■ICROflLM CENTER INC
PO BOX 45436
DALLAS, TX 75235
VoT 75 No 75
16 Pages
i
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Wednesday. January 13, 1982
College Station, Texas
photo Howard EAort
A bias! of arctic air Tuesday bringing sleet and
freezing rain, covered the Br^ros area in
lee.
Despite weather conditions, residents adapted
to,»the change without incident.
Winter freeze blankets states;
people and crops hurt in ice
or- I ^—— * - -- m I
vnm• rTvsft invernanonai
The hardest freeze of this century
|^ept a stranglehold on the Northeast
and devastated the heart of Dixie today,
rendering unequipped cities helpless
under 7-inch snows and causing $500
million in damage to tender Florida
crops. The weather was blamed for at
least 130 deaths.
Tennessee reported 4 inches of
ipow, Arkansas 7 inches, and Mississip
pi was laboring under slush and sleet in
One of its worst storms in decades
Freezing rain glazed the ArkJhsas-
Lnuisiana border area and much of Ala
bama. Northern Georgia, including
Atlanta, and the western Carolinas also
had snow
The record cold maintained its
strongest foothold in the Northeast,
where the mercury at Worcester,
Maas., fell to 8 below zero and brisk
winds plunged the win<V-chill to a minus
46 dagnaaa.
Florida officials said Tuesday 's freeze
was as damaging as the one in 1977,
which caused $500 million in damages
t to Florida's agriculture
As a result, orange juice, sugar and
many vegetables will be more expen
sive, possibly within only a few days,
agriculture spokesmen said
Enrollment expected
to drop from fall figures
More than 33,000 students are ex
pected to be enrolled for the spring
semester classes at Texas AArM Univer
sity. which begin Monday Associate
Registrar Donald D. Carter says 24.000
students already have pre-registered
i Fall semester enrollment exceeded
35.000 students Carter said the decline
in enrollment between the fall and
spring semesters occurs every year.
'Based on historic enrollment fi
gures, well have anywhere from 1,200
to 1,800 fewer students in the spring. ”
Carter said He attributes the drop in
enrollment to the large number of stu
dents who graduated in December and
the small number of freshmen entering
the University
only get 100 new freshmen in
ng compared to the h T® 40
h» the E," Carter said Most
rnt comes from
transfer students and graduate stu
dents "
Delayed registration and drop-add
start today and continue through Jan
23. Drop-add is being held at C. RolIk-
White Coliseum from 8 a. m to noon
and from 1 p m to 5 p m through
Friday
The coliseum will be open from 8
a m . to noon Saturday for students who
need to pick up revised schedules
Other noteworthy dates are as fol
lows:
— Jan. 22 - last day to enroll in the
University and last day to add new
classes
— Feb. 2 - last day to drop classes
with no record
— Feb 5 - last day to apply for
p-aduate and undergraduate degrees to
be awarded in May
— Feb. 19 • last day to drop classes
with no penalty (Q-drop).
Most officials in the South threw up
their hands in dismay and were left to
watch cities dose down for lack of snow
removal equipment.
Interstate highways became parking
lots and bars and hotel lobbies became
havens for thousands of stranded motor
ists in Georgia, where a bitter winter
storm left up to 6 inches of snow and icy
Cbmmuters abandoned cars and
attempted to walk miles to get home in
Atlanta Flights were canceled because
pilots, crews and passengers couldn't
get to the airport and children huddled,
stranded in school buildings
“We have wall-to-wall people lined
up to use the phones to call home and
say they're stranded, said Doug Brad-
er, night auditor at the downtown
Atlanta Rodeway Inn.
The Red Cross said hundreds of peo
ple were at shelters, including about
150 school children
One Atlanta funeral home began tak
ing to the slranded
“U was the first place I came to that
seemed to be inhabited, said Naacy
Smith, 28, adding some people bad
journeyedmcross the street to a bar
Gov. Dave Treen called
out the National Guard in New Roads
Tuetday to deliver water to nursing
homes and other facilities left without
electricity in the town of less than 4,000.
The 24-mile Lake Pontchartraia
Causeway between new -Orleans and
C xrvutgton was shut down most of Tues
day and hospitals across the state post
poned elective surgery because of pow
er p'obleawi.
life frozen Midwest was granted
some respite as the mercury rose by a
few degrees — above zero and into sing-
le-dfeit levels But parts of Iowa. In
dians and Illinois reported snowstorms
toSy.
-
1 If
\ ife* f
The Weather
Today
Tomorrow
i
High 77.
29 High
.. 51.
Low
.vX^I ' Lo w
...29 |
Chance of rain ■
30% Chance of rain....
30%
USPS045 360
Phone 845-2611
Arctic weather creates
few problems
By DANIEL PUCKETT .
m — .. _ A Safi*
nanaiior Matt
Weather that seemed more charac
teristic of Minneapolis than of College
Station blew into the area Sunday,
bringing single-digit temperatures,
sleet and freezing rain.
But, despite dosed schools and
businesses, burst water pipes and a .
power-plant breakdown, resid* nts
Tuesday seemed to be weathering the
winter storm gracefully.
As of 5 p.m Tuesday, the College
Station Police Department reported no
traffic accidents for the day. and a
spokesman for the fire department said
it had responded to no house fire calls
Capt. Davf Giordano of the College
Station Fire Department said fire trucks [
had responded to several public assist
ance calls mostlv cleaning up from l
broken water pipes — but tnat residents
were being safety-conscious in their
handling of heaters
However, both the Bryan and Col
lege Station school districts shut down
Monday and Tuesday because of a natu
ral ggs curtailment ordered by Gnu-
Star Cas Co. A spokeswoman for the
College Station Independent School
District said -schools would remain
closed today and added that she did not
know when classes would resume.
Telephon es at the Bryan Indepen
dent S<moo! District offices were not
being answered Tuesday afternoon
Schools were not the only institu
tions affected by the gas curtailment.
Several local businesses were forced to
•hut dawn by the shortage of natural gas
supplies, and cold weather caused, such
a shortage of electricity that both Col
lege Station and Bryan were asking resi
dents to conserve energy
Specifically, the two cities asked con
sumers to turn their thermostats down
to 65-68 degrees during the day and 60
degrees at night, to cfese off unoccupied
rooms and shut the heat vents in them,
to turn off space heaters when leaving
the room for several hours and to keep
fireplace dampers closed unles&a fire is
burning.
A spokesman for Lone Star Gas Co.
said the company did not know when
the gas curtailment would end and that
"it all depends on the weather ”
But the foreeast for the rest of the
week is not encouraging Cold weather
is expected to continue through the
weekend, with only a brief let-up
Thursday afternoon and Friday, said
Charlie Renton, weather station mana
ger for Texas A&M University’s Depart
ment of Meteorology
Renton said the passage of another
cold front early this morning will pro-
king the cold temperatures until Thurs
day and the threat of sleet and freezing
rain through the morning hours today.
Skies should become partly cloudy
Thursday, he said, with temperatures
moderating Friday, hut another cold
front Friday night will drop tempera
tures again by $ah)rda|. ‘
Benton saidf the cold weather and
freezing rain are not unusual for this
time of year in Cfollege Station.
Although Monday’s low of 9 degrees
was the coldest reading since 1973 and
set a record fbr that date, it did nqt set a
record for January The record low here
is 3 degrees below zero, set Jan 31,
1949
And Tuesday s freezing rain is the
usual form of frozen precipitation here,
he said, snow being a rare occurrence in
the area For snow to fall, the layer of
cold air overhead must be very thick.
But here, Benton said, warm, moist
air usually overrides a thin layer of cold
air. producing sleet or freezing rain,
rather than srtpw
Benton said it was too early to tell
whether the weekend cold snap would
produce more icy conditions
Monday s Arctic cold burst many wa
ter pipes throughout the area, ib( lading
several on campus Physical Plant Dire
ctor Joe EstiH said water-bearing coils in
air-eonditkmsng units broke in fU- Reed >
McDonald Building, tin- Regents
Annex of the Memorial Student Center
and in President Frank ■Vandiver's
home
Estill said he could not estimate the
cost of repairing the damage, but said he
expected it to be between $20,000 and
$40,000
The cold aho may have caused the
shutdown of Bryan’s Roland Danshy
Power Plant Monday. Officials blamed
the shutdown on frozen instruments in
the plant and said the damage ma\ tale
a wqek to fix,
However, the bitter cold has done
little harm to local agriculture, said
Michael Flynn, meteorologist-in-
charge at the South west Agricultural
Weather Service Center.
Since little is grown locally during
the winter months. Flynn said, the
weather could not do much damage.
The winter oats and whrat crops are
hardy enough to withstand freezing
temperatures and rain, though they
might he slightly burned.
No reports of livestock losses have
reached his office, he said, hut produc
ers will probably have to feed cattle
more than they normally would, to
make up for grass which is unavailable
for grazing *j .
la addition, he said, the freeze in the
Rk> Grande Valley apparently felled to
damage the citrus crop there. However,
low temperatures Monday night may
have been severe enough in Florida to
cause severe kisses to citrus growers.
"Valley growers mignt he pretty hap
py about that,' Flynn said, since wide
spread damage to the Florida crop
would probably cause citrus prices to
rise nationwide
Haig presents options
for autonomy to Egypt
t)toted frr»» International
CAIRO, Egypt — Secretary of State
Alexander Haig, reportedly blaming
ack of political will hy Israel for the
tailed Palestinian autonomy talks,
irought new options in the dispute to a
neeting today with Egy ptian President
fosm Mubarak
Haig and his chief Middle East ad vis-
ts met Tuesday with Foreign Minister
Carnal Hassan Ali and his advisers for
rearlv two hours in a meeting that dealt
-xclusively with Palestinian autonomy.
“Egypt will spare no effort to keep
tnlL-c xtfaxmr* instil fks»V KrinU
their desired results,’ Ali told Haig on
his arrival in Cairo Tuesday Palestinian
autonomy is called for in the 1979 Egyp-
tian-lsraeli peace treaty.
The underlying problem, according
to an assessment just completed by the
State Department, is the lack of political
will on the part of the Israeli govern
ment to make the transition to real
autonomy for the 1,,2 million Palesti
nians in the occupied West Bank and
Gaza Strip
The state-controlled Middle East
News Agency reported Haig said he
wants to “play a role, personally and
directly, in giving a push to the negoti
ations, ' and Ali welcomed this
Haig hroufffit the results of that Mid
dle East assessment with several op
tions but "no grandiose new ideas,”
U S. officials said.
One possibility was naiping a new
U S. high-level representative to the
talks *to replace Shi Linowitz who gave
up the post when former President Jim
my Carter left office
W * •
The Secretary of State is scheduled to
leave Thursday for a 24-hour visit to
Back-to-school moving blues
Diana Dean (right), a freshman accounting mayor Texas AAtM graduate. Debbie, who is continuing
from Sugar Land, gets help movii^ into her room at Texas AfcM to get her teaching certificate, is
■ Hobby Hall from her sister, Debbie Dean, a moving out of the room.■