The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-04-06

final death toll would be close to DO. Approximately 250 to 300 were injured.
 National Guardsmen hastily mob- Iized from all or northern Mississippi took iron command of this wrecked and suffering city. Infantrymen with bayoneted rifles patrolled the Tuins with orders to shoot looters
 1000 Guardsmen Coming
 One thousand guardsmen were greeted to be here by mid-morning and Adj. Gen. J. A. O'Keefe was en route here from Jackson, the capital to take command.
 The city was without light. The telephone system had been 50 hard hit 1t was practically non-existent. Every public building left standing had been converted into an emer- gency hospital and was damned with injured. Scores of injured had been hauled over gravel roads to nearby towns. A special train from Memphis brought emergency hos pitaI equipment, medical supplies, doctors, surgeons, and nurses.
 Scores of rescue parties, lighted by lanterns and flash lights, moved through the devastated sections, comprising two-thirds of this city of 5000 population. They reported that one residential section, willis Heights, had been demolished ut terly, without one building left standing. Elsewhere the storm had cut a path ranging from 200 to l. 900 yards wide.
 Estimating Dead
 The United Press correspondents estimated that the total dead would reach 100, the injured 250, but Clyde Smith, head of one rescue party estimated the dead at 125, while E. R. Chisholm, head of Tupelo cleo trical firm, placed it at between 3oo to 800. Their figures seemed excess give.
 Tupelo is business city serving a prosperous farming area. lt was among the first communities to contract for power from the the Tennessee Valley Authority, the New Deals vast power experiment and is a center of IVA activity.
 The tornado, cutting path across northwest Alabama and northeast Mississippi, killed four at Red Bay Ala, and three at Bonneville, Miss before reaching here. At Red Bay u uassed near the city, killing Frank Hutcheson, IS, and a MT. King Wno were near a filling station, and Luther Frost and Mrs. Frost, whose home was blown from hill top.
 At Bonneville, three died in the wreckage of their home.
 Fires Rage In Tupelo
 Two fires ragged in Tupelo at , a. m, adding to the horrors le1t ny a wind that leveled 8 path 250 yaros wide through the citys most cro"o- ed residential district.
 Rescue parties returning to tne business district, which suilereo comparatively little damage, report cd finding bodies piled up on street corners. The power plant had failed and the rescue workers searcheo tne ruins with hand torches and Ian terms.
 The gravel roads leading into Tupelo were jammed with amnu- lances and private cars taking the injured out and bringing in rescue parties from Memphis, 90 miles away, and from New Albany, Pon- totoc, and other nearby communi- ties. Practically every public build ing left standing in Tupelo-the court house, the city hal, hotels an deyen private homes had been converted into emergency hospitals. Every available physician and nurse in northeast Mississippi and in Memphis had been rushed to the scene.
 Injured Arriving
 Thirty injured arrived at the New Albany hospital-25 at the Pon- totoc clinic. Six Of the injured were hurt 50 badly that physicians gave them no chance of recovering.
 The United Press correspondent found the widest devastation in Tupelo. The Tornado had struck first at Willis Heights, residential section on the west side of the city and cut a path 200 yards wide through all the city in a northwest direction. Four school buildings- including two modern, brick build ings, had been totally destroyed Scores of houses-some estimates said 600 to 800-had been fiattened ike match boxes.
 Claims 300 to 300
 F.. R. Cisholm, head of Tupelo electrical concern, led one rescue party through the devastated dis trict. With the aid of flash lights they searched some of the wrecked homes and brought out the injured The dead were left behind. He es- timated that between 300 and 500 bodies were in the district. His party had found bodies piled upon street corners, blown there by the wind, he said.
 The tornado apparently was dis sipated after 1t cut through Tupelo It struck earth first at Red Bay Alabama, on the Mississippi line where 1t killed a 15 year old boy and injured a man and a woman critically. It roared westward on 8 path through rich cotton country to Bonneville, Miss, 30 miles from Red Bay, where 1t killed three and curved southwest, racing on 30 more miles before 1t struck Tupelo.
 Beginning in Black Zion, a com munity in Pontotoc County, adJoin- ing Lee County, of which Tupelo ii the seat, it's path was across severa negro communities. It was feared that the death toll in each would be heavy.
 Prominent Family Killed
 The twisting wind struck only g corner of Bonneville, and destroyed six houses. One was the home Of J Q. Robertson, County supervisor ano prominent in civic and social affairs in northeast Mississippi. Robertson GA hfe dauphtcr-in- law PC and hil