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Vol. 89 No.38 USPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, October 24,1989
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Explosions pulverize Pasadena plant
PASADENA (AP) — A series of explo
sions tore through a Phillips Petroleum Co.
plastics plant Monday, showering debris for
miles around and sending up a fireball visi
ble 15 miles away.
Officials said they fear many have died in
the accident, but flames and intense heat
kept rescue workers from getting close
enough to investigate immediately, Dr. Paul
Pepe, the director of Houston emergency
medical services, said.
“We’re betting there’s a lot of fatalities,
just because of the nature of the explosion
and where it happened,” Pepe said. “We
don’t think there’s anybody alive in there.”
At least 81 people were injured, and
were being treated at several area hospitals
for burns, breathing problems and cuts
from flying debris, Pepe said.
Of the injured, 72 were plant workers, he
said. The other nine people were treated
for breathing difficulties or injuries from
flying debris.
Pasadena Mayor John Ray Harrison said
he has been told by fire officials that 22
people had not been accounted for by 5:30
f >.m., as firefighters were pumping water
rom a sewage treatment plant and the
nearby Houston Ship Channel to fight the
blaze.
The fire was brought under control
about a half-hour later, but was expected to
take several more hours to extinguish,Pasa
dena Fire Chief Jay Coyer said. He said
there were still no confirmed fatalities, but
only speculation that some had died at 7
p.m.
Seismologists at Rice University in Hous
ton said their machines went crazy during
the initial explosion and that the blast ap
peared to be the equivalent of 10 tons of
TNT.
“It was like somebody just dropped an
atomic bomb,” said Kelly Manerly, a pipe
fitter who works at the plant.
“I’m real lucky. Thank God for that,”
Manerly said. He said he heard a hissing
sound for about five minutes, then saw a
white cloud. “I told a safety man I saw noth
ing but gas. Then it exploded. I ran. There
were a lot of people running and screaming
It was like somebody just
dropped an atomic bomb.”
— Kelly Manerly,
plant employee
to get out. It’s like nothing I’ve felt in my
life.”
Phillips President Glenn Cox arrived at
the plant about five hours after the explo
sion and said his company has set up two
hotlines — one for people to check on the
welfare of their relatives who worked at the
plant and another for those wishing to file
damage claims.
Cox said flames were still visible from
eight miles away as he arrived. He said com-
E any officials are still trying to determine
ow many employees and contractors were
trapped inside, but have been hampered by
the fact they cannot get to the place where
records are stored.
Maintenance worker Roby Clemons said
employees had 20 seconds to escape after a
warning message was broadcast over the
plant’s emergency radio.
“I never saw people run so fast,” said
Clemons, who was working about 150 yards
from the site of the first explosion. “My first
thought was to get near a doorway, but then
the building started shaking so bad I
thought the roof was going to come down.
We all got knocked down. We all ran out.
People were running out of every exit.”
An elementary school about a mile from
the plant sent home more than 700 stu
dents after the blasts buckled a ceiling and
blew out cafeteria windows. No students
were injured, a school employee said.
Part of the Houston Ship Channel was
closed by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The first explosion at Phillips’ Houston
Chemical Complex, located on the ship
channel just off Texas Highway 225, oc
curred about 1 p.m. CDT, Parks said.
Several explosions followed the initial
blast, witnesses reported. From a command
post several miles away, at least a half dozen
fires could be seen raging and dark smoke
billowed from the site for hours.
Phillips environmental director Bill
Stoltz, who was at the scene, said the explo
sion was caused when a seal blew out on an
ethylene loop reactor, releasing ethylene-
isobutane, a compound used in making
plastics. The reactor is built of tubes where
the key chemical reactions take place.
tmi&M
Reaping golf balls
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
Jim Orr, a senior electrical engineering major and student worker for Intramural Main- Orr said that he has been caught off guard a few times as the P.E. classes regularly
tenance, drives the “golf ball picker” around the A&M driving range Monday morning, try to hit the vehicle while it is picking up balls.
Ag alumnus says traditions unite past, present
By Holly Becka
Of The Battalion Staff
Today’s Texas A&M student has everyday re
minders of the past University. These reminders
are traditions.
“(From) the initial beginnings of the institution
in 1876, there is still a symbol of the past directly
connected into the mainstream of today,” Dr.
Malon Southerland, associate vice president for
student services, said.
Southerland, Class of ’65, talked to the A&M
History Club on Monday about the history of
University traditions.
He said traditions are important because they
help unite people, build teamwork and bring a
sense of belonging to a person in a large group.
Plus, traditions give visitors positive, lasting im
pressions. Those good impressions are better
press than the University could pay for, he said.
“Howdy is amazing,” he said. “Think about
that. If you ask a high-school student or a fresh,
entering student if they’ve had any contact with
the institution and about their perception of the
University, first on the list will be they think the
campus is friendly.
“That is important to the institution,” Souther
land said. “How much money would we have to
spend to try to get a freshman wanting to come to
A&M to perceive the institution as friendly?
There is no way to add that amount, but it’s a
bunch of money.
“That applies to everything,” he continued.
“From an aaministrator’s standpoint, (I think) it
affects the way you come in, the attitude you start
with and everything.”
Asked if he thought the “howdy” greeting was
dying out, Southerland said even when he at
tended A&M there were complaints that no one
said “howdy.”
He said the transition of A&M’s traditions
through the University’s changing times is
unique. Traditions have been carried on because
of students. The Corps of Cadets emphasizes the
continuation of traditions, Southerland said.
“We may have more (traditions) in number
and they may be more specific than other univer
sities’, but that’s because we’re doing them,”
Southerland said.
He said because of changing times, sori.c peo
ple would argue that a few of the traditions are
unnecessary, such as bonfire.
“It has certain levels of problems, but I don’t
know anything that doesn't,” Southerland said.
“But how many times do you see bonfire pre
sented as an image of A&M? You see it every
Sunday on the R.C. Slocum Show and on every
brochure that can find a color photo and get the
permission to use it.”
He said bonfire shows the world the together
ness of the Aggies.
One of the lesser known traditions of A&M
that Southerland mentioned was the practice of
A&M students and their dates “scoring” at foot
ball games when the team made a first down in
stead of a touchdown.
“When I went to school we didn’t win too
many games,” he said, laughing. “We liked that
tradition so we scored on the first downs.”
He said when he attended the University, one
of the senior yell leaders was required to be a
non-Corps student.
“In my days, you had to be in the Corps for
two years and then you could elect to stay in or
get out,” he said. “So one of the three senior yell
leaders had to be a civilian. In ’68 or ’69 the stu
dent body changed that.”
Photo by Frederick D.Joe
(Right) Dr. Malon Southerland
A&M student was first to leave tribe for education
By Todd Swearingen
Of The Battalion Staff
Photo by Scott D. Weaver
Rogelio Cansari
Imagine that you suddenly found
yourself in the jungle. Imagine the
strange sounds, the strange smells
and sights. Now, reverse the situa
tion. Rogelio Cansari is from the
jungles of Panama, and the first
member of the Ember a tribe to re
ceive a college education.
Cansari, a junior anthropology
major, gave a presentation to fellow
anthropology students Monday on
his people’s culture.
“I am the first representative of
my culture,” Cansari said. “I am the
first jungle man that you can see in
this jungle, which is the United
States.”
Cansari said that his people, num-
“I
I am the first jungle man
that you can see in this
jungle, which is the United
States.”
— Rogelio Cansari,
bering about 110,000, live in the jun
gles of Panama and Colombia. His
people consist of the Embera and
Wounan tribes, who share the same
customs and rituals but speak sepa
rate languages.
The system of tribal government
is very democratic, he said.
“We are organized by chiefdom,”
Cansari said. “There are three big
chiefs — two regional and one gen
eral.
“After them, we have the head of
the village — there are almost 55 vil
lages.”
Beneath the village leader is an as
sembly consisting of the entire tribe,
Cansari said. The assembly, he said,
is the conscience of the tribe and is
responsible for changes in law.
Cansari presented a slide show of
his village and described the Embera
way of life. He said villages are al
ways located near rivers and the
houses are built above ground using
trees that are harvested at a certain
time of the season so that they will
not rot.
Cansari said the Embera diet con
sists largely of fish. He also showed a
slide that pictured both modern and
traditional food bowls.
“This is our car (a canoe), this wa
ter is our highway,” Cansari said.
Cansari, showing a slide of a mas
sive tree, described the jungle as his
people’s garden.
“For us, this our shelter,” he said.
“And we protect them (trees). Who
ever wants to come in and kill one of
these is taking a big risk.
“We could give our life for one of
See Student/Page 5
Student killed
in auto accident
Jan Ellen Hering, a senior el
emental^ education major from
McGregor, died at 2:30 a.m. Sun
day in a car accident while return
ing to McGregor. Funeral ar
rangements are pending.
Study shows
sleepwalking
not a disorder
Stress, fatigue cause
many to roam at night
By Kelly S. Brown
Of The Battalion Staff
They go bump in the night and
don’t even know it.
While sleepwalkers have an un
usual habit, they should know that,
psychologically,they are no different
from anyone else, a Texas A&M
study of young adult sleepwalkers
revealed.
Dr. Jim Dupree, who conducted
the research for his Ph.D. disserta
tion in counseling psychology, said
although no single explanation ex
ists for why people sleepwalk, stud
ies have shown fatigue, stress and
medications contribute to the epi
sodes.
Dupree’s study, which included
97 sleepwalkers from nine universi
ties, contradicted a theory that psy
chopathology was the underlying
problem with sleepwalkers.
“I think previous studies have
been premature to say sleepwalkers
have an abnormal personality,” he
said. “Young adult sleepwalkers
from my study had no indications of
this.
“They did not appear to have any
more problems in their lives that
would make them different from
someone who was not a sleepwal
ker,” Dupree said.
The study required each person to
complete a two-part questionnaire
about their childhood and sleep hab
its. Those who had been sleepwalk
ing recently took another test — the
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory — where two separate
control groups were used.
Dupree, now a psychologist with
the Humboldt State University
Counseling Center in Areata, Calif.,
said he found the sleepwalkers in his
study to be more open about family
conflict during childhood than non
sleepwalkers.
“But that may not have any bear
ing on why they’re sleepwalking,” he
said. “There’s still much to be un
veiled about the mysteries of sleep
walking.”
One thing he did discover and was
surprised about in his findings was
that as a group, sleepwalkers were
not concerned about what they did
while they were asleep, as few re
ported injuries to themselves or oth
ers.
“It’s typically friends and family
members who have more concerns
about sleepwalking behavior,” he
said.
Susan Tisch, a sixth-grade teacher
at Allen Academy, said it used to
frighten her when her sister would
get up in the middle of night and
walk around, “in a different world
— I thought something was wrong
with her.
“One time we had a conversation
about chicken skin,” Tisch said. “She
kept telling me to look at it while was
going on about how wrinkled it was.
I didn’t know what she was talking
about, and neither did she after I
woke her up later.”
Many myths float around about
waking sleepwalkers.
Tisch said whenever her sister
sleepwalks, her family tells her to go
back to sleep.
Dupree said a verbal reaction is
the best to have w'ith a sleepwalker.
“Either tell them that or wake
them up gently — very gently,” he
said. “You can throw something
light at them, but don’t shake them.
If you touch a sleepwalker, some
See Sleepwalking/Page 5