TORNADO KILLS 37

Chronicle (Levin), 3 June 1947, Page 5

TORNADO KILLS 37

Press Assn.

Four Villages Flatlened In U.S.A.

By Telegraph

-Copyright

Keeeived Monday, 10.50 p.m. KEW YUHK, June 2. At least .37 people are clead anci .cores . .in. uospilal followihg riolent tornadoes which hit Arcanyas and Oklahoma today. Late . on.ght 31 bodies had been conntj,d in Ai'Lansas .and it is feared Jiat the final casualties might .•each 50 dead and 200 injured. Four1 villages south of Pineb'luff (.Arkansas) were almost fiattened. Joctors and nurses rushed to the itricken- area and trucks, taxis an'd private ears were pressed ijito jerviee .as ambulances. . Fallen trees and wir.es a'cross th.e roads are h.ampering the rescue opera"dons. The tSrnado, which is described ,is a twister, struck at three poiuts Wthin an area of six square miles. 5onth of Pinebluff seven members of one family were wiped out when the blast smashed their home to splinters and scattered their bodies over a half a mile.

Eleven ueg.ro youths were kilk;d in one building in the predominantly negro settlement of Pike. They had assembled for a youth elub meeting. The tornado at oue point picker up an automobile and erushod it into a lump of twistcd metal. The delnge of rain and the severe eleetrical storm which accompanied the tornado continued long after its fury was spent and added to the sufferings of hundreds of da.zed and homeless people. By .1.30 p.m. the Pinebluff hospital had given em.ergency treatment toi more than 300 people, ten of! whom were not expected to live j th rough the night. | , The Arkansas tornado followedj fhose which eighteen hours earlier killcd six in Leedey (Oklahoma) ind also infliefed heavy destruction in Texas.