The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-03-19
Worknaen Still Dig
In Ruins Of School

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&AsA@tAN8 -NaANANA~A4ANNA
Yesterday afternoon all the stu
dents were In the ~" shaped build
ing except for approximately 100
Of the lowest grades who had been
dismissed for the day and another
100 who were In the gymnasium.
Almost all Of Its 90 class rooms
were occupied, children at their
desks, teachers at the blackboards.
Each room had its own individual
gas heat. The multiplicity Of pipes
ran through the sub basement,
branching off to lead up through
the walls to the rooms.
At exactly sos p. m. (C.S.TJ
there was an explosion that was
heard for miles around and in
stantly stilled every pump In the
east Texas field. The walls Of both
wings OF the ~" shaped building
fell outward, dumping the three
floors and their human burden on
top Of the other into the basement.
Bricks Fell Everywhere
Yellow brick spewed out In cas-
cades and were scattered for a quar-
ter mile around. One end OF the
~" shaped building was driven In
to one wall OF the auditorium and
Its front wall fell inward, shower
ing some 100 mothers and teachers
In a parents-teachers meeting with
crumbled brick and mortar.
The blast was. accompanied by a
sheet Of reddish light seen for miles
and caused reports that the wreck
age was on fire.
There was no fire.
Shrieks, Screams Followed
For an instant utter silence hung
over the country side whose very
atmosphere carries the stencil Of
the oil coming from the earth. Then
there we're frightening shrieks and
screams, blood curling cries, all IN
childish treble. Teachers came
rushing out Of the opened wall OF
the auditorium to find headless
bodies, armless bodies, bodies 10
dismembered and mangled that they
were not recognizable as bodies
They found children drenched n
their own blood running insanely
round in circles, to collapse gro-
tesquely. t#t
But, above all, was the, wreck OF
the building which had been APP
proximately $50 feet long, the length
of an ordinary city block, and 100
feet wide at the base Of the "U".
Not even a fragment Of wall re-
NAMED. Desks, blackboards, books
and the arms and legs and bodies OF
children were piled In crazy-patch
pattern amid the heaps Of bricks
and mortar and timbering.
News Filters Out
Soon the news of the worst Of
recent disasters was filtering out
over the telegraph and telephone
lines from Overton, six miles from
New London. In Austin, the cap
ital OF Texas, Governor James V.
Alfred heard the first news and
when 1t was apparent that there
had been no exaggeration, he placed
the town Of New London and Its
immediate vicinity under martial
law.
The National Red Cross was moo
bilizing its facilities. The autorlo-
biles OF physicians and nurses from
hundreds Of miles away, as far as
Dallas and Fort Worth and Ghreve-
port, were racing along the high.
ways a procession that coutil1-
ued throughout the night. While
this was happening the oil field
workers were running through the
forests CT derricks.
The producing companies, INCLUDE
ing the Humble OIL Company, O.
Standard Oil subsidiary. and the
largest OF the Held; were sending
every truck and crane and work
men they could find to the scene.
Ambulances, Hearses Race
Ambulances and hearses and pri-
vate cars raced along the paved
highway in packs.
Cranes were pushed into position
and scoop shovelS began digging
their blunt noses into the debris.
Occasionally there was faint
cry and the shovels halted and
IluIluTcQb vi AEC1lDiCo AiaAANo eSAS
away at the bricks each pair OF
hands belonging to a man whose
child or children had been In the
school until a still living child.
though In almost every case, dy-
ing child, was lifted out and sent IN
waiting ambulance to a hospital.
But more often the men and the
cranes and the shovels turned up
no living children or dying but dead
children.
Body Of His Own Child
Occasionally came cry from the
hundreds OF men huge powerful
men, their shoulders heavy with
muscles acquired In the toughest
school Of manual labor that
was not the cry Of an injured child.
1t was the cry of a man who had
discovered himself, or had pointed
out to him by sympathetic fell
low, the body of his own child.
These cases we're not scattered
there were many.
Night came and from the tool
sheds of the oil companies came
great arc lamps that soon bathed
the ruins and the sweating workers
in a weird hot white light.
A public address system was