THOUSANDS VIEW STORM AREA;
LOOT OF WIND RETURNED

All roads led to tornado torn Warren Sunday as hundreds of cars carrying thousands of people drove in to see for themselves the havoc wrought by the storm, or to learn the fate of relatives or friends of whom they had been unable to hear news. The Sabbath day, onimously warm and windfree, found most of Warren's harassed and tired citizens in their church pews, seeking solace and guidance for the days of readjustment. Belongings of tornado victims are being brought in from territory as far as Stuttgart, which is approximately 75 miles slightly to the east of north from Warren. Sent back from that point was a letter addressed to H. E. Green, who with his wife was killed instantly Monday when the fury hit. A coat, identified as one owned by Leonard Henderson, another victim, was found in the churchyard at Newton Chapel, between Cornerville and Star City, 30 miles northeast of Warren. Mrs. L. A. Fich returned it to a relative, M. C. Jenkins. Another coat belonging to Mr. Leonard issaid to have been found by Peter Vining. One article blown away with the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Chatham has been salvaged and returned to them. A picture of the couple, takenwhile he was in service, was recognized by a friend when he picked it up in his yard at Rock Springs, 20 miles as the crow flies. That and one concrete block of the foundation of the Chatham home is all that is left. Mrs. Chatham, who had run to the home of a neighbor, Mrs. Georgia Hoffman, was not seriously injured in the lesser damage done the Hoffman home. Mr. Chatham was at his work, driving taxi for "44" Taxi Service. Their home was at 604 East Church Street. Where the storm first hit Warren community, before its vicious dip in the Bradley mill section, the roof of Will Hargis' barn on the Prospect road was cleanly split and laid open, but the hay was left in the mow. From there the wind went on to suck up from the sawmill Eye-beams and girders weighing several tons and discarding them in back yards of the Ives residence at 610 South Main Street, the living room of D. C. Harris at 101 Wheeler Street, and over the R. W. Fullerton roof into the back yard. One of these pieces of steel of ton or more, was twirled about in the storm's core three quarters of a mile before it was spewed out to fall to earth again in the yard of Cliff Morgan on South Myrtle Street. Electric machines and refrigerators, jammed somewhat, were seen lying several feet from where any building had stood. A bale of cotton, blown in from somewhere to the southwest, had caught in some broken timbers back of the sawmill and the flying cotton stuck to the fine wire fence surrounding the yard, giving the appearance of a million down feathers woven into a drapery on the fence. Heaver timbers from splintered homes or from the lumber yard had dropped down vertically and driven two or three feet into the ground in the vacant lots between Gannaway and Hankins Streets. The garage of "Skeeter" Hughes, was picked up and carried off, but his car was left standing on the floor of the building and beside it a child's toy remained undisturbed where it had been dropped as the owner turned to other amusement. Hundreds of other cars had been blown away or smashed by falling trees or other debris. At the Pirtle home on Gannaway Street the side rails, springs and mattress, and footboard of a bed were torn away from the head, which was undisturbed with the locks of the siderails still in the sockets. Next door some friends went to see whether the Curtis Walkers were all right. There was no house there--just a blank corner lot in the darkness. Fortunately the Walkers were not at home. It would take a book to tell of all the experiences of families who lost homes and dear ones and those who lived through the terrifying experience of being blown away with their homes and still miraculously finding themselves alive when the tempest had passed on. Scores of people tell of running the last distance to reach their homes before the fury caught them and later looking out to see a leveled swath of houses and trees on the ground they had just covered. From the Eagle Democrat: January 13, 1949