Surviving the Collapse
After a windstorm destroyed her shelter, a woman fights for her life.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mrs. Viola Cole, who was seriously injured about two months ago when a house at Richmond ferry, in which she had sought shelter from a windstorm, collapsed, is now reported to be improving in the Yakima General hospital. It was initially feared that her skull was fractured, but it is now believed she suffered three broken vertebrae in her neck. For weeks after the accident she remained in a semi-conscious condition. Now she is conscious but irrational and is just beginning to recognize her relatives. She still suffers acutely from her injuries.
“For weeks after the accident she was in a semi-conscious condition.”
Windstorms remain a potent reminder of the fragility of rural infrastructure in the Columbia Basin. This account of a structural failure highlights the isolation faced by residents in the pre-Hanford era when disaster struck far from immediate medical aid.
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