Carbon County news., 1937-03-26


Call Doctors and Nurses.
Every available ambulance, doc
tor, and nurse in all surrounding
towns were summoned by telephone
and radio. AS far away as from
Shreveport, La, came doctors, and
nurses by airplane. sent by the
American Red Cross.
Thirty doctors and seventy-two
nurses, twelve Of them from the
Red Cross, came from Dallas. Ac.
companying them were twelve am
balances, twenty-five embalmers,
and five hearses.
All sorts Of vehicles-laundry
trucks, private cars, ambulances,
and what not-sped to the scene,
and were used to carry the bodies
away. But, with no one in author
ity and hundreds of persons wrought
UP to a frenzy, many of the cars
soon were entangled in a hopeless
snarl.
Because of this situation, Cover
nor Alfred ordered all state high
way patrolmen on duty in the dis
trict to hurry here and take COM
mand.
All available Texas Rangers and
highway policemen also were being
rushed there from Dallas, Houston,
Austin and Tyler. Fingerprint ex-
perts were sent from Austin on the
possibility they might assist in iden-
tifying the bodies, many Texas
school children having been finger
printed. IL
Find Few Survivors,
Five hundred workers from the oil
fields arrived at the wrecked build
ing soon after the explosion and
leaped. into the ruins. But there
were few survivors for them to res
cue, and their main work was car
rying out bodies. =. IT,.
Later an additional 1000 men
went to work on: the debris. In the
early stages they passed up the
bodies Of those obviously dead in the
hope of finding those in whom there
might be life.
Three hundred and sixty bodies
were taken by ambulance, truck,
and every possible conveyance to
Henderson. Dozens of other bodies
were taken to Kilgore, overton, Ark,
Troup, Longview, and Tyler.
While waiting for the arrival of
sufficient vehicles to move the great
number of dead the bodies were car
ried from the wreckage and laid in
long rows on the lawn.
Mothers and fathers dragged the
bodies of still more victims into the
school gymnasium until the vehicles
came back for more loads. There
the children and their teachers lay,
side by side, many of them unidenti-
fed.
Few Injured Will Live.
The superintendent, who saw the
school disintegrate before his eyes,
said that of the ITO odd children and
teachers believed to have been in
the building, not more than 100 es-
capped death. Many of the injured
who were removed from beneath
the tons Of steel and concrete, he
said, were so badly injured that
they could not live.
Most of the younger children, at
tending the nearby grammar school,
had been dismissed before the disas-
ter occurred and were out of harms
way. Some were playing about the
yard, however, and saw the school
building collapse.
Mrs. Evelyn Hooker, welfare
worker for Rusk county, in which
the school is located, and friend,
Mrs. William c. Roberts, were driv-
ing past the school at the time the
explosion occurred.
II looked up" said Mrs. Hooker,
''just in time to see the top of the
building suddenly rise in the air.
It seemed that the whole building
moved up and the walls were flung
out. A black pail of smoke appeared
to hover over the building.
Clothing Torn OFF.
''Then we saw the children. o, it
was terrible. Some of the smaller
ones, who must have been playing
in the yard or were in the entrances
Of the building, ran into the streets.
They were bleeding and crying hor-
ribly. Their clothing had been torn
off many of Them"
A. w. Waldrop, physical educa-
tion teacher at the school, was con-
a class in physical educa-
tion on the grounds shortly before
The blast. He left the class momen-
tarily to enter the building. At
that moment the explosion oc-
CURED.
One of the first to reach the scene
was r. X. Carr, an employee of |
The Tidewater Associated. He |
dashed into the wreckage and car
ried out the body of a little girl. It |
was his daughter.