HOUSES LIFTED BODILY

Chronicle (Levin), 19 June 1946, Page 5

HOUSES LIFTED BODILY

Press Assti.-

— , Devastating Freak Tornado ■ AT LEAST TWENTY KILLED

By Telegraph

Copyright

Reeeived Tuesday, 10.5 p.m. NEW YORK, June 17. At least twenty persons were killed when a freak tornado struck the American community of River Rouge (Michigan) and the Canadian towns of Sandwich and Windsor COntario). Most of the deaths so far reported occurred on the Canadian side and eyewitnesses' reports indicate that the deathroll may reach several score. A Canadian Press eorrespondent at Windsor says whole families are feared wiped out as the tornado cut a hundred foot swathe through Sandwich. Many victims were decapitated. The wing of an American Army bomber fell on a house at Windsor during the height of the storm but no other trace of the aircraft is reported. A resident of Windsor, Mrs.' Albert Perry, said she saw at least seven persons killed opposite her home. "We saw a house lifted from its foundations. It just came rolling along and then went up in the air. I saw bodies carried away by the wind," she said. The police reported that at least hfteen bodies have been recovered. Lack of electijic power which was switched off because of the danger of falling wires, hampered the Windsor hospitals in treating the injured. Residents of Sandwich reported houses lifted bodily and carried considerable distances with the occupants still in them. Detroit railway officials said freight cars were tossed about like playthings.