TORNADO HITS SLIDELL, LOUISIANA WHERE FRANK FRANZE LIVES

 

      SLIDELL DAMAGE FROM 3 TORNADO TOUCHDOWNS IN LOUISIANA CITY WHERE FRANK FRANZE LIVES

3 tornado touchdowns in Slidell, Louisiana where Frank Franze lives

 

About 75 homes and businesses were damaged by 3 Wednesday F-1 tornadoes that touched down and ripped through Slidell, Louisiana, where Frank Franze, Class of 1950, lives.

Multiple injuries were reported. Worse damage was in Old Spanish Trail area.

No word about Frank yet but I’m trying to reach him after things settle down. His phone number isn’t working, probably because more than 30,000 homes and businesses lost power in Slidell, 30 miles northeast of New Orleans.

By Thursday morning 19,000 Slidell residents still didn’t have power. Crews were working to restore the power for everyone in Slidell. Road debris and flooding impeded their progress.

Slidell tree limbs littered the streets and homes’ yards were flooded by 8 inches of rain. Roofs were torn off buildings.

Rescuers plucked residents out of a heavily damaged apartment building.

It was the worst weather-whipping since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that killed more than 1,800 people.

Frank married 3 times and survived all 3 wives.

Frank grew up in Four States, moved to Jasper, Texas and, finally, Slidell.

Kathryn Ann Manuel Marshall, Class of 1960, is Frank’s cousin.  

In 2022 I got a call from Frank. We talked about our days of roaming as Monongah High students in the faceitiously named Gang That Terrorized Marion County. Frank and Donald “Jake” Halpenny were the chaffeurs in their fathers’ cars.

Others in the “gang” were Ronnie “Cooley” Delovich, Lawrence “Sonny” Godby, Lawrence and Regina Boone Godby’s son and Jackie Godby Lusczynski’s brother; Steven “Bucky” Satterfield, who retired after a long career as a West Virginia Highway Patrolman; Anthony “Tony” Eates, who lives in Fairmont with wife Lucy; Robert “Satch” Kasper, my friend for 80 years with reunions in Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia and Florida; Joe Manzo, Tom “Judge” Starcher and me, the runt of the litter.