The Battalion
Vol. 88 No. 15 GSPS 045360 14 Pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, September 16, 1988
Hurricane Gilbert
Photo by Fredrick D.Joe
Lee Sunshine, a graduate student of meteorology, and other meteo- 12th floor of the O&M building on Thursday. The meteorology de-
rology students track the movements of Hurricane Gilbert from the partment is keeping close track on the hurricane.
Thousands flee
coastal areas,
Gilbert arrives
BROWNSVILLE (AP) — Thou
sands of coastal residents from Mex
ico to Louisiana fled to higher
ground Thursday as fierce Hurri
cane Gilbert sent the first of its
storms against Texas after thrashing
the Yucatan Peninsula.
“This is a killer storm,” said Gor
don Guthrie, director of the Florida
Division of Emergency of Manage
ment. “I feel sorry for anybody
wherever this hits.”
At 8 a.m., the eye of the storm was
centered about 180 miles south
southeast of of Brownsville with
winds of 120 mph.
The storm was moving north
northwest at 12 mph. The National
Weather Service said if Gilbert con
tinued moving in the same direction,
landfall would be near Brownsville
this evening.
The National Weather Service
also said the Bryan-College Station
area should receive between two and
four inches of rain today and Satur
day as a result of the storm.
The death toll from the storm’s
onslaught through the Caribbean is
lands and the Yucatan was at least
36, and damage estimates reached
$8 billion.
By early evening, the first thun
derstorms and showers in the outer
most spiral bands of the storm had
NRA ‘outmuscles’ legislature
with anti-gun control lobbying
Evacuation efforts
impeded by apathy
■WASHINGTON (AP) — The
H^fc-gun lobby won a major victory
I^Bursday when the House elimi-
■ted from a major anti-drug bill a
seven-day waiting period for hand-
■n purchases.
®^Brhe 228-182 vote substituted a
inBbn — still to be established — that
would allow gun dealers to identify
> convicted felons seeking to buy
j handguns.
HrBj he margin showed the National
r Rifle Association was able to outmus-
■ a coalition of handgun control
organizations and allies from all the
nation’s major law enforcement
jsl^Bi)ups. Both sides brought rank-
and-file law enforcement officers to
the Capitol to lobby for their cause.
■Voting for' the substitute spon
sored by Rej). Bill McCollum, R-Fla.,
were 101 Democrats and 127 Re
publicans. Opposing were 137 Dem-
ocratsand 45 Republicans.
■The overall drug bill would add
jj j some $2 billion to the nation’s $3.9
a;: billion drug lighting effort. A final
; j< House vote is expected next week.
T •
The waiting period would have
permitted police where the pur
chaser lives to conduct a background
check, but would not have required
one.
In the closing moments of debate,
waiting period supporter William J.
Hughes, D-N.J., said to members to
“show' how' tough we are when it
comes to bucking the National Rifle
Association and the gun lobby.”
NRA backer Rep. Harold Vol-
kmer, D-Mo., said after the vote that
those comments backfired.
“Taking on the NRA is one thing
and taking on gun owners is an
other,” Volkmer said. “There’s no
question the NRA had a lot to do
wdth it,” he said, but attributed most
of the substitute’s support to individ
ual gun owners who contacted their
lawmakers.
Even President Reagan’s support
for a waiting period — although not
the specific language in the drug bill
— wasn’t enough for the gun control
forces to win.
Rep. Edw'ard F. Feighan, D-Ohio,
author of the waiting period, said, “I
do think we were outgunned by the
forces of the National Rifle Associa
tion, and their very effective cam
paign of deceit and distortion.”
The waiting period language was
named symbolically after presi
dential press secretary James Brady,
who was shot along with Reagan in
the March 30, 1981, assassination at
tempt against the president by John
W. Hinckley Jr.
Brady’s wife Sarah, vice chair of
Handgun Control Inc., called the
vote “disappointing and discourag
ing.” She added, “We came close.
Twenty-four more votes would have
made a difference.”
Dewey Stokes, president of the
Fraternal Order of Police, added, “I
don’t mind losing a fight when it’s
fair, but we were outgunned on this,
and by outgunned I mean dollar
bills. It’s a shame when our congress
men have to listen to a single-shot is
sue group” like the N If A.
By Rose Ann McFadden
Reporter
Apathy causes problems for civil
defense authorities trying to evac
uate areas threatened by hurricanes,
Dr. Steve Lyons, assistant professor
of meteorology at Texas A&M, said.
“Evacuation is a no-win situation
for civil defense authorities,” Lyons
said. “If they do evacuate, and the
storm hits, people complain about
the damage. If it doesn’t hit, people
complain about the inconvenience.”
University News Services Wednes
day quoted Dr. Jim McCloy, a water
safety specialist and vice president
for academic affairs at Texas A&M
at Galveston, as saying, “Hurricane
Alicia should have pointed the way
to salvation for a number of people,
but they chose not to see the warning
signs.”
McCloy could not be reached
Thursday because A&M-Galveston
had been evacuated.
Lyons said civil defense authori
ties base evacuation decisions on
forecasts made by the National Hur
ricane Warning Center in Miami,
Fla.
He said authorities recommend
evacuation even when unable to ex-
Officials say
A&M will play
‘Crimson tide’
University officials meet
for discussion on AIDS
actly predict where a hurricane will
hit.
“The bottom line is to save lives,”
Lyons said. “They w'ould rather have
people grumbling (about unneces
sary evacuations) than have people
die.”
Lyons compared some evacua
tions to “crying wolf.”
“Authorities cry wolf to save liv
es,” he said. “If they don’t cry wolf,
people could get eaten up.”
Despite official warnings, Lyons
said, some older residents refuse to
leave.
“They have sat through what they
think were the strongest hurricanes,
but they may be wrong,” Lyons said.
Lyons said some new residents are
challenged by hurricanes.
“A hurricane is a novelty,” Lyons
said. “They want to experience one.”
“After they have seen the dama
ge,” he added, “they are more likely
to observe evacuation warnings in
the future.”
Others refuse to leave their homes
vulnerable to looters, Lyons said.
He said residents staying in evac
uated areas risk their lives.
“The major cause of death and
damage is the storm surge, a rise in
the sea level,” Lyons said. “Some
storm surges reach 20 feet above sea
level.”
reached southeast Texas, forecasters
said.
Texas Gov. Bill Clements issued
an emergency proclamation allow
ing local authorities to suspend laws
“to preserve the health, safety and
welfare of the public,” including
such things as the direction of travel
on highways.
Grocery stores ran low on bottled
water, batteries, canned tuna and
bread as people laid in supplies.
Homeowners covered windows and
doors with plywood and shatter
proofing hurricane tape. Offshore
oil workers left their rigs in the Gulf
of Mexico.
In Brownsville, Texas’ southern
most city, winds began to pick up
around noon Thursday under over
cast skies.
Lorena Curry, who has lived in
Brownsville since 1935, said she
C lans to ride out the storm. “I’ve
een through them before. I’m
going to stick around at my home.”
The weather service issued a hur
ricane warning for Mexico’s north
ern coast and the southern half of
the 370-mile Texas coast from
Brownsville to Port O’Connor, in
cluding 250,000-resident Corpus
Christi. A hurricane watch remained
in effect for the remainder of the
Texas coast, from Port O’Connor
north to Port Arthur near the Loui
siana border.
The weather service said warnings
might be extended northward, de
pending upon Gilbert’s path.
Gilbert surged into the gulf after
battering the Yucatan Peninsula in
Mexico with 160 mph winds, forcing
tens of thousands to flee.
After crossing the peninsula, Gil
bert’s winds weakened to 120 mph,
but forecasters predicted the storm
would intensify again as it moves
over open water.
“The shower and thunderstorm
activity that we see taking place
around the hurricane itself is getting
better organized, more vigorous, so
we think it’s starting to strengthen,”
said Sheets at the Hurricane Center.
Sheets said the hurricane’s sus
tained winds would “certainly in
crease to 130, 140 miles per hour.”
In the coastal resort of South
Padre Island, about 25 miles south
east of Brownsville, the mayor or
dered its 1,000 residents to evacuate.
“We can’t force them to leave, but
it doesn’t make any sense to stay,”
said Mayor Bob Pinkerton Jr., add
ing that water and electricity would
be turned off Thursday afternoon.
Tropical storm force winds, at
least 39 mph, extended outward up
to 250 miles to the north and 200
miles to the south of the center.
The storm’s first landfall earlier
this week left at least 19 people dead
in Jamaica, five in the Dominican
Republic, 10 in Haiti and two in
Mexico. It also left a half-million
people homeless in Jamaica and
caused widespread damage to the
Cayman Islands.
m o.;
By Laura White
Staff Writer
■ Texas A&M officials have decided
that the football game between
Texas A&M and Alabama will be
played Saturday afternoon as sched
uled .
■ Wally Groff, A&M’s assistant ath
letic director in charge of finance,
said that since Hurricane Gilbert is
<U: noi expected to take a turn toward
y i Galveston, it does not pose a serious
g threat to the game.
3 5?H“The game is definitely taking
® r ‘: place," he said. “The most recent
|o; weather forcasts indicate tha’t on Sat-
urday there will be insignificant rain
and wind, and we can play in die
rain.”
4;-jGroff said that the game would
J, onlv be canceled in an extreme situa
tion where the life or safety of the
fans or players would be endan
gered.
■“We really lucked out,” he said.
“It’s probablv not even going to rain,
^^■t even if it does, so what? We can
play in the rain.”
k ■Steve Sloan, athletic director for
\ Alabama, said the Crimson Tide
\ isn't as concerned about the weather
r as it was earlier this week when Gil
bert was headed for Galveston, but
■fety is still a major concern.
■“Safety is the biggest concern we
^ have,” he said. “The storm is cur-
^ rently expected to hit Brownsville
] which is 400 miles from Brvan-Gol-
I lege Station, but vou never know
J what a hurricane is going to do.”
■Sloan said the Alabama plavers’
■msportation has vet to be ar
ranged.
By Kelly S. Brown
Staff Writer
(Austin) — College students, fac
ulty and campus administrators
sometimes disappear.
First reports often say they died of
cancer, but then weeks and months
pass and it’s discovered that the guy
who sat next to you in history or the
proffessor you had turn years ago
died of AIDS (Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome), and that final
dose of truth is hard to swallow, said
an administrator from the California
State University System.
Dr. David Kagan, dean of aca
demic affairs at CSU, said, “Our
campus used to tolerate gays and bi
sexuals — but since since AIDS has
become so widespread, California
having the most AIDS cases after
New York — students no longer take
a passive view — gay bashing is just
one of the ways their v iews are now-
expressed. The students need des-
perately to work together, become
fully educated and work towards
prevention of the disease.”
Dr. Scott Spear of the University
of Texas Student Health Center,
said, “College students in this decade
will be the hardest hit with AIDS in
upcoming years. AIDS is most prev
alent in the age group college stu
dents are in. This fact is spine-ting
ling considering 12 million people
are in colleges and universities in the
United States,” he said.
Spear warned that in the follow
ing years the epidemic will become
far worse.
In a step to halt that possibility,
administrators, health center work
ers and faculty from universities
around Texas gathered Thursday in
Austin for a panel discussion —
AIDS and the College Campus: Per
spectives and Policies.
After studying results of surveys
and researching the behavior and at
titudes of college students in the
United States, speakers from Texas,
California and Georgia all agreed
that students understand w hat AIDS
is and know its consequences; how
ever, they don’t internalize the infor
mation or believe that it could ever
happen to them.
Rich Wolitski, an AIDS researcher
from California State University,
said in their study done last spring
with 1000 college students — 67 per
cent are not worried about getting
AIDS and 59 percent think AIDS
won’t spread rapidly throughout the
population, while 46 percent doubt
anyone they know will ever get
AIDS.
See Conference page 8
Brazos AIDS hot line
provides facts, advice
By Denise Thompson
Reporter
If the Board of Higher Educa
tion’s discussion of AIDS on college
campuses has raised questions for
you, the Brazos Valley AIDS Foun
dation Helpline may provide an
swers.
Formed in January, the hotline
serves seven area counties by an
swering questions and providing in
formation and counseling to callers
about Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome.
Although the hotline was once an
emotional crisis hotline, Stewart Gal-
las, hotlh.e coordinator, said most
callers now primarily are concerned
about AIDS.
"The questions most asked are
about transmission and symptoms of
AIDS," he said. “People want to
know how you get it and what hap
pens when you do get it. Also, peo
ple call in wanting to know where
and how you can get tested.”
While no test exists for AIDS, a
blood test for the HIV antibody can
be performed at several places.
However, there is a difference be
tween confidentiality and anonymity
of tests, Gallas said.
“You can get tested at the Health
Center, Bryan Medical Lab, Beck
Labs, Singleton Labs, by your own
doctor or at the University Health
Center,” he said. “Confidentiality
See Aids page 8
Lookout! Photo by Fredrick D.Joe
David Sugarek, a geology major from Corpus Christi, thinks about his
home and family on Thursday as Hurricane Gilbert approaches the
Texas coast. He is looking off the observation deck on the O&M
building.