Researched by : Tina Easley

Typed version below clipping by : Becky Roberts

Thank You !

APRIL 12, 1929

ARKANSAS HILLFOLD BURYING THEIR DEAD

Scene of Desolation Following Tornado

Which Killed at Least Fifty-Seven

                        Newport, Ark., - (UP) – In a scene of utter desolation northeast Arkansas Hill-folk Friday buried the dead from a pulverizing tornado which Wednesday night cut a fifty-mile semi-circular path of destruction thru five counties.

            National representatives of the American Red Cross were in charge of general relief work thru-out the stricken area, to which Gov. Harvey Parnell had sent National Guard tent supplies to shelter scores made homeless by the twister.

            Six separate communities – Alicia, Swifton, Parkin, Lorado, Guion and Wynne – have yielded a toll of fifty-seven dead, and as rescue workers penetrated into isolated sections and checked over the debris, it was generally believed additional fatalities would be recorded. Scores of injured were under treatment in hospitals and in private homes which escaped the storm.

Damage In Millions

            Property damage, more extensive than in any similar disaster in Arkansas history, was computed in the millions, with whole communities laid waste and buildings literally obliterated from the landscape.

            Typical of the powerful nature of the tornado, no sign remained Friday of a seven-room house at Swifton, swept out of sight a brick house at Lorado was pulverized and even its pump was torn out of the ground; Guion, a town of 400 inhabitants, must rebuild from the ground up.

            So complete was the destruction on some of the communities that bereaved farmers, bearing their dead “to town”, found the town gone and returned to the wasted scenes of their homes to bury their loved ones forthwith.

            Local Red Cross chapters in towns which escaped the storm have issued appeals for clothing and temporary shelter for the victims, and the state had organized every agency to care for those in need.