The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 6

THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, April 2, 1973 I I ,1 1 IWI i ii mm i iiiii'iiiiIiiiWWIIIWIIWWIH'IIIWIIIII III III I I Mature ISais Taken Heavy. aie Fires, explosions and collteions of eveithing that moves account for only half of Georgia's; destruction history. The other 50 per cent belongs to nature toe type that wracked parts of the state during the weekend. Some of the worst; 7 June, 1903. A tornado hit Hall County and took 98 Eves.

April, 1936. The tornadoes hit Gainesville and New Holland-Hall County lost 203 citizens in that tragedy and damages were estimated at $13 million. April, 1944. Hall County took 23 lives. April, 1953.

The twisters struck in Columbus, Warner Robins, Montezuma and Buena Vista. Total damage for the month was set at $31 million. -February, 1961. About 2,000 Georgians suffered losses of some kind as flood waters inundated parts of the state. September, 1964.

Hurricane Dora hit the Georgia coast. About 2,500 homes were damaged, February and early March, 1966. The waters rose in 22 southwest Georgia counties, doing $2 million in damage. -January, 1972. A tornado hit southeast Atlanta and south DeKalb County, killing one and injuring a dozen.

And so far this year, there has been a major ice storm that left a third of the state without power, a blizzard that laid more than a foot of snow on central Georgia and a north Georgia flood that came about after eight tornadoes raked the In this state, now is the time for tornadoes. In the 80 years that twisters have been kept track of here, 60 per cent have occurred in March and April. ffiV 1 I I 4 1 A tornado lifted this mobile home in Athens off its foundation and put it down again, smashing a sports car like a pancake. Another automobile was tipped up against the trailer like a brace. (Special Photo) Like a Pancahe 1,,.

4 North Ath ens ompe 9y KEN WILLIS Constltutloa State Newt Service ATHENS From the air, it looks like north Athens got stomped. 1 1 One member of Gov. Jimmy' Carter's touring group put it that way. "II looks like somebody just put their foot on it and smashed it," he said- Hundreds of victims began to recover what they could Sunday and to look to the future in the wake of Georgia's most extensive tornado. In the Athens-Clarke County area, 125 persons were treated at two hospitals and 16 of them were admitted, some with seriotis injuries.

One woman was killed when her car was thrown against a building. An estimated 115 mobile homes were destroyed, and an untold number of other mobile homes and permanent dwellings were damaged. The area's timber, already damaged by the winter ice storm, splintered if it got in the way of the tornado's path, which varied from a quarter of a mile to a mile wide. All the businesses in the path received some damage: Betty's Truck Stop seemed beyond repair, Lowe's Building Supply Center was heavily damaged, part of of Gibson's Discount Center was blown off, and Swamp Guinea Restaurant north of Athens lost its roof. While the rescue operations continued, the victims and government officials began to plan for the future, both immediate and long-range.

State troopers and deputy sheriffs blockaded highways 29 78, 53, 106 and 441 leading to the stricken areas to avoid confusion and looting. Gov. Carter, declaring 'that he would hot" tolerate looting, ordered 30 National; Guard troops into the area and Sheriff Tommy Huff. said the highways would be reopened early Monday after guardsmen had arrived to protect the homes. 1 Power company and telephone company workmen had restored services to most of the area by morning but were having difficulty serv-' icing remote areas because of fallen trees.

The residents had some vague ideas about what they were going to do', although their despair made them seem unsure. "This the only place I've got to live," Odell Baugus said. He built his home himself 1 down an outof-the-way dirt road off U.S. 29. The twister struck vhen he was on his delivery job with Atlanta Dairies.

His wife was at home and was not injured. The windows of the frame house were blown out and the electrical fixtures were hanging by dead wires. The roof was partly, damaged. Outside the main house, Baugus rolled his cigarette, pointed to an empty spot on the ground, and said, "It blowed my well house away." Then he said that his utility house had been shattered and flung some 50 yards. He pointed; to his car and the utility house floor that was wedged under the front tire.

"That car hasn't been moved since before the blowed that floor plumb under the station- wagon." "lY'i TT'j Grim unidentified elderly resident of Rex returned to his demolished home on a sunny Sunday afternoon to try and salvage some of his belongings. About the only items he found still intact were clothing and other items made of cloth. (Staff Photo Billy Downs) Kcsctiiitff Clothing Tcnado Rips Homes Open Leaves Swath of Despair SHAftON BAILEY' CoMlttuilm SUH Writer ATHENS With a macabre sense of humor, the shirtless, beer-guzzling youths set up shop on Prince Avenue just a few minutes walk from wheie, the night before, a tornado had hurled its destructive might and left behind a swath of Tornado 'sottveniers 25 ning showed an other-world scene of destruction and ruination difficult to believe. At one time peaceful woods surrounded our home. The woods were gone.

Water two inches deep covered the floor of the house next door. Another neighbor reported cracks in living room walls and mud everywhere. Two other houses dtsplaj'ed the mop-up process. In the afternoon another neighbor grabbed a white lace tablecloth and set up a Coleman stove on a small table outside. "You have to have style, even in a disaster," she proclaimed with a determined grin.

Then she proceeded to saute chicken livers for lunch while workmen continued to. fell limbs just yards away. "That double-time," ain't it sweet?" somebody hollered to a city workman as he picked daughter. We headed for the basement and held on to each other. In a minute I calmed down and asked the Lord to forgive me for my momentary loss of faith.

Then we prayed and thanked God to be alive. I'm not complaining. We were lucky," my landlady said. "These people were lucky," an Athens cabbie agreed later. "If that thing had run 20 or 25 miles faster, it would have cleared them al lout." In the daylight, I could see all the paradoxes a tornado leaves behind huge trees cenXs a their hand-' caved-in roofs.

Debris covered scrawled sign as i to passersby My car lay crunched be- As ofie of the virtimsy I Wm an upended pine, but I noramdsed. complaming. Five 1 it. F-i- up branches off Prince Ave- upended, a child's tiny swine nue 1 1 1 I bad- been storm ne for- re me mi, I had been out on Ihe road. set still securely in place.

A The crewman stared back half aa hour Saturday, but I t- (S was grateful to be alive. And I wasn't the only one. "I went to Sunday School and church this morning and sat there shaking," said my landlady, another lor hadn't known about the tornado When the power went out .6:57 p.m.,ac-cording- to my stopped clock I merely, went hunting for a flashlight 'and 'continued without a word. If he thought it was sweet, he wasn't saying. Six blocks away, it was just a sunny spring day in Athens, where wisteria bloomed in neatly trimmed yards and boys bounced basketballs up and down the streets.

I couldnt believe it was the same town. row of conch shells on the carport wall, exactly where they -had always been, and a room buckling in at the corner where a leaning pine bit into its shingles. Chain saws splintered the air as power company crews worked round the clock to clear the lines and friends showed up with rakes to begin 3.n7-S--, 1 fefif tir i ii friend, whose eight houses, in- applying cosmetics before going out for. dinner. her own, were In the "Good Lord, that a fierce -worst of it all.

Tornadoes which first struck near Jonesboro and moved 9 j-m northeasterly, left this mobile home park in Athens "look- Ajffivt? IIIC yilf ig iike the city dump," according to one eyewitness. (Special Photo) "I saw a tree fan against the window and I grabbed my WHEN TORNADO HIT 5 'Everything Sort of Caved In' -'M mil By FRANK WELLS ConatltutlM Staff Writer ATHENS On Saturday, It was a mobile home park. Sunday, it looked like the city It was only part of the ruin in Clarke County after tornadoes swept through the night before. Downwind from the mobile homes, a grove of hardwood trees had been stripped of new leaves, but looked as if they had been decorated for Christmas with hanging I thought, as sounds of golf-ball sixed hail stones or- thought was hail beat around the roof. later with the sky an 'eerie, WlckF aTjd rain still, whipping the ground, I opened the fonf door.

A tornado had come and-gone, had swirled-around my house and uprooted huge trees with root sys terns six Jeet in diameter and I still didn't realize what had happened, With', flashlight in hand, I tried to go out but couldn't. The yard, always a pleasure for itr myriad huge old pines and leafy maples and oaks, was a jungle of limbs, trunks, roots. There was no way out. After an exit through the back, I picked my way through a maze of downed power lines, scattered trash cans and television antennas, and everywhere, everywhere, the once beautiful trees, now nothing more than obstacles to be overcome. Here and there in the black stillness neighbors ventured out to check on neighbors.

"My God, Mr. Lord, what was it?" I shouted to longtime neighbor Homer Lord. "That was a tornado, Sharon. Me and the Missus, wo just got down on the floor and prayed. You all right?" Drenched and afraid of running into a hot power line.

I turned around and picked my wav back home. We were all alive and for the lime, there was nothing more to be done. Occasional Hashes of liht- aluminum and pink and yellow batting from the Edgar Allen, who lived In the same mobile home court said he had just walked into his mobile home when he heard the tornado coming. "I grabbed my wife and my granddaughter and sort of rolled them up on the floor," he said. Allen received head injuries and cuts on both arms.

i granddaughter, Missy Martin, 2, was not hurt and neither was his wife. Allen, looking over where his mobile home had been before the Saturday night said, "You know, wed just brought home $37 worth of groceries. I don't know what happened to them." In Walton County the twister set down near Mount Vernon Christian Church. Sunday afternoon, church members were at the phurcn and had the kitchen going, preparing food for those working to restore as much as tlicy could of the wind damage. Church members said at least one family was planning to spend the night in the church basement they had nowhere else to go.

The strength of the wisting wind was evident in the way it left trees in Walton County. One giant oak, which had stood proudly in the yard of a tenant house on the James K. Sims farm, was uprooted, its broad root base standing 15 or more feet high. But the tree was forked, and one of the forks, at least three feet in diameter, had been twisted off and had just disappeared. Sims also lost a chicken house to the wind.

About 250 feet of the 40-foot wide structure was still standing, but it was twisted and off its foundations. Rural electrification workers 'were busy straightening poles that had been tilted by the wind and replacing wires in the Walton area Sunday afternoon, but they had days of work ahead of them. Two mobile homes in the Mount Vernon area of Walton County were blown completely away. The only evicknce left that they had ever been there were cement blocks scattered from the foundations and the ever-present insulating material caught in surrounding trees. Roofing from farm build ings, particularly the blowh-down chicken houses, lay scattered over several acre's around where the houses once stood, the bright aluminum shining in the peaceful Sunday sun after the carnage of Saturday night.

In Clarke County, the windstorm that damaged most of the mobile homes irt a court about two miles north of Athens cut a swathe right through the middle of the court, leaving some of the fragile, homes undamaged on either side, but piling the rest into a rubble of aluminum, plywood, furniture, and carpeting. In Clayton County, more than 45 houses were demolished. "There is just no way right now to estimate the dollar amount of the damage," Captain Ed Camp of the Clayton County Police Department said Sunday. In all of the twister-dam-' aged areas local police kept everyone away from the imr mediate area except Uiose who lived there or had legitimate business In the area. t'" pieces of shreds of insulating homes.

"I just real loud heard something coming, and we'd j4 1 T-V 1 been worried about a tornado, so made the children lie down and then I did too," said Mrs. Braida Dove, who hBd bandages on her face ana hands from injuries she received in the tornado. "Then it hit and we just sort of felt it twist us and around and down and everything sort of caved in," she continued. Her children. Lisa, 7, and Kenneth, 4, were not injured.

Mrs. Terry Folsom of Rex returned to her tomado-shredded mobile home Sunday to get cooking utensils from an "open air" kitchen. Although the tornado demolished her trailer, the kitchen cabinets and appliances remained in place. (Staff Photo-Billy Downs) Was A Kitchen.