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NO TELEVISION TONIGHT—One of the most often hit
“victims” of the tornado were television antennas. Very
few antennas in the path of the funnel survived being
either torn off or bent over. The above antenna came
down with part of the roof.
TORNADO TROUBLE—Snapped-off utility poles and shredded roofs were one result of
yesterday’s tornado in Bryan. The twister ripped through the city a little after 3 p.m.,
causing considerable damage. —(All photographs by Guy Fernandez.)
The Battalion
ROOFS—Roofs of houses in Bryan took a beating yester
day. What the tornado didn’t tear off was smashed by
debris flying through the air. A hole was knocked in the
roof of this house, but the inhabitants could stay.
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Number 112: Volume 55
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1956
Price Five Cents
■■4
Bryan Cleans Up After Tornado Hits
&
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Cotton (^neen
Entries
Due April 10
Deadline for entering girls
in the 1956 Cotton Pageant is
April 10.
The Cotton Queen and her
Court will be selected this year
during the Pageant. Previously,
the winner was chosen from girls
nominated at Texas State College
for Women by a student committee
of the A&M Agronomy Society.
Selection for the April 27 pro
gram will be from entries of tech
nical societies here on the campus,
hometown clubs, A&M Mothers and
A&M Wives Clubs.
A 3x5 inch, or larger, picture,
information form and contestant
fee are required for each girl en
tered in the Pageant.
Holman M. Griffin, senior ag
ronomy major from Hillsboro, will
reign as King- Cotton for the 22nd
renewal of the annual show. The
program will be held in the Grove.
Robei’t Butschek is chairman for
the danee. Money received from
his year’s Cotton Ball will be used
to pay transportation for the jun
ior and senior agronomy field trip.
# O&M Department
Plans Two Trips
The Department of Oceano-
t graphy and Meteorology will spon
sor a.field trip to the Gulf of Mexi
co this and next weekend, as part
of classroom work in Oceanography
201. The trip will be under the
direction of Dale F. Leipper, head
of the department.
« i
]\o Deaths or Injuries;
Damage to Area Heavy
Clean-up work continues today in Bryan ’ following a
tornado which struck that city about 3 p.m. yesterday, caus
ing damage estimated to be more than a million dollars.
Miraculously, no one was killed and there were no known
injuries.
More than 100 homes were damaged by the tornado,
which struck for about a three-minute period in a three-quar
ter mile-wide path through the south-central part of the
city. About a half-dozen warehouses and other commercial
buildings were destroyed. Much of the damage was reported
to have been done by flying debris. The main places hit were
the Fin Feather Road area and an area near Stephen F.
Austin High School off Texas-* t
Avenue.
Preceded by a hailstorm
with hail reported as large as
an inch in diameter and a
heavy rain which almost complete
ly odbseured vision, the tornado
struck just about the time the high
Poultry Jiidgers
Competing Today
Four members of the A&M Jun
ior Poultry Judging Team are par
ticipating in the Junior Poultry
Judging contest now under way at
Mississippi State College. Team
members James Beran, Tom Col
lins, Don Brockman, and Bob Fos
ter. C- B. Ryan, team coach, is ac
companying the group.
Judging consists of market eggs,
live market poultry, dressed mar
ket poultry, production hens and
breeder pullets.
The dressed birds and market
eggs were - judged yesterday, and
the live birds were to be judged
today.
The awards banquet will be held
tonight and the g-roup will return
to College Station tomorrow.
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VOCALIST—One of the featured acts for next Friday’s
Intercollegiate Tallent Show is Miss Betty Harrison, vocal
ist from Texas State College for Women. A Rosebud
princess and class beauty at TSCW, she will sing “Lover
Come Back To Me” in the talent show. Tickets are on
sale at the MSC, and are $1 for general admission and
$1.50 for reserved seats.
school was to let out. School
authorities kept students in the
building until the danger from the
twister, which was tearing through
the city just few blocks away, had
passed.
SOME STUDENTS went to the
windows to watch; others dropped
to their knees to pi’ay.
No schools suffered damage, ac
cording to Leon Hayes, business
manager for the school system.
The tornado, which passed
through Bryan at rooftop level,
skipped College Station and the
college, although both shared in
high winds, some hail and heavy
rain.
Power was off in some parts of
Bryan yestei-day afternoon and
night, as lines and utility poles
were torn down and all communi
cations disrupted. Emergency
crews had restored some power by
6 p.m. and the rest, was restored
later during the night. A warning
was put out to all citizens to be
ware of danger from fallen lines.
VERY FEW television antennas
in the path of the tornado remain
ed upright; most were torn from
roofs or bent over. Structures
smashed were mainly garages and
flimsy outbuildings.
The first warning received in
this area was around 1 p.m. yes-
terday, when a tornado danger ar
ea 100 miles wide was reported
from Houston. Radar Units at the
college picked up the storm shortly
before 3. The warning that was
made possible by radar detection
probably was largely responsible
for the lack of injuries. Even so,
the tornado ripped into inhabited
buildings, sometimes tearing off
roofs, as in the case of the W. E.
Kutzschback Electric Company,
without hurting anyone.
TIN SHEETING was scattered
over the stricken area, some dang
ling from power poles and lines.
An auotomobile hood dangled from
one line.
Plate glass was broken in some
places, and shrubbery and trees
were uprooted or blown down. A
garage was lifted up by the twister
and smashed into a house. The
automobile that was in the garage
was left sitting undisturbed on the
concrete slab floor of the garage.
Bryan lost a famous landmark in
the storm—the Fin Feather Club,
an old wooden private club and
restaurant, collapsed.
National Guard and other emer
gency units and police went into
action at once in maintaining or
der and making sure of safety in
the area. All was fairly quiet, ex
cept for persons surveying damage
and others trying to take pictures.
Bryan Victims
••4i
What They Saw,
How They Felt
••••■' ; '.v"
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: S \
By WELTON JONES
Battalion City Editor
What do people think about when
they have just sat through a “mil
lion dollar” tornado, which literally
tumbled their world about their
ears ?
With this question in mind, we
set out yesterday afternoon to re
cord some thoughts of Bryan resi
dents living in the areas hardest
hit by the twister.
Brazos DiLeo of 1411 Bennett
was rushing home when the storm
struck his house and two-car ga
rage. At home Mrs. DiLeo and
her nine-year-old son crouched in
the kitchen and heard “ticking,
crackling noises.” They watched
the air fill “when the windows cav
ed in and everything started flying
around the room.”
“We found parts of the garage
four blocks away,” said DiLeo, who
said he carried no insurance.
Two blocks down the street, Mrs.
A. E. Lucas, of 1411 E. 29th was
looking through the heavy rain at
what she thought was smoke from
a train.
“It looked so real, and I could
even hi*ar a noise that sounded like
a locomotive com«g toward us,”
said Mrs. Lucas, whose house was
undamaged. “Then the air filled up
with stuff.”
Also in Mrs. Lucas’ house was
Bryan high school freshman Sloan
Grim, whose house across the alley
was practically a total wreck. The
Grim house, at 312 Hoppess, lost
most, of its roof and all of its
windows.
On Leonard Road, near the site
of the demolished Fin-Feather
Country Club, grim-faced men
Requests To Open
On MSC Rooms
Requests for Memorial Student
Center guest room reservations for
football weekends and other major
events weekends for the 1956-1957
school year will be accepted from
May 1 through May 31, according
to Mrs. Mozelle Holland, MSC
guest room manager.
The drawing to determine w)io
will receive accommodations will
be'held after the May 31 deadline.
Following the drawing, notices will
be mailed to each person submit
ting requests for guest room reser
vations, indicating whether they
are to get a room in the MSC. The
rest of the requests will be placed
on the waiting list and will be noti-
field to weeks before the event if
a room becomes available due to
a cancellation.
A deposit is required of these
persons receiving reservations. The
reservation will be cancelled if no
deposit is received at least two
weeks before the event.
worked swiftly to repair power
line breaks which had plunged the
northeast part of Brazos County
into darkness.
Liter last night, by the light of
flares, car headlights and spot
lights, district Rural Electrical As-^.
sociation superintendent Robert
Pohl estimated that power would
be restored by 4 a.m. today.
Nearby, Adolf Denk’s Grocery
and Cafe carried on business as
usual—by the light of candles stuck
in beer bottles.
HANGING HIGH—Among the stranger products of yes
terday’s disaster in Bryan was this automobile hood which
was lodged over a telephone cable. Below it is the rem
nants of a sign. The area was along Highway 6.
. £ — ^
Most of the hushed talk at the
grocery was, of course, about the
tornado. Everyone agreed that the
sound was just like a train on. the
nearby railroad. Talk died out
around 9 p.m., and everyone went
home.
Don E. Smith, senior' in “D” In
fantry, returned to his garage-
apai’tment home at 1104A E. 31st
to find the garage leaning at a
pertect 45 degree angle.
In spite of protests by his. wife,
we helped him kick in the badly-
twisted door, and went up the
shaky stair's with him. Instead of
a scene of desolation, we found
everything in order, with even the
glasses in the cupboards sitting up
right. Later last night, the Smiths
lit candles like the rest of the
neighborhood and settled down for
the night.
At the National Guard Armory,
headquarters of the 386th Armored
Engineer Battalion, M/Sgt. E. H.
Cox, of the headquarters company
told us that Guard personnel along
(See,TORNADO, Page 3)
Series On Marriage
Starts Monday Night
Dr. Sidney Hamilton, professor
of psychology at North Texas Col
lege, will speak at 8 p.m. Monday
in the YMCA, second floor.
The program is the first session
of a YMCA marriage forum. Dr.
Hamilton, who was discussion lead
er for married students and wives
during the Religiops Emphasis
Week services last month, will
speak on “How Can You Tell It’s
Love?”. No admission will be
charged.
The forums will consist of a lec
ture by some authority on mar
riage relations with a question and
discussion period following each
talk. Questions to be considered
will be written but unsigned so
that personal problems can be dis
cussed without embarrassment.
Each session will have a differ
ent leader and consider a different
subject.
The program is designed to help
those who do not have immediate
plans for marriage as well as those
who do and couples already mar
ried, said J. Gordon Gay, secretary
of the YMCA. The need for such
News of the World
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLLEGE STATION —Line
coach Jim Owens of Texas A&M
will go to Japan and Honolulu in
July as a football clinic lecturer
for the Far East Command, col
lege authorities announced yester
day. Owens is one of three instruc
tors chosen to conduct clinics for
the armed forces.
★ ★ ★
AUSTIN—About one-fourth of
Texas automobiles have not been
inspected as required by state
law, Col. Homer Garrison Jr.,
director of the Department of
Public Safety, said. Deadline
for inspection is April 15.
★ ★ ★
NEW YORK—A 7-year-old boy
admitted yesterday, police said,
that he set a fire last night behind
a Bronx factory where six five-
men died and 14 were injured. It
was the Fire Department’s worst
tragedy in 24 years.
★ ★ ★
OMAHA—Sen. Estes Kefauver
appraised his relative strength
as a presidential candidate yes
terday and said he feels Adlai
Stevenson is “still out in front”
for the Democratic nomination.
the
a program was disclosed by
RE Week interest locators.
April 16, the subject will be
“Making Marriage Meaningful.”
Dr. Henry Bowman, professor of
sociology at the University of Tex
as will lead the forum.
“How Important is the Sexual
Factor in Marital Happiness?”
will be discussed April 23. A. D.
Jorjorian, chaplain of St. Luke’s
Episcopal Hospital, Medical Cen
ter, Houston, will be the leader.
The last session will discuss
“What is the Effect of Interfaith
and/or Interdenominational Mar
riage?” The speaker has not been
selected.
The YMCA Marriage Forums are
under the direction of Gordon Gay
and Newt Harris, Chairman of
Student Affairs, YMCA Cabinet.
Meteorologists
To Meet Tonight
The Central Texas and College
Station Branches of the American
Meteorological Society will hold a
joint meeting tonight at 7:30 in
Room 107 of the Biological Sci
ences Building.
Dr. Vance Moyer of the Univer
sity of Texas will speak on the re
sults of research involving artific
ial rain making processes.
A second speaker, Lt. Alfred N.
Fowler, of the Naval Hurricane
Reconnaissance Squadron, Jackson
ville, Florida, will discuss Navy
Hurricane Reconnaissance. Lt.
Fowler, a veteran hurricane ob
server, has flown into 25 different
hurricanes during the past five
years.
Japanese Chemist
To Visit Campus
Dr. Yasuo Miyake, chief of the
Geochemical Laboratory • in the
Meteorology Research Institute,
Tokyo, Japan, will visit' the A&M
campus April 12-20.
The Japanese scientist is coming
here under the auspices ' of the
Leaders Program of the American
Council of Education and of the
Department of State. The major
purpose of the visit, which is one
stop of a tour of 10 or 11 institu
tions of higher education in the
United States, is to give Dr. Mi
yake an opportunity to visit re
search facilities and to talk with
scientists in his field.
He received a Doctor of Science
degree from Tokyo University in
1940, and since has made studies
tracing the movement of nuclear
matter around the earth, reported
in Time magazine last month.
Weather Today
COLDER
High scattered clouds with a cold
front arriving around 6:30 this
evening is forecasted. Winds from
the northwest are expected with
partial . visiability. Yesterday’s
high of 80 degrees dropped to 57
degrees last night. Temperature
at 10:30 this morning was 69 de
grees.