Evening star., 1925-03-22

Rr the Associa ted Press.
CHICAGO, March 21.-Saddened, but
undaunted by the havoc of Wednes-
daE tornado. survivors OF, the catas-
trophe in the storm belt of Illinois
and Indiana tonight prepared to emu
late the pheniX, and ar&e from its
ashes.
With only half of the sos dead con-
signed to hasty graves and hundreds
of the nearly 5000 injured still in
the care of doctors and nurses, plans
were announced for rebuilding the
devasted areas as soon as possible.
Three days of heroic endeavor by
thousands of willing workers. spur
red to their task by the despera-
tion brought about by the tornado in
its 300-mile sweep from the Missouri
Ozsrks through the Ohio Valley, had
wrought wonders when darkness set
tied tonight.
All Homeless Housed.
Every homeless person had been
housed in some manner. Food had
been supplied for the helpless, medi-
cines and other comforts had been
made availa BILE for the wounded and
solace had been afforded the bereaved.
Probably all the dead had been re-
covered from the debris of the hum
dreds of homes destroyed. and the
death total tonight was sos, with al
most as many dead identified.
While a few more bodies are likely
to be found among the ruins, H nuIn-
ber may die of wounds. 1t is prob
a. BILE that some errors have been made
In checking the dead, owing t. the
wide extent of trritory covered and
the overlapping of reports from near
by towns Rescue workers are agreed,
however, that the final tetaf~wiA
close to 500 for the five States af-
fected. or only SO under the first es
Inmates made by the Associated Press
the night of the disaster.
The storm will go down as the
greatest in the history Of America
and the relief work that made almost
fast time as the wind sets a rec
ord, owing to the use of airplanes and
radio in carrying supplies and send
ing out calls for help. Something lik :
81 600 600 was raised in three days to
aid the stricken. and subscriptions
for relief are pouring in hourly TO
increase the total.
Hits 10 Illinois Towns.
the tornado. and in those municipal
tiles and their rural surroundings 642
lives We're taken, while 2110 were
hurt, many severely. Murphy sboro
was the worst sufferer. with half it's
area devastated. 1S9 persons killed
and 700 injured. West Frankfort
came next with % slain and SOC
MANNED.
Desoto. with IL dead; Gorham. with
81 killed, and Parrish with a loss of
43 lives, were almost annihilated
Griffin was the heaviest loser in In
diana and in fact, in the whole storm
for only A building or two were
left standing and of it's meager pop
ulation So were crushed to death and
200 were injured. Yet. even this town
will rebuild, the few survivors said
today. And Griffin is still in the
throes of death, for it reported four
deaths tonight to add to it's previous
total of 81
The first tornado blast was felt at
Annapolis, Mo, about 1870 Wednes-
day afternoon, swirled through south
ern Illinois about 8 o'clock and a
couple of hours later hit Indiana
with few less violent outbursts
snatching toll of lives and property
in sporadic places in Tennessee and
Kentucky at nightfall.
Help Comes Speedily.
Within few hours. after the devas-
tatiOn had passed survivors managed
to get word to unaffected towns ask
ing for help. First help came from
neighooring cities. but by Thursday
morning special trains and airplanes
had carried willing hands from as far
as Chicago, indianapolis and St. Louis
TO the scene.
Survivors had worked all night,
seeking relatives and friends and
fighting fires that broke out in the
wreckage All day Thursday the
search for the lost was continued,
while tented cities sprang up to shell
ter the homeless and the injured were
conveyed to the nearest towns with
hospital facilities.
BY Thursday night with the help
of State troops, some order had been
established. Friday saw the care of
the hurt perfected and the billeting
Of the houseless completed. so that
by today time could be given to
burial of the dead, reuniting of sep
arated families and better distribu-
tion of food and bedding.
AS the complete lists of dead begin
to come in, an increasing number of
women, children and infants are
shown among the dead. In West
Frankfort alone nearly 40 of it's dead
were ba bieS.
Needs here and there. as quickly
a they became known. were immedi-
ately filled. The generous flow of
money and supplies apparently is TO
be without parallel.
Determination of the general prop
erty and material loss probably can
not be made for days and possibly
weeks. Figures variously reported
estimate total between five and
eight million dollars. Insurance actu-
aries, now in all fields. assert it will
take many months TO untangle claims
and arrive at proper valuations.