Evening star., 1953-04-27
Man Killed in Car
Hit by Tree 1opp|ed
In 63-kiIe Gale


mile winds killed one man and
Uttered the Washington area
with minor damage last night.
Charles w. Bogart, 56, of Ait
w street NV, a Bureau of
Standards employe, was fatally
injured and three other persons
escaped with minor injuries when
their car was crushed by a falling
tree in the 1900 block of Wis
consin avenue NV.
The storm. classified as a
whole gale" by the Weather
Bureau, was a three-hour belt
Of wind and driving rain moving
in advance of cold front.
Mercury Drops Sharply.
It dropped the temperature
13 degrees between 7 and 9
o'clock-from IS to 62-and
trimmed it from a high Of 81
yesterday afternoon to so de-
grees early today.
The cool air will linger at least
through today and tomorrow,
with a high Of about 60 both
days and low of 40 tonight.
Tomorrow is to be fair.
Last nights gale caused spotty
power failures, blacked out a few
homes, uprooted trees, tore two
huge barges from their Potomac
moorings and damaged a sail
boat which later ran aground
of Alexandria.
Car Moving Slowly.
Preliminary police reports on
Mr.. Bogart's death entered it as
a traffic fatality because it in
volved a moving vehicle. How
ever, Capt. William j. Liverman,
head of the Accident Investiga-
ton Unit, said it could not be
attributed to traffic.
Mr.. Bogart and his wife Laura
were riding in the car with Oliver
w. Higginbotham, 40, of Ply
mouth Haven, Alexandria. a
patent Office employe. Mrs. Hig-
ginbotham and Miss Rhea Will
son, 26, who lives in a Gearge
Washington University dormi-
tory.
II was driving slowly because
Of the wind and rain," Mr.. Hig-
ginbotham said. Then I heard
a loud crash" He was slightly
stunned and looked over to see
if his wife was safe.
Roof of Car Smashed.
The tree smashed the roof of
the car between them, barely
grazing her head. In the rear
seat, Mr.. Bogart took the full
force of the blow. He was pro-
nounced dead at the Bethesda
Naval Hospital. Miss Wilson was
uninjured. The others suffered
minor cuts and bruises.
The wind swept two barges
down stream from the Smoot
Sand & Gravel Co., docks in
Georgetown. One was tied up
by fishermen and the other was
found near the Fourteenth street
bridge.
A half days work was undone
in a few minutes at a carnival
which was setting up for busi-
ness at Benning road and Okla
homa avenue. The gale tore
down a shalf-completed ferris
wheel, showed a house trailer
containing one woman into shall
low water of Kingman Lake and
tore up several show structures.
The woman was uninjured.
Three Saved From SailbOat.
Harbor police rescued three
men from the grounded sailboat
after Alexandria police had seen
emergency flares from the boat.
They took off the owner, John
D. Hayman of 1886 Sixteenth
street NV, William Broughton
of Baltimore, and Edward Lee
McCabe, 9944 Cottrell terrace,
Silver Spring. Police said it ap-
parently had suffered rudder
damage. They were to try to
float it off the mudbank today.
Shortly before the storm a
power failure at the Rosslyn re-
mote control station blacked out
three Washington television sta
tions briefly.
Peak of the gale swept through
the area in less than an hour
but the disturbance rumbled
about until almost midnight. The
wind force varied between 20
and 80 miles an hour during the
latter stages.
Total rainfall since precipita-
ton started about midnight Sat-
urday was go of an inch. Last
nights downpour totaled 1T of
an inch.
A.~anJ NJ W~Jl