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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 10, 1980)
THE BATTALION THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1980 Page 7 tate ornado: One year after Citizens rebuilding both lives and property ) one y,tj| 1 j^MiS United Press International eakertfcj ji WICHITA FALLS — Linda Swift has tried to keep busy this past year, *y evenftj hoping that in activity there would isshot'y jhe release from her terrible jnemories. ; It was 5:57 p.m. on April 10, 1979, When a tornado touched ground out- s throne ?side Wichita Falls, with winds spin- iey, shet ping at 200 miles an hour in a circle s out K up to an incredible three-quarters of »nani, a mj j e diameter. Swift lay on her two daughters in e bathtub, but the winds and enor- ous suction tore the house apart, inging her and the children into the ard among lumber, furniture and ■elled trees. Her husband found them in the ard, the children dead and Swift nconscious. She has recovered now om her own physical injuries. catedtoj plan toi' nantsir the ret in mostli arejotf e only w “roomi id thisii 1 said ne the wrong outinva ! do this; le apartis in detit curitydsil “Emotionally,” she said, “I sup pose I’m to the point now where at least I can say the word ‘tornado’ without trembling. But when I let myself think of the actual details, I get cold inside. I feel clammy and shaky.” The storm’s numbers, compiled by the American Red Cross, quantify what horrified survivors saw last April. — 46 dead; — 3,245 injured; — 220 hospitalized; — 2,606 homes destroyed; — 2,540 homes damaged; — 1,294 apartments destroyed or damaged; — 84 mobile homes destroyed; — 79 businesses destroyed or sub stantially damaged; NTSU student's and reattched ; retun: n 30t rction, t United Press International fc DALLAS — Baylor Medical Cen- |er doctors Wednesday completed a KM-hour operation that reattached the left hand of a North Texas State University student that had been vir- oneofl tually amputated in an accident with nager. a band saw in art class. itefttii ^ hospital spokeswoman said the inefc accident Tuesday had left Christie imate 1 s hand with “a little piece of e ^ skin holding it on” when it was cut , on , just above the wrist in a freak acci- sponr dent Legg, 21, a journalism major from , . j ir jngview, was in satisfactory condi- IC0 tion Wednesday. rvin ' A team of doctors began working m c0 " ! ' on the hand about 4 p.m. Tuesday i oim an( j announce d it had been reat- ibleiffi tached about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. It will take about 72 hours to deter mine if the body will accept the reat tached hand. “All the major structures were se vered in the accident and during the Surgery all major structures were re joined and her blood supply was re established,” the spokeswoman said. “We’re cautiously optimistic at this point but the surgery went well,” said Dot Legg, the woman’s mother. “Her attitude is great.” “The way they handled it in De nton (site of North Texas State) when the accident happened was just su per and the doctors have done a fine job here.” YOU DONT KNOW WHERE TO EAT OUT? Check the Battalion ads! — 6,603 families suffering losses to their dwellings; — $300 million in damage. Superficially, the city of 100,000 has made a remarkable recovery. But beneath the new yellow pine roofs, the pressure of being near death and then struggling to start a new life has taken a mental toll. Perhaps the most visible symbol of the Wichita Falls renaissance is Sikes Senter, a shopping mall punished by the vicious black storm. Hundreds of dazed survivors crawled out of the battered mall last spring into a war zone scene, crushed buildings and trees, the parking lot littered with pummeled cars. Today, the parking lot is full of cars again and shoppers stroll the mall. The virtually destroyed JCPenney store has been rebuilt and reopened. (That opening, March 5, became ' symbolic of the Sikes Senter com eback. Sharia Harman, 28, a children’s photographer at the mall who hid beneath a counter said memories of the storm are vivid city-wide. “They haven’t forgotten, not with the weather coming up like it is and all. I sure respect tornadoes a lot more,” she said. “When there’s a warning, you better look out.” An extensive study on the move ment of residents during the storm was prepared by the Center for Dis ease Control in Atlanta, Barbara Stoll of the Emory University School of Medicine, Neil Horowitz of the School of Health Care Sciences at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, and Joe Winkle of the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration. The report concluded: “Residents had such long warning that many fled to their cars to try to outrun the storm. It was a dreadful mistake.” “Of the 26 people killed and 30 injured by the storm while they were in vehicles, 77 percent had left the relative safety of buildings. The homes left by 20 of these victims, including eight who died, suffered little or no damage. Only five deaths occurred among the 10,863 people who stayed indoors in the area affected by the tornado.” The report said apartments and single-family dwellings were the safest places to be, while motor cars were the most dangerous. Get Your Tickets Now! Everyone’s Invited Parents Day Barbeque Sponsored by OCA ^ Sat. April 19th 4:30-6:00 4 p.m. | (after maroon and white game) ▲ tickets $3.50 each, available at MSC box 4 office ^ thur noon April 18th. 4 ♦ OPEC: ‘Share the wealth’ United Press International HOUSTON — The secretary gen eral of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Wednes day that OPEC needs more help from industrialized nations in work ing toward peaceful achievement of an “equitable” distribution of the world’s wealth. Dr. Rene Ortiz of Ecuador told the Conference on International Business that developed nations must help improve the economic, so cial and political plight of poorer countries or face less OPEC coopera tion on oil prices and supplies. “Now is the appropriate time for this oil power to be brought into play actively in achieving an equitable in ternational economic order,” Ortiz said. “We re not thinking in terms of confiscation. The idea is not to take from one and give to another. The idea is to be fair one side to another,” he said. “Cooperation in my mind cannot mean the condemnation of our peo ple to poverty and under development,” Ortiz said. “Con crete evidence of cooperation and good will from the side of the adv anced, consuming countries should clearly be shown.” Ortiz called upon the industrial ized nations to share Western tech nology to improve underdeveloped countries’ economies, to eliminate barriers to “meaningful use” of OPEC revenues and to solve the Middle East and other political crises that increase Third World ten sions. Ortiz said effective use of OPEC revenues requires ending the ero- 1 sion of buying power caused by infla tion — which he blamed on unrealis tic lifestyles in industrialized coun tries — and eliminating nationalistic trade and financial barriers. “I am confident that the apprecia tion of each other’s points of view and that sincere efforts towards the solu tion of our problems will help bring about a mutuality of interests in a fair and equitable manner,” Ortiz said. Ortiz said an OPEC committee, chaired by Saudi Arabian oil minister Zaki Yamani, has developed a long- range analysis of the world oil situa tion and OPEC will meet next month to discuss it. Ortiz declined to predict the fu ture course of OPEC price decisions, although he said that crude oil prices will be discussed at an OPEC meet ing next June. shellenberger's for her Ralph Lauren You have waited... They are here. Little Boys Oxford Button-Downs For Girls - 18.50 KING OF BEERS®* ANHEUSER BUSCH, INC • ST LOUIS