
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 27, 1994                   TAG: 9404270087
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LANCASTER, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Short

TEXAS TWISTER TAKES 3 LIVES

A business district dating to the years just after the Civil War was left in ruins after a tornado smashed through town, killing three people. As many as 200 homes also were destroyed.

``I think there's a lot of hard days ahead, a lot of them,'' Police Chief Mac McGuire said.

A building that once housed a bank robbed by Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow lost all of its second floor except for a corner facade.

The twister struck at 9:38 p.m. Monday in this former cotton farming town, which has become one of Dallas' fastest-developing suburbs.

Rebekka Henderson, 19, was at home with her mother and younger brother when the tornado tore through her neighborhood on the edge of the town square.

``We saw what was coming, so we closed ourselves off in an inside hall with the dog,'' she said. ``Sirens went off. We were sitting with the dog, covering our heads. The house fell all around the hall.

``We could feel the wind through the floor.''

Ronnie Mitschke and his family took refuge in a master bedroom closet.

``A 1,400-square-foot house is now 2 feet tall,'' he said. ``The more I think about it the more I figure I should be dead.''

The tornado occurred as storms stretched from Texas to the northern Plains.

Another tornado ripped through Talihina, Okla., damaging houses and injuring at least six people.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB