BODIES DOT GROUND ALONG WATERFRONT

Chronicle (Levin), 18 April 1947, Page 5

BODIES DOT GROUND ALONG WATERFRONT

IJ(»i-i»i vo'l Thursday, 7.4o p.m. NEW YOIfK, April 1(3. Tn addilion to tlic ship Graiul Camp wlierc the first explosion ocourreil louehing ofT :i chahi of Masts and lires in many parts of the city, it is now lielieveil two other shi])s blew up biC the fires ragiiig along two miles of waterfront prevent conlirniation. A warehonse eontaining explosives lies in the palh of ihe flanies and the poliee ha\e ordered all reiief workers from the; area in whi'di many injured awaiti sneeor. Fire engines are streamingj i:iio Texas City from neartiy towns but ; thev are handicapped by ruptured j water mains. Thev pass anibulances . shntlling in and out of the stricken| city earrying the wounded to nearbyi Uouston and Galveston. Norman eommunications are completely disrupted' and aniateur i^adin operators have been j aitthorised to lutndle emergency mes j sages. I United Press reporters who have j reached the scene state bodies and j pieces of bodies dot the ground along j the waterfront. Rescue workers are too busy with the hundreds of injured to notice the dead. The injured are everywhere. Some injured stand still ] staring tlankly at you as you approach The ambulances ran in and gather them in bunches and hurry them off to hospitals outside of Texas City. rho iailial explosion was felt over . radius of nearly 300 miles. A huge biirge was blown 100 feet from (he water and now straddles Ihe skeleton* two huge oil storage tanks. An oil iraia was lnirled against an embankment. Steel fragments were lnirled to Jive miles *111 all directions. cutting dowp people in the streets and puitcttiring oil storages. Rescue workers in some sections of the city are compelled to wear gas masks against the dangerous nitrogen dioxide gas genenited in the explosion of the Grand Camp's cargo. Rcddish brown fumes rolled over the eity in clouds from the ship. Rescue work is also hampered by the aerid fumes from the huge Monsanto chemical works which were rent by violent explosions and theu look tiro. Late this afternoon 1

tiie screams of workers within could be lieard. Bulldozers are ploughing emergency access roads into the site of the blast. Observers who tlew over the city said neither the business nor residentiai district was alire but many ships in the harbour were still aflame. The Telephone Union has ordered striking operators and repairnien back to their jobs to restore and maintain connnunieations until the emergency is eiuled. Bloodv trails made by the injured are everywhere in the city. A rectangle roughly a mile long and half a mile wide aiong the wateiuront, is a mass of twisted steel struct.u*es and charred debxis. Three hundred workers' houses near the harbour area I were completely destroyed