Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-09-22
4 Killed Durinq
Violent Storm
In District Area
Two Flyers Die in
Crosh; Lightning
Takes Two Lives

Takes Two Lives
-Four persons were killed-two BY
lightning and two In an airplane
crash-during a severe electrical
storm yesterday which swept the
upper Potomac River valley Sew
eral big trees were felled here and
the police radio was silenced by the
storm.
The dead are Thomas B. Duley a.,
"a, OF Travilah, Md, and Gene Set.
tlemyer, 10, of sos Emerson road.
Rogers Heights, Md, killed by
lightning, and Capt. Frank ]. Els.
cher, IS, and 1t. William H. English.
~, both stationed at the Camp
Springs Md Army Air Base.
killed when their plane crashed near
Lovettsville, Va.
Montgomery County police report.
ed that Mr.. Duley was killed in.
stantly when he was struck by light
ming on the Lewis Poole farm near
Buck Lodge. Police said he was re-
turning from the woods where he
had been hunting squirrels and was
walking through a pasture when the
bolt struck. DR.. F. j. Broschart.
county medical examiner, issued q
certificate Of accidental death.
Boy Struck in Doorway.
The 13-year-old victim was
struck while standing in the door,
way Of a barn near his home, Prince
Georges County police reported. He
died at Casualty Hospital where he
was taken after police and county
rescue squad workers labored for
more than two hours with the aid of
an iron lung from the Prince
Georges General Hospital in at
tempts to resuscitate him.
The two Camp Springs airmen
were killed instantly when their
plane hit a tree and crashed near
Lovettsville, about miles from the
wooded section where an airliner
crashed in 1910, killing "a persons
Senator Lundeen of Min
nesota, Virginia State police re.
ported.
witnesses said the plane, a basic
trainer, emerged from a cloud bank
and was apparently attempting an
emergency landing when it struck a
tree at the edge of a cleared field
and burst into flames.
Loudoun County Deputy Sheriff C.
+. Reed said Mrs. Charles H. Painter.
nearby resident, rushed to the field
and managed to pull one of the
bodies from the plane. The other
body was extricated later.
En- Route to Ohio.
Camp Springs officials said the
plane was en- route from the Mary-
land held to Patterson Field, Fair
field, Ohio. and apparently was forced
down by high winds about 40 min
utes after taking of.
Capt. Fischer, the air base med.
lcaI officer, is survived by his widow.
Mrs. Martha &c. Fischer, and four
children of North Madison, Ohio. 1t.
English is survived by his mother.
Mrs. Alice B. English, Amsterdam.
N. Y. '
In the District, high winds up-
rooted number of full-grown trees
and at least two parked cars were
smashed beneath them.
The police radio went off the air
at the height of the storm from 4 :24
10 4:4o pm. and the telephone calls
OF persons reporting the falling
trees and flooded sewers could NOT
be relayed to police scout cars dur
Ing that period.
Trees Crush Autos.
A parked car near the Addison
School, Thirty-second and p
streets NV, was pinned beneath
a large tree which fell there. The
top of the car was smashed An
otner automobile parked in front
OF 1885 Potomac street NV. was
crushed when a full-grown elm was
uprooted and crashed down on it.
In the 2l00 block of K street NV.
a large tree fell across the entrance
TO a house and residents had 10
crawl underneath 1t to get In and
out until the Fire Department re.
moved 1t.
Another fell at Twenty-first street
and Pennsylvania avenue NV. and
blocked traffic for some time II
was finally pulled out of the traffic
lanes by a police tow car.
The entire top of large elm was
snapped of by the wind at Eighth
street and Virginia avenue Sc. and
oiocked traffic at that point.
Sewers Back Up.
so great was the downpour that
at some points sewers were unable
10 accommodate the food and water
packed up into the streets. In the
loo0 block of Ogden street NV
the water forced the top off a sewer
manhole.
The storm raised the District rain
ial! record for the month to 433
incnes, compared with the Septem-
per average of 1924 inches. the
Weather Bureau said.
Flremen worked late last night in
all sections of the city removing
uprooted trees. No estimate of the
storms total damage here was avail.
able.
In nearby Virginia police report.
ed that several chimneys in Falls
Church and Arlington County were
struck by lightning, and Fairfax
county police reported that high
winds tore limbs from trees in the
lower section of the county.