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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 1984)
> ■*=JS3g£ji : Tuesday, October 23, 1984/The Battalion/Page 15 Tornado Storms damage Houston, mall and apartments suffer United Press International HOUSTON — A tornado ripped roofs from buildings, scat tered furniture and dumped de bris on the parked cars of resi dents of a Pasadena apartment complex Monday. A tornado also “sucked down” a 120-foot section of wall at the 80-store Almeda Mall around 1 a.m. Monday. Cleanup began early at the mall and Pasadena’s Benchmark Apartments. Houston Lighting & Power Co. crews worked Monday to restore power for between 15,000 and 16,000 people who were left without electricity by downed power lines and poles. Apartment manager Wanda Petty said 100 units were de stroyed, and at least 100 others experienced broken windows and minor damage. Fifty cars were se verely damaged, and another 75 had the windows blown out. Before the storm, the complex had 130 vacancies, Petty said. Residents of the severely dam aged apartments moved the fur niture they could salvage into the undamaged vacant units. “We haven’t even found a lot of the furniture,” she said. The manager said her husband had just said he loved a rainy night when “everything lit up yel low, and we heard the roar. My husband said, ‘My God, it’s a tor nado.’ The whole third floor of the apartment was just shaking.” Petty said they ran upstairs to get their sleeping daughter and son and returned to the second floor, where they “hit the floor.” “It was a very, very frightening experience,” she said. “We con sider ourselves very lucky; very, very lucky. There were three mi nor injuries and no deaths.” Petty said all of the apartments will be rebuilt. She estimated damage in the hundreds of thou sands of dollars. Helen Smith, a Benchmark resident, said: “I’ve gone through two of these. The apartments on the front, it totally ripped a roof off. Why there were no deaths I don’t know. By the grace of God.” Smith said the tornado touched down three times. Pasadena police patrolled the front of the complex Monday to keep looters away. Donations for families hit by the tornado were being accepted by the Disabled American Veterans. “We set up a Coleman stove out here and started feeding peo ple coffee,” said Smith, a service officer for the DAY. “Those peo ple on the front of the building have absolutely nothing left.” Bob Steiner, group marketing manager, said the twister shat tered Almeda Mall skylights and uprooted trees in the parking lot. “Thank God nobody was hurt, and (that) the mall was closed when it happened,” Steiner said. The three stores which share the 120-foot section of wall were closed for most of the day Mon day, but the mail’s other 77 stores opened for business on time, Steiner said. Workers flown in from other malls in the state cleaned up wa ter damage before opening time Monday. They planned to build a temporary plywood wall for the three stores. “It’s too early to estimate the damage, but it will be in the hun dreds of thousands of dollars,” Steiner said. A National Weather Service spokesman said officials still do not know whether the damage at the apartments, the mall and the two miles in between was caused by the same tornado or different twisters. The tornado or tornadoes also damaged cars at two dealerships near the mall, flattened an adult movie cinema and crushed rental warehouses. A flash flood watch was in ef fect Monday for southeast Texas from Palacios to near Conroe to the Toledo Bend Reservoir, in cluding Houston, Galveston and Beaumont. Overnight rains of 4 to 10 inches in Brazoria and extreme southern Harris counties filled most drainage ditches, creeks and bayous to near capacity. Day-care center abuse suspected United Press International ARLINGTON — State welfare authorities Monday began interview ing employees and students at a day care center where at least 15 chil dren reported they had been sex ually abused. The La Petite Academy remained open Monday, but an official of the Texas Department of Human Re sources said a representative from the agency’s licensing division was overseeing operations at the center. The investigation was launched after the DHR received complaints last week that at least 15 children at the southwest Arlington facility had been sexually abused, said DHR spokeswoman Nancy DeWees. Par ents were notified of the allegations over the weekend. State welfare representatives Monday began reviewing personnel records and interviewing the 11 staff members, said Rosemary McElroy, assistant to the regional director of day-care licensing. State officials said the 130 stu dents at the center — some as young as 3 years old — also would be ques tioned and some of their interviews would be videotaped. Jack Brozman, president of the Kansas City, Mo., La Petite chain, said he had placed four staff mem bers involved in the case on leaves of absence until the investigation is completed. Each employee has den ied the allegations and police said no criminal charges had been filed in the case Monday. McElroy said she did not know how long the investigation would take. “It’s difficult to say,’’McElroy said. “We’re working as hard as we can. With large numbers of children it just takes longer to interview. We’re not saying whether any violations oc curred. These are allegations at this point.” The children allegedly were or dered to take their clothes off and dance in circles, and were threat ened with reprisals if they told their E arents, officials said. They also al- :gedly were required to fondle each other’s private parts and to touch the private parts of their teachers. Symphony official says Redgrave blacklisted United Press International BOSTON — The former stage manager for the Boston Symphony Orchestra testified Monday that Vanessa Redgrave was fired from a production because she supported the Palestine Liberation Organiza tion. Peter Sellars, 27, made the statement to a U.S. District Court jury during the first day of testi mony. “It was a form of blacklisting,” Sellars said. “It was denying the right to perform of a given artist be cause of her political point of view.” Sellars said he argued with BSO management in March 1982 over whether to cancel Redgrave’s $31,000 contract to narrate “Oedi pus Rex” at Boston Symphony Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall. “In Russia, because people have a political point of view, their right to perform is withheld — but not in the United States of America,” he said. Redgrave, 47, who won the 1978 Academy Award for the film “Julia”, claims in her breach of contract and civil rights suit that the production was canceled because of her outspo ken support of the PLO. The BSO argues it canceled the show because symphony officials feared violence would break out at Redgrave’s performance. They said they were unaware there would be a controversy until after they struck their deal with her. Sellars said that from the morning Redgrave’s performance was an nounced in The Boston Globe there was public opposition, specifically because of her PLO stance. Sellars left the BSO after the dis pute and is now artistic director and chief operating officer of the Ameri can National Theater at the Ken nedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington. Father: Army covered-up son’s death United Press International WASHINGTON — The Army jtried to suppress information about ’the death of a helicopter pilot killed in a raid preceeding last year’s U.S.- lled invasion of Grenada, the pilot’s father said Sunday. Lucas said the Army told him of jthe death of his son, Capt. Keith Lu- jcas, four days after it occurred and jonly listed it publicly when he pres- jjsured Army officials in Kentucky and Defense officials in Washington : to do so. The disclosure Monday followed |‘ ’reports by NBC News and Knight- Ridder newspapers a day earlier that there were up to 10 unreported deaths in raids conducted by Navy l“Seal” commandos and a special “Delta Force” before the invasion of ficially began at 5:27 a.m., Oct. 25, 1983. It could not be independently ver ified whether Lucas’s son was in volved in the same operation de scribed in those reports. But a congressional source famil iar with classified information on the operation said, “The policy was to declare ‘black’ (not report) every thing that could be declared black. There were losses that were not re ported.” A Pentagon spokesmen said he challenged anyone to produce the names of any U.S. armed forces member who died on Grenada and was not among the 19 listed. Col. William Smallen, the Army’s top public affairs officer for the Gre nada operation said Monday, “There were no deaths or casualties that were not reported. We added names to the list on an immediate basis.” Lucas’s relatives should have been notified the first day he was killed according to the procedures used in the operation, Smallen said. Lucas said his son was killed when the UH-60 “Blackhawk” helicopter in which he ferried special forces troops onto the island crash landed and was fired on by Cuban or Gre nadian forces. Major Steve Roy, a public rela tions officer at Ft. Campbell, Ky., said Monday that Lucas was shot down while carrying Army Rangers \ onto the island in the early stages of the invasion. Roy said he knew noth ing about any special forces opera tions. When Capt. Lucas was reported missing Thursday, Oct. 27, his par ents traveled to Ft. Campbell, from their Granite City, Ill., home and pressed officers of his son’s 158th Aviation Battalion for an explana tion. It was not until Oct. 28 that Lucas received word from Ft. Campbell; he said that he was told by an Army major his son’s status “was classified and there was a possibility those names (would) never appear on a list.” Deadly sweets show up in Japanese capital Group extorts candy company United Press International TOKYO — Cyanide-laced candy believed sent by the “Man with 21 || Faces” extortionist gang turned up H in the capital for the first time Mon- I | day, delivered to a family market U with a note that said “Eat this and 1 die '” The discovery of cyanide-laced If treats in a district just north of To- ■ kyo came as police in Osaka, some 300 miles southwest, postponed a planned door-to-door search of 3.2 million homes and offices. They of fered no explanation. The packets of cyanide-laced can dies, dropped in the mailbox of a family market in the Saitama district of Tokyo, were the first found in a week. The extortionists threatened Oct. 17 to plant the tainted sweets across Japan unless the Morinaga Candy Co. paid the equivalent of $410,000. No one has died from eating pre viously found candy. The poisoned Morinaga caramel and candy drops were labeled “Dan ger. Poisoned. Eat this and Die,” po lice said. They said the notes were O O O' " O t> C ri, A Community Service Project ORGANIZATIONS & INDIVIDUALS VOLUNTEER BY NOV. 1st! Call Student Govt. 845-3051 Attention General Studies Freshmen All First Semester freshmen in General Studies are expected to attend one meeting on “Academic Survival.” Either: Thursday Oct. 25 4:00 P.M. Rudder Or: Friday Oct. 26 4:00 P.M. 601 Rudder See you at one of these brief meetings for some helpful hints on scholastic success! IF YOU WANT IT FIXED RIGHT... BRING (THERE OVER 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE MULDOON’S “Worlds’s finest in automotive repair” Hwy.6 S. at Graham Rd. 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues. thru Sat. 693-8682 written on the same typewriter as previous messages and they were convinced they were from the same gang. To thwart the extortionists, be lieved responsible for a similar cam paign last spring, police have launched the largest manhunt in Ja pan’s postwar history, involving 44,000 officers. Senate Vacancies 1 Ward I 1 Ward II 2 Ward III 1 Jr. Engineering 1 University Apartments 1 Graduate Engineering Applications will be accepted until Wednesday Oct. 24th at 5:00 p.m. Can be GO[VEl picked up at Pavilion. TLX tf.. V] STUDENT RNMENT M U N I V L RS I T*Y pr PANNING FOR GOLD? Try our Battalion Classified!!! 845-2611 FAHMEBS MAMET I SANDWICH SHOPPE Farmers Market at Northgate has a surplus of BBQ To reduce the surplus Farmers Market is having an OCTOBER BBQ SPECIAL Get a BBQ Sandwich for $1.25 or Get a BBQ sub for $1.90 329 University 846-6428 Offer not valid with any other coupon or special