1 Killed, Damage Heavy as 70 m.p.h. Winds Hit
Fallen Wire Fatal To Boy, 15
Furious winds, which reached velocities up to 70 miles an hour, lashed Seattle and the Pacific Northwest yesterday, claiming one life and causing damage estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Still Shaken by Narrow Escape
--(Post-Intelligencer Photo by John Vallentyne)
Startled look still is upon the face of Mrs. Paul Dawson, 36, of 11th Ave S., as she looks at the utility pole that fell close to her yesterday morning as she and Mrs. Arleen Babcock, 27, were loading laundry into an automobile. Mrs. Babcock, struck a grazing blow by the pole, was admitted to a hospital. Pole fell after a toppling tree broke a supporting guy wire of the pole.
Ronnie Dworshak, 15, Rte. 1, Monroe, was electrocuted when a cow he was leading to pasture became inquisitive at the buzzing sound of a fallen wire and touched it with her nose.
The cow was knocked dead to the ground, and when Ronnie pulled a chain tight around the animal's neck, a direct jolt also knocked him down. Both boy and cow apparently were killed instantly.
RONNIE'S BROTHER Duane, 13, also was knocked to the ground by electricity when he tried to pull the fallen boy away, but he was able to get up and run for help.
Duvall fireman Mel Winkler used a rifle to shoot the power lines away from the pole. Efforts by Frank Harrols, a Duvall school teacher, and firefighter were fruitless. He was pronounced dead at Monroe Hospital.
HERE IN SEATTLE Space Needle swayed three inches, a brick wall came tumbling down and power lines snapped like frayed kite strings as the winds and stinging rain whipped through the city.
A PEAK GUST of 58 mph was recorded at the Weather Bureau at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 8:42 a.m. The storm which started as a "little storm center" 1,000 miles southwest of Seattle {Thursday morning hit the coast about 1 a.m. Reports of the damages were still coming in last night as the winds began to lessen.
Hurricane-force winds struck the Oregon coast With gusts of 92 and 110 miles hour sinking boats and causing mud slides.
Space Needle Sways 3 Inches
The elevators of the 600 foot high Space Needle were shut down temporarily after one of them stranded a man for about an hour 250 feet above the Fairgrounds. Two of the elevators were back in service early yesterday after noon and the restaurant was open for business at 5:30 p.m
Wind Drops Tree on Car
--(Post-Intelligencer Photo by Phil H. Webber)
DAMAGED by a tree that fell on it in yesterday's 70 m.p.h. wind gusts is a car belonging to Les Larson of McGilvra Blvd. Part of the tree also fell upon Larson's house. Many power lines, houseboats, trees and small boats also were damaged by winds powerful enough to sway the Space Needle.
PHIL IRELAND, night manager of the Eye of the Needle revolving restaurant, was descending at 9:30 a.m. when the wind caused a cable controlling the elevator's speed to "blow out" and the elevator stopped. Ireland went out an escape hatch and walked down the stairway in the core of the needle.
Hoge Sullivan, Needle manager, said the Needle swayed about three inches at the top-as it was designed to do. The tower is so constructed that most of Seattle would be blown to Everett before it would be in trouble.
The first reported injury of the storm came when a utility pole fell, grazing Mrs. Arleen Babcock, 27, of 2902 10th Ave. S. as she and a neighbor, Mrs. Paul Dawson, 36, of 41th Ave. S., were loading laundry into an automobile.
PUGET SOUND Power and Light Co. reported scattered outages from Kirkland south to the Kent area. Part of Mercer Island and Bellevue was without electrical service about an hour. Puget Power had all available crews at work.
Wind Swamps Houseboat in Lake Union
Torn from its moorings and swamped by yesterday's wind-whipped waves on Lake Union, a houseboat is seen here half submerged in the 2200 block of N. Northlake Way. Barges and houseboats in distress kept the Coast Guard's patrol boats busy for most of the day. The storm caused extensive damage and took one life.
"As fast as we put a line in service another flying tree limb knocks it out," a company spokesman said.
Seattle City Light reported that more than 200 men were at work during the wind storm restoring power facilities.
City Light said its switchboard received several hundred calls reporting power outages. Most outages, a spokesman said, involved individual homes.
But three major outages affected large areas, it was added.
THE POLE fell after a broken tree snapped a guy wire to the pole. Mrs. Babcock, suffering back injuries, was admitted to the Doctors Hospital in satisfactory condition.
About 9:50 a.m. the demolition of the fire-ravaged Old State Armory got an unexpected and violent assist when the winds knocked down a 50 by 80 foot section of the north wall. Tons of bricks and rubble fell into Lenora Street, smashing a parked automobile, and other bricks spilled onto the northbound lanes of the Alaska Way viaduct. The lane next to the Armory was closed to traffic.
Three workmen who were loading steel trusses into a truck inside the shell of the Armory, were shaken but uninjured by the sudden collapse. Some of the rubble crashed through the main floor into the basement near the old Veterans Hall. The Armory, which had been used as a warehouse in recent years, was burned out in a three-alarm fire January 7 and is being torn down.
Barges, houseboats and small craft in distress on Northwest waters kept the Coast Guard's little Seattle fleet dashing frantically about At one time in the windy morning all eight Seattle-based patrol boats were committed to rescue jobs.
REPORTS of a barge on fire off Alki Point proved to be only a gravel barge and tug having its load lightened by a crew washing dirt overboard with firehoses. A pile-driver on a barge was overturned four miles north of the Mukilteo ferry slip.
Houseboats set out on unscheduled cruises on Lake Union and in Tacoma. Yachts broke loose from their moorings and danced crazily in the water as the wind pushed them off shore.
The State ferries Quinault and Klahowya were forced to bypass the Fauntleroy Terminal and discharged their passengers and automobiles at the more protected Colman Dock downtown. The Vashon Island ferries continued to operate out of Colman until the waters became less dangerous off southwest Seattle.
A TREE knocked out a 26,000 volt line at N. 205th St. and Ashworth Ave. N. and left half of Aurora Village without power from about 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Two 26,000 volt lines were taken out by a tree at NE 145th St. and 1st Ave. NE, leaving most of Lake Forest Park and Sheridan Beach without power from 10 a.m. to 11:22 a.m.
A tree across a 4,000 volt line at 35th Ave. W. and W. Commodore Way blacked out that neighborhood from 10:12 a.m. to 11:49 a.m.
An "air house" on Pier 67 collapsed about 8:30 a.m. The elastic balloon-like structure protecting workmen on a restaurant construction project beneath it collapsed "like a pin was stuck in it," a witness said. None of the workmen inside it was hurt.
THOUGH THE winds brought in pelting rain, little water damage was reported. The weather bureau said 1.61 of an inch of rain fell during the day.
The Hood Canal floating bridge anemometer recorded winds more than 60 miles per hour but heavy auto traffic, mostly Canadians bound for the World's Fair here, crossed the bridge without difficulty. Wind driven waves washed over the Lake Washington Floating Bridge during the height of the storm but no serious accidents were reported.
Hang Onto Your hats
--(Post-Intelligencer Photo by John Vallentyne)
HANDS CLUTCHED at hats and head kerchiefs yesterday as hardy pedestrians cross Union Street at Fourth Avenue during height of wind storm that lashed through Seattle. Crowd in
Electrical power was out or several hours in Bothell, Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace. A big pine tree fell across the roof of Henry Barker's home at 5709-186th Ave. SW, Lynnwood. A plate glass window of a store at Fourth Avenue and Union Street was blown out by the wind. Other large windows were broken in the Magnolia shopping center and on Eastlake Avenue.
TWO PARKED automobiles on the lower campus of the University of Washington were wrecked when a metal latch on a silo tank at the hydraulics laboratory building was tossed into the air by a blast of wind. The 12-foot-diameter hatch, weighing 100 pounds, fell on the cars, breaking windshields and denting roofs and fenders. Some metalwork worked loose on top of Meany Hall but did not fall. Several trees were blown down on the campus. Trees at the grounds of the World's Fair also were damaged.
A tree fell across an automobile at E. Harrison Street and Belmont Avenue E. Another tree fell over an auto and a house at 533 McGilvra Blvd. A bulkhead was washed out at 9034-51st Ave. NE and Army Engineers sent for sandbags to hold back the pounding waves. A tree was blown over and a roof knocked off at 1862 Shelby St.
REPORTS CONTINUED to come in during the day of newly discovered damage throughout Seattle and other Puget Sound cities.