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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 1988)
Friday, September 16, 1988/The Battalion/Page 13 World and Nation ilbert batters Mexican coast after rampage across Yucatan ^■AMPECHE, Mexico (AP) —Ter rified people fled rising floodwaters in tne predawn darkness Thursday 'is ■urricane Gilbert raged into the Gull of Mexico after battering the ^uciian Peninsula and its posh re- sorts. ^■ilbert, the strongest storm on re- cortf left much of the Yucatan with out communications, electricity or drinking water. Airports were Hosed, most roads were impassable jtnd supplies were running short in mam areas. A top government official told the Associated Press that the Army was taking a portable communications tower and a satellite ground to Can- cun Thursday. Ele said the government hoped to have telephone, radio and television service restored within 24 hours. The storm continued on its west- northwest path Thursday heading toward the lower Texas coast. Sustained winds of 160 mph and 24-foot waves pounded the popular Caribbean resorts of Cancun and Communities plan to rekindle tourism ■ WEST YELLOWSTONE, pAlont. (AP) — With Yellowstone ^^■ational Park’s wildfires slill bur- ^■ing, the famous tourist attrac- ^■on's gatewav cities already are ^■lanning ways to lure visitors to the charred landmark next sum- ^Ber. ■ “The geysers are still there, the ^Baterfalls are still there, the elk and bison and bears are still ^Rere, the streams and fish are still there,’’ Suzanne Young, exec- ^Btive director of the Jackson, ^Wyo., Chamber of Commerce, ^■ud. ■ “Our job will be to get out the ^■essage that ‘Yes, there is still the ^■ellowstone you love and remem- ^ftr, despite the forest fires.’” ■ While the key landmarks are slill there, so is a mosaic of charred trees as a dozen enor- ^Hous fires have blazed across ne arly half of Yellowstone’s 2.2 ^Billion acres in the past two ^Honths. The flames forced fre quent evacuations of camp- ^Bounds and lodging facilities, and blanketed thousands of ^Buare miles with smoke. I The park’s tiny,gateway com- |^Bimities are vitally linked to the ^Bant wilderness, which in a nor- ^Bal year attracts 3 million visi tors. Towns with economies sk r o n g 1 y d e p e n d e n t o n Yellowstone include Gardiner, Silver Gate, Cooke City and West B|c'llowstone in Montana; Jackson and Cody in Wyoming; and, to a iiBsser degree, Driggs and Victor in Idaho. Officials say that so far this year, tourist visits to Yellowstone are down 12..5 percent from last year’s figures, a loss of more than a quarter million visitors. Many merchants and innkeep ers are wondering about the long term economic impact of the worst fires in Yellowstone in 300 yea rs. Steve Tedder of park conces sioner TW Services, which runs Yellowstone’s lodging, restau rants and transportation services, said he expects sales to be down $4 million to $5 million — a 25 percent drop from last year. “It certainly has been an inter esting summer,” he said wryly. “July and August traditionally are our biggest months, when we make up for the losses of our win ter operation. It has been very dramatic — devastating from a visitor standpoint and an opera tions standpoint. To date, we’ve had to give early release to about 800 employees. I think it was by the grace of God that we have not lost any major structures.” John Olson, TW Services’ mar keting director, is busy accumu lating videotape and photographs showing that many areas of the park are unaffected by the fires. He already has traveled to Lon don to talk about Yellowstone with key tour group operators and newspaper travel editors. In addition, some University of Wyoming students- are using computer lists to contact tourists who canceled their reservations at Yellowstone, and find out why. Gilbert’s intense power not easily explained ^ MIAMI (AP) — Eleat, moisture nd wind stoked Hurricane Gilbert nto the century’s most intense torm. But why it, and not any of the lozens of other foul-weather sys- ems crossing the tropics this sum- ner? “Ik's a mystery more or less. We ) Ion It know,” said University of Mi- /foi |meteorology professor Rainer Heck. “The first part of the summer we ■ere biting our nails, wondering 'hy these (other) disturbances idiit develop,” he said Thursday. That’s something meteorologists 'ould like to know more about.” Nlitional Hurricane Center fore- isttjis on Sept. 3 noticed a dry low ressure trough moving west slowly m ol Africa. “We get 50 or 60 of these off Af- ca every summer. About one of six evelop,” said veteran center fore- tstei Gil Clark. By Sept. 8, the sys- ■mlvas a depression, grew to a trop ical storm by Satin day and a hurricane the next day. “It’s a matter of getting every thing together in the right place in the right time. It doesn’t happen very often. How it develops, we don’t know,” Clark said. Tropical waves become depres sions when the wfinds start swirling. When sustained winds reach 39 mph, the system becomes a storm. The depression gets hurricane status when sustained winds hit 74 mph. As to why Gilbert organized and strengthened while other systems didn’t, Clark said: “That’s one thing we’re trying to discover. That’s in the infancy, our research is on the initiation of the actual organization of a depression.” “That’s a mystery,” he said. But the experts do know what fu els a budding storm once early de velopment begins. And they know that development is sparked when winds converge. Cozumel early Wednesday, inflicting heavy damage on hotels and strand ing thousands of tourists. As the 450-mile-wide storm charged into the Gulf of Mexico Thursday, it drenched the provin cial capital of Merida and the' gulf port cities of Puerto Progreso, Campeche and Ciudad del Carmen. In Campeche, two babies drowned as residents of a poor, low- lying neighborhood tried to flee, said Oscar Sanchez, editor of the lo cal newspaper, Novechides de Camp eche. Ramon Castillo, a nightwatchman at the paper, said,“There is no light, there is no radio, there is nothing.” “The whole city is flooded. Every thing is dark. Eve lived here all my life and I have never seen bad weather like this. People are scared,” he said. Sanchez said many people in Campeche had been reluctant to evacuate. “People did not want to leave their homes especially after windows had broken and roofs had blown away. They were afraid of looting,” he said. “Nobody knows what is going on,” Sanchez told the Associated Press in a telephone interview. “Elven the Army and the Navy have not been able to establish communications. They were not prepared for this.” Military officials in Mexico City on Thursday refused all comment on the storm and its aftermath, refer ring all calls to the Interior Ministry. The ministry, citing day-old re ports, said Thursday that about 20,000 people were evacuated from Puerto Progreso and other coastal towns. Hundreds of homes were de stroyed, it added. The ministry also said the storm seriously damaged the luxurious ho tel zone in Cancun and destroyed about a quarter of the homes on the nearby island of Cozumel. There were reports of looting in Cancun after the storm and supplies were said to be running low'. Civil defense officials said 6,000 tourists left beachside motels and 30,000 local people also sought tem porary shelter. The mayor put the total number of evacuees at about 11,000. The storm hit just before the height of the tourist season. Despite the vast damage, Mexican officials said they had reports of only a handful of minor injuries. Many areas, however, remained cut off from the outside world and there were no comprehensive reports on injuries and property damage. Authorities were particularly con cerned about the situation on Isla Mujeres, a tiny resort just off Can cun. A navy spokesman in Mexico City said he had no word on the plight of an estimated 15,000 people who had been stranded there. Three ferries linking the island with the mainland were lost in the storm, but there were no reports of casualties. The storm, spawned Saturday southeast of Puerto Rico, appeared to have hit Jamaica the hardest. That island nation’s prime minister, Ed ward Seaga, said Wednesday that it destroyed about 100,000 of Jamai ca’s 500,000 homes. He estimated damage at $8 billion. Federal officials ready for disaster WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials readied trucks, equipment and personnel Thursday for quick dispatch to the Texas Coast as Hur ricane Gilbert aimed its deadly strength toward the Lone Star State. “We are bringing every resource we have up to maximum operational capability in preparedness of relo cating and mitigating this problem,” Grant C. Peterson, in charge of the natural disaster program at the Fed eral Emergency Management Agency, said. “It would be a virtual miracle if Texas is not hit,” Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, said during a briefing at FEMA, which is coordinating the unprecendented disaster readiness program with two dozen other agen cies. The Pentagon is also setting up a response team, Maj. Gen. J.D. Smith said, and procedures will be stream lined to ensure that this is not a “bu reaucratic slow-moving turtle.” The Pentagon has agreed to dis patch active duty military personnel to back up the Texas National Guard if necessary. “I think it is fair to say that we rec ognize that we face the greatest weather threat that we have ever faced in our part of the country. We want to be certain our preparation is up to the challenge,” Gramm said. Peterson and Gramm said paper work had already been prepared to allow President Reagan to almost im mediately issue a disaster declaration and set in motion relief efforts, par ing away the five to seven days usually needed for a formal declara tion. “We are not going to wait around for the normal procedures; we are prepared now for action. We are act ing now,” Gramm said, adding that officials were in constant commu nication with the office of Vice Presi dent George Bush. Trucks at FEMA’s Denton, Texas, regional headquarters north of Dal las are loaded down with gear such as communications equipment and electric generators and are prepared to move as soon as needed, Peterson said. “They are ready to be dispatched as soon as we identify the location and where the need is,” Peterson said. FEMA officials said it was possible the trucks would be moved closer to ward the shoreline if necessary. Meanwhile, evacuations were taking place along the Texas Coast, includ ing South Padre Island and nearby Brownsville, and up the coast at Padre and Mustang islands. “We are taking the hurricane very, very seriously, as we would urge all of the citizens in the area (to do),” Peterson said. “When you’re in the eye of the storm, it’s a little late to decide what to take and make sure your gas tank is full.” Peterson said federal agencies would also be dispatching Spanish speaking personnel and Spanish- language forms and pamphlets to help communication with the sizea ble Hispanic population along the coast. Gramm said, “In terms of advance planning and preparation ... we have done a better job here than ever be fore. “But you never know' how effec tive something is until you put it into place and I am hopeful that some thing happens to the storm, that it’s going to dissipate, that it’s going to hit in Mexico where no one lives and someone’s going to look back and say this w'as a wonderful training exercise.” The University Chamber Series Opening Concert Werner Rose, Pianist “...proved a treasure in interpretation and dynamic control” - Australia Monday, Sept. 19 Rudder Theatre, 8:00 pm Tickets abailable at the MSC Box Office, 845-1234 llcut hereli Defensive Driving Course Sept. 20, 21 & Sept. 26, 27 College Station Hilton For information or to pre-register phone 693-8178 24 hours a day. ■■■■■■ ■■§■■■■11 cut hereiMiHMHBiBBimiMBI RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS UNPROGRAMMED QUAKER MEETING SILENT WORSHIP-SUN. 12Noon How can you worship in Silence? Every Quaker meeting for worship is a quiet search for the peace of mind to hear the message of that still small voice within. FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: Pat Micks 846-6856 Karen James 846-7093 Mary’s Bridal Shop out of business sale Formal wedding dresses,veils and bridal accessories 50 - 75% off Saturday Only 9am - 12pm 303 W. 26th St. Bryan For info. 693-3874 or 775-6818 © MSC Barber Shop Located on the Texas A&?M University Campus Memorial Student Center serving the general public Monday - Saturday 8a.m. - 5p.m. Regular Haircut $5.50 Flat Top $7.00 ★1 uick as a flash 2 FOR 1 PRINTS On One (1) Roll of C-41 Color Print Film Processed & Printed. 3 Includes 135, 110 & Disc. One Coupon Per Customer. Not Good With Any Other Offer. Not Applicable To Charge Customers. Void 12-31-88. 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