The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 2

A-2 Bloomington July 25, 1975 Canton sealed off after tornado Normal, I Pantagraph II. 1 'CT" CANTON-Svventy National based in Mloominton and 75 Ujj.l I assisting in tlie massive cleanup operation." Maake, who accompanied the convoy from Hloomington's headquarters 1st Battalion. 123rd Infantry, into Canton about 10:20 a m. Thursday, said a "tremendous amount of cleaning up" was done during the day. Complicating things, however, was a strike by Central Illinois Public Service Company workers wlio are members of the International Brothcrhxd of Electrical Workers.

The striking workers would not assist in restoring power Wednesday night, but did agree to help Thursday morning. But by 11-30 a.m.. Maake said, the workers went Dack on strike. Independent utility firms and workers aided in restoring some electrical power Thursday. Among volunteers rushing to the aid of the west central Illinois town of 14.700 were members of the Kureka Rescue Squad.

Maake reported. "I saw a truck with guys from Gridley here too," he said. The Bloomington-based guard unit, led by Capt. Kodney Fitzgerald of Clinton, stayed Thursday night at the Canton High School gymnasium. The unit is scheduled to leave at 7:30 a.m.

Saturday for summer camp at Camp Atterbury, Ind. Col. John Hamilton of Pontiac. bat- talion commander, didn't know whether the units would leave Canton today or stay through the night. There are bricks all over the place." llaakc said.

"Wires are down and trees are uprooted all over." Mayor KoU'rt Jennings estimated damage from the tornado at $4 million to $6 million. Krie Jones. Illinois Civil U-fensc director, told Maake that more than $800,000 damage was done to public buildings and utilities. Jones also said about 300 homes were seriously damaged and 100 others would need major repairs. Mis assessment also showed about 127 businesses damaged, 3f seriously, Among the businesses damaged was a bank, where a roof collapsed, trapping three janitors inside for a time.

At the mobile home park where the women were killed, only two of the 18 mobile homes escaped damage. Of the 16 hit by the twister. 11 were overturned. Maake said the Hloomington-bascd Guard unit, one of its companies in Delavan and six units of Guardsmen from the 182nd 'Tactical Air Support Group in Peoria had set up 14 command posts on the perimeter of downtown Canton to keep people from roaming around. Five persons were reported arrested for looting.

Mayor Jennings ordered an 8:30 curfew Thursday night. The mayor said a house-to-house search was still underway to determine whether anyone had been trapped in rubble. Jones said about 1.200 volunteers were Aftermath '14, r4'-' rrnr i 1 -4 Canton (AP) Rocking hort among the debris left at Horton't Mobile Manor after a tornado struck Wednesday. Two died at the trailer park and several were injured. As the winds died down, it rained steadily, he said.

French's mobile home was damaged only slightly by the tornado. Me said a mobile-home owner strug- gled to the laundry door, where he collapsed. How ever, before the man was taken to the hospital, French said, he told French he had driven into the yard of the trailer court just before 6 p.m.. and that his mobile home was flipped on top of his pickup truck by the wind. Runs hIIh ts from iH lavan wt-re among Guard and police mills thiit soah-d off Canton Thursday in tk' wake of a killor-tornado that swept through town shurtly after 6 rn, Wednt'sdiy.

I'antanraph reporter Dave llaakc re-Mirted from the seene thiit 3 of the 16 persons hospitalized Wednesday night remained in critical condition Thursday night at Canton and hospitals. Many of the admitted to hospitals arid some of the 47 other persons treated and released at hospitals were from Morton's Mobile Manor, a mobile home park on the east side of town. It as there that Mattie Sprague and Ifctrothy McCann were killed when their mobile home was demolished. The downtown business district was also hit hard, llaakc reported. Me said tlx- twister left a path about three-fourths of a mile wide and two miles long.

County joins in aid to tornado victims Area residents kept tlie McLean County Chapter of the American Red Cross telephone lines busy Thursday morning with inquiries about friends and relatives in tornado-damaged Canton and with offers to help the ravaged city. Cary Franks, executive director of the chapter, and Mrs. Anne Ulbrich. direc tor of service to military families and social worker, left for Canton with a communications wagon. Serv-O-Mation of Bloomington also donated a truckload of food for victims, a chapter spokeswoman said.

Max Smith, chapter disaster chairman, left Thursday afternoon with a second communications vehicle, and the local volunteers intended to stay in Canton "as long as we are needed." The chapter had several inquiries about relatives and friends, and planned to relay what information it could as soon as the vehicles reached the city. "He said he couldn't get the cab door open, so he rolled down the window and crawled out." French said. Ruth Dailly's mobile home also suffered only minor damage, but she said she and her husband were terrified when a neighbor's home was uprooted and hurled at the southeast corner of their home. "I can't remember feeling our trailer move at all," she said. Her husband.

Jack, said, "We were too scared to notice." future. William Child, a regional EPA supervisor hose duties entail preventing land and water pollution from landfills in 46 counties, also said he would seek to close the landfill if EPA regulations were violated. Child said he did not care' whether the present landfill owners operate the dump or whether it is run by someone else. The fact appears to be that "there would be significant public heah problems" and "significant problems with transportation" if the landfill was closed, he said. He said the only area landfill large enough to accomodate the refuse of the Twin Cities was in Tazewell County, just outside East Peoria.

He said speculation that an abandoned gravel pit near Pontiac could be used was faulty because the operation did not have an EPA permit. Child also clarified issues that have thus far been vague. 'The wind was too strong mm ill i ii.wa -iiii ini i-i i Unit mm iSAtiS Unit wants landfill reconsidered New shoes were left scattered among the ruins after the rear wall of a shoe store blew out during tornado Wednesday in Canton. The 70 men were joined by 75 men from Company in Delavan to provide security for the tornado-damaged area. (Pantagraph Photo) Deitz, a resident of the landfill area who has objected to its expansion, to plead their cases again.

The-committee will ask representatives of Twin Cities governments to answer Questions, if anv are raised concerning the cities' plight. Members also discussed the possibility of having increased county health department monitoring of dump opera- tions, though no action was taken in that regard. The committee vote came after a 45-minute closed-session discussion of legal ramifications and alternative landfill sites. Six members of the committee had voted for the permit at the June' meet- ing. Committee Chairman John Wenum was absent from that meeting.

SUMMER SANDALS 85 GROUP Casual Shoes OO Discontinued Styles Broken Sizes Preparation The EPA permit for McLean County Landfill, granted last May, was actually "a closing plan" for the existing site, he said. He said the owners' plans were to expand to a trench-type operation at an adjoining site, which he said was a much better tract for the dump. He estimated that' the existing 110- acre site would be covered with dirt and that operations there would cease in six to eight months if the expansion were allowed. Child said "with EPA input, the Nords' landfill is now one of the top 10 per cent in the state" in efficiency of operation. He referred to landfill owners Dr.

and Mrs. Stanley Nord and members of their family. The immediate question is whether the owners have sufficient dirt available to cover refuse until the August meeting. If they do not, they may have to haul dirt, he said. He said he would not allow open With Safe, Energy-Saving Low Voltage.

Decorative Security Lighting. Easy installation. KITS FROM $46.60 or you may buy individual pieces CANTON AP) Moments before a killer tornado hit Canton Wednesday night, Dorothy McCann sat in her mobile home and received a telephone call from her sister. "Why don't you come down here? It looks Jike we're really going to have a storm Jennie CJarkson told her sister. Mrs.

Clarkson and Mrs. McCann had lived in separate mobile homes at Morton's Mobile Manor for about three years. Mrs. McCann said she thought she would stay in her own trailer because I "the wind outside was just too strong." The tornado struck at 6.03 p.m., and Mrs. McCann was one of two mobile home park residents who were killed.

But Mrs. Clarkson's mobile home, at the other end of the court, was left untouched by the twister. Opal Hudson, Peoria, one of Mrs. McCann 's seven sisters, related the conversation as she helped several of the dead woman's relatives salvage some belongings Thursday. Only eight of the 18 mobile homes in the mobile home court-remain standing.

Some of the trailers were overturned, others were lifted several hundred feet off their bases, and one was found nearly two blocks away in a bean field Lonnie French, 20, said that after hearing a tornado warning on radio he took his wife to a coin laundry at the trailer court. "It was just drizzling, and I thought it would pass over, but all of a sudden you couldn't hear anything but wind. All of a sudden a tiny window in the washroom snapped shut," French saidr He said the rain got harder, the wind kept blowing and he could hear glass snapping outside the laundry for about 15 minutes. Charge. dismissed in court A Dec.

21 charge of deceptive practices, filed against Larry N. Chambers, 33, of R.R. 2, was dismissed Thursday in associate division of circuit court for insufficient evidence. He was accused of writing a bad check for $78:55 Goussett Sales 1301 S. Morrissey.

i vVr WRITERS YOU NEED a sales-oriented literary service to market your work. VYc nccll talented new writers up nrrK to make more sales to publishers lUbclHcK we could turn your rejection slips into royalty checks. Send scripts now for FREE pre liminary reading and evaluation re port to: MODERN-CONCEPT WRITERS AGENCY National Guard members of Headquarters Company of the 12.3rd Infantry's 1st Battalion left Bloomington for Canton about 8:30 a.m. Thursday. dumping and if it occured he would seek a court injunction to stop the practice.

Child said the Nords had told him they had enough dirt to provide cover for about another week. He said his own estimate was that enough was available to last between a week and a month. The committee left open when it would make its recommendation to the board. Board Chairman Jake Ringger said another attempt to schedule a special meeting one failed earlier this week-might be made if it appeared the Nords were about to run afoul of the EPA. The.

committee also agreed to ask Child to appear at the board meeting to discuss technical aspects of the issue. But it decided against allowing either the Nords or attorneys for Bernard WOMEN'S DRESS SHOES Values to SPECIAL Women's Dress Values unto SOUTH SIDE SUMMER MEN'S Values Selected Styles By Mark Spencer The McLean County Board will be asked again to grant a special use permit to allow the McLean County Landfill to sta) in business. The board's Environment Committee" voted unanimoasly Thursday afternoon to ask the full board to rescind its denial at a June 9 meeting of a permit to allow the dump to use dirt from an adjacent tract. Granting the permit give Bloomington-Normal a place to dump refuse. Denial of the permit has led to several weeks of legal and governmental controversy.

The committee also agreed to recommend that the landfill owners be required to take steps to solve some of the problems that led to the denial in the first place. Members Will work before the board's Aug. 12 meeting to draft requirements that the owners plant a vegetative screen to hide the dump from public view. They also will ask that a "rumble strip" a device of metal bars be installed at the dump's exit to shake mud from garbage truck tires driving onto public roads. Unsightliness of the dump and mud on the roads were cited as problems by those who opposed the permit.

The committee action came near the end of a three-hour meeting at which an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency officer said in effect that there is no feasible alternative to letting landfill remain open, at least for the immediate COPLEY'S HAflOWARC STOWf 5 FARMED CITY Lawn Garden Supplies 'i LANDSCAPE IwWWtSBjSS 1 SQUARE SHOES I 1 I 1 85 and Sizes Lights, Accessories Transformers for Pathway, House, Gcrn or Pool Lighting in 5 colors. 1 106 E. BELL IN BLOOMINGTON CTJUTESp TILLERS to $20.00 TEUTEST POWER MOWERS ,1 Ww Hmrttmd. N.T. 13413.