DATE	DEAD	INJ	CATEGORY
1939	Virgil Crockett & Cora Lee Neal were killed
Feb 17, 1956	0	2	F1
Feb 27, 1956	0	0	F1
Nov 18, 1957	0	2	F2
Apr 15, 1965	0	0	F2
May 14, 1972	0	3	F2
Apr 03, 1974	0	0	F2
Apr 03, 1974	7	150	F4
May 07, 1984	0	0	F1
May 12, 1993	0	0	F0

April 3, 1974

Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel, April 5, 1974, pages 1 and 15

Despite Tornado Tragedies Fentress Countians ‘Count Blessings’

by Willard Yarbrough

Jamestown, Tenn., April 5 — The Upper Cumberland Plateau county counted both its blessings and its losses today in the wake of at least three awesome tornados [sic] that struck Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

The losses Included seven dead in three neighborhoods spread generally between Jamestown and Allardt on the southeast, 150 injured, including six critically, perhaps 200 homeless in subdivisions leveled and blown away, a major industry that supplied feed to chicken farmers who lost their flocks and pens, and temporary disruptions including electricity, telephone, and water services. Sheriff Buster Stockman typified the blessings in that so many people miraculously escaped the nocturnal funnels, that public officials and neighbors joined together without outside help to meet the tragedy head-on in rescuing the hurt and homeless. The sheriff said his three-deputy staff was joined by 20 auxiliary policemen, 20 firemen, and 42 members of the Fentress County Rescue team.

Church Destroyed

Miracles were everywhere. At Round Mountain, Mrs Delice Winningham heard a tornado alert on her home radio. She immediately telephoned her neighbors just before they were to meet for prayer service at Round Mountain Baptist Church. The customary 30 worshippers stayed home. A tornado swept the $40,000 church away leaving only its concrete foundation and a few benches.

“Mother may have saved us ail,” said Charles Winningham who lives nearby. “Most of us would have been in the church when the twister splintered it around 8:30 pm (CST).” Rev Kermit Garrett’s church, completed in 1962 at a cost of $40,000 carried only $10,000 insurance. Mrs Peggy Delt didn’t go to church either but her home was smashed to bits. She saved her baby by hovering over it in bed.

Trailers Flattened

At Double Top, struck by a twister around 1 a.m. yesterday, there were more blessings. Mr. and Mrs. Houston Hayes and two children looked up and saw the middle section of their roof roar away. They were unhurt fleeing to relatives nearby Chicken houses a major indus- [page 15] try hereabouts were leveled. Trailers were flattened.

Sheriff Stockman listed the following victims:

DEAD:

Cecil Choate, about 52, Highway 52 near Allardt.  Lassie Choate, about 50, his wife.

Billy Cresilous, about 25, Crosscut Rd., manager of Burnett Poultry Co.’s feed mill, which was totally demolished. His wife, Betty, about 30, and a young son and daughter by a previous marriage.

Mrs Ora Guffey, about 68, Bojak Rd., near Allardt.

SERIOUSLY HURT:

Mr. and Mrs. Buddy Beaty taken to Crossville hospital; their year-old son admitted to a Knoxville hospital reportedly with a skull fracture; Frank Conner, taken to Livingston hospital; Willie Appman, admitted to a Knoxville hospital.

Housed in Church

Survivors and less-seriously injured — the hospital here quickly ran out of space — were being housed in First Baptist Church and in homes of neighbors and relatives. Meadow View subdivision alone left 100 homeless, with 20 of 21 homes there leveled or blown away. Miraculously all 100 were injured but none was killed.

“God took care of us,” explained Mrs Eula Leslie, “and when the tornado passed within six to eight seconds we had to take care of ourselves and our neighbors. “When I heard that awful noise like a freight train I hurled myself over my 80-year-old father, Landon Threet, and all came down on top of us. But we were lucky. Billy R Beaty was found 300 yards from his house lying alone in an open field.”

“So were the four dead in the Cresilous family, scattered over a field at the rear of their home whose foundation only remained. The third Cresilous child was found by rescuers wandering about the debris.

Wallet 3 Miles Away

The Choate home, not far away, was blown away The Choates were dismembered, their bodies gathered up 300 feet away on the foundation of another home that had been swept away by the spinning wind. His wallet wa found three miles away, at Round Mountain, and returned. Some 25 homes were demolished at Choate community.

The destruction of the Burnett feed mill for chicks threatened a Plateau industry — broilers for the market. Bud Burnett, a coowner of the poultry firm, said he was out of business and that 1.5 million chickens in several area counties had been fed from his plant. He estimated that another 50,000 had been killed or blown away at various farms. He said he installed the feed mill with four giant silos that reached 100 feet high before they were upended in January at a cost of $350,000. Most of his truck rigs were demolished as well. Unless he can find feed elsewhere and have it trucked in, the Plateau chicken industry is dead.

6 Hurt at Woody

Sheriff Stockman estimated Fentress County storm damage at from $5 to $6 million. He said two twisters struck near Jamestown around 8:30 and 9 pm moving from south to the northeast, destroying most everything in their wake for one-half mile in width.

How big the twisters? At Woody, a Cumberland County community on US 127 between Jamestown and Crossville, the midnight twister was described by Gerald Monk as “1000 yards wide at the bottom and 4000 yards wide at its top as seen through lightning flashes.” Six persons were hurt at Woody, including Mrs Sam Beaty who was admitted to a Crossville hospital with a suspected back fracture. Her trailer collapsed over her and several relatives, as did others in the area.

This second-slam funnel apparently was the same one that struck 15 minutes later at Double Top, a rural community some five miles north of Jamestown.

If there was a single hero overall, it was Sheriff Stockman who found his tiny jail without lights and telephone and the town in complete darkness. He managed a power-unit radio hookup with the outside, directed rescue operations Including 28 victims evacuated to hospitals within hours, and became an information bureau for former residents telephoning in to inquire about relatives. He was calm too when the last water ran from the town tower and even the hospital ran out of water before next noon.

“We all did what we had to do,” the sheriff said. “We learned in those awful hours how to meet and conquer a violent enemy. All at once we were just one big family in trouble. Electricity here was restored at noon yesterday along with water service. Red Cross units moved in a little later. And a town without n radio station on the air until late yesterday was learning what had happened to their neighbors over the next hill.