The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-03-22

age power line in Decatur, Atlanta suburb.
 At Tuscaloosa, Ala, University of Alabama buildings, undamaged by the storm, were turned into re- lief centers when the Druid City hospital was filled to overflowing :. The university dormitories and gymnasium became emergency hospitals.
 Children, lost from their parents wandered about the town. Some were sheltered on upstairs sleeping porch at a fraternity house.
 Parents who escaped beseiged the refugee spots, the hospitals, the college structures, seeking their children.
 BY SAM SLATE
 United Press Staff Correspondent
 Clanton. Ala, March 22 - (UP) Cyclonic storms that whirled through the southland late Monday swept 75 to 100 or more persons to their death. injured 200 or more and crumbled homes in at least a dozen towns, relief workers re- ported today.
 Twisting Eddies from the main storm killed and injured others in sections as widely separated as points in Kentucky, Tennessee, eastern Mississippi and isolated communities in Alabama and Georgia.
 Casualty reports were increas- ing hourly. Sheriff W. H. Giles pie of Chiffon county declared:
 "The death toll in my county will reach 75, with 500 injured when fina reports are in."
 He based his estimate on the fact that each new area penetrated today by relief workers increased loss of life and property damage.
 Northport, just across the Black Warrior River from Tuscaloosa. home of the State University. and this community, 60 miles southeast of Northport, were hardest hit.
 The storm swept eastward into Georgia where nine persons were killed and approximately 40 in- jured in communities near Caters vile. One man was killed at De- catur, Ga, suburb of Atlanta, when he walked into a broken high-voltage wire brought down by the wind.
 Many injured. caught in falling homes or buildings. or swept from their feet and hurled into twisted masses of wreckage as reported Tn some communities, were reported dying.
 Their experiences were similar to those related today by Obie Willis, a farmer living near Collins Chapel, and brought into this com munity with the maimed body of his mother, who was killed; his dying wife, and his father, who was critically injured.
 My wife and I were in the house when the storm struck. It came up suddenly, darkening the house like big black cloud shut ting out the sun.
 "There was no time to be afraid. I heard crash. Then I must nave been knocked out. I came to lying flat on my back outside the house in the yard.
 Part of the front door was lying on my chest. The house was wrecked. l moved the blanks and door that were on me, and crawled over to my wife.
 "Shc was lying in a ditch across the yard. knew she would drown in the water in that ditch If l didn't get to her quickly.
 "The clouds were all about, ana it seemed that balls of fire were shooting all around us.
 "Finally I got my wife out of the ditch. Then leaned over her to protect her from the rain and lightning. She was unconscious. stayed there nearly two hours, un- til neighbors came to help us.
 "The doctor told me she was dy- ing after they operated on her early this morning. My mother who was killed. and my father. badly hurt, lived in a house near us.
 My wife and I were brought here in a neighbors car and she was taken to the drug store where emergency cots were put up for badly hurt. !.
 One strange story was that of the nine children left at home by the Latham family at Plantersviiie, IS miles from bere. Six or them were killed outright in the storm which leveled their home. The smallest baby was blown away. IL had not been found at daylight 10. day. Two others were in critical 
 At Columbiana: north of Clan ton, Mir and Mrs Thomas A.. Wal ton, an elderly couple. were Killed. Waiton's body was found Tn the of the house. Mrs Wal lon had been borne by the wind out into the front yard. Their Ella. 3s. died in an ann bulance enroute to Birmingham hospital. Miss Ethel Walton, the only survivor. is in a critical condi. lion in Birmingham.
 The family's assets. including livestock. crops. farm buildings and even trees, all except the land it- self, have heen wiped out.
 Cots, beds. all available medi. ,inea and surgical instruments and supplies were rushed Into the dis