BODIES MISSING IN JERSEY RUINS
Hopes Slim for Finding Three Long Islanders

Long Island Star Journal
May 22, 1950

The bodies of three Long Island residents were still being sought today in the ruins of Friday night's explosion at South Amboy, N.J., but there was little hope of finding them.

Authrities said they were presumably blown to bits when 600 tons of ammunition blew up. All barge engineers, the three missing Long Islanders are:

EDWARD HAVLICEK, 36, of 44-01 69th street, Woodside; JAMES HART, 39, of Copiague, and WILLIAM C. COYLER, 58, of Oceanside.

The death toll today remained at 26, with 22 of the bodies still unaccounted for. The list of injured m ounted to 352, while property damage was estimated at $7,500,000.

SOUTH AMBOY residents were flirting with booby-trapped death today while trying to resume normal living in their wrecked town. Authorities feared many land mines and anti-personnel bombs were still going unnoticed, scatter over the waterfront "no man's land" by the blast.

Irritating smoke from a white phosphorus fire which broke out in the devastated American Agriculture Company plant drifted over portions of the city during the night. The blaze flared yeterday afternoon, exploding 50 more of the scattered land mines and "Bouncig Betty" anti-personnel bombs.

Hundreds of state troopers, National Guardsmen and regular troops patrolled the streets. Bug Army trucks runbled to and from the explosion scene. Residents picked their way past piles of broken glass and other debris. Nearly every window in town was boarded over or covered with sheets or blankets.

Schools were closed and entry into the city was forbidden except to relatives of residents and other person on necessary missions of work and relief.

EVERYONE was busy patching up the explosion scars and scurrying to erase any blast effects as soon as possible.

Mayor John B. LEONARD said Senator Robert C. HENDRICKSON and Congressman James C. AUCHINCLOSS have promised to ask for full-dress Senate and House investigations of the tragedy.

The Coast Guard announced in Washington that the munitions shipment, destined for Pakistan, was to have been the last of its size to pass through the stricken port. The service had granted a special exemption from a recent order limiting Class A explosive shipments from here to 500 pounds.

Nearly a score of demolition experts arrived from Fort Devens, Mass., to clear away unexploded mines. They collected 50 land mines from back yards, fields, streets, and rooftops in the residential and business sections of the city.

In the devastated dock explosion area, more than 3,000 shells and mines have been found so far. The Army explosive experts detonated most of these as they worked to clear the area.