Randolph County AlArchives News.....1974 Tornado leaves Infant Dead  January 27, 1974
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Linda Ayres http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00031.html#0007674 April 22, 2023, 12:33 am

Anniston Star January 27, 1974
The sheriff's office spokesman said at least five families were left homeless 
and the tornado took several trailer homes in its path. The spokesman said the 
twister touched down, "then just picked up and moved about five miles before it 
hit again in the Bethel community where it did some damage."

THE SHERIFF SAID the tornado, the second to strike in the Tin Shop area in about 
five years, also injured Mrs. Monroe Huddleston and Mr. and Mrs. Billy Wayne 
Hanson. Their injuries were not serious, he said. Mrs. Huddleston was admitted 
to Randolph County Hospital Saturday night suffering from multiple cuts and 
bruises mainly on her arms and legs, according to a hospital spokesman.  At 
nearby Wedowee Hospital, six persons " were cared for and they were all either 
treated and released or transferred to University Hospital in Birmingham. 
Sheriff Thompson said Hanson told him he had seen the tornado at a distance of 
about 100 yards. "He took his wife and ran in the house," the sheriff said. "He 
told her to drop to the floor. Mr. Hanson told me the lights went out, the door 
blew open and the roof flew off the house." 

A woman in Randolph County said a tornado was reported near the Potash Community 
between Wedowee and Roanoke where a five-month-old boy was killed Jan. 26 and 
four others hurt when a twister struck. The woman said she had not heard of any 
injury, reports but said trailers and a chicken house in the community were 
destroyed. She said trees, TV antennas and telephone and power poles were down 
in the Rock Mills, Potash, Wedowee and Roanoke areas. In Wadley, general store 
owner-operator Edward Allen said power was off throughout most of the area. 
Allen said high winds blew away a portion of the roof from his store, causing an 
estimated $10,000 damage to his dry goods section.

[Mississippi] The Sun:
A baby boy was killed, and his father and older sister were injured Saturday in 
a tornado that swept across a rural community near the Alabama-Georgia hinder. 
It was near dusk and windswept rain pushed along by an advancing weather front 
had soaked moat sections of Alabama before the twister was born. Some officials 
laid the tornado that touched down first at Potash Ridge about seven miles east 
of here stayed on the ground for a distance of 10 miles One of the first homes 
to feel the lash of the storm was that of Edward B. Baldwin 42. Baldwin was at 
home with his 6-year-old daughter Cindy and his nine-month-old son Barrett, 
while his wife and another son were at a washateria in a nearby town. The baby 
was killed his body found in the twisted wreckage that had been a home. The 
father and the daughter were taken to a hospital at Birmingham 100 miles away 
for treatment. Five other persons were also injured and treated at area 
hospitals.

Selma-Times:
Charlie Brown of Woodland, Ala., said when the twister passed over his house it 
was pretty awful sounding. He said it sounded like a jet plane when is breaks 
the sound barrier or continuous thunder. He added that metal and wood paneling 
dropped out of the funnel cloud into his front yard and field. "There's all 
sorts of stuff here where the storm dumped it", he said.


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