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VIEW OF PASS CHRISTIAN'S "SCENIC DRIVE," TYPICAL C
Boats Search tor F/<
Boats were searching the bay off Pass Christian today, hunting a cluster of at least 40 bodies reported floating amidst a two-mile-long island of debris.
Gov. John Bell Williams ordered the boats out to try to recover the “numerous bodies” reported by an Army pilot.
“I counted 40 bodies myself,” said Capt. John D. Diggs of Ft. Rucker, Ala. “Lord know's how many there were under the debris. If I hadn’t seen it myself I wouldn't have believed it. It was a nightmare.”
THE DEATH COUNT	REMAINED a mystery,	with
an	estimate of 200 to 235	by Gov. Williams	and	the	Red
Cross the nearest thing to	an official figure.
Meanwhile, a group of	U.S. congressmen	was	to	begin
a three-day lour of the storm-damaged area today. They include U.S. Rep. Patrick T. Caffery of New Iberia, whose
Confusion, Anger Follow Hurricane
By TOM GREGORY (States-Item Staff Writer) GULFPORT, Miss. - After the storm came confusion, then anger.
Wade Guice, the civil defense director for Harrison County, may have put his finger on the reasons even before the hurricane hurled the full force of her winds at the Mississippi Gulf coast. He was comparing the 1947 coast hurricane which killed 11 in Harrison County and caused $5 million damage with Betsy, which caused $10 million damage but killed nobody.
“The answer,’' he said, ‘lies in planning.”
Nobody planned for a storm like Camille, which damaged or destroyed more than $100
million worth of property and killed more than 200 persons.
THE COAST waited for Camille alone and it was coast residents who began the job of recovery after Camille went away. They didn’t have the facilities or the know-how to cope with the awesome destruction and loss of life.
Then along came the state, with Maj. Gen. Walter G. Johnson, the adjutant general, calling for a “fuehrer” to run things and Gov. John Bell Williams finally moving in to personally take over. The local organizations like Civil Defense were pushed well into See PLAN—Page 2
district has been altered to include parts of the New Orleans area.
The congressmen are from the House public works subcommittee. The Mississippi ccast and part of Louisiana have been designated as disaster areas, opening the way for federal aid.
Rep. George H. Fallon, D. Md.. chairman, said ir Washington he expects the subcommittee’s inspection t( lay the foundation for determining what further federa aid may be provided to the area stricken by Hurricanf Camille.
THE STORM’S 190-MILE-AN-HOUR winds and 20-foo •tides swept the area Sunday night and six days later then is still no accurate death count. Gov. Williams yesterda; called this the “weakest area” of the masSive Gulf Coas salvage operations.
The governor ordered a central morgue establishes to collect all the bodies on the coast. Refrigerated van were put into use to bring the dead from collecting point, and overcrowded funeral homes and hospitals.
FBI and military identification teams pitched into th effort to identify the bodies through fingerprints and denta work.
Meanwhile, a local law officer charged that som National Guardsmen have been guilty of looting.
“THEY WERE PICKING UP some stuff that the shouldn’t,” said Gerald Peralta, Pass Christian chief < police.
“I found some stuff in a truck with four or five National Guardsmen aboard. I talked to their comrnandin officer and he was to take action.
“I hate to hurt a lot of them over what a few did.”
Roads and highways along the ravaged coastal str from Biloxi westward to Bay St. Louis teemed with hea\ equipment operated by civilians, soldiers and Navy Seabee some diverted from their scheduled departure to Vietnar
In what he called “the first good news” since ti hurricane, Williams lifted martial law at Pascagoula, whei damage was less severe.
THE RED CROSS SAID its latest survey of damaf in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama included 5,233 homi destroyed with 11,667 sustaining major damage. Anothi 28,826 sustained minor damage.
In addition, 1,007 trailer homes, 569 small business! and 32 boats were destroyed or severely damaged.