Waco, TX Tornado, May 1953 - Bare Hands Used in Rescue Work

Bare Hands Used In Waco Rescue Work

By Wilbur Martin

Waco (AP)-Hundreds of grimy, weary men used bare hands and giant bulldozers today in a grim race to cheat death.

They dug into two horrible and grotesque mounds of rubble, the remains of what had been part of Waco’s downtown section, in hopes of finding life beneath.

On one score they succeeded about dawn today. Still unanswered was the question of how many people lay beneath the chewed wreckage and whether they were alive, dead, or hurt.

They succeeded at 6:45 a.m. in freeing Millie Matkin, who for nearly 14 hours was trapped in the smashed and flattened debris of what had been the five-story R. T. Dennis building in the heart of the business district of this city of about 90,000.

Miss Matkin had been trapped behind a divan, a solid piece of furniture which provided a safety pocket when the storm smashed the structure.

Police Sgt. John Wohlwend said “I don’t believe another person is alive” in the wreckage of the Dennis building and those adjacent. If he was right the death toll from yesterday’s tornado may soar to a hundred.

More than 20 were reported still in what had been a public pool hall, most of the victims teenagers. Some were still alive today.

They had talked to rescue workers since they were discovered shortly after the tornado struck just before 5 p.m. yesterday.

Doctors had crawled through narrow, jagged holes to give medical aid to the five or six of the youths.

Thirty to 30 persons were reported trapped in the basement of the Dennis Building.

Whether any were alive was a grim, unanswered question. There was an ironic possibility that these persons escaped the tornado’s fury only to be drowned. Forrest Moore, a Baylor faculty member, who relayed messages to rescue workers by a loudspeaker system, said a steel beam punctured a six inch water pipe that supplied the Dennis Building’s sprinkler system

It was not until 4:15 a.m. today that firemen were able to clear away enough wreckage to start pumping water out of the place. “There’s a possibility they may all be drowned,” Moore said. “We don’t know.”

Moore said 30 to 50 persons were reported in the basement. “Most of them are supposed to be furniture company employees,” he said.

A widespread but unconfirmed report said employees and customers were hurried to the basement when the tornado started blowing.

Some officials of the firm, including Vice President and Treasurer Rush H. Berry and his son Edward Berry, secretary and general manager, were among those missing.

Waco just before dawn was an eerie place downtown…pitch black with only one glimmer of light-near the Dennis Store and at the pool hall which was nearby.

Portable searchlights played strong beams on the jagged debris, 20 feet high in places.

Firemen, police, soldiers, Boy Scouts, everyday citizens labored through the night.

Nobody seemed to be in charge. Nobody seemed to have a “master plan” of rescue.

It was just dig, dig, dig.

Big Spring Daily Herald, Big Spring, TX 12 May 1953

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Police Sgt. John Wohlwend said “I don’t believe another person is alive” in the wreckage of the five-story R. T. Dennis building and those adjacent. Exactly how many were buried beneath two grotesque mounds of rubble was not known. More than 50 persons are missing.

They succeeded at 8:45 a.m., in freeing Mrs. Lillie Matkin, a slightly-built, elderly woman who for almost 14 hours had been trapped behind a divan, a fortunate safety pocket.

Forrest Moore, member of Baylor’s staff who relayed rescue instructions over a loudspeaker during the all-night rescue work, said “there are a reported 30 to 50 trapped in the basement of the Dennis building.” In addition, about 15 teenagers were reported trapped in the wreckage of a pool hall.

Ironically, if there were people trapped in the basement they could have escaped the tornado but drowned. Moore said a steel beam had punctured a six-inch water pipe and water cascaded into the basement for seven hours.

“The basement was almost full,” Moore said, “when the water was finally shut off. Firemen began pumping water out at 4:15 a.m.

Two square miles were demolished or damaged in Waco and property damage here and at San Angelo ran into the millions.

Stores, houses, shops, every kind of structure, were razed in Waco. The five-story R. T. Dennis Building was smashed almost to the ground level and threw a death-dealing shower of brick and rubble into the street to crumble automobiles like match boxes and kill their occupants.

Scores of persons were trapped in the Joy Theater but the number killed was unknown. An undetermined number were rescued quickly but early today huge cranes, bulldozers and men with their bare hands dug doggedly at the wreckage.

Big Spring Daily Herald, Big Spring, TX 12 May 1953