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The Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 158
12 Pages
Wednesday, June 4, 1980
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
You bet we're fragile!
Drfo«
This vocal kitten is letting the world know he and his littermates are just
what the box says ... “Fragile.” Senior Virginia Jee was giving the kittens
away outside the Memorial Student Center during Monday’s summer
school registration. staff photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Sinkhole just keeps opening up’
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United Press International
KERMIT — An ever-widening hole big-
r than a football field yawned in a pasture
ear the city today, filling with water and
otentially dangerous gas and oil, some of it
:om a collapsed Shell Oil Co. pipeline.
The hole, which was 100 feet in diameter
hen first reported to the Winkler County
leriffs office Tuesday morning and had
rown to 150 yards long and 80 yards wide
y nightfall, threatened other pipes,
owerlines and a state highway, authorities
said.
It’s bigger than a football field,” said
wriffs deputy Jack Harwell. “The crazy
ring just keeps opening up.
Sinkholes, which periodically open up in
ie oil-rich Permian Basin, are believed by
ientists to be the result of earth tremors
caused by the collapsing of underground
caverns left when oil is pumped out.
Harwell said one geologist at the scene
Tuesday told officers the sink hole was on
the site of an old lake.
Local residents, however, said the the
site was a “buffalo well” drilled in the early
1970s that came in violently, destroying the
well housing and leaving a huge under
ground section with a swiss-cheese like tex
ture that finally caved in.
“All we know is we have a rather large
hole out here,” Harwell said. “We re
guarding the road and keeping sightseers
away from it. If anybody slipped down in
there that’d be all she wrote.”
A gas pipeline from a nearby Shell Oil
tank farm collapsed into the ever-widening
hole and oil company employees worked to
close off and re-route three other pipelines
that also were in jeopardy.
No dollar estimate on the damage had
been made.
mmmer
£i graduates
apply now
Texas A&M University students who ex-
ectto graduate this summer should make
egree application during summer school
igistration.
Application can be made in G. Rollie
nite Coliseum as summer school fees are
id today or Thursday (June 4-5).
Formal application must be made no la
ir than Friday, June 13, said Registrar
[obert Lacey. After June 5, applications
fe made at the Graduate College and
ieaton Hall. A graduation fee of$ll will be
isessed.
Graduate and undergraduate students
no expect to complete degree require-
lents during the second summer session
'0 asked to apply by June 13, but may file
[riday, July 18.
‘Sensitive’ documents get OK
to be sent to USSR, Cuba, Iran
United Press International
WASHINGTON — House mem
bers may not have known it, but they
have passed a bill that provides infor-
mation about American nuclear
weapons and U.S. defense intelli
gence to such nations as the Soviet
Union and Cuba.
The bill governs the International
Exchange program. Approved by
voice vote without opposition Tues
day, it would transfer from the
Smithsonian Institution to Congress’
Government Printing Office the job
of distributing government publica
tions to foreign countries.
The materials are distributed
under an international agreement
concluded in 1889 that requires U. S.
publications be sent to “foreign gov
ernments which agree to send to the
United States similar publications of
their governments for delivery to the
Library of Congress.”
As the House routinely passed the
bill, however. Sen. James Sasser, D-
Tenn., was quietly inserting a state
ment in the Congressional Record in
which he said he was “amazed and
dismayed” at the kind of information
the United States is giving away free
to such countries as the Soviet Un
ion, Cuba and Iran.
Under the $l.l-million-a-year ex
change program, Sasser said, the
government is sending the Soviet
Union and Cuba such publications as
Army technical manuals and Army
field manuals.
In one of them, “Field Artillery
Battalion LANCE,” a chapter titled
“Tactical Nuclear Operations” dis
cusses “Controls on Nuclear
(weapons) Release,” “Lance Nuclear
(missile) Employment,” “Survival on
the Nuclear Battlefield,” and “The
Battlefield Decision,” which deals
with when missiles can be released
by a Corps commander.
The LANCE missile is a mobile
nuclear and non-nuclear surface-to-
surface missile deployed in Europe
and the United States.
“I can scarcely believe that the
United States government is ship
ping — free of charge, yet — such
sensitive military publications to the
governments of the Soviet Union,
Cuba and others,” Sasser said.
Sasser said other documents being
sent to the Soviet Union include the
Defense Communications Agency’s
Global AUTOVON telephone direc
tory and issues of the Defense Intel
ligence Agency’s “Review of Soviet
Ground Forces.”
Sasser said under the exchange
program more than 20,000 publica
tions were sent to the Soviet Union
last year at a cost to taxpayers of
$12,000 in printing costs alone,
while 20,200 publications were sent
to Cuba at a cost of nearly $12,000 in
printing costs.
At least 3,100 publications were
sent to Iran at a printing cost of
$1,800.
Carter wins;
Ted to stay in
Power company crews also were re
routing electrical power and sheriff s de
puties closed the highway to all but
emergency traffic. Cracks streaming from
the hole snaked to within 100 yards of the
road.
“You can tell by the way it keeps bub
bling that it’s filled with oil, and gas and
water,” said Harwell.
“It’s at least 30 feet from the ground
down to the water and we re not sure how
much deeper it goes.”
United Press International
President Carter today clutched the
votes for his party’s nomination in one hand
and offered the other in peace to his van
quished rival. But a stubborn Sen. Edward
Kennedy won California and New Jersey
and vowed not to quit.
Kennedy defeated Carter in California in
the grand finale of the 1980 primary cam
paign — 306 delegates were at stake — to
add to “Super Tuesday” triumphs in New
Jersey, Rhode Island, South Dakota and
New Mexico.
Carter took Ohio, West Virginia and
Montana, and even in losing New Jersey
won enough delegates to put him more
than 300 votes beyond the 1,666 needed to
win the nomination at the Democratic con
vention in August.
It was Kennedy’s best showing by far in
the drawn-out primary process that ended
with the counting of votes in California.
Although Carter had a mathematical lock
on the nomination, Kennedy pointed to his
victories in some of the nation’s biggest
states — California, New York, Pennsylva
nia, New Jersey and Michigan — and said,
“The people have decided that this cam
paign must go on.”
Ronald Reagan, who had the GOP nomi
nation in hand two weeks ago, won all nine
GOP primaries Tuesday.
Kennedy, hoping his strong showings
plus some dramatic presidential missteps
still could deny Carter re-nomination,
reaped enough delegates Tuesday to en
sure a noisy convention if he desires.
With Tuesday’s voting the Democratic
delegate totals gave Carter 1,958 dele
gates, and Kennedy 1,215. 1,666 are
needed for the nomination.
The Republican balloting gave Reagan
392 additional delegates, increasing his tot
al to 1,463. Only 998 delegates are needed
to secure the GOP nomination.
At 4:15 a.m., the primaries looked like
this:
California: With 76 percent of the pre
cincts reporting, Kennedy 1,119,085 or 45
percent, 166 delegates; Carter 937,150 or
38 percent, 132 delegates.
New Jersey: With 99 percent, Kennedy
309,433 or 56 percent, 68 delegates; Carter
207,174 or 37 percent, 45 delegates.
Ohio: With 98 percent, Carter 589,078
or 51 percent, 84 delegates; Kennedy
508,076 or 44 percent, 77 delegates.
Kennedy won in Rhode Island with 68
percent, South Dakota with 48 percent,
and New Mexico with 46 percent. Carter
won in West Virginia with 63 percent and
Montana with 51 percent.
Carter went over the top while losing to
Kennedy in New Jersey — getting 45 dele
gates in that defeat to pass the 1,666 total
needed for the nomination.
The president complimented Kennedy
on running “a good campaign” and said it
“is a time to resolve differences.”
Kennedy would have none of that.
“I am committed to continuing this cam
paign in a way that helps, not hurts, that
unifies, not divides, the Democratic Par
ty,” Kennedy said.
Carter told his campaign supporters,
“The Democratic Party always has prob
lems in finding unanimity, but the demo
cratic process, including the convention it
self, is a time to resolve differences.”
Reagan, whose main focus now is select
ing a running mate, said he feels no obliga
tion to choose someone with a different
viewpoint than his own. “Frankly I don’t
know just what that word ‘moderate’ means
anymore. I think I’m kind of moderate.
Maybe we can overdo moderation.”
Tuesday’s generally light turnout, re
flecting the widespread perception that
both races were settled long ago, ended the
primary season after 35 contests starting
with the Feb. 26 New Hampshire primary
won, prophetically, by Carter and Reagan.
Probe reveals
Mayan canals
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Scientists knew ab
out the big cities and sophistication of the
ancient Mayan civilization in Central
America, but they often wondered how the
Maya could produce enough food to feed
millions of people.
An airborne radar system developed to
study the cloud-shrouded planet of Venus
may have answered the question.
The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration reported Monday images of
50,000 square miles of usually cloud-
covered areas of Guatemala and Belize
have revealed an extensive network of
Mayan drainage canals dating between 250
B.C. and 900 A.D. hidden beneath dense
rain forests.
Prof. Richard E. W. Adams of the Uni
versity of Cambridge in England told the
space agency the canals apparently enabled
the Maya to drain water from swampy jung
les to create small plots of dry land where
maize and cacao could be grown inten
sively.
Adams said there has been little evi
dence in the past of the kind of intensive
agriculture needed in a land characterized
by either arid and mountainous territory or
swampy jungles.
“We’ve never before been able to recon
struct convincingly an economic base for
mstal residents ignorant of storms
the Maya,” Adams said. “In other words,
how did they feed all these masses of peo
ple all of the time?”
The radar was developed by NASA and
the Defense Department and adapted by
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., to map the cloud-
shrouded topography of Venus.
From an altitude of28,000 feet over Cen
tral American jungles, the radar enabled
scientists to produce clear images of
varying layers of the foliage. Height mea
surements allowed researchers to deter
mine land levels beneath the vegetation.
Adams examined the radar data for evi
dence of ancient settlements or roadways.
He found instead unnaturally uniform grid
patterns.
“I could see little lines, most of them
looking like ladders or lattices, connecting
with larger waterways,” Adams told the
space agency.
He and Dr. T. Patrick Culbert of the
University of Arizona visited the rain
forests in February and found evidence at
least a third of the patterns seen by radar
are ancient canals dug with stone blades
and hoes to drain water and make small
square plots of dry arable land.
Adams estimated the canals, about IVa
feet deep and 3 to 9 feet wide, cover 11,000
square miles of Guatemala alone.
NASA said additional studies using more
advanced radar are planned to determine
how extensive the canal system is, and
ground expeditions are planned to look for
Mayan agricultural artifacts.
EXAS
0
fi'S® to
Traffic worrying hurricane planners
United Press International
HOUSTON — With the 1980 hurricane
cason under way as of Sunday, a persistent
''orry for disaster planners will be the in
casing vulnerability of this often traffic-
tioked area’s rapidly growing and largely
airricane-ignorant population.
Six thousand people died in the region’s
Crst storm ever, an unnamed hurricane
W struck Galveston in 1900. The last ma-
or fatality storm on the Texas coast was
'aria, which went ashore near Port Lavaca
nl961, killing 46 people and causing $400
million damage.
There is much larger potential now,”
Id local National Weather Service direc-
or Cecil Palmer. “Now there is a larger
Xjpulation and it grows daily.”
Many of the area’s newer residents —
e population of the Houston area has dou
bled since 1961 — have had little exposure
to hurricanes or hurricane preparedness.
The awesome storms have winds of 75 to
200 mph and heavy rains, and hurricane
storm systems, which can be hundreds of
miles across, often spawn tornadoes.
But Palmer and local civil defense plan
ners are most concerned about a storm
surge, the sudden rise in sea level often
associated with hurricanes. Surges can
reach 25 feet or more and suddenly flood
widespread lowlands.
“If you can get the public away from the
hazard of the surge, you’ve solved 90 per
cent of your problem of deaths, based on
statistics,” Palmer said recently. “Some
storms have 25-foot storm surges so the
target would be to get to a 25-foot eleva
tion.”
Most of Houston is above that elevation
and would be safe from such a surge.
But for many in Galveston and the main
land between Galveston and Houston,
reaching a point 25 feet above sea level
requires driving 25 or 30 miles. The island,
for example, is 10 feet above sea level at its
highest point.
To minimize loss of life and property,
officials will rely on early warning of a
storm, followed by public cooperation, for
quick evacuation of all lowlying areas.
Houston-Harris County Civil Defense
Assistant Director John Caswell estimates
200,000 to 300,000 of the Houston-
Galveston area’s 3 million residents will be
seeking higher ground if a storm threatens.
Planners predict that would mean 88,000
cars leaving Galveston Island, some
100,000 people departing the mainland
around Texas City and some 66,000 cars
trying to escape Freeport, just west of Gal
veston Island.
Escape routes are few. Interstate 45,
parts of which are only 5 feet above high
tide now, is the only route directly north
ward to the mainland off Galveston Island.
Texas 332 leads from Galveston west
ward to coastal mainlands and a ferry con
nects eastward to Texas 87 on low Bolivar
Peninsula. Two roads, Texas 288 and Texas
36, lead inland from Freeport.
Palmer said the margin between first
warnings and evacuation deadfines would
be thin, possibly 12 hours or less before the
start of flooding that might block roads.
Texas A&M University experts, who
along with disaster officials are working on a
new evacuation plan to be ready next year,
estimated in 1978 that it would take 12.6
hours to evacuate Galveston Island resi
dents under the best conditions.
That estimate did not include tourists.
“There could be a storm come out of the
Gulf that wouldn’t give you 12.6 hours to
get out, ” said Thomas Urbanik of the Trans
portation Institute.
Part of the concern is about the ignor
ance, inexperience or stubbornness of the
area’s population.
“People will be reluctant to leave; some
will not leave at all,” Caswell said. “They
are going to have to leave early. If they
start leaving before the freeways become
impassable, we’ve got it made. ”
Officials will be working throughout the
June 1-Nov. 30 season to inform residents
of the hazards associated with hurricanes in
an effort to guarantee optimal response.
The Weather
Yesterday
High
91
Low
70
Humidity
60%
Rain
. 0.0 inches
Today
High
95
Low
73
Humidity
70%
Chance of rain .
.... None