Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-08-07
SIX KILLED IN
 HEAVY STORM
 IN LOU|SlANS Fatalities Reported Over Telephone From
 DeQuincy. LAKE CHARLES IN
 CENTER OF BLOW All Wires Down, but Passengers Re. port Millions of Dollars Dam. age Done to Property and
 to Aviation Field.
Beaumont, Tex. Aug. GA telephone message from Dequin- cy, 60 miles north of Lake Char les states that six persons were killed in the storm.
One Killed at Lake Charles.


 Lake Charles, La, Aug. 6.-This today. Few of the streets are passable because of the wreckage of homes piled in the streets and tangled tele- phone and light wires.
 So far known but one person, a ne- gro, was killed and another a white man, is in the hospital suffering from injuries believed to be fatal.
 The iPerce Oil corporation build- ing collapsed and caught score un- der the debris but their injuries were minor.
 The rain prevented greater disas- ter as scores of homes were set on fire when the buildings collapsed on hot stoves.
 Reports from the Gerstner aviation field says buildings there were com- pletely wrecked. No loss of life was reported there.
 New Orleans, Aug. 6.-Wire com- municatioh between New Orleans and Lake Charles, destroyed during the storm today, had not been restored late tonight.
 No storm information other than contained in press reports had been received at the weather bureau.
 Houston, Tex, Aug. s.-That Gest- ner Field, a training camp for avi- ators, was badly damaged, and that property losses in and around Lake Charles, La, would amount to mil- lion dollars. was the information con- %o %h4 ~Ge Southern Pacific in Houston late Tuesday afternoon by a conductor If the lines, who made his way to Vim ton from Lake Charles and reported from that place.
 The storm area. he said, extended as far east as Jennings and as jar west as Vinton. High wind and rain worked the damage.
 Beaumont, Texas, Aug. 6.-Ac- cording to stories told by trainmen and passengers on Southern Pacific train No. 5, which. reached here from New Orleans nearly four hours late arriving at o'clock tonight, Lake Charles and vicinity suffered great damage from tropical hurricance which struck that city about 3:30 this afternoon.
 One Man Reported Killed. i
 The conductor of the train said one man was killed at Lake Charles and perhaps others, and that great prop erty damage resulted.
 It was said that a string freight cars, part of another train, had been blown into the rear coach of train No. 5, smashing the car. but without serious injury to the occupants.
 The train showed traces of having gone through severe storm, as the cars were spattered with mud, and tree limb on the pilot gave evidence of the faact that timber was down in places along the road.
 It was said the storm struck the main line of the Southern Pacific a short distance beyond Lake Charles, and that damage was most severe in that town and westward as far as Vinton.
 High winds were prevalent in Orange, but no serious damage was reported there.
 Many Wires Down.
 All wires eastward from Beaumont were reported down and trains had in moving.
 At vinton, La, short distance this side of Lake Charles, 1t was said large warehouse had been blown across the railroad tracks. but there was, so far as persons on the train knew, no loss of life reported.
 There is large government avia- tion camp at Gerstner Field, 12 miles from Lake Charles, but no report as to damage there was available. ( A passenger on the train said great damage was done at Sulphur. La. One man, he said, was crushed by falling timbers and his back broken.
 No Damage at Beaumont. Beaumont, Texas, Aug. 6.-The . wind blew steadily here from early his morning until o'clock at . velo- 1, (Continued on page six. 9th column.)