The Courier from Waterloo, Iowa • 1

i EST A MINUTE What with the cost of living nowadays, we have to remind ourselves it's cheaper by the doesn't. FRIDAY'S WEATHER Sunny Complete weather forecast, page PRICE TEN CENTS FIRST WITH THE NEWS WATERLOO, IOWA, THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1968 OUR 110TH YEAR FORTY PAGES City, 0el Maynard i fUfil D1 bv Killer iomaetes in Storms Injured By GEORGE SAUCER Assistant City Editor Three northeast Iowa communities and scores of farms that lie broken after killer tornadoes stalked and stomped them were trying to fit the pieces back together Thursday. At least 16 persons are dead, hundreds injured, many of them seriously, and property damage is expected to total about $30 million. Charles Oelwein and Maynard will need months if not years to fullv recover from tornadoes that tore into them Wednesday evening. Incredible damage was left in Charles Citv.

where 11 persons died after the vicious wind hit the city about 4:47 p.m. Wednesday. City in Shambles Charles Citv's business district Is virtually unrecognizable as such from the air as a result of the wind that left this city of 10.419 In a shambles. At Oelwein. some 60 air miles southeast of Charles City, where 90 mjles an hour near Dike.

Searchers for victims were hampered Wednesday night by the loss of electrical power in Charles City and Oelwein, Governor Harold Hughes Thursday was inspecting the three communities which bore the brunt of the selective storm that set a precedent for Iowa by almost wiping out three communities at almost the same Instant. a Help Sent Speedily Help from most all northeast Iowa and southern Minnesota was sent to the disaster National Guardsmen and contingents of Iowa Highway Patrol joined sheriffs' deputies and police officers of various communities sent to aid in Charles City. Maynard and Oelwein late Wednesday and Thursday morning. The only way to compare the damase at Charles City, either look'n? at from fhe ground or the air, is with that caused by repeated aerial bombardment of cities during World War II. Most buildings in an eight-block area downtown are demolished.

Brick commercial buildings lay in heaps with their brick and heavy steel roof girders lying in a pile as though a block set had been kicked around by a child. Homes Crushed Houses at Charles City and Oelwein look from the air as though a giant stepped on them, crushing them like an egg shell, or in countless other cases, simply kicked the roof off or dumped them on their side. Structural damage to downtown Oelwein buildings is less visible, from the air but the, main business district Is virtually windowless and appears to have been burned out, although no lire was reported. At Maynard, where more than 25 houses were destroyed, the funnel flattened the west section of town and destroyed a new $120,000 Lutheran church See STORMS Continued on page 2, col. 1 1 A r.

'4 av -V1 Vi iwnn J' f'- r- 1, 'vwmmmtf AnaAllfa' (Courier Aerial Photo by Jim Humphrey) The 1000 Block of North Main Street, Charles City, Center, Part of North Business Area in Path of Devastating Tornado STORM TOLL IN 4 OTHER STATES Storm Ravages Charles City sitting in a lawn chair just be- cials called for help, people before the storm. He still sat there, gan to pour in, some from as far away as Minneapolis, about 150 Additional pictures on pages 30, 31 tell area tornado story. It another tornado slammed in with the sound of an express train at 4:57 p.m., 90 per cent of the downtown buildings suffered damage and hundreds of homes were flattened or damaged. At least three persons died in Oelwein and more who are hospitalized may die. Others may yet be found in the wreckage.

Maynard, a smaller community of about 600, eight miles north of Oelwein, also was picked out for freakish vengeance by the storm. Two Die Two persons In Maynard died. About five square blocks of the west part of town were virtually leveled and other buildings damaged there. Scores of farm buildings were damaged or destroyed in northeastern Iowa in a widespread storm belt that saw winds up to a cigar clutched in his fingers, but he had been decapitated. stations, a shopping center, and churches were either heavily damaged or.

completely destroyed. Cars Smashed When the winds reached the new bridge across the Cedar River in Charles City, they left brutally heavy marks. Cars were lifted and smashed down on the concrete; heavy steel cables miles away. Many came to help, to search for friends or relatives, but some came to look and some came to loot. With the aid of National Guardsmen, the Highway Patrol, police and volunteers, road blocks were set up to turn away, the curiosity, seekers.

But still many people roamed the stricken city, by foot and by car, well into the night. 'V An emergency headquarters Housing Unit Is Destroyed By JIM AVEY Courier Staff Writer CHARLES CITY The tornado that' ravaged Charles City came out of the southwest about 4:47 p. May 15, 1968. In the few short minutes it lived in the city it left death and destruction that will be remembered for years. Main St.

and Grand Ave. took the brunt of the hammer blows. By the time night had fallen a cordon had been thrown around the downtown section and only workers were allowed in, but the reports were that almost all business establishments had been severely damaged or destroyed. The situation was not much better in the residential An 80-unit low-cost housing development for the aged was wiped out. One embittered resident, Viewing the wreckage in a flashlight beam, said, "The damn place didn't even have basements." There, were many stories in the disaster.

One man told of coming up from his basement after the tornado, and noticing an elderly man who had been By the Associated Press Here is a summary of the toll from tornadoes which hit areas of the niidcontinent outside of Iowa. ARKANSAS: At least forty-three killed in northeastern sections of the state, 34 in Jonesboro alone, where ore than 350 also were injured. Ten died in the community of Oil Trough, three at Mountain Home and two at Tuckerman, all within 100 miles of Jonesboro. Damage was reported heavy and widespread with no dollar estimate available. ILLINOIS: 10 died in a day-long outbreak of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.

Hardest hit was Freeburg, near East St. Louis, where a twister reduced a trailer camp to rubble. Four were killed and scores injured. Two were killed and snore than 50 injured at the central Illinois community of Wapella. Two other storm-related deaths were reported.

INDIANA: One woman was killed when a nighttime twister churned through a trailer court at Wabash, in the state'i northeast MISSOURI: One man was killed near Joplin by lightning as tornadoes and severe thunderstorms raked western Missouri aud adjacent sections of Kansas. and guard rails were twisted was set up in the Floyd County and wrenched into junk; A wit- Courthouse, lighted by portable ness said the sight of people generators. It was the focal point of a crowd of law' and military officers, newsmen, spectators and residents, who milled about the small office and clogged the halls. There were islands of calm See CHARLES CITY Continued on page 2, col.t 6 J' 9 Suction Gup Twister Hits Oelwein With Sudden Fury "I walking up the hill from the bridge, trailing streams of blood and searching for someplace to go, was his worst moment. By flashes of lightning, littered trees of the riverbanks could be seen.

Even the river was full of scattered clumps of twisted steel, wood, and perhaps human wreckage. There were a number of people killed by the tornado, and there were many injured. When Floyd County Sheriff L. L. Lane was asked about casualties about p.

he could only shake his head tiredly. No one knew for sure then how many "were dead or injured. Until all the wreckage had been searched and a head count made, no one will be sure. By Thursday morning the confirmed dead was at seven. As soon as Charles City offi- Ouster Affects Three Locals Of UAW Here It i 'A i By VERYL SANDERSON Assistant State Editor OELWEIN Nature unleashed its tremendous fury here Wednesday afternoon, paralyzing this Fayette County town in a mire of uprooted trees, hundreds of broken windows, crushed autos, demolished businesses and homes and hundreds of injured.

Mrs. Grace Damon died of injuries in the tornado. Albert Heaton, 84, died of a heart attack and one other victim whose name was not released was found. The tornado swooped down on Oelwein like a giant suction cup on the end of a plunger, giving only a few seconds "warning. Terry Maddigan, 19, and Larry Joerger, 14, were in Phillips 66 Gas Station when 1- 4 r'' ft all of a sudden the roof went off the building and the bricks of the walls and shattered glass were flying all over.

Next thing I knew, the desk was covered with bricks and debris," Maddigan recalled. "We couldn't even see daylight. When it was all over, I dug a hole through the mess on top. and around the desk and crawled out. "I sure was scared." The station's clock stopped running at 4:57 p.m.

Owner of the station, Michael Bennett, was returning from downtown Oelwein to the station, which is located on Hwy. 150, about 12 blocks south of the main business district. "I saw it touch down as I was driving," Bennett said. "I headed for the nearest shelter. "A truck, parked across the street from the station, was shoved through a garage wall," Bennett said.

"My truck, parked next to the station, was blown across the street to the side where the other truck was parked." Next door to the station, Merl McFarlane of Oelwein was servicing machines in the MacAlean's Laundromat. behind a washer. A dryer crashed about a foot away from me. "The whole thing couldn't have lasted more than five minutes," McFarlane said. The entire laundromat building was uprooted from the foundation, leaving rows of washers and dryers.

Further south, past the Intersection of Hwy. 150 and Hwy. 190, the screen of the Oelwein Drive-In Theater was wrecked. The, funnel continued north past the laundromat, using Hwy. 150 as its channel.

Trees, which had taken years in founding their roots, were sucked from the ground with sod intact. Thick limbs snapped like brittle toothpicks. The number of funnels varied on two or three. Windows in the houses shattered. Autos and trucks were pinned underneath the felled trees.

Hwy. 150 was blocked with the wreckage. Ralph Hillard, construction foreman for the John C. Kaiser Co. of Dubuque, walked up the street from the Oelwein Motel, See OELWEIN Continued on page 2, col.

Three United A i le Workers in the Waterloo area will be affected by the suspension of the UAW. from the AFL-CIO. Story on page 26. Cedar Falls ...15, 27 Classified Advertising 34,35,36,37 Comics 39 Editorial ..:.6 the storm hit. Maddigan, an employe of the station, said, "Our first warning was when I looked out of the station and saw the trees bending over.

"Larry and I ducked under the desk." The station was nearly leveled. More than half of the office collapsed. "We could hear the noise, and Feature Fare 18 Markets 29,38 Northeast Iowa 9, 10, 14, 16, 17, 25, 28, 29 Sports 21,22, 23, 24 Television Schedule 39 Theaters ...24 Waterloo Deaths 5 Women's Pages .....12, 13 4 (Courier Aerial Photo by Jim Humphrey) Force of the Tornado That Slashed Oelwein Is Shown by the Way Houses in This Residential Area Were 'Exploded "1 ducked down in a corner, i.