New Britain herald., 1926-11-10

'.rhsn we all were dying in the air. It seemed q though some of the children and parts of the building passed me several times.
 T lost consciousness and do not know how much later 1t was when I recovered.
 Y saw Wilson Bowling and asked him to take the baby that was lying across my body. When he picked up the poor child. she was dead"
 "Others about me were dead, some others were badly injured. and many of them had their clothes torn off their bodies"
 Miss Mary Carpenter sat, crying. at her post in the telephone office. No relief was possible-the tragedy had bereft her of her associate in the exchange.
 Brave Phone Operator
 Immediately after the storm struck she set to work to get into con- municauon with Washington and neighboring points. She succeeded and ambulances and medical as- sistance was dispatched immediate ly from the capital. Most of the dangerously injured were transfer red to Washington hospitals where subsequently, four of them, chill dren. died.
 Into the telephone exchange poured frantic calls for aid. appeals from parents as to the fate of their children, frantic inquiries from in- side and outside the town concern ing it's occupants and the extent of the tornado damage.
 Each name that passed over the wire meant death or injury to some friend or acquaintance of Miss Car penter-she cried but she continued for long hours to plug through the calls.
 Towns Center Untouched
 Into each home in the community the hand of tragedy reached and scattered death or injury to it's oc- cupants or relatives or friends. But through some quirk the tornado avoided the center of La Plata, which embraces only four square blocks.
 At Waldorf. however. it destroyed a barn or two and St. Peters Catho- lie church, pausing in it's flight to bounce a cement mixer and some empty automobiles up into the at- mosphere and down again to the ground.
 Wife Pinned Under Stove
 At Cedarville, which has 75 oc- cupants, q train on the Washington, Brandywine and Point Lookout rail- way, was stopped by fallen tree. Owen P, Grimes brakeman, heard screams from his home. 50 yards away. He ran to the house, to find Mrs. Grimes under an overturned stove which crushed her hips. Her dress was in flame. Two of the three children also were injured.
 Mrs. c. L. Tucker was blown from her yard and dropped to the ground by the storm. She was in. jured severely.
 Trousers Blown Off
 At Baden, two miles from Cedar vile, R. F. Ward went to the back door of a store to watch the storm. The wind swept him away with the door. He was dropped. uninjured, but the wind took his trousers.
 Among the many stories of the tragedy told by relief workers one dealt with the family of MT. and Mrs. Willie Bean. Utter poverty pre- vented the family from purchasing shoes for Alice, the six year old daughter and this kept her away from the schoolroom, in which the disaster centered.
 No Funeral Funds
 But the same utter poverty, re- lief workers pointed out, raises the question as to where the family will obtain money to bury Edward, the ten year old son who was blown from the school room to his death, and how will the family care, they ask, for Theresa Estelle, aged nine,