Evening star., 1934-03-26
WIND WRECKS 100
HOMES IN SOUTH.
Scores Injured by Tornado
Gale and CIoudburst in
New Orleans.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW ORLEANS, March ga tor.
nadic wind, driving a cloudburst be-
fore 1t, today dipped into four sections
Of lower New Orleans, demolishing OF
damaging approximately 100 home.
and seriously injuring at least IL per-
sons. Scores of others were less seri.
ously hurt.
Hours afterward dozens of the
homeless continued to wander panic
stricken through the wrecked areas
looking for members of their families
and resisting police efforts to gel
every one under shelter.
Half Of the ambulances in the city
and hundreds of police stood by, TAX
ing injured to hospitals and main-
tanning a strict guard against looting
Public utility crews clipped live wires
and power was shut off in many Sec
tions to prevent accidental electrocu-
tions.
Survivors Pray.
Darkness hung over the city hours
after the storm struck, around 8 am
and trip through the Uttered streets
found many standing on their porches
holding holy candles" in their hands
and uttering prayers or thanksgiving
for their escape with their lives.
One elderly woman prayed with the
rain driving into her face. Members
of her family said she had seen a
timber driven through the body Of a
neighbor woman.
The wind, described by the New
Orleans Weather Bureau as "a thun-
emily developed over the Mississippi
River, blew high across the city and
dipped first on st. Claude avenue
leveling a garage and crushing 20
automobiles.
Skipping two blocks. the wind came
down next on a corner filling station
twisting its standing steel equipment
into a mass of junk.
Rises and Dips Again.
The wind rose again for a BLOCK
and then struck its most violent blow
where st. Claude avenue swing;
sharply to the left. Leaving the ave-
nue., the wind followed Almonastel
Canal down Almonaster and Eads
streets. an area of modest homes
f1inging parked automobiles into the
canal, lifting roofs and smashing the
walls of the houses for five blocks
Only few minutes later the storm
dipped again mile away. wrecking
Is additional houses on the edge OF
Lake Pontchartrain before blowing
itself out in the lake
At Charity Hospital, where most OF
the injured were taken. extreme
JUNCTION, the last rites of the Catholic
Church in anticipation of death. had
been given to some of those in the
emergency ward.
Police said it was a miracle that
many were not killed instantly in the
area.
Live wires and broken gas main:
offered another menace and the police
herded the families out of the stricken
area into neighbor's homes. Partic-
ular care was taken of small children
who had become separated from
panic-stricken parents.
The section consisted mainly OF one
story frame dwellings and sheds and
was occupied by approximately 400
persons, mostly of moderate means.
Mrs. Cassie Blanchard. who lived
near the lake, said she saved her nine
children by rushing them out of the
house into a field. All. she said, lay
fiat on the ground and held on to
weeds. One of her children was blown
over a fence and another was struck
by a flying rock.
E. H. Stovall, resident Of the storm
area, said:
Il saw the tornado approaching
just as I was leaving for work. MJ
wife was already on the porch, buy
ing things from a vegetable man
whose horse and wagon were stopped
right IN front.
I'VE looked up and all saw the storm
coming at the same time. 1t sounded
like thunder, like several hundred
thousand nails being pulled out o.
wood with a hammer claw at the same
time. 1t was a great big ball of fire
rolling over and over. with roofs ane
furniture and things inside it, JUS
above the house tops and it wa!
headed straight for my front porch