Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-11
One Community, Guion, Is
Reported to Have Been
Completely Blown Away by
Force of Storm.
RESCUE WORK HAMPERED
BY FLOODS AND DEBRIS
Death List Is Expected to Mount
as Searching Parties Comb Desc
late Areas of North Central Sec
tion of State-Hospitals Over
flowing.

BY the Associated Press.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark, April IL
Forty-six persons were known
dead, several missing and believed
dead and almost 100 injured in a
tornado which swept through sec
tions of North Central Arkansas
last night.
Twenty-one persons were dead
at Swifton, 20 miles north of New
port, and five at Guion. The
latter town was reported to have
been blown completely away. All
the1 victims we're white.
Twelve colored persons were re-
ported killed in the vicinity of
Parkin.
The list of dead included the follow
ing:
Swifton community:
Charles Defries, As; his daughter
Grace, 4: Mr. and Mrs T. c. Bullard
and their daughter Leona, Mr. and Mrs.
Paul Butler and their daughter Zela, g.;
Mrs. Ed Riley and three children. Bus
ter, Ruth and an infant: Mrs. Esther
Riley, mother -in-law of Mrs Ed Riley:
Howard Wills, 6; Mr.. and Mrs. Cleo
Nicholson, Mrs. A. j. Rowlett John 10y,
Mrs. Russell Long and daughter Viney,
~, and L. E. Hudgens.
At Guion:
Miss Thelna Pierce, 80; Miss Thana
Tilton, Claude Campbell and q mother
and child
The missing list included two chill
dren of Charles Defrfes, at Swifton.
Jack and Ruth Defries, and a son of
r G. Bullard.
At the village of dorado, 10 miles
north of Jonesboro, six persons were
killed.
Henry Lowthan, his wife and three
children met death N the collapse of
their home and Tom Adams was killed
when his home was destroyed
The Baptist and Methodist Churches
and the Schoolhouse were leveled.
Five persons we're injured north of
Bono, but none fatally.
Rescue work was hampered by the
rair-soaked soil, by debris which block
ed the roads and by swollen streams
Rescue parties left Newport. Swifton
and Batesville at dawn today in trucks
and ambulances.
The death list was expected to mount
as the parties searched the desolate
areas for bodies and the injured, which
were being rushed to hospitals at New
port and Batesville. Hospitals in both
towns reported they had long since been
filled with the injured which were
brought in from Guion and Swifton
and the communities of Sneed and Pos
sum Trot late last night and early to-
day
Thirty-two casketS were sent by train
from Little Rock early today, together
with stretchers and first-aid supplies
and physicians and nurses.
Families Crushed to Death.
vacant store building at Swifton
was converted into temporary morgue
where mutilated bodies we're placed,
while attention was given the injured,
most of whom were taken to hospitals
in nearby places.
All the dead and injured in the
Swifton section we're farmers and their
families. Several large families were
crushed to death under the debris Of
their homes.
The tornado disturbances affected an
area within a radius Of so miles of
Swifton. rising out of the southwest
about two miles from there.
1t moved slowly along a path some 300
yards wide over Serpentine course for
a distance of about eight miles, OBJ
servers said.
The worst destruction was along the
Possum Trot-Sneed road, leading to
Alicia. six miles north of Swifton.
For distance of two miles the giant
cloud roared its way in a straight line
along the highway, crumbling in its
path some IS dwellings situated on
either side of the road Hardly a
family along the way escaped without
the loss of one or more lives. AS the
tornado neared the Sneeds community
1t turned of to the east for quarter of
a mile and then followed north
westerly course through Sf1eeds for
several miles toward Alica, where it
crossed the railroad tracks and grad
tlally disappeared.
Trees were uprooted and tossed on
the fringe of the tornado like splinters,
along with parts of barns and dwellings
and fowl.
A trail of dead live stock was left
by the storm. Hens and geese were
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