Many Swept Into Lake; Fear 10 Killed

Three persons were drowned and several more were feared lost Saturday when a 25-mile-wide tidal wave smashed the Lake Michigan shore here.
The freak wave, estimated from 3 to 10 feet high, struck at about 9 a.m. from Jackson Park north to Wilmette. An undetermined number of persons were swept into the lake.

Estimates of the death toll ran as high as 10, possibly including some children.
One of the victims was a mother of 11 children. Her husband also was feared drowned.
The wind-whipped water did its worst damage at Montrose Harbor, where about 15 or 20 fishermen were swept off a narrow, 175-foot pier.

Several of these struggled to safety or were rescued and at least two were known to be dead.

RESCUE BOATS dragged for bodies of others feared dead in still churning waters.
Three divers went down. But the current was so strong 34 hours after the wave hit that they could not see more than 6 inches ahead.
The dead were listed as:
—Theodore Stempinski, 40, of 1129 N. Winches-ter, a jewelry polisher.
—John Jaworski 52, of 1757 N. Honore, a car-penter.
—Mrs. Mae Gabriel, 48, of 3035 N. Hamlin, mother of 11 children.
Her husband Edward, 49, was missing and pre-sumed drowned.
Both Stempinski and Jaworski were fishing with their sons when the wave hit.
An anxious crowd of about 500 watched the rescue operations at Montrose Harbor, conducted by the Coast Guard, police and fire departments.
Relatives of missing persons waited tensely for news.

THE MIGHTY wave—actually a series of two or three waves—appeared to come from the east or northeast. It was spurred by a change in air pressure.
It spread sudden terror among early - morning idlers along the lake front.
Families were parted. Bathers ran for shelter. Yachts bobbed like chips on the sea.
The wave at some points rushed 150 feet inshore before subsiding in a few minutes.
There were heroic rescues, panic, despair, and narrow escapes.
And it all happened on a placid Saturday morning.

PARK POLICE ordered the beaches cleared after the wave hit, with fears mounting that another wave might strike.
A storm warning had been posted for small boats about an hour before the catastrophe, which was felt as far south as Michigan City, Ind.
The wave caught the fishermen on a pier just south of Montrose Harbor, with its bobbing yachts.
Men, women and children scurried and fell. Perhaps 50 or 60 were on the pier, survivors said.
It happened so quickly that eye-witnesses were stunned. One said at least five more persons were drowned than the listed toll so far.
As dragging operations continued, Jack Campbell, a Coast Guard chief petty officer, said:

"I imagine there are six or eight bodies still down there. Some wit-nesses said there were 20, and I heard some say 30."

AMONG THOSE hurled into the water was Stempinski, who had been fishing with his son Ralph, 16.
Ralph left the scene for a moment shortly before the wave struck. When he returned his father was gone.

Tony Kudelko, 24, of 2316 N. Latrobe swam 150 feet in a vain effort to save Stempinski.
He and three others brought in the body.
Later Kudelko stood shivering in a blanket, staring unbelievingly at the scene of sudden disaster.

WHEN THE WAVE hit, there was a "solid scream" said an eyewitness.
Most of the fishermen ran wildly. Several who had been lying on their stomachs, idly guiding lines in the water, were swept away.
"Everybody was flying through the air," said Leonard Beckers, 31, of 327 N. Central Park. He got away.
Chester M. Michalik, 23, of 2254 Lemington, was bending over his minnow bucket when the wave struck.
"The next thing I knew I was going into the water," he said.
Michalik lost two fishing poles and a bucket, and his suit was ruined. But he lived.
Several injured persons were treated at American hospital, or on the scene.

MRS. GABRIEL, a drowning victim, apparently was saved once after being hurled into the water. Then she went back to find her missing husband.
So said Robert Derbick, 28, of 1144 N. California, who was in a cruiser nearby.
He said he pulled a heavy-set woman from the water but feared she went back later.

Another victim Jaworski, was swept to his death at North av. beach while fishing with his son Joseph, 18.
A score of others were on the pier when the wall of water smashed into them.
Several were hurled off the pier but managed to cling to it.

EDDIE CIKORA of 1757 N. Honore, who was fishing with the Jaworskis, said the water rose 10 or 12 feet.
Joseph Del Monaco of 59 E. Scott, football coach at Boys Latin School, helped pull Jaworski out of the water. He was pronounced dead at Henrotin hospital.

About 150 persons were lolling on the popular North av. beach when the water began to rise.
They raced for shelter in the beach house. The wave sped inshore 150 feet to a depth of 1 or 2 feet, said witnesses. It hurled in boats and debris.
At Oak st. beach, lifeboats were washed 75 feet up to Lake Shore dr.
At Diversery, the water rolled 35 feet inland.

Boats and mooring were damaged at Wilmette.

NEWS OF the oncoming wave was spread quickly by park police.
They cleared scores of fishermen from a pier at 61th st. in Jackson Park minutes before the water submerged the area.

Bathers, fishermen and boating parties also were cleared from the shore at 31st st., 59th st., 61st st. and Calumet Park in time.

The wave in this area was of lesser force. If fishermen would have been caught, they would have been able to wade in.

AT LOYOLA beach the waves broke over a 9-foot seawall.

All the docks at the Belmont Harbor yacht basin were flooded when the wave raised the water level there about 6 feet according to Dick Keating, harbor foreman.

However, he said no one was injured there.

He said a preliminary check indicated that none of the several hundred yachts docked there was damaged.

"IT DIDN'T come in like a wall," Keating said.

"The water just started to rise and kept going until it was maybe 6 feet higher than usual.

"It stayed up there for a couple of minutes and then receded."

Keating said yachtsmen aboard their boats loosened the mooring lines as the water rose to save the boats from being swamped.

The harbor staff took care of yachts that were not manned at the time, he said.

THE WEATHER Bureau described the tidal wave as a "seiche," a mounting up of the water caused by rapid changes in wind and air pressure.

Two youths aboard a 21-foot cruiser in Montrose Harbor rescued James Kay, 50, of 1551 N. Albany, who was washed into the lake.

His rescuers were Merrill Schiffman, 22, of 5326 Virginia and Marvin Katz, 22, of 5348 Virginia.

"We saw the wave roll to shore and heard screams," said Shiffman.

"We saw Kay in the water and tossed him a life preserver and hauled him in.

"If Kay would not have been a strong swimmer, he would not have lived."

Prepared by Bob Beaton
Great Lakes Beach and Pier Safety
aquadoc@novagate.com