Show SEVERAL THOUSANDS HOMELESS TOWNS BADLY WRECKED number of dead in four southern states may never be accurately known many being buried without careful record accounts of suffering and remarkable experiences come in from all directions new orleans april ag the totals of death misery and ruin caused in four southern states by fridays tor to hand today in approximately correct form briefly stated there are killed about injured painfully or seriously 1200 homeless several thousand towns reporting serious wreckage 46 habitations and business houses practically complete ruins in abeso towns about 2500 the above figures do not include the wreckage on plantations and farms scores of which were struck and damaged the number of dead may never bo known accurately for the reason that about of them were negroes and they were burled in many without careful records being made of their numbers while some oti the first reports giving apparently reliable death lists have since unreliable nevertheless remote places which were late in reporting their dead have served to hold the total death list uniformly around the numb or in which this death list has grown for two days in spite of continued subtractions from early reports has been a melancholy index of the interstate scope of disaster by following the wreckage of towns the general direction of the tornadoes can be traced closely approximately the storm struck in three separate currents each describing the arc of a circle and traveling toward the northeast the first of these struck through northern louisiana mississippi and tennessee before daylight friday morning the second appeared farther south about 7 in louisiana and mississippi this apparently was the portion of the storm which had swept through alabama and georgia on F day night and saturday morning the third portion of the storm appeared during friday afternoon further south than either of its predecessors this was the storm which demolished amate la and purvis miss the towns in which the wreckage was worst why the fatalities were so large is apparent today from a glance at the photographs which havo arrived hero from many portions of the tornado belt they all tell the same story whole blocks of what were formerly little and cabin slie spread over the ground in separate boards it a huge lumber pile had been scattered over these areas the number of individual boards unattached to anything else could scarcely have been greater under this mass of wreckage many hundred persons were buried not one in a hundred escaping without some injury the houses which were thus scattered about were mostly negro habitations the homes of the whites held together better and the photographs show many of them with halt the top of the upper halt of ane structure ripped off but leaving below protections which must have saved scores from death along with the accounts of suffering have come many recitals of remarkable experiences each of which Is typical at amate la when the tornado appeared there were seven persons at the dinner table of hamilton warners home including three children ono of the diners claude bennett saw the whirlwind in time to shout a warning and rushed out doors but the others remained in the room tho wind in a second tore off two boora on opposite aides of the room and an astonishing procession of live and inanimate objects began to pass into the room through these doorways first came a calf running before the wind tho animal jumped over the dining table and went out the opposite door afterward came a horse which followed through the exit taken by the calf the three children sought refuge under the table and no one was injured today has been one of relief meas uros throughout the wrecked district the ruined towns have been visited by thousands of spectators many of whom went with a few dollars in their pockets to distribute among the needy sheds made from the wreckage have become the homes of hundreds small parties of men on horseback have gone through country districts taking anven of the assistance needed and rendering aid where it was most necessary ces sary at least a dozen relief funds have been started in as many cities and towns following is a list by states of the forty six towns reporting more or less damage Louisiana Lucerne kenmore la lourio mourio richland Ric bland amate essie pine angle sheridan avard eunice total 12 mississippi giles lend purvis churchilll Church hlll lorman tallman melton bruxton sunflower aft halak columbus walla pair child Quit mans landing ln mccullum winchester alno ridge total 19 georgia columbus dimpley dil pley la grange harris mcdonough locust grove Cedor town cave springs total 9 high mound hatton lenaburg Leea burg settlement blounte vallo total 6 |