coeds PROVIDENCE I (AP) A' fire screaming coeds two of whom jumped At least 15 other 'Students were ft 3 Year Old Survives Plane Crash fAri Appropriating unds On City Agenda little after 3 we heard somebody running down the said to their deaths seconds before firefighters could have rescued them with ladders who was awakened by they larm SK a fire had so many lately Residents said they awoke to see heavy smoke billo wing the hallways around door jams and into the rooms fey PLANE CRASH The DC 3 chartered plane carrying the University of Evansville basketball squad crashed shortly in Evansville and EightlT Street 'roads believed the previous right of way was wider than necessary for any future widening project THE COUNCIL voted seven to one in favor of an ordinance to rezone the former Columbia School and surrounding school grounds from to Councilman Andrew Orbik voted against the ordinance The council also passed a resolution approving a newly created salaried position of Assistant Distribution Supervisor for the electric utility at $19000 KERRVILLE Texas (AP) A 3 year old girl trapped for 35 hours in the wreckage of a small plane with the bodies of her parents and brother was rescued Tuesday by searchers who found her "mumbling and Rescuers unstrapped Shera Sneed from the back Seat of the plane which had crashed on an 1800 foot hill about 50 miles northwest of San Antonio and took her to a nearby hospital where doctors found she had a fractured arm and leg The plane had been spotted Tuesday morning by a helicopter and a rescue team headed for the site in four wheel drive vehicles The searchers also found the bodies of father San Antonio attorney Gerald Wayne Sneed 33 her mother Susan Parr Sneed 32 and Shannon her 5 year old brother The family had been wood and other debris covered many of the roads in the northeast section Thunderstorms crisscrossed the area after the tornado making rescue and repair work difficult As the rain fell muddy slimy pools formed in the damagedareas In the midsts of aT downpour workers attempted to remove debris from the roads and snapping electric lines om the highways and replace bent and humpbacked telephone poles Houston police said the tornado touched down at least nine times on its five mile path of destruction slashing a path 300 to 500 feet wide No estimate of damage was available' hours later Nunnie Stevens 75 was in bed when the twister hit She said was just dazed as pieces of glass flew across my bed the Good Lord good to spare James Boyer 55 was en route to Ips feed and trading post when "I begin to have trouble holding my car on the road and then I heard some CBers (citizen band operators) reporting a tornado right where my store is located I turned around got out of there' and I was lucky and my not A Vote OfThanks "'The nderson Herald the management of Anderson Newspapers Inc join in extending a vote of thanks to the patience of our subscribers and our readers and to all our employees Carriers route drivers editorial office and mechanical department employees defied extremely bad weather conditions and risked their autos and physical well being on snow packed and icy streets and roads during the last week to publish and deliver a record number of newspapers in The circulation area Not all papers were delivered on time because some carriers and route drivers encountered obstacles they could not overcome but just had to wait until state county or city agencies opened streets and roads to normal traffic from 13th to 14th streets and for the installation of traffic control signals at each end of the Marine Drive Tunnel which runs under the Con Rail tracks At their regular meeting Monday the council passed on the first and second readings ordinances to rezone four lots at 2115 10th St from 2 to and to decrease the proposed right of way along Layton Road from 60 to 40 feet and along West Eighth Street Road from 50 to 40 feet The original right of way was established in the 1962 Master Plan of the Anderson' Planning Commission Rock said developers along Layton I (API surged through the fourth floor of a dormitory at ProvidenceCollege early Tuesday killing seven name was smoke going through the door They were yelling for help We saw a girl Witnesses said some women tried to" run through the burning hallway and were overcome by smoke Two others jumped to their deaths ignoring pleas by firefighters to wait in their room? A roommate of the two girls who plunged to their deaths onto'the frozen snow ground was rescued within seconds after her 'friends jumped they had waited five more seconds they would have been JTa fire Some students stood in the snow and cried some walked about expressionless and others tried to help the dorm residents find shelter in other buildings be used for sludge control and street repairs A $200000 transfer of funds from the capital improvement account to the board of public safety account provided in another new ordinance will be used to construct a new fire station at 21st Street and Columbus Avenue Mayor Robert Rock said Monday night the city had earlier applied for federal money for the project but the application was not approved THE INAL ORDINANCE passed Tuesday calls for the changing of Lincoln Street to one way south bound HOUSTON (AP) A tornado twisted through the northeast part of town during Tuesday rush hour killing at least one person injuring 40 and destroying an estimated 600 homes and buildings Whitey artinchief of the Houston ire ambulance service sag: could be more dead There could be many more injured The extent of the damage means there may be some under the debris or just simply blown in the brush or lying somewhere in a ditch We hope not but it is a A spokesman for the Civil Defense said most of the injuries were minor The tornado struck in what is primarily an industrial area of Houston Authorities said had it hit in the apartment complex of the southwest side or other predominantly residential sections the death toll could have been staggering Officers said Billy Hester about 50 a superintendent for a construction company was killed when the tornado lifted his pickup truck from the ground and hurled it about 350 feet into an oak tree Tree limbs hunks of metal slabs of 7' ill bin din? hunt in 1939 ana otner camnus buildings were decorated late Monday one coed who declined to give her by students competing tor tne top prize of $25 in an annual Christmas contest According to several of the 4100 students Aquinas Hall won the contest ire officials said there was a lot of flammable material including paper decorations hanging in the The fire broke out on the top floor at 2:56 am and flashed down the hallway quickly reaching three alarms first I thought it was a said Jan Walsh of Needham Mass Inside INDEX: Police Blotter Page 2 Obituaries funerals and new arrivals Page 3 Editorials and commentary Page 4 People in the news Page 5 Accent on Living features and social items Pages 6 7 Sports highlights and scoreboard information Pages "Santa and the Page 19 Comics and daily features Pages 24 25 Stock market quotations Page 30 Classified ads Pages 31 33 The Anderson City Council gave final readings to four hew ordinances at a special meeting Tuesday evening which lasted only 10 minutes The council passed an ordinance appropriating $850000 in general revenue sharing funds the bulk of which will go into city insurance accounts However $20000 has been allotted to the Madison County Association for Retarded Citizens Inc for use at its Richter Work Center A SECOND ORDINANCE Approved an appropriation of $19964 from the anti recession fiscal assistance fund to knew the Kerrville airport and was trying to get in" Treharne said of Sneed the engine started to sputter he could not get in The hill is on the boundary of the airport you might The crash site was three miles northeast of the airport Air rescue efforts had been hampered by the rain and the aerial search had begun only Tuesday morning Sheriff Paul ields said the nose of the aircraft was buried in the loose dirt Justice of the Peace Spencer Brown said Jwdy was in the seat Mrs Sneed was in the seat next to her and their son was in the seat "It was not like they hit the side of the hill They kind of almost skimmed over it like they were trying to land the Brown said The Sneeds were on a flight from Winters Texas The family lived in Boerne a rural community 25 miles northeast of San Antonio ice Snow Beginning To Vanish Two consecutive days of the mercury climbing above the 40 degree mark coupled with city street crews finally being able to crack through heavy ice layers have bjually cleared all main thoroughfares in Anderson Secondary roads in and around Anderson and most Madison County roadways continued to by very slushy and slick in spots however COMPLAINTS road conditions remaining in the southern portion of the county reached The Herald Tuesday evening According to several residents in the area county road crews have yet to make the first pass with graders and salt trucks in and around the Pendleton area All interstates in Indiana had been opened by Tuesday morning with most state highways expected to be accessible to traffic by this morning City police spokesmen reported motorists appeared to be handling the conditions well although than the normal" amount of property damage accidents was recorded in Anderson Tuesday YET ANOTHER problem has crept up on local motorists making necessary adjustments in their driving patterns Standing water in some low lying areas and at many intersections several feet deep has' caused a few vehicles to stall and several persons to literally fall into disguised pools Reports late Tuesday indicated several sewers in Anderson had backed up due to a large amount of melting snow and rain which struck Anderson throughout the day Tuesday STATE POLICE spokesmen at the Pendleton Post said Tuesday evening most main roads in northern Indiana remained wet to slush covered and slick in spots Secondary roadways (Continued On Pao 2) Progress Reported In Alex Bargaining ALEXANDRIA or the first time in months negotiators for Alexandria Community Schools and the Alexandria Classroom Teachers Association made progress toward a contract agreement Tuesday night ata narvl Smith said the two sides several dormitory on the Providence KI campus contract language problems which had kept negotiations ai a sianasuu Agreements were made in the wording of transfer grievance procedures reduction in force policies and teacher evaluation procedures according to Smith Smith said teachers lowered then salary increase demand from 8 to 6Vi percent which they indicated reflects the cost of living raise they should have had during 1977 The board on the other hand raised its salary proposal to $500 across the board But Smith indicated the two salary proposals are still too far apart for agreement He indicated the salary offer amounts to approximately a 45 percent increase in the total teacher salary package No further negotiation meetings have been set AC after take off from Dress Regional Airport Tuesday evening injured authorities said Hours after the the hard frozen snow covered ground below the dormitory windows was stained with drops of blood One student said a rash of recent false alarms at the school may have kept some residents from getting out of in timp Many of the victims had stayed up hallways late Monday to decorate tneir rooms windows and hallways for Christmas and fire officials said the blaze may have been caused by faulty Christmas lights or' by a hair dryer left on in a closet to dry clothes "All I know is some won't be going home for said Nadihe Rhodes a freshman from East Providence who lived on the same floor of Aquinas Hall as the dead and injured women MEMORIAL MASS A Providence College student is comforted following a Mass in memory of seven students who died Tuesday when a fire Swept through a grandparents was just mumbling and groaning when we got said Dan Waters of irst Texas lying Service a family friend and the first at the scene "It was nothing you could understand She had a few abrasions but other than that she looked pretty Waters said he tried to comfort the girl but she did not recognize him and apparently did not know what had happened The plane crashed Sunday night during a persistent drizzle Air traffic controllers in San Antonio had received a distress signal from a plane reporting that it was low on fuel and was attempting to reach the Kerrville airport Spencer Treharne 61 the "irst Texas lying Service said the plane apparently came within about 20 feet returning home from a visit to Sherals short of clearing the hill Twister interrupts Houston Rush Hour 1 I IM 1 i afBww' Ki' la a I 3 EZ A A I LT I wa IL'S Wl iR 7 '7 I I.