Alabama Journal from Montgomery, Alabama • 1

i CiuonicrH a uiGsrtcci in lv i Li 1 plcin PAGE 1C --PAGE 1C PAGE ID rmTTTTTm ACA, Catholic prepare to meet Friday in 2A quarterfinal PAGE 1 i AV--' 0 Copyright 1989 The Advertiser Co. 25C6fitS Thursday, November 1 6, 1 989 Montgomery 101stYear No. 229 w5tef kills at least 17 mi res 46 DO List of victims, Page 9A By Robert Anderson and Brian Ponder Journal staff wttterj "Tsej flit HUNTSVILLE The death toll from a tornado that ripped through Huntsville at rush hour Wednesday night tentatively stood at 17 today, with 463 people injured and at least 500 homeless, From Washington, the Federal Emergency Management Agency dispatched an advance team to Huntsville to assess the damage. Sen. Howell Heflin, said FEMA Director Robert H.

Morris told him the advance team' would "be able to assess the-damage and to see what federal programs would be applicable and to see that aid will be moving as fast as possible." Gov. Guy Hunt declared a state of emergency in Alabama this' morning. 1 He is expected to ask President Bush for a federal disaster declaration for the Huntsville area, Terry Abbott, spokesman for the governor, said at noon today. If obtained, the declaration AT -v Tornado destroyed Huntsville elementary school Tornado survivors just glad to be alive AP Twister leveled Westbury Plaza, center, and apartment complex, upper right Rom staff, wire reports She said Mrs. James remained trapped about 25 minutes and recalled listening to a baby crying.

A survey of Mrs. James' apartment this morning showed it is "just a pile of rubbish," the sister-in-law said. Not only did Mrs? James lose her home but also her work place. She had been employed as a hairdresser in a. salon in Westbury Plaza, according to the sister-in-law.

The shopping center sustained heavy damage. At 2 a.m. today, the fire chief from Redstone Arsenal Fire Department, Bill Cross, was helping rescuers hear the Golbro Department Store in Westbury Plaza. Looking for victims or survivors, he peered into a squashed van and aimed a flashlight beam into the front seat. Behind him, the department store no longer existed, and debris from the store had flattened the van.

"A body is a pretty small thing that can get compressed easily," the chief said. He did not find a body and moved elsewhere with his search. Emergency lights cast a strange glow over the area. Vehicles in the parking lot of the mall had to be bulldozed away to clear a path for rescuers. The parking lot resembled a giant junkyard.

Gov. Guy Hunt planned to visit the Huntsville area Friday. As of this morning, Alabama emergency officials hadn't arrived at a damage estimate, Mr. McWhorter said. dead there.

A makeshift medical center was set up at the apartment complex's office, where employee Debbie Thompson said many people were treated for broken bones and cuts. However, "those panicking worst are those who don't know where their family members are," Miss Thompson said. At Crestwood Hospital, emergency room personnel gave up trying to keep track of about 100 people being treated, said director of marketing Dave Cowan. "We didn't ever really get their names," he said. "We took the attitude that it didn't matter who they were.

We just wanted to get them help." Kenneth Lenhard, who underwent an operation at the hospital about noon Wednesday, returned to his room about an hour before a window in the next room exploded. "There wasn't anything I could do, so I covered my head," Mr. Lenhard said. "I thought what the heck, I'm already half dead." Giant spotlights mounted on trucks made the blacked-out area almost as bright as day as bulldozers pushed crumpled cars into the corners of a shopping (See SURVIVORS Page 10A) HUNTSVILLE Many who witnessed the destruction of a tornado that leveled apartment buildings, a school and shopping centers said they were glad to be alive. Those who picked through rubble where once their homes and businesses stood in a three-mile area in south Huntsville said there was little warning before the twister struck.

"I couldn't hear it until it was right on us," said Ed DeBona, 55, who watched the storm move in from the balcony of his apartment! "The sound was confined to the eye of the storm." Jennifer Whitt, 19, was visiting a friend at the Waterford Square apartment complex when the tornado touched down nearby. The two were standing outside, she said, when "it got real weird. It wasn't like a train. It was like a hum. You could hear people screaming.

You could see cars flipping like matchbox cars. It just happened so quickly and it was gone." Hours later, workers with flashlights crawled through the rubble of at least a dozen buildings in the apartment complex, would make available low-interest loans, direct help from FEMA and housing assistance, he said. Rescue workers braved cold temperatures and biting winds into the early morning hours, combing debris at a shopping mall and apartments reduced to rubble. The tornado, which first touched down at 4:37 p.m. Wednesday, cut a path 25 miles long and a quarter of a mile wide within the Huntsville city limits and stretching into neighborhing Jackson County.

Greg McWhorter, assistant director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, said the tornado hit the southeastern section of Huntsville, called the Jones Valley area, on the eastern side of Memorial Parkway. Danny Cooper, director of AEMA, left Birmingham at 6:30 a.m. today by helicopter to conduct fly-overs to assess the damage. Fifty Alabama National Guardsmen were dispatched to the area. In the destructive path of the tornado were the Jones Valley Elementary School, West-bury Plaza shopping center and the Water-ford Square and Queensbury apartment complexes.

One rescue worker on the scene described the mighty force of the storm as "humbling." "It's like taking six to 10 city blocks and putting them in a blender and putting it on liquify," said Madison County rescue worker Bob Caraway, whose specialty is cave rescues but who was called out to help dig through rubble for survivors or more dead. "This makes for some real weird caving. I've never seen this kind of devastation. It's really humbling," he said. Mr.

Cooper said rescuers were sifting through piles of rubble 10 to 14 feet deep. "It's total destruction" where the tornado hit. Cars are piled on top of each other under piles of rubble where buildings used to be," he Authorities said at least five people were killed at Waterford Square apartments, three at a business school named Southern Junior College, which is located a converted movie theater, and others in scattered areas. At the Waterford Square complex, the apartment office was commandeered as a makeshift medical facility. One of the survivors from the apartment complex, Charlotte James, 47, was admitted to Crestwood Hospital, which treated more than 100 people and admitted 10.

From her bedside, Mrs. James, who suffered injuries including seven broken ribs, described a 15-second encounter with the storm. Dana Laughlin, Mrs. James' sister in law, said the woman was in her apartment about 4:45 p.m. As the storm struck, Mrs.

James sought cover behind her bed. Within a matter of seconds, the tornado blew the back of the apartment away and sucked out Mrs. James. "She was dragged face first 150 yards. A pole of some sort landed on top of her," Mrs.

Laughlin said. looking for survivors after at least two people were found icom iwu jyeupic weic iuuiiu (Please see TWISTER Page 10A) vr lease sec i la icn rage iuij Closing arguments heard at dog track bribery trial Julius makes last-ditch try to halt Friday's execution Vcaihorlino begins today From staff reports elusion of testimony today. From staff, wire reports Expect sunny skies, cool temperatures Friday will be sunny but cold with highs in the mid-50s in the tri-county area. Tonight will be cold with a freeze warning in effect with lows in the mid-20s. For the remainder of the state, Friday will be cold with highs near 50.

More weather on Page 2A. preme Court Wednesday and a decision was expected today. As of noon, no word had been received about the appeal from the nation's highest court. In a brief interview this morning, Mr. Goggans Said he planned to submit a formal request for clemency with Gov.

Guy Hunt. Bill Wasden, the governor's legal adviser, said the clemency request has been turned down. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta Tuesday refused to block the execution. The judges denied a stay without elaboration.

On two prior occasions, the Supreme Court has refused to hear the Julius appeal for the murder of Susie Bell Sanders. Locally, members of the Alabama Prison Project, Civil Liberties Union of Alabama and Amnesty International, held a news conference this morning to protest the planned execution. "The state is not the creator of life and therefore does not have the right to take away life," said Lucia Penland, executive director of the Alabama Prison Project. Ms. Sanders, 29, was killed at her Montgomery apartment Jan.

28, 1978. Her nude body was displease see JULIUS Page 9A) Will you need to carry a sweater to the football game? Is your tennis match likely to be rained out? To find out, call this number: That's the number for the Montgomery Advertiser's and The Alabama Journal's new Weather-line, which is being pro- vided as a public service to fill a void left by National Weather Service budget cutbacks. Recorded at the studios of Y-102, Weatherline tells you the current temperature and the 24-hour official forecast provided by the National Weather Service. The report is updated hourly, and more often in times of bad weather. Weatherline is a service of Weatherline, which operates in many cities around the country.

Soon, 262-6800 will be the only number you can call to get the official U.S. government forecast The National Weather Service in (See WEATHER Page 9A) In today's proceedings, prosecutors played a Feb. 19, 1988, tape recording of a telephone conversation between former Rep. Hugh Boles and Bessemer Mayor Ed Porter, in which Mayor Porter and Boles discussed their strategy for passing a bill that would allow Boles to open a dog track in Bessemer. In the conversation, which was recorded by the FBI, Mayor Porter expressed his support for the track.

"You're on the right track," Mayor Porter said in response to Boles' comments about his meetings with legislators to discuss the bill. Attorneys for the four defendants Reps. Bobbie McDowell, D-Bessemer; Lewis Spratt, D-Birmingham; E.B. McClain, D-Brighton and Mayor Porter called several character witnesses, including state Treasurer George Wallace Jr. and Joe Reed, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference.

Aside from testimony by several Bessemer city officials that Mayor Porter supported a proposed dog track as a prospective boost for the city's economy, defense attorneys anchored their (Please see TRIAL Page 9A) By The Associated Press A federal prosecutor told jurors today at the influence-peddling trial of three legislators and Bessemer's mayor that it did not matter whether they said they would accept stock options in a proposed dog track. Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Niven said in closing arguments that the government's case against the four officials hinged on their actions, which he said showed they "intended to do it." The start of closing arguments indicated U.S. District Judge Truman Hobbs turned down motions by defense attorneys who asked him to end the trial by ruling the government had failed to prove the charges, and that he would let the jury decide the case. Defense lawyers had asked for a directed verdict Wednesday.

Judge Hobbs had said he has doubts about public officials being accused of wrongdoing based on actions they took before they were offered any bribes. "That's an area of real concern to me," the judge said. Judge Hobbs met with attorneys privately one hour before jurors returned for the con- Ann Landers 3D Condemned killer Arthur James Julius held final meetings with a minister, relatives and friends at Holman Prison while attorneys awaited a ruling on a U.S. Supreme Court bid to halt his scheduled execution at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

Julius was convicted in 1982 in the rape and killing of his cousin while free on an 8-hour prison work-release pass. Warden Charlie Jones said Julius met for several hours Wednesday with eight relatives and friends, and he planned a conference today with a minister, who was not identified. Mr. Jones said the electric chair had been tested daily since Monday and was in working condition. Defense attorney Tommy Goggans of Montgomery argued in last-ditch attempts to halt the execution that the prosecution withheld evidence during Julius' trial in Montgomery.

who is 5-foot-ll, 250 pounds, claims several alleged "lovers and boyfriends" of the victim were suspects, but never disclosed their names to his defense attorney. The appeal went to the Su- Classified Comics, 7D 2C Death notices Editorials 12A -7D Horoscope 2D Movies 1B-7B Sports Pick of the Pack. For gtraranfMd horn dllvry at 10 off nwttand prtctt, call 269-0010 tmrgncy roomiJackson tnwrgmcy maternity Mivtc: Jackion TQr.lQTKiOY: PraM.o tries to keep sialo championship hopes alive I.