The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 32

SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 1986, gfrf Atlanta toamd AND CONSTITITION 1 update a Kr -v Gainesville residents recall fury of twisters that ripped city in 1936 if if i 11 u. 5Sl 'ft 4 ii; "Pi," LORAN SMITHSpecisl RESSSSSRINQ TRAGEDY: Survivors Dan Jacobs (left) and Pierce Hancock look over book about 1936 tornadoes that wreaked havoc on Gainesville during 2 minutes of terror. I 1 III '1 i ''I i 4 t. i matter cf seconds, death and destruction struck in every direction as tornado winds ripped through the center of town. The storm left 162 dead, eight missing, 928 injured and 786 homeless.

Almost all downtown structures, including City Hall and the Hall County Courthouse, were destroyed. Property damage was estimated at $16 million, which by one conservative estimate would correspond to $250 million to $300 million today. "What made it so bad," Hancock said, "is that everybody was just getting to work. Forty people, mostly women, died at the Cooper Company, a pants factory. Some people were burned because of the fires that followed.

Many were trapped for hours and weren't uncovered until a day or two later." Fire departments from neighboring towns sent equipment, funeral homes provided ambulances and citizens all across the state sent money, food and clothing as Gainesville dug itself out from a catastrophe described by one visiting Red Cross official as worse than the San Francisco earthquake. "Identifying the dead was not easy because of the fires," Han- By Loran Smith Special to Th Journal-Constitution GAINESVILLE, Ga. Pierce Hancock, now a semiretired bank-' er, was 13 when devastating twisters wreaked havoc on Gainesville during 2Vi minutes of terror a half century ago Sunday. He never will forget the fury of the multiple tornadoes which virtually destroyed the northeast Georgia city's downtown section. But if he needs a reminder, he has only to go to his back yard where a tiny rose bush survives.

The rose bush had its beginning on Washington Street where his family lived. It was first rooted by his brother, Sewell, who died at 17 on that tragic day. "I've transplanted that bush everywhere I've ever lived," Hancock, 63, says. "I think of my brother every time I see it. I've tried to wipe out the memory of the storm, but I can't." Many in Hall County still recall vividly as Hancock does what happened at 8:38 a.m.

April 6, 1936. Dark clouds formed all around the town of 10,000, and then, in a jm cock said. "All five of my family were in the direct path of the storm, but only my brother died." He was riding to school with a friend, Dan Jacobs, Hancock said. "Dan's daddy was the Oldsmobile dealer, and they were trying to get the car back to the dealership when the walls crashed around them," he added. "Dan was bruised and knocked unconscious, but my brother died.

"My daddy looked' for him most of the day and had to take a rag and wipe the soot and dust off the bodies to try to recognize him." Everyone in the community lost either friend or a relative, storm survivor Anne Moore re-. called. She said those who remained were numbed by the horror. "We were all so in shock that for several days when we passed people we knew on the street, we would show no emotion," she said. "We just kept walking." The tragedy brought major na-tional headlines.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the city and complimented its citizens on their spirit and commitment to clean up and rebuild. After his vis-, it, the president allocated $1 mil; lion to help rebuild Gainesville. i LORAN SMITHStaff A REUIKDIR: Gainesville High School gymnasium was renamed x. 1.

At 1 3 years ago to commemoraie gym max was ueuiy uuiu wnen I tornadoes struck, leaving a tangle of steel girders. Dogwood Festival bursts into bloom 75,000 gather for 'Old Fashioned Day in Park' nj cdc "It's totally different," he said. By Howard Pousner Stall Writer "The other is much more restric tive, whereas this has a lot of free dom involved. In an airplane, you're totally enclosed. In a balloon, you can feel the air, hear the people on the ground." Mattingly had been interested in hot-air balloons for years, but kept putting it off to get the mundane chores of me accomplished.

"The grass would always need mowing or something like that," he recalled, "Finally I decided to do something I wanted to do. Whether the grass got mowed or not wouldn't matter 100 years from now anyhow." So he hitched a ride with anoth er Delta pilotballoonist and was immediately hooked. "The most ex pensive ride I ever took," he sighed, referring to his $18,000 balloon, to nnfjiinRnn wn Toi Warm and breezy, Saturday seemed to be the perfect spring day to hang out in Piedmont Park. At least an estimated 75,000 Atlantans thought so, as did 36 balloonists, who hung up in the air to the delight of the earthbound throng. I The dogwoods and the Dogwood Festival were in full bloom, and it appeared that Atlanta had descended en masse for what was being billed as "An Old Fashioned Day in the Park." Thousands grooved to the tunes coming from the Inaugural Stage.

Lengthy lines extended from the trailers dispensing such gastronomic indulgences as Gorin's ice cream, Street Car Named Devour hot dogs and pizza from Pero's Pizza on Wheels. Frisbees were tossed, beers were sipped, dogs were retrieved from Lake Clara Meer and photographs were snapped. "Everybody seems to be so mellow and having a good time," shouted Lee Wells, director of the Dogwood Festival, over the strains of "Wild Thing," which was being performed on the Inaugural Stage by an all-female rock group called Gid-get In another corner of the park, the balloonists and a swelling crowd were waiting for the winds to die down enough for takeoff. The. delay allowed balloonist Dave Mattingly, who flies for.

Delta Air Lines for a living, to expound on the difference between piloting a Elane and a nylon bag filled with pt air. say nothing of the the radio equipment and truck necessary to retrieve the balloonist after he has landed. "You can tie up $25,000 to $28,000 pretty easy," said Mattingly, who defers the cost through a balloon-ride business, Afternoon De IV nnr light S1M1(0) uBffla Nancy Rainwater, an official with the 150-member Georeia Ral. loon Association, believes the popularity of balloons is escalating. "The onnrK rnnnn onm rmna ft it it II I i in a me wora we near over and over is fantasy.

Balloons seem to bring that out in everyone," she said. About 5 p.m., an hour after the scheduled start, the crowd applauded enthusiastically as the first balloon finally went aloft On. its side was a message that no one seemed to differ with on a lazy spring afternoon: "I Love Atlanta." MMBh. Democrats in Senate race differ on issue of abortion By Hal Straua Stiff Writer AT WanttoimpresssononePTakehimforarideonAirAto Flyjust once to our new destinations- Tampa, Oriaixb, Philadelphiaor anywhere else we 1.1 fly, for that matter. And sign up for our Founders Oub at tte In turn, we'll promptly send you a free round-trip guest pass in the mail.

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You'll be so impressed thatyou'Urtonlywantto share me experience. You'll be able to. said Beth Shapiro, the moderator oi the caucus's forum. "Obviously Wyche is the most pro-choice of the three." If the candidates differed on abortion, they stuck close together on two other issues the caucus members asked about Saturday: day-care center subsidies and the proposed Civil Rights Restoration Act All three favored either direct public subsidies for at least some of those in need of day care or indirect tax subsidies. And all three favored the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which would require institutions receiving any federal funds to uniformly abide by existing anti-discrimination statutes.

Since a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving Grove-City (Pa.) College, some schools, hospitals and other, institutions have refused to pledge to follow anti-discrimination regulations in activities not directly funded by the federal government After the forum, Judy Damewood, national legislative coordinator for the Georgia caucus, said she was surprised at how cordial the Democratic contenders were with each other. "I expected a lot more in the way of disagreement, particularly from the ones that are behind," she 5 MACON Atlanta Congressman Wyche Fowler preached to the cjoir Saturday, as he and two of the other Democratic Senate candidates stated their positions on abortion and other women's issues here. Speaking to a forum sponsored bj the Georgia Women's Political Fowler said he personally opposes abortion but believes women should have the right to choose. Fowler sits on the caucus advisory board, a fact noted by the other two candidates present State Rep.

John Russell said he thinks abortion should be Illegal in most cases, as it was until. 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion. i' Atlanta lawyer Dave Garrett tdbk the middle ground, saying that he opposes abortion except In cases of rape, incest or where a woman's health "physical or mental" is threatened. The fourth Democratic candidate, former presidential aide Hamilton Jordan, and Republican incumbent Sen. Mack Mattingly were invited but did not attend the Macon forum.

"Abortion Is really a bottom-line issue for women. We should have the right to manage our own lives," America's Most Impressive Sky Line. ClftMAirAtUnlt ApplicimimuMbeHytuiofiitoroMerlopiniheFoundtriCltjb. ft -Tffifcn.