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2STATE & LOCAL
Wednesday, June 28,1989
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HOUSTON (AP) — A 7-year-old
;irl swept into a storm drain by fast-
lowing water from Tropical Storm
kllison spent 15 hours trapped in-
ide an underground sewage chan
nel before she was rescued Tuesday,
uthorities said.
“She spent the entire night in the
ity’s major sewer system with all
hat flood water coming in on her,
md hardly had a scratch,” Houston
Fire Department spokesman Mike
Warnke said.
“It’s just a miracle that she could
till be alive,” he said.
Latricia Reese was playing outside
ter south Houston home around 5
p.m. Monday when her young
:ousin saw her lose her footing in
he fast-moving storm water and slip
into a nearby gutter, officials said.
She was retrieved around 8 a.m.
Tuesday by two construction work-
rs who removed manhole covers
near the spot where she disap
peared, Warnke said.
T:
“We used a flashlight and saw a
little figure about 30 feet under the
street,” said Timothy Gabrysch, a
construction worker who went into
he drain T uesday morning. “It was
pitch dark and she couldn’t see any
thing. When she saw us, she ran to
us.
“It’s an experience I guess you
can’t explain. I have no idea how she
stayed there. It’s pretty nasty; there’s
all kinds of debris.”
Warnke said, “They began yelling
her name, and she answered back:
‘Who are you?’ They told her and
she was reluctant to come out of the
hole after being in there all night
hanging on through that swift wa
ter.”
Latricia, who suffered only abra
sions to her knees and elbows and
mild shock, was in very good condi
tion after being admitted for obser
vation at Humana Hospital-South-
more, spokesman Ramona Branch
said.
“I think she was just a little bit sha
ken, a little bit hungry and a little bit
cold,” Branch said Tuesday, adding
that the girl still was overwhelmed by
her ordeal.
“When they keep asking her what
happened, she gets a little foggy
about that and you don’t get really
clear answers,” Branch said.
“She also thought she didn’t
spend the night there,” he said. “She
thought she went home.”
University Press founder
dies Monday in Austin
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
The man who established the
Texas A&M University Press died
Monday in Austin.
frank H. Wardlaw, 75, also es
tablished scholarly publishing
houses at the University of Texas
and the University of South Caro
lina.
He served A&M from 1974 to
1978. During his 33-year pub
lishing career, he oversaw the
publication of more than 700
books, about 50 of which were
University works.
Wardlaw came to A&M after
serving as founding director of
the University of Texas Press for
24 years. Before founding the
UT press, Wardlaw founded the
University of South Carolina
Press in 1945.
A book series endowed by
friends of the Wardlaws and pub
lished by A&M bears his name
and a Texas art collection honor
ing Wardlaw went on display in
the A&M press offices in 1983.
He was bestowed director emeri
tus status in 1981 by the Board of
Regents of the Texas A&M Uni
versity System.
Services are pending for Ward-
law, born Aug. 16, 1913, in In-
diantown, S.C. He is survived by
his widow and daughter, both of
Austin, and a son who serves as
American consul general in
Shanghai, China.
7, in sewer for 15 hours
Houston got more than 10 inches
of rainfall as Allison moved slowly
northward Monday, flooding
streets, stalling cars and forcing hun
dreds to evacuate as Latricia some
how clung onto some cracks in the
brick lining of the sewer, authorities
said.
Warnke said the water was pour
ing so quickly into the drain where
she disappeared that fire depart
ment personnel were unable to
reach her, or even conduct a proper
search Monday.
“The water was going in there so
swiftly that they couldn’t get down to
her,” he said.
“The fire department diving team
was called out and they refused to go
in the hole because the water was
just so swift that it was too danger
ous,” Warnke said. “They thought
that at that point, because the water
was moving so fast, that she would
have been swept down to the place
where the sewer system empties into
the bayou.”
Police officers were stationed near
the site to watch for signs of the girl.
Tanker pilot testifies ship failed
to respond before hitting barge
HOUSTON ( AP) — The pilot of a
tanker that collided with a barge in
the Houston Ship Channel testified
Tuesday his vessel failed to complete
a turn shortly before the accident,
which resulted in a 250,0()0-gallon
oil spill.
During a hearing before a Coast
Guard official, pilot Michael Gale
said he was trying to make a right
turn into the channel when the
tanker and barge collided around
6:20 p.m. Friday.
Gale said he had performed all
the needed maneuvers for the turn,
but the vessel didn’t perform as ex
pected. He said the probable cause
for the difficulty he had in steering
the tanker was sediment buildup in
the channel.
The captain of the tugboat push
ing the barge testified later Tuesday
that the collision occurred about
three to five minutes after Gale ra
dioed to him he was having trouble.
“The ship’s pilot called and said
he couldn’t stop,” Mason T. Ware
testified. “I replied, ‘Well, it’s too late
for me to stop at this time.’ ”
The ruptured barge, one of three
being pushed by a tug boat, spilled
an estimated 6,000 barrels of crude
oil, fouling a mile-long stretch of the
Galveston Bay shoreline. Crews con
tinued to clean up the spill near La
Porte Tuesday.
During the hearing that began
Tuesday before Coast Guard Lt.
Cmdr. R.H. Arredondo, Gale said
that“shoaling,” or a sediment
buildup, seemed the most likely
cause of the vessel’s inability to make
the turn from the Bayport Channel
into the Houston Ship Channel.
“My only opinion is, she didn’t
have enough water underneath her
keel,” Gale said when asked about
the vessel’s failure to make the turn.
The hearing is being conducted to
determine what caused the accident,
not to assess blame, Arredondo said.
Nine people were scheduled to tes
tify during the hearing, which was
expected to end Wednesday.
Arredondo said his report of the
hearing probably would not be
ready for three months. He said he
anchor in an effort to complete the
turn and avoid a collision.
Instead, he said, the Rachel-B sur
prisingly continued straight ahead
and the collision soon occurred.
“It should have made the turn,”
Gale said, adding that he’d had no
earlier difficulty in maneuvering the
ship.
“She just didn’t respond to the
commands we were giving her,” he
said.
Gale and the Korean captain of
the ship, Han Sun Kim, said the ves
I he ship’s pilot called and said he couldn’t stop. I
replied. ‘Well, it’s too late for me to stop at this
time.
— Mason T. Ware,
tugboat captain
could recommend physical changes
to the area where the accident oc
curred, new procedures or even sug
gest a civil penalty hearing be held in
which a fine could be levied against
anyone found at fault.
Gale, a pilot for 12 years who said
he has made 2,700 trips in the chan
nel, testified that the Panamanian
registered tanker, “Rachel-B” was
destined for the open sea when it
collided with the inbound barge.
When he attempted to turn the
ship into the channel, he said he re
alized the vessel wasn’t turning
sharp enough. He gave the orders to
reverse the engines and drop an
sel was either hardly moving or
stopped when the accident hap
pened. But Ware, who has had a li
cense to operate a tugboat since
1977, testified that both vessels were
moving.
Ware also testified that soon after
Gale radioed him he first reversed
his tug’s engines, but then realized
there wasn’t enough time to stop.
“There was not time in this situa
tion for me to stop,” he said, respon
ding to an attorney’s suggestion that
he should have halted the tugboat.
“So I shifted to full speed ahead to
get control.”
Police group
calls for inquiry
of Clements aides
AUSTIN (AP) — The state’s
largest police organization on
Tuesday called for an investiga
tion of two gubernatorial aides,
who reportedly influenced the
veto of a bill after accepting free
trips from a group opposed to
it.
And state lawmakers who
sponsored the bill said they would
file it again for consideration dur
ing the 30-day, special legislative
session.
The measure, which was
passed during the regular session
ending May 29, required law en
forcement groups to disclose how
much they raise through tele
phone solicitations.
Ronald DeLord, president of
Combined Law Enforcement As
sociations of Texas, said the bill
would have helped identify suspi
cious organizations asking for
money.
He said some organizations use
a huge portion of the solicited do
nations for purposes other than
charities. Others lie about rep
resenting police organizations
and keep all the money, he
said.
DeLord said a grand jury
should investigate the governor’s
chief of staff, Mike Toomey, and
legislative liaison, Cliff Johnson,
whom he says told Gov. Bill
Clements to veto the bill.
According to published re
ports, Toomey and Johnson said
they went on a ski trip to Utah in
December as guests of the Texas
State Troopers Association and
two other groups.
The troopers association,
which is not connected to the
Texas Department of Public
Safety, uses telephone solicitation
to collect donations, DeLord said.
The group opposed the bill,
sponsored by Sen. Chet Edwards,
D-Duncanville, and Rep. Keith
Oakley, D-Terrell.
Clements said neither Toomey
nor Johnson influenced him to
veto the bill, which he previously
said lacked “substantive changes”
to the current law.
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Mon.-Fri. 7:45 a.m.-6 p.m.
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THE FINE PRINT: Immediate delivery while supplies last. $50 Gift Certificate offer is available while supplies last and is
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COOL
GIVE BLOOD!
THE
BLOOD CENTER
at Wadley
Date: June 26-June 29
Time: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Place: Rudder Fountain & Sbisa
Poster designed by Fleicia Gardner, a former student of H. Grady Spruce High School.
Another service of APO, OPA, and Student Government.
Photo I.D. is required. Free t-shirts and Chick-Fil-A coupons.