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Hale Boggs Back from Coast Tells of Demolished Areas
^unt Drowned But Others of Family Escaped
Hale Boggs, United States Representative, flew over to the Gulf ;oast Saturday to search for members of his family. An aunt was Irowned by “the tidal wave, but jthers escaped miraculously. This
S	the story he told.
I brought back five babies in a iavy plane today (Sunday)—my srother Archie’s 18-month-o 1 d son, and my sister. Mrs. Stanley Morrison’s four children, all un-ier five years of age, .
They had been living at Long Beaih. When I got there, I found •very one of the cottages completely demolished. It was perfectly amazing how people came sut of it alive.
My father—W. L. Boggs—has a new car. and he decided to drive it back to the railroad tracks be-'ore the storm hit. While he was walking back, he saw a mountain of water coming in from the Gulf. He ran to get the babies and the others out, and they managed to get into a house he owns —a house that is built on sturdy stilts. It has been up since 1870 and has weathered storms in ’93. ’96, 1906 and 1915, but this time Dad thought it would go.
The water was up to the floor —more than 10 feet above the ground, and it was coming in. Dad said he saw houses exploding all around. When the water subsided, the Coast Guard evacuated the folks to the Naval Armory at Gulfport. I saw about 300 to 400 people there. There was plenty of food and clothing, and the Red Cross and navy were doing a grand job.
Martial law has been establish-
ed all along the Gulf coast in that area. And the only way you can get on the beach is with a special pass.
Thousands are homeless from Gulfport to Bay St. Louis, the strip I wras able to check on. The L. & N. bridge and the highway bridge are smashed.
I went out on a search for my 87-year-o 1 d grandmother, Mrs. Thomas Hale and my aunts, Erma and Mary Hale, at the Bay. I found their house a shell last night when I reached it. The furniture was in sticks, the floors all up and everywhere. But the ladies were safe. They escaped the flood waters by climbing into the attic of another house behind theirs.
The wind didn’t cause much of the damage along .the coast. Most of it was actually caused by the water. The huge waves had made a clean sweep for 100 yards back from the waterfront. Beyond that there wasn't much damage—trees down as they are in Xew' Orleans, but few houses that I could see that were badly damaged. I saw many boats high on the shore, many yards from any water.
Gulf Park college is all right, but the .Merchant .Marine school is wrecked—not a building standing. All of the boys are okay. I understand that they’re going to be transferred to New York.
It was fortunate the storm hit in the day time. If it had been at night, thousands would have drowned. The radio was telling them to stay in their houses—if they had that would have been the end for them.
The outer lane of the highway along the Gulf is ripped apart in many places, and the seawall is
. doout a block from the beach. Ev-jervthing on the beach ■""‘S clear. (There were no houses- 3 what jwas left of them was toting up against mine.
Saved by Minutes My parents were in the house with my sister, Mrs. Helen El-gutter. and my brother. William, j It was a two-story house, and I the water was surging through the first floor. My father is 80 years old and my mother is 74.
They told me they had seen neighbors, Mr. and !tfrs. Ed Var-nell, walk out of their home with their baby. Five minutes later the YarneHs’ house toppled over.
It crumbled and beat against ! our shed.
Herman Mazarack—lie was a hero, he did some fine work helping people—swam out and told my sister to get on a raft. The raft was part of the wreckage.
| When I arrived my sister was on the raft—crashing up the street. She was bruised up a bit but got to dry land all right.
I got a skiff and my brother swam out to help me—or. rather, was swept around in my direction by the debris, but he’s 58 years old, and the effort was too much. I got my nephew, Eugene Slocum, to help me.
We couldn’t get to the house .
, from that direction, though, and, j I had to get another boat and go through a back street. We had to cut away debris to get the boat . in the water. A young man went j out with me to the house.
Waves Rock Boat	j
My father and mother were ■ sitting on a staircase. We got j them into the boat and it crashed ! about. Waves were 10 feet high. ! This was the peak of the storm.'
, Debris was flying all around us.
; One piece hit my father and cut his arm. I wonder how we got through it all.
We just had to go about a hun-dercl yards in the boat, but it took about a half hour. It took about two hours and a half for the whole job of getting the people out of the house.
Mr. Mazarack swam out part of the way to us with a rope.
We had to crawl over the de-. bris to get onto solid ground. My ' nephew and I helped my father.
; and Mr. Mazarack carried my mother on his back.
I want to give credit to some heroes—fellows who' helped a lot of people, and went into danger to do it. There was Mr. Mazarack, of course—and .Johnny Gambite, and Bill Favre, and a boy named Landry.
My ice cream parlor was the only thing standing on the beach j after the storm. My equipment was wrecked, though. My house was pretty strong, with a cement chain wall foundation, and it was standing, also. The bottom was gutted.
Maybe my luck will be better from now on.
Destruction of Described
Old Folks Rescued During Peak of Gulf Storm
(This eyewitness account of the Friday hurricane describes the destruction at Waveland. Miss., a vacation spot about halfway between New Orleans and Biloxi. Paul Patterson, former glider pilot, helped rescue the inmates of a home for the aeed. then took his own aged parents and his sister from his home as it was being gutted by storm-driven waves.)
BY PAUL PATTERSON'
fAs Told to The Associated Press'*
Waveland. Miss.. Sept. 21.— Waveland is gone for 50 years. Almost everything near the beach i; destroyed.
! I saw three bodies, and know o [three others brought in at Wave I land. Two other people were miss jing. I heard there were seven a | Clermont Harbor, just to the west ; and 14 at Bay St. Louis to the east. Some of those at the ba? might have been brought in fron the countryside.
One of those lost at Clermont Harbor,v. as a Mrs. Mogabgab.
A Mr. Bodagues and his son were drowned at a camp they operated. I believe there were some other people in the huts at the camp, but we haven't j heard anything of them.
We expected the storm, o! course, but didn’t think it woulc ibe so severe, since the center was 'supposed to hit New Orleans. There were a few gusts when I sot up at 6 a. m. It didn’t seem 'so bad. '
I went out and still didn’t real-| ize the strength of the storm un-'• til I met a Mr. Rutherford, who runs the county poor house. He told me he needed help at once i to get the old people out of the Ihome. He said it was washing
■	away.
Trees Chopped
I’m only 33. but my back wTas broken in glider pilot training. However, there was no one else to go. So I went.
We had to chop a couple oi trees out of the way, but we got there. The water was six inches deep. The wind was up in terrific force by then. Trees were cracking all 'around.
We got the nine old people out of the house and put them in my car and Mr. Rutherford's truck. The water rose so high my ignition went out and I couldn't start my car. Mr. Rutherford had to push me on the road to start it.
When we were coming back, the storm had picked up and we could hardly get by the roads. We must have seen a thousand trees knocked down. But we got the old neople to a strong house on high ground.
Then I went to my place—the Gulf Coast Supreme Ice Cream oarlor. near the beach. It was crowded with people. I asked them what was wrong. They told me the water was up at their houses.
I suggested some of them go to my house.
"The water's up over my head at your house,” one man answered.
I went right nve- ♦- —