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The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 7

Location:
Atlanta, Georgia
Issue Date:
Page:
7
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, Mon April 2, 1973 7Th Athens 3 CLoy i r. ijonyers'iesiiis 1 i muddy But Alive1 AX T'. --'o-. By KEN WILLIS CtutltntlM Stale News Berriee ATHENS Oscar Lopez and Joe Sparks both suffered from the tornado that blasted Athens Saturday night, but both could be thankful Sunday. Sparks lost his home, but was alive.

Lopez found bis babj'. Here are their stories: A few miles down the twister's path at Wonderland Trailer Park, Lopez was 'm thinking about moving in with friends. A weaver with Chicopee Fabrics in Athens, Lopez had been at work when the torna- do shattered his trailer, but his wife and baby were at home. "My wife was not aware of the tornado until the trailer began to rock and spin," Lopez said Sunday. The next thing she knew she was in the hospital, suffering bruises and looking for the baby.

"We couldn't find the baby at he said. But apparently one of the rescue teams found him covered with mud in the next trailer lot, uninjured. Lopez was renting the trailer and planning to move into his new house in the Stonehenge subdivision Monday. "But a tree fell on it," said a friend. His mother-in-law, Mildred Beeler, wanted the family to live with them until the house is repaired, but her power and water supply was cut off by the storm.

Like Lopez, Sparks was at work when the tornado stuck his home at Wonderland. He and his wife had just moved from Atlanta to Athens where he is assistant manager of the new Zayre Department Store. "Everything we saved all our lives just blew away," he said as he waited in the emergency room of St. Mary's Hospital early Sunday morning. His wife had suffered some back injuries.

What is he planning to do now? "I just don't know," he said. "We just loved the trailer. We just bought it last November and had expanded the living room and added house-type furniture." Insurance? "Yes, we have some, but I don't know what kind it is. I just pay the bills," Sparks said. Many of the victims were glad that they had escaped with their lives.

While their belongings were being shattered, they remained relatively intact. At the Swamp Guinea Restaurant, most of the roof was reportedly blown off, but the most serious injury sustained was a broken leg. Several organizations and individuals volunteered their assistance to the victims. The Red Cross and Hospital Auxiliary assisted hospital staffs and reunited families, mostly parents and miss-ing children. Hotels and apartment complexes offered temporary lodging free of charge and individual citizens threw open their homes.

M-tt i vi'e, i Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Neal of Monroe got four of their five children to safety wheo the tornado struck, but their five-month-old baby was blown ontside by winds. The infanta suffered only minor scratches. (Staff Photo-Chuck Vollertsen) Winds Hurled Haby Outside Mop-Up Task After Tornado By FRANK BROCK and BOB ALLISON The lights won't be back on in Conyers in some cases until Thursday and the 1,200 employees of that city's largest industry will mop up Monday and then wait.

Conyers, in Rockdale County, was one of the areas hit Saturday evening by tornadic winds. Poles were knocked down, electrical service disrupted all over town and mobile homes were smashed. The most severe physical damage came from the destruction of buildings belonging to Lithonia Lighting Products the city's largest single employer, and Miller Brothers, a men's slacks distribution center. These and some other business suffering losses from the storm set up temporary operations in the Holiday Inn and other nearby motels. Jim McClung, senior vice president of the Lithonia Lighting Products said some of the company's 1,200 employes would report for work Monday, "but this will be just for mop-up operations." McClung said that little if any of the company's manufacturing equipment was damaged by the twister.

"We will be out of business for a while," he said, "but we hope to be back in operations as soon as possible." Conyers City Manager C. B. Heys said he could foresee no major unemployment problems as a result of the storm. "We have always had a labor shortage here," Heys said, "and I think we'll be able to find jobs for most of these people until things are back to normal." Heys said it would be another day or two before city officials have a firm idea of Conyer's losses. "The state is setting up offices in the Police Administra-.

tion Building to give us some help," Heys said. The center will provide one-stop disaster relief assistance and will include representatives from various state and federal departments as well as the Red Cross and Salvation Army. The center will open at noon. Heys said that between 75 and 100 persons "were left homeless in the Conyers area. The Conyers Holiday Inn was among motels doing extra business as the result of the twister.

The Holiday Inn staff cooked for more than 12 hours Sunday with camp stoves and carried on business by lantern light. Mrs. Petie Burns, front desk manager, said guests had to walk across Interstate 20 because road were inaccessible. She said she was booked solid through Monday by displaced residents, temporary business offices and repair personnel. "Twelve or 13 houses in Four Seasons subdivision were destroyed," she said, "and all those people are staying with us.

The businesses that were destroyed probably will be staying with us until they rebuild." Rates, she said, are $16 for two people in a room. E. P. Johnston, vice president of Lance a cookie and vending machine products company, said Bulloch Manufacturing Co. facilities would be back in business within a week.

He said Bulloch's 90 employes would be back at work Monday morning for cleanup. Bulloch is a Lance subsidiary. Meanwhile, a Georgia Power Co. spokesman said it may be Thursday before electrical power is fully restored in Conyers. Bruce Canada, a line truck operator, said that when he and other crewmen arrived from Rome late Saturday night, only one electrical circuit was "hot" in the whole town.

"I cut into that one," he said, "and knocked the whole town out." "I've never seen anything like it," he said of the de- struction. was torn all to pieces. There were two- and a half foot diameter poles, new poles, snapped off at the ground. On the biggest line coming into Conyers, 25 of 27 poles in one stretch were broken. On one side of the road poles would lay east and the other west.

We've worked for 22 hours straight and well over half the town is still without electricity." Between 300 to 400 outside crewmen were working in the Conyers area. Tornado Hugged Ground In an Unusual Manner N.C. TENN; 9 I TORNADOES STRIKE s.c. Abbeville JS-V. I Calhoun Trail of Storms A series of tornadoes swept across the Southeast this past weekend leaving a trail of destruction and death in Georgia and South Carolina.

An unusually low number of deaths were reported in comparison with the damage. Several hundred persons, however, were injured and some hospitalized in the region. XV Monroe FallK Atlanta Conyers began increasing we issued a severe weather statement warning residents to be on the lookout." Barnes said that when the weather bureau finally heard that a tornado had struck near Jonesboro he got a tornado alert issued over the radio "within 60 seconds." Barnes said the tornadic condition resulted from the collision of a strong flow of warm air out of the Gulf of Mexico with a strong jet stream about 35,000 feet high. He said the jet stream develops an extra upward lift, sucks in the warm moisture from the Gulf which causes rapid condensation and makes the air lighter, and this triggers a storm system. Barnes said the tornadoes that hit South Carolina were "definitely the same overall storm system" that struck Georgia, but that they were probably a different set of tornadoes.

In addition to the tornado storm system, the weatherman said he saw storm areas as high as 60,000 feet Sunday on the radarscope which he said were the highest he had ever seen in this area for this time of the year. He said such a high storm condition would have some effect on lower-hanging storm By SAM HOPKINS The devastating tornado that struck Georgia late Saturday was extremely unusual in that it stuck so close to the ground for such a great distance. Tornadoes usually dip up and down, hitting the ground occasionally, and then peter out within five to 20 miles, a National Weather Service official said Sunday. The Saturday tornado, however which Gov. Jimmy Carter described as the "worst natural disaster" ever to hit Georgia plowed through the state from Jonesboro to the South Carolina line.

Weatherman Dave Barnes said he toured about 30 miles of the damaged area be- tween Jonesboro and Conyers Sunday and" was "amazed" to" find such "continuous damage." He said if the tornado had traveled just 30 miles it would have been "unusually long." Barnes said there had been no tion that a tornado might hit, that there was no tornado alert or watch out before it down near Jonesboro. He said there had been only "minimal" indications of any rain storm, but that late in the afternoon when "one cell near Atlanta Macon GEORGIA 50 0 Miles NAKED IN A FIELD Unbelievable Tales Goriie Out of Twister veneer off the front of his house. His car was lifted over shrubbery in the front yard and deposited next to the front door. He said his tricycle-remained untouched in the garage an dhis wife's coffee was still in a cup in the kitchen. Many homes escaped severe damage, but the vacuum from the tornado sucked windows and insulation from many homes and a layer of multicolored fiberglass insulation stuck to trees and homes like bugs on an automobile grill.

Sam Jacks, a special officer on the Abbeville police force, said he, his wife and daughter heard the tornado and ran to a ditch near their home. Arthur Apple said he and his wife were out of town when the tornado hit but his car wasn't. Apple's car was tossed about 30 feet and came to an abrupt halt on a pine tree. The only thing Apple salvaged was a floor mat. Authorities originally planned a curfew for the disaster area but later decidad against it Officials said people were being helpful to disaster victims by providing food and offering lodging.

No looting was By BOB lOTT "ABBEVILLE, S. C. Abbeville County Fesidents will be cleaning up and telling Stories about the tornado disaster for a long time to come. One man guest at the Slaton Motel, which was lifted from its foundation and scattered over a five-acre field adjacent to S.C. 72, said Sunday that he had just returned from a day of fishing.

He had just stepped into the shower and was soaping when the twister struck. The next thing he knew, he was standing naked ill the adjacent cotton field. Luckily, only his pride was seriously injured. Aaron Parnell of Calhoun Falls said his parents were in their mobile home behind bis, house when the tornado ripped the trailer from its foundation and stripped it down to its frame. Parnell said his parents were found about 50 feet from where the trailer had 'been and were luckily only cut and of the trailer were scattered along the highway and through the cotton field.

A man in the MacKenzie Acres subdivision of Abbeville said the tornado jumped his house but the back wind ripped the brick 7- p' ICf i CALHOUN FALLS, S.C. All that remains of a small motel at Calhoun Falls Once Upon a Motel Is the block foundation after a tornado swept through the area this weekend. Authorities said at least two guests at the motel were killed. The damaged cars of the motel guests remain parked in front of where the rooms once were. (Associated Press Photo) 1 TT 1 WT 1 in Jug' 'It So a JL JLJU.

4JL JLJJLJWL JL Uti tornadoes Ploiv Through Virginia Shopping Centers FAIRFAX, Va. (UPI) Tornadoes ripped apart two shopping centers, tore roofs off at least five apartment buildings and a school and collapsed several expensive homes Sunday in this densely-populated suburban Washington community. At least 28 persons were known to have been treated at hospitals. All were expected to be released. Witnesses said at least four separate areas of the county were hit shortly after 4 p.

m. when a deluge of rain and hail darkened the sky. A tornado watch remained In effect throughout the early evening for all of northern Virginia, Washington and part of suburban Maryland, a region seldom hit by tornadoes. The wind took the roofs off five buildings ct an apartment complex and blew them into a garage on the other side of a major highway. back to his trailer through heavy rain.

"There were trees all over the place," he said, "and the trailer next to mine was upside down. People thought there was someone Inside so I cut the gas off and went ou to my trailer. "The top was twisted In half and the sides just fell away. Everything inside was blown all over the place. I found a table and chair nearby, but three of the chairs were nowhere to be seen." walls started bowing in and out and the floor was bouncing up and down and everyone was ready, to panic.

It lasted about a minute." Black's mother's trailer, located in a small depression between his trailer and his grandmother's, was unscath-e The mobile homes ail were on family-owned land. "My dad was in the trailer," he said, "and he saw the funnel coming and sat down. It didn't break a window. Black said he borrowed his mother's car as soon as the bouncing stopped to drive 'Let's go, he said, "when I looked out the front door and saw the aluminum awning just bow up in the middle. I had heard about a tornado watch about an hoar before but I thought this'was just the wind.

"My uncle hollered for us to get on the floor and I turned around and my aunt said, 'There goes the Wc were on the floor and it seemed like we were in a vacuum. The trailer started bouncing up and down on its foundation and slid into a telephone pole. That's what saved us. The and out and the trailer was bouncing on its foundation." Black, 18, is a Conyers Water Department employe, fulltlme high school student and volunteer fireman. "I graduate in Juno," he said, "and wc were planning to buy a house anyway.

After seeing what happened to my mobile home, I'd be scared to live in another one." The young man and his iie had stopped at bis grandmother's trailer to use the telephone when he tornadj struck. "My wife has just said, By FRANK BROCK Conitltstltm Staff Writer CONYERS Ernest (Buck) Black and his bride bought the mobile home last July. It exploded Saturday night. His loss, he said Sunday, will be about $10,000. When the explosion came, Black was in his grandmother's trailer, a block away from his own.

"It was like a vacuum," he said, 'When you talk, it sounded like you were in a and your ears bubbled and thi; trailer walls were bowing in.

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