Enterprise-Journal from McComb, Mississippi • 1

dDunirim Rain Ending Showers and thunderstorms likely today, ending early this afternoon. Turning cooler this afternoon and colder tonight and Saturday. Partly cloudy tonight and Saturday. High today near 70. Low tonight in 40s.

High Saturday in 50s. River stage at Natchez is 35.1 and rising. The One Newspaper in the World Most Interested in this Area McCOMB, MISS. FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1975 10c PER COPY 85TH YEAR NO. 187 SQL.

hf or More Hurt HEADLINES i i BY OLIVER EMMERICH I heard the roar of the approaching tornado this morning. At first I thought it was a train but the railroad is east of my home. The roar was from the southwest. The roar grew in intensity, a roar suggesting fearful massive power. Something told me that a tornado was about to strike.

Then suddenly the house shook and there were many eerie noises including that of crashing glass. brnado Hits Areo as rrmm I Sims in- SOUTHWEST MALL SHOPPING CENTER WRECKED BY STORM WHICH RAKED Rescue workers search rubble; storm hit before the shopping center opened It Makes You Want to Throw Up' "I almost threw up when I saw it." That was the reaction of one McComb school boy, David Kavanay, who witnessed this morning's storm from Denman Junior High School. The school was spared as the tornado passed close by. Kavanay, 13-year-old seventh grader said "we were in our room when it started raining real hard and then it sounded like a freight train. We all got out into the hall until it passed." Kathy Dunagin, 16-year-old junior at ill- ft i McComb High School, also told of seeing the twister from Gibson building.

"I saw it coming up the street and it looked like big funnel. You could see fire when it hit those electrical wires." Wayne and Katherine Daughdrill's home, on Virginia avenue across the street from Otken School, was among those virtually destroyed. The top half of the two-story structure was lying in the yard after the storm passed through. Down the street, the home of Mr. and Mrs.

Waymon Watkins was demolished. juries and extensive damage early today. Troopers said two of the injured were in a house trailer that was destroyed, Evelyn Gandy Set to Seek State Post JACKSON, Miss. (AP) State Insurance Commissioner Evelyn Gandy, who ran a strong race for lieutentant governor in 1963, says she will try again this year. There had been reports Miss Gandy would seek re-election, but she said Thursday she would join the large field expected in the lieutentant governor's race.

State Treasurer Brad Dye is expected to make the race, and Sen. B.G. Perry of Horn Lake, president pro tempore of the Senate, is considered a likely candidate. Miss Gandy was elected insurance commissioner in 1971. In 1959 she was elected state treasurer, becoming the firsst woman chosen for a statewide constitutional office.

She was elected to a second term as state treasurer in 1967. I If Mrs. Daughdrill said she had just gone downstairs when the tornado hit. "It was like a nightmare. If I hadn't been downstairs, I just don't know.

I don't know what to do anymore. Everything's gone. just gone." Mrs. Kitty Sheffield, who lives on Park drive west of town, said she heard the twister coming over her house which was not damaged. But the noise "was just terrible," she said.

Stunned residents of Edgewood and the other residential areas walked about and the third was in a house that was damaged. All three were hospitalized, but only one was believed seriously hurt. I preliminary damage report from State Police indicated that 18 to 20 homes were damaged, two house trailers were destroyed and at least six were damaged. Tallulah city police reported that a tornado touched down about 15 miles north of the city today, causing only minor damage and no reported injury. State police said several tornados were reported in the area of Vinton, and downed power lines this morning left the town of Welch without electricity for several hours.

In Vivian, a tornado touched down early today and damaged the horse arena, overturning stalls. It also knocked out the city's power for several hours. The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for parts of Louisiana after a cold front began moving across the state early today. Tornados were spawned by the rapid change of temperatures. In Lake Charles, for instance, it was 70 degrees at 6 a.m.

An hour later, it had dropped to 52 degrees. I was not prepared for a storm. I was at that moment about to take a shower. To be completely clothless at a moment when a tornado is about to strike leaves one with a feeling of complete helplessness. I heard my wife say, "Put on your Emmerich As soon as the strike was over we went outside.

The tall oaks were mostly down. One buckled the steel fence of the patio. Another had my driveway blocked. I could not use my car. I noticed that the home of my neighbor, Milton Thomas, was damaged.

The park seemed bare. The lack of large trees gave it a barren appearance. I heard a dog barking in the Shamis home next door. My wife and I went through the house. All appeared well.

Mrs. Charles East stopped her car nearby and I hitched a ride. To reach the office we had to travel to Highway 55, east on 24 and then north on 51. There were many rumors and some tragic truths. With Charles Dunagin, photos were made of the Otken School.

It was in shambles and all the while the rain poured down. It is understood that a few children were hurt there. Waymon Watkin's home was destroyed. Meanwhile sirens were sounding. At the City Hospital about 20 injured were being treated.

At Southwest Medical Center the number treated was estimated as high as 75. The National Guard headquarters were severely damaged. Southwest Mall took a licking. Rose's Department Store was almost completely destroyed. As was Winn-Dixie in that region.

The Outdoor Equipment Company, near the Southwest Shopping Center, was flattened. Obviously when an effort is made to appraise a debacle such as this everything is on an emergency basis. Streets are littered and blocked. Lights are out. Phone service is hurt.

And, as stated, the rain poured. It came down in vast sheets. It is far too early to attempt to know the damage done in dollars. It will run into the millions. The first report of an injured person was that of my neighbor, Mrs.

Jewel Haynie. But in the chaos of the moment I could not learn of her condition. There were stories of other schools. We tried to check on them. The best sources we could reach said that Parklane Academy was not struck by the full force of the storm.

North Pike did not get off so lightly. Little damage was reported at Southwest Junior College. Order is rapidly being brought out of chaos. Our prayer is that the human casualties will be as light as the present situation indicates. om 5 i.

Photos by Steve Burtt ACROSS McCOMB surveying damage in a driving rain and shaking their heads. Oliver Emmerich, editor of the McComb Enterprise-Journal, said he heard the twister roaring toward his house on North street. "It kept getting stronger and stronger and then it began to get so powerful. All of a sudden it was there trees coming down all around us, glass knocked out in our home. "We are surrounded by tremendous oaks, and it just pulled most of them up by the roots." Other witnesses described the elegant old neighborhood as a shambles.

All utility lines were down. Trees littered the streets and lay across the houses. The storm's path bypassed the main business section. It left a dotted swath across the northern section of town. Instances of heroism often accompany tragedies and Bill Burke, an Illinois Central Gulf Railroad employe, told quite a story about his experience with the twister.

Scarcely nine-months-old the Burke home is located just east of 1-55 off Park drive. It is missing the entire south end now. Burke was home sick this morning, ironically, and heard his wife Irma call to him from the opposite end of the house. "When I got there, I saw the storm coming (he saw it through a sliding glass door)," he said shakily. "My wife ran to get our son and as she ran she ran right into the storm," he continued.

"I threw her and Mark down and fell on top of them for what seemed like a minute and a half at the most." Inspite of all that, the Burkes were uninjured. He noted the family had moved here from Murphysboro, 111., which he called "Tornado Alley" and said this storm was the fourth tornado he's been in. p. 1 4 Louisiana Is Also Hit A tornado slammed into McComb and Pike County this morning, injuring some 70 people and killing at least eight. Others were feared dead in the rubble of some of the wrecked buildings in the storm's path.

Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, operating on emergency power, said at 1 1 a it had treated 70 injured and three were dead on arrival. An employe of the hospital said he heard at least five bodies had been removed from wreckage of the Southwest Mall Shopping Center by the National Guard, but this report was unconfirmed. Two other persons were reported dead near Ruth, a rural community northeast of here. Names of the injured and dead were being withheld pending notification of relatives. John R.

Kavanay, an insurance claims adjustor, said from what he had seen immediately after the storm he would estimate property damage would run at least $10 to $15 million. The twister came from the Southwest, over Parklane School and touched down in the vicinity of Hart road and Park drive about 8:30 a. m. It traveled up Hart road, devastating houses and blowing the roof off Otken School. It wrecked Southwest Mall as it passed in front of Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, on its way to Edgewood where it uprooted giant trees, damaged homes and tore down utility lines.

"It's all hell right now," a police department spokesman said shortly after the storm hit. From McComb the storm continued its northward path, striking North Pike School. Mrs. Harold Young, a secretary at North Pike, said the children had been warned by the civil defense and were going through a tornado drill at the time. The twister passed over the high school, shattering windows, and then slammed into the new elementary school, she said.

"Some of the walls are blown in at the elementary school and buses were thrown about 200 yards. As far as I know nobody was seriously hurt, although there were cuts and broken arms." McComb School officials said three buses were turned over at Otken and some other buses were damaged elsewhere. Johnny Gilmore, a school official, was injured in an auto accident while he was out checking on children. A spokesman at the Southwest Hospital in McComb said there was a shortage of ambulances. "The National Guard armory was wiped out and we usually use that for support when we need more ambulances," he said.

However, he credited school officials with keeping the injury count low. "Evidently they did a pretty good job of getting the kids protected," he said. Treatment was hampered because the hospital's primary power supply was knocked out, although the spokesman said, "We have been able to handle it pretty well. We go through disaster drills four times a year and had one just two months ago." Shelters were being set up throughout the city as Civil Defense workers and rescue squads from surrounding areas rushed to McComb to help. The Red Cross was said to be setting up a shelter in the First Baptist Church and school officials said there were 200 refugees at Higgins School.

Traffic coming into McComb on Interstate 55 was being stopped for awhile at Delaware avenue, and local traffic was forced to make many detours to avoid downed trees, power lines and debris. Rescue units were here from Lincoln, Marion, Walthall and Copiah counties. District Atty. Jim Kitchens warned against looting. "From previous experiences with disasters," he said, "I know there are people who will try to take advantage of the situation by looting.

Anyone caught looting will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and I will demand the maximum sentence." The tornadoes were part of a general weather system that spawned other twisters in Texas and Louisiana, and the National Weather Service posted tornado watches today in portions of Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and Illinois. In Louisiana, a total of nine persons were hospitalized. Acadia Parish sheriff's deputies said a tornado struck Mermentau shortly after daybreak, injuring three persons seriously. Ronnie Benoit, 20, was transferred to a Lake Charles hospital where he was reported in critical condition with head injuries. Three others were injured in Evangeline, where a family was reported trapped in a trailer which turned over during another tornado.

By The Associated Press Nine persons were hospitalized after a cold front moved across Louisiana early today, spawning tornados which uprooted trees and overturned mobile homes. Acadia Parish Sheriff's deputies said a tornado struck Mermentau shortly after daybreak, injuring three persons seriously. Cynthia Gail Benoit, 19 and Carlton Lazer were taken to the Jennings American Legion Hospital. Ronnie Benoit, 20, was transferred to a Lake Charles hospital where he was reported in critical condition with head injuries. Three others were injured in Evangeline, where a family was reported trapped in a trailer which turned over during another tornado.

Bobby Razey, 34, his wife Evonne, 36, and Jaunita LeBouef, 19, were taken to the Jennings hospital by Acadia Parish Sheriff's deputies. Several twisters touched down near Crowley. One left a path about two hundred yards wide, destroying a lumber storage shed and an auto parts building. Another ripped the back off a rice dryer and destroyed a pump shed. No one was reported injured.

Four or five trailors were damaged by another tornado which hit Perry's Trailor Park in Jennings today, but city police there said they had no report of serious injury. State police said a tornado touched down and swept along a path five to six miles long in the vicinity of Alsatia in East Carroll Parish, causing three in against a United States aircraft since 1964 when a Pacific Airlines flight crashed after the pilots were shot. It was the first confirmed bomb explosion on an American aircraft since 1962 when a Continental Airlines jet crashed in Missouri, killing all 45 persons on board. A bomb also was suspected in the disappearance of a National Airlines plane over the Gulf of Mexico in 1962 but this never was proven. The safety board said laboratory investigations of debris recovered from the doomed TWA plane "establish conclusively that the detonation of a high order explosive took place in the aircraft's air cargo compartment." ST Jf Bomb Kills 88 WASHINGTON (AP) A bomb on board caused the Trans World Airlines jetliner crash which killed 88 persons off the coast of Greece last September, the National Transportation Safety Board said today.

Another TWA flight over the same area two weeks earlier also had a bomb hidden in the plane but that device malfunctioned, the safety board said. That device was found in a suitcase after a fire was discovered in the cargo hold. However, the safety board said it was not confirmed that a bomb was on board that plane until after the other TWA plane had crashed. The successful sabotage was the first ROSES STORE IN SOUTHWEST MALL A SHAMBLES Blown over automobile is among the twisted wreckage.