Gainesville, Georgia Tornado

April 6, 1936

TORNADOES BLAST WAY THROUGH HALF DOZEN STATES

Flames Add to Terror of High Winds; Heavy Loss To Property Noted

Relief Workers of Belief Death Toll Will Mount As Debris Is Searched

ATLANTA, April 6.-(AP)-More than 225 are known dead, one thousand injured and hundreds homeless were listed today in the toll of tornadoes and storm - bred fires which terrorized communities in half a dozen Southern states.

HEAVY PROPERTY LOSS

Relief authorities estimated property damage should run from $1,000,000 to $6,000,000 in the cities worst affected, Tupelo, Miss., and Gainesville, Ga.

Five men perished in a hardware company store fire at Gainesville in the wake of a tornado which struck soon after the opening of business establishments at that north Georgia mill center.

White persons predominated among the victims. However, a large part of the Negro section of Gainesville was levelled.

Fires broke out in both Gainesville and Tupelo. Rain helped firemen to quench the blazing structures in the Mississippi city.

Relief workers said the death toll might mount appreciably as debris was removed. At Gainesville it was feared the loss might rival that of a tornado which killed 104 persons there June 1, 1903.

HITS EARLY

Residents of Gainesville said two hundred persons may have been killed there. There was no confirmation of rumors of "one thousand dead."

The twister struck at Gainesville at 8:45 a. m., about twelve hours after other storms ripped from Arkansas to Tennessee.

GAINESVILLE, Ga., April 6.-(AP)-Devastated by a tornado which took at least seventy-five lives, and then seared by flames, the business district of Gainsville, prosperous northeast Georgia textile mill center, was in ruins today.

Scattered fires raged in various parts of the wrecked business section as workers dug in the ruins seeking additional bodies.

Five of those who lost their lives were trapped in a tornado and fire-swept hardware store.

Much of the business section, and some residential areas, in an area 2 1/2 miles long and half a mile wide, were ravaged by the storm.

City Fireman C. M. LOGGINS estimated from eighty to one hundred persons were killed, at least seven hundred injured and damage in excess of $5,000,000.

Reno Evening Gazette, Reno, NV 6 Apr 1936

GEORGIA CITY SEARED BY FIRE AS DEATHS RISE

Toll of 100 or More Dead Feared Under Debris.

14 CITY BLOCKS IN SHAMBLES

Gainesville, Ga., April 6.-(AP)-Devastated by a tornado which took at least 42 lives, and then seared by flames, the business district of Gainesville, prosperous northeast Georgia textile mill center, was in ruins today.

Scattered fires raged in various parts of the wrecked business section as workers dug in the ruins seeking additional bodies.

Five of those who lost their lives were trapped in a tornado and fire-swept hardware store.

Brenau College for Women and Riverside Military Academy were not in the path of the storm, which lasted just three minutes.

Wide Area Devastated

Much of the business section and some residential areas, in an area 2 1/2 miles long and a half mile wide, were ravaged by the storm.

City Fireman G. M. LOGGINS estimated from 80 to 100 persons were killed, at least 700 injured and damage in excess of $5,000,000.

Twenty-two known dead, as reported by the police department, were listed by CHARLES M. FARSY of the Gainesville News.

LOGGINS said that "evidently scores of people are buried alive in the wreckage."

Fourteen city blocks of business houses are in shambles.

Improvised Morgues Set Up

Improvised morgues were set up at the New Holland Mill, Chicopee Mill and Gainesville Mill.

The city hall and court house were both destroyed.

"There are lots of dead people in the wreckage," LOGGINS said.

MRS. FRANCIS WEBB, in charge of the emergency hospital at the Chicopee Mills, said between 150 and 200 received treatment there this morning.

Eighty of the most critically injured were hospitalized in the mill village.

LOGGINS said seven of the most critically injured were taken out of a pants factory, burned beyond recognition.

Dixie Hunt Hotel Demolished

The Dixie Hunt hotel, the city's largest, was demolished and the fate of the guests was unknown. Fire which raged in the Dixie Hunt block did not reach the hotel.

Ruins trapped the city's fire trucks in the department headquarters, and the local department was helpless to assist, except for stringing hose from the fire department to the two fires.

Gainesville, a thriving city of 8624 population (1930 census), is in northeast Georgia, about 55 miles north of Atlanta. There are several thousand more persons just outside the city limits, including the population in the mill village of the Chicopee Manufacturing corporation.

The Daily Times-News, Burlington, NC 6 Apr 1936

Graphic Account of Striking of Twister Related

Gainesville, Ga., April 6-(AP)-G. C. REED, manager of the Southern Bell Telephone company at Gainesville, who drove to Buford to put out calls for help, said there:

"The business district of Gainesville is built around a square. It was wrecked. From a hurried survey, I would say that every building was damaged, many of them wrecked.

"The storm blew in about 8:45 a. m. EST. I had entered my automobile to go to Athens on business and was just on the edge of the storm.

"I got out as soon as the blow was over - in about eight minutes I would judge - and went to the business section where everything was a shambles.

"There is no way of telling how many were killed, of course I got away quickly to get help.

"The business district has two very bad fires and our fire department is blocked in because part of the city hall was wrecked.

"The storm roared through the business section - it sounded like a thousand locomotives.

"One part of the Dixie Hunt hotel was wrecked and the roof was torn from another part of that hotel.

"The First Baptist church was unroofed, the court house - we were going to tear it down anyhow - was wrecked.

"The Pruitt - Barrett Hardware company plant, a four story building, was levelled and the ruins are now burning.

"Debris is piled up eight to 10 feet high in front of the city hall and fire department, in that building, also wrecked.

The Harrison - Frierson - McEver department store, two stories high, is a complete wreck.

"Newman's department store, also two stories, was wrecked.

"So is the Gainesville Midland railway depot.

"Jacobs Motor company, Studebaker and Plymouth dealers, Pierce Plumbing company, St. Paul's Methodist church, and other buildings in the downtown area suffered damage.

"I teleponed [sic] our office in Atlanta from here (Buford) and they are getting out calls to the Red Cross.

"I wish you would put out the word that Brenau college (famed school for girls) was not in the path of the storm. I haven't been out to Riverside military academy, two miles from town, but I think it was outside the storm's path too.

"Telephone and power lines, wreckage and so on are all over the business district. It is a regular shambles.

"Buford and Lawrenceville sent fire fighting equipment."

The Daily Times-News, Burlington, NC 6 Apr 1936

Gainesville Goes Sadly on Burying 185 Dead

Millions of Tons of Tornado-Strewn Debris Are Hauled Away By Relief Workers As Injured and Homeless Are Taken Care of By Red Cross and Other Relief Workers; Rehabilitation Work is Begun.

Gainesville, Ga., April 8.-(AP)-Gainesville today combined the sad task of burying its 185 tornado dead with a renewed drive to clear away wreckage and restore a measure of security to the thousands who survived Monday's storm.

Funeral processions provided a sombre background for the ceaseless activity of an army of 2000 relief workers assigned to the task of hauling away the millions of tons of debris in the city's business section.

Gainesville, Ga., April 8.-Ministers from surrounding communities joined those of local churches in funeral services for the storm dead of Gainesville and Tupelo today.

More than 100 volunteered at Red Cross headquarters here to comfort bereaved families where private rites had not been arranged.

One beloved clergyman did not answer the call. A Baptist pastor for many years, the Rev. J. M. SHEFFIELD was numbered among the tornado dead.

Flowers were pathetically scarce. Everything that blossoms here went up in the swirling winds of Monday.

One bunch of bright red flowers was placed on the center coffin when they buried JIM BURROUGH and his family of 13 in a 35 foot grave at the Priceville cemetery near Tupelo yesterday.

"Oh, God!" prayed the minister, "give us strength."

Mass funerals were ruled out by the relief officials here. Individual services were conducted, some from battered churches, others from undamaged homes of friends of the victims.

Burial of the unidentified dead was set for this afternoon.

The Daily Times-News, Burlington, NC 8 Apr 1936

PRESIDENT SPEAKS IN GALE AREA

Courage Praised and Promise of Federal Help Is Made

GAINESVILLE, Ga., April 9.-(UP)-Two thousand persons, many of them homeless and mourning loved ones, stood in the light of flares tonight and heard PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT praise them for their courage and efforts to rebuild their tornado-wrecked town.

MR. ROOSEVELT promised the federal government would do all in its power to alleviate suffering and rehabilitate the storm areas of southern states.

PRAISES SPIRIT

The president, en route to Washington after a vacation at sea, spoke briefly after receiving a report on rehabilitation and relief activity from Red Cross and WPA officials.

"Government agencies of all kinds have cooperated wholeheartedly with very practical results," he said.

"I am proud of the fine spirit you people of Gainesville have shown and the thorough-going manner in which you have begun your own rehabilitation."

REPORT MADE

Before the president went to the platform of the train, WILLIAM CARL HUNT, assistant disaster director of the American Red Cross presented him a comprehensive report of death and destruction wrought by Monday's storm.

"Our survey shows that 165 persons have been identified as dead with 31 persons still reported missing," HUNT said. "Approximately 245 persons received injuries of more or less serious character.

We have found that two homes in Gainesville were demolished, 254 homes were damaged seriously, making a total of 1004 homes inside the corporate limits affected. To date 1000 families in Gainesville have registered with us, asking assistance."

Nevada State Journal, Reno, NV 10 Apr 1936

Regaining Child Comforts Storm Widowed Cripple

ATLANTA, April 30. (AP)-Baby talk of a blonde waif of the Gainesville tornado, whose cheery smile drew 100 offers of adoption, comforted her maimed and widowed mother, MRS. DOROTHY TUMLIN, in a hospital here today.

"God bless her," cried MRS. TUMLIN, 38 year old mill worker whose right leg was crushed in the catastrope of April 6. "We'll stay together."

The blue-eyed child, FRANCES, gurgled and chatted in the fashion in the fashion that made her the idol of the Piedmont hospital staff.

Less than three years old, she had recovered from an abdominal injury which caused her to be hurried, nameless, to Atlanta by a rescue train soon after the twister struck the north Georgia city.

The mother was placed by the Red Cross in another hospital, where she was unconscious for a week. The child was known only by a number.

Newspaper photographs helped to bring them together and also brought inquiries concerning adoption from couples in many cities.

"Give up my baby?" mused MRS. TUMLIN. "I wouldn't think of it. It may mean poverty for both of us, but she's mine and it's God's will for a mother to have her own daughter."

The reunion with Frances was a welcome change for MRS. TUMLIN after a series of blows.

Physicians were forced to amputate her right leg. A few days later she was told the factory in which she had worked was blown away and her home destroyed. Only yesterday was she told that her husband two other children was among the 205 persons killed.

"We'll live with my father in Gainesville," she said.

The Dothan Eagle, Dothan, AL 30 Apr 1936

Articles transcribed by Linda Houston. Thanks, Linda!

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