By Hayley Wielgus
NEW LONDON, TX (KYTX) - Seventy four years ago in New London was the worst catastrophe to ever take place at a United States School building. Nearly 300 people were killed in a natural gas explosion at the London School.
Saturday alumni and survivors came together for a reunion to remember the day that forever changed the New London community.
In 1937, H.G. White was nine years old; his fifth grade class was working on multiplication tables in their math notebooks.
"I looked out the south window and something caught my eye," White said. "Then it just felt like somebody slapped me upside the head."
A spark ignited a natural gas leak under the London School building and caused a massive explosion.
"Five boys and three girls lived out of room 32," White said.
He was one of those boys. A teacher found him while searching for survivors in the rubble.
"The plaster was about an inch thick, it covered me up," White said. "When she stepped, she fell into me and she saw I was alive. She reached down and pulled me up."
Miles Toler is a London School alumni and director of the city'smuseum.
For years, he's collected memorabilia from survivors and studied the events of that tragic day in 1937.
"The community had to come together," Toler said. "They had to become one."
Toler said the school rallied and started holding classes again just a week after the explosion. But for years, the horrific event wasn't talked about in the community.
"When March 18th came around, it was just another day," Toller said. "In '77, they started having reunions. I guess you could call it a period of healing and getting over what had happened."
Now reunions are held every two years. And for survivors, memories are still vivid, even more than seven decades later.
"I wasn't knocked out, so I can remember every squeak you heard," White said.
Because of that, White feels blessed.
"I should pay some debt to somebody, because I was fortunate, real fortunate to walk away from that over there."
In 1939, the London School was rebuilt on the same property. Later the school consolidated with another district; the building is now home to West Rusk High School.
