Germantown News from Germantown, Tennessee • 1

A A ILNNLbbLL til ML LlbKftKY Clean-up Begins 1 Sx Horn el 0nrwikwi Chwtf Ham Show ir i founded 6y Qrmon Cwc Cuf Gcrmaniown and Surrounding Areas, Including Cordova i jyvn 1" 1 A. 4 J. "lgs i sr?" 1 t- 5-. .1 I. Copyrijt 1894, VoL XX, No.

37 Thursday, December 1, 1994 3 34 Pagei, Single Copy KK Massive clean-up underway tornado oyps eity ii i i i Photo by Sherry Hamilton Families, friends, and neighbors all pulled together this week to help dig out from the damage and destruction of Sunday afternoon's tornado. Here, Bobby Walker (left) and Wanda Carr (right) try to repair damage to the home of Kathy Walker (center) that resulted from Sunday afternoon's tornado. Walker, the storm victim's brother, and, Ms. Carr, the sister, sorted through personal Items from the home located on Mourning Dove Cove. A massive clean-up effort is currently underway in the city of Gcrmantown following a devastating tornado that ravaged the northeast section of the community on Sunday, November 27 at 3:25 p.m., killing three people, injuring 22 others, and causing approximately $30 million in damage.

The tornado ripped a three mile path of destruction through Germantown leaving 300 homes damaged with at least 28 residencies totally demolished. Hardest hit in the city was the Dogwood Grove subdivision where rescue workers spent 22 hours searching the rubble at 9635 Gotten Way for a family that was celebrating just moving into the house three weeks earlier. The Person family was holding a house-warming and family reunion with 1 1 people inside the new home when a level 3 tornado with winds topping 200 miles per hour slammed into the neighborhood. Rescue workers from the Germantown Fire Department, and neighboring areas such as Memphis, Collierville, Bartlett, and Millington arrived immediately into the subdivision searching for victims. Shelby County personnel joined with Tennessee Emergency Management Agency workers and volunteers to conduct the grueling and tedious search.

Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout and Sheriff A.C. Gilless were on the scene as hundreds of rescue workers, a special task force called the Urban Search and Rescue Team (one of only 26 in the U.S.), and trained dogs went through the devastation. Eight family members were safely rescued from the scene at the Person house after the tornado collapsed the roof on the house. One victim, Walter V. Person Jr.

was found within two hours of the tornado. At about 9:30 a.m. on Monday, the bodies of his son, Nicholas Person, 1 1, and his brother-in-law, Elijah Hewitt, 48, were discovered, bringing the death toll to three. Person was a land surveyor and a principal with the firm Jackson Person and Associates in Memphis. He had conducted numerous projects for the city of Germantown, including the Greenbelt Plan and the plans for the new athletic fields near Cameron-Brown Park and the new Germantown Community Library as well as boundary surveys at CO.

Franklin, Morgan Woods, Cloyes, and Johnson Road parks in (Continued on Page 4A) off victmis i i becomes silent hero By Ron Caldwell The Germantown News As Steve Johnston sat behind yellow police tape in the living room of his ravaged, condemned home Sunday night, he had no idea that he was a hero. Only three hours earlier, he had past, I went to look outside. That's when it hit me." Johnston saw destruction like he had never seen before. But, he also saw someone standing on the room of ahome just 50 feet from his patio. "When I looked out they were standing on top of this roof that had (Continued on Page 4A) been watching "Back to the Future II" on television with his daughters.

A tornado at 3:25 p.m. changed everything, though. "I heard this terrible wind, but it was gone so fast," said Johnston. "My daughters got scared and said, 'let's go to the bathroom and let's say a After the wind blew tll'l I Hr I i People of Germantown unite to begin rebuilding Y. 7 i Immediately 'following Sunday's deadly tornado, calls of help and assistance began pouring into the Germantown community as neighbor helped neighbor.

Many Germantown residents that were not hit by the tornado also wanted to help their fellow citizens. The city has set up several ways that can best meet the needs of those residents who need assistance. In one program, the Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce is asking the business community to provide assistance for victims of the tornado, which caused approximately $30 million in damage. "Victims of the tornado desperately need our help and the Chamber would like to play an active role in responding to their plea," said Chamber president Brent Wilkins. "Therefore, we are asking all business owners to take part in our efforts." Jim Sharkey, executive director of the Chamber, said that the first effort being led by the organization is to obtain items and services need in the initial clean-up and repair Houston High School was in the direct path of the tornado Sunday afternoon and the six-year old Germantown school sustained over $1,000,000 in damages.

Six classrooms were destroyed, units were blown off the roof, and the roof Itself had major damage. Shelby County school officials said on Tuesday that the school building would remain closed until after the first of the year at least. Houston students to meet at GHS after school takes tornado blast Tennessee Governor-elect Don Sundquist and Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout took a brief tour of the damaged Dogwood Grove subdivision on Monday afternoon. Sundquist said that the area did not qualify for state relief and assistance because most of the property owners had private insurance. stage.

equipment; flashlights; garbage He said that the following items cans and bags; hammers; heating are urgently needed: auto and truck and air conditioning services; lum- tire repair, batteries; brooms; cellu- ber, mops; moving services; mov- lar telephones and service; ing trailers; nails; plastic sheeting; chainsaws; cleaning services and plywood; professional carpet and (Continued on Page 4A) limbs and branches; fence repairing old) just took too big of a hit to hold classes there," said Shelby County School Superintendent James Andersoa "We have extensive damage to the school with heating and air conditioning units blown away, roof damage, and six classrooms severely damaged." Anderson said that the engineers andmaintenancepersonnelhad surveyed the damage on Monday and Tuesday following the tornado. "I know that this is going to be tough on both Germantown and Houston, butthere really isn'tmuch choice," Anderson added. "We 're just trying to make things work out the best way possible in a difficult situation." He added that money is in the budget to cover the Board's $25,000 insurance deductible and that work will begin immediately on repairs for the damaged Houston building on Dogwood in northeast Germantown. "We don't have a projection right now on when the school will be ready for the Houston students to move back in," explained Andersoa "Obviously, we are hoping thatsome-thing can be worked out to get them back in after the holiday break." Studentsandfacultymembershad meetings scheduled to work out details of the new plan on Wednesday and Thursday. At those meetings, details of new transportation schedules were to be discussed.

All other schools in the Germantown area, including Houston Middle School which was closed on Monday and Tuesday, are open for normal sessions. Houston High School, which sustained over million in damage from Sunday's devastating tornado, will re-open on Monday, December 5 by meeting for classes at Germantown High School. The 1,835 students currently attending Houston High School will hold half-day sessions at Germantown High School from December 5 until the first semester ends on Monday, December 19. The students will then take a break for the holidays until January 2 at which time the Shelby County Schools will review the plan. From December 5-19, however, GermantownHigh students willhold classes from 7: 15 to 1 1 :35 ajn.

Then, the Houston students will be in the school at 7653 Poplar Pike from 12:30 to 5 p.m. "Houston (which is only six years 'A i i 1 (' I I I Jn r-r i 1 -T rr. mi .11 Lwm 1 ilji mm Red Devils defeat CBHS Germantown High School defeated Christian Brothers High School last Friday night, 38-18, before 9,000 fans at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in the quarterfinals of the TSSAA state football playoffs. By virtue of the victory, Germantown has earned the right to play Jackson Central Merry this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Red Devil Stadium to decide which team gets to go to the state championship game Dec.

10 at Vanderbilt University. See complete coverage in Sports, Section B. Community 2 3A Editorial Page 6A Business Page 7A Lifestyle Pages 8-9A Cordova News Pages 10 1 1 A Sports Pages 1-3B School 4 5B Church Classifieds Pages 8 9B For Kids Only Paee 1C Call for help Grace Evangelical Church, directly across the street from Houston High School, also took a major hit In Sunday's tornado. The church had two trailers blown away and had major structural damage to the new church building. Church officials said that services will be held at First Evangelical Christian Church at 375 Ridge Lake Blvd.

In Memphis on Saturday nights at 6 p.m., beginning on December 3, according to associate pastor Richard I Preliminary estimates of damage to the church ere in the S5CO.CC0 If you were hit or damaged by the tornado and you have any news that you want to get out to the general public, please call The German town News at 754-0337. We are the Germantown area's community newspaper and we are here to serve those that need our hdp..