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