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GA, SC Tornado, Apr 1944

Posted March 27th, 2009 by vrc84

Morning News - Florence, SC April 18, 1944
Atlanta, April 17 - (A1) - Dazed survivors worked under a blazing sun today to clear
away wreckage of a tornado that killed 38 persons in Northeast Georgia and Western South Carolina.

Search of the approximately 150 demolished homes revealed no new casualties and many of the less seriously injured were able to leave hospitals. The Red Cross reported tonight that 39 were still under hospital treatment in the two states.

As Highway crews opened roads to traffic, residents of Franklin and Hart counties in Georgia and Greenwood county in South Carolina made plans for reconstruction. Insurance adjusters reported many of the destroyed homes were not insured and said some of the victims had lost all their personal possessions.

At Royston, Ga., where the storm struck in the early hours Sunday killing 12
persons, a fire hazard was created by leakage from two of five large gasoline storage tanks damaged by the twister.

The storm also kit the N---g community, killing nine persons, and took 17 additional
lives in South Carolina.

Related reports told of an earlier storm that hit in Cook county, (Ga.) Saturday
afternoon, destroying two home but injuring no one.

Regional Director Francis P. Simerville of the Red Cross said the following injured
persons were in hospital:

Ridgeway hospital, Royston: George Royston Jr., Mrs. Ollie Hayes, Mrs. Minnie Lee Hayes, Ernst L. Hayes, Miss Ann Bryant, Betty Jo Outz, Frankie Outz and Mrs. Rosa Lee Outz.

Brown's hospital, Royston: Mr. and Mrs. Bert Floyd, Mrs. Amos Floyd, Miss Louella Phillips and Richard Royston.

St. Marys hospital, Athens, Ga.: Mrs. M. A. Caynell Lawson.

Thompson - Johnson Hospital, Elberton, Ga.: George Lunsford, Sherman Lunsford, John Harper, Faye Seawright, Roma [?] Teasley, William White [?], C [?] Teasley, R. H. Seawright, Rugh Margie and Thomas Rucker, Ben Rucker, his son and his grandmother, Mrs. Paul Gaines and baby.

Elbert County (Ga.) hospital: Augustus Seawright, 17.

Anderson County, (S.C.) hospital: John Fleming, Jr., Cleveland Hayes, Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Flecman, Babby Fleeman, Betty Jean Fleema, Walter Royston, Leslie Rucker and Hank [?] Rucker.

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