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WEATHER
TOMORROW’S FORECAST:
Mostly sunny and warm
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r ic ;,. |Vol. 89 No.39 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, October 25,1989
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econd victim found
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Jearch party doubts more employees survived
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PASADENA (AP) — A second
'ictim was found in the smoldering
ubble of a plastics plant today as
escue teams prepared to launch a
iroader search for more than 20
nissing workers.
The series of explosions at the
xplosion aftermath/Page 6
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ith foil
t arnon
lillips Petroleum Co. plant on
onday killed at least two people
id injured 124.
The second body was sighted by a
-person team trying to determine
aether it was safe for a larger
arch party to enter the ruins of the
ant.
It will take heavy equipment to
ove the body, which was buried in
bble, and to search for others,
Harris County Sheriff Johnny Kle-
venhagen, said.
“It’s going to take a long time.
This is not going to be easy. Some of
the buildings are gone — not there,”
Klevenhagen said.
The larger search party was to be
sent in later today, he said.
Authorities’ opinions varied on
whether there could be survivors.
“You always hope for the best.
Our fingers are crossed,” Phillips
spokesman Jere Smith said.
But the emergency medical direc
tor for Houston said it was unlikely
anyone could survive such an explo
sion, which shattered windows and
rocked buildings for miles around.
“We don’t think there’s anybody
alive in there,” Dr. Paul Pepe said.
Doctors treated 124 people for in
juries. Thirty-five were hospitalized,
up to six of them in critical condi
tion, Pepe said. Some had severe
burns, he said.
Survivors said they had less than
half a minute’s warning to get out of
the plant after a reactor began leak
ing flammable gas that ignited into a
huge fireball. A series of explosions
followed.
“I thought it was the end,” said
Billy Ridenour, a 35-year-old worker
who was inside the plant when the
explosions began early Monday af
ternoon. “I was thinking, ‘Run till
you die.’ ”
Missing were 20 Phillips employ
ees and three contract workers, Phil
lips President Glenn Cox said before
See Phillips/Page 12
Discovery seems to confirm
A&M physicist’s prediction
INIVERSITY NEWS SERVICE
IcroMi The discovery by scientists in California and Switzer-
|Tam,nd that all matter is divided into three ‘families’ of
I* imdawental particles seems to confirm theoretical pre-
to*! ictions made more than 10 years ago by a physicist
iow at Texas A&M University.
Physicists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
5LAC) and the European Laboratory for Particle Phys-
s (CERN) reported separately late last week that they
ev/i ac i determined that, at its most fundamental, all mat-
rcan be divided into three families of particles.
s whan
mts,
iderfU “ft is always gratifying to see one’s theoretical predic-
ons confirmed so exactly by experiment, but this re-
ult also has dramatic consequences in particle physics,
nwoi strophysics and cosmology,” Dr. Dimitri Nanopoulos,
owed physicist in Texas A&M’s Center for Theoretical
lings 'hysics, said.
fthe< Texas A&M physicists said the CERN and SLAG re-
ihin® ults both confirm the so-called ‘standard model’ of par-
)wn» icle physics and point the way toward new physics the-
i one ties that will require powerful accelerators like the
advia|uperconducting supercollider (SSC) to test.
In 1977, Nanopoulos calculated -- along with Dr.
indre Buras of the University of Munich, Dr. John El-
s of CERN and Dr. Mary K. Gaillard of the University
and »f California at Berkeley — that matter could be divided
antiisi nto exactly three types.
«n,"i
The announcements by the Stanford research team
and a team working at the CERN Large Electron-Pos
itron (LEP) accelerator near Geneva was based on both
f roups’ production and measurement of bits of matter
nown as Z-zero particles. Z-zero particles are the
heaviest known elementary particles. They disintegrate
to produce all the lesser particles.
Nanopoulos said that the significance of the CERN
and SLAG discovery is that it provides confirmation of
physics theory that goes well beyond what physicists call
the standard model of particle physics.
The standard model describes the relationship be
tween two fundamental forces — the weak and electro
magnetic forces. Development of the standard model
won the 1979 Nobel prize for physicists Dr. Sheldon
Glashow, Dr. Abdus Salam and Dr. Steven Weinberg.
Nanopoulos said that the standard model allows for
many more than three generations, or types, of matter,
but more ambitious models such as so-called ‘grand uni
fication’ theories limit the number to three.
“If we want to go beyond the standard model and try
to unify weak-electromagnetic and strong interactions
together in a grand unification theory (GUT), the num
ber of generations, or types of particles, had to be exac
tly three,” Nanopoulos said.
The CERN and SLAC researchers measured the
number of generations to be 3.25, plus-or-minus .22 — a
nearly perfect match with Nanopoulos’ predictions.
Bonfire beginnings
Gordon Richardson,junior economics major from
Caldwell and junior climber on stack, rigs the
Photo by Scott D. Weaver
lights and P.A. box on one of the four Bonfire pe
rimeter poles Tuesday afternoon.
pCA urges C.S. city council to up safety requirements
joM
Finbi
By Julie Myers
X The Battalion Staff
enoig
ghi.c Off Campus Aggies will petition
le College Station City Council in
inuary to require deadbolt locks
nd peepholes in all rental prop-
rties.
OCA president Curtis Rick, a se
nior biology major said too many off
campus students take their safety for
granted.
“First of all, deadbolts and peep
holes are needed because of the ig
norance of the off campus student
who is used to being at home where
the parents are more concerned with
safety,” Rick said.
“It’s scary how many students
have first floor windows open at
night or leave their door unlocked
while getting the mail,” he said.
“They may only be gone five min
utes, but that’s all it takes for some
one to get in.”
Students can also use a window to
identify strangers, but Rick said stu
dents cannot realistically be ex
pected to do this. Students who have
Presidential candidate shares
plight of Guatemalan people
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By Todd Connelley
Of The Battalion Staff
When Father Andres Giron
was a college student he was con
vinced that revolution was the
only way to liberate the people of
Guatemala, until he met Martin
Luther Kingjr.
“I had the privilege of shaking
his hand and becoming his pu
pil,” Giron, presidential candi
date for the 1990 Guatemalan
elections, said. “He changed my
way of thinking and taught me
non-violent methods.”
Giron, who marched with King
in civil rights movements in Mem
phis, spoke to a crowd of about
150 last night in a speech pre
sented by MSC Great Issues.
He hopes to defeat President
Vinicio Cerezo, a Christian Dem
ocrat whose election in 1986
ended 16 years of often oppresive
military rule.
“The change in Guatemala is a
facade,’’Giron said. “The coun
try’s still run by the military. We
have a nominal power and a real
power. I’m going to force open
the door to political change or
make them slam it shut.”
Giron claims the root of the
Father Andres Giron
problems in Guatemala is land
distribution.
“70 percent of the land is
owned by one percent of the pop
ulation. Doctors, military officers
and other rich people own almost
all of the land. Something must
be done about all this,” Giron ex-
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
plained.
And Giron believes he is just
the man to do it.
“When I saw people dying and
starving in my country it changed
my whole concept of w'hat I was
See Giron/Page 12
peepholes use them.
“The odds of students looking out
the door before they open it are
greater if there is a peephole,” he
said.
Rick said that whereas the Resi
dent Hall Association has a more
central role in increasing student
safety, OCA can only appeal to the
city government.
Rick expects the measure to pass
in January.
If passed, students who do not al
ready have peepholes and deadbolts
would receive them in March.
Peepholes cost $3 and are in
stalled in five minutes.
Few students, however, would put
one in themselves, Rick said.
Although Peppertree apartments
manager Josephine Hancock said
peepholes were a good idea, dead
bolts were less important.
“If someone wants to break in,
they will,” she said.
“With or without a deadbolt, it’s
much easier to enter through a win
dow than to break down a door.
(But) personally, I feel much better
with a deadbolt lock.”
Because of the cost and difficulty
of installation, however, deadbolts
may have a more difficult time be
coming an actuality, especially if the
council decides to let residents vote
on the proposals.
If rents increase due to installa
tion of peepholes and deadbolts,
Rick said most rents would not go up
until May.
Because they are easier and
cheaper to implement than the
locks, Rick said OCA anticipates
peepholes being installed first. In
fact, he doesn’t foresee any strong
opposition.
“We hope it doesn’t go to that be
cause students don’t vote,” Rick said.
“But, it is the kind of thing that not
many people would oppose.”
San Francisco death toll reaches 63;
could climb with nine people missing
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Only
nine people remained unaccounted
for Tuesday — one week after
Northern California’s ravaging
earthquake — and geologists pre
dicted a 50-50 chance by Christmas
of a major aftershock capable of
causing considerable damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey on
Tuesday also revised upward the
magnitude of the Oct. 17 quake,
from 6.9 to 7.1 on the Richter scale.
Meanwhile, a $2.85 billion quake
aid bill passed the U.S. House.
Back in California, survivor Buck
Helm’s condition improved to se
rious with his kidney function re
ported normal.
Demolition crews were taking
down sections of Interstate 880,
where Helm was found, in Oakland
for fear still-standing sections of the
elevated, double-deck structure
could tumble like dominoes onto the
1 '/i-mile stretch that collapsed in the
Oct. 17 quake.
The death toll rose to 63 with a
coroner’s discovery of a 39th victim
among the remains dug out of the
rubble of 1-880, which was the first
elevated freeway built in California. “I’m not willing to speculate how
But authorities have been able to many of those nine missing people
account for all but 9 of the 280 re- may or may not be up there,” Wraa
ported missing during the last week,
California Highway Patrol Lt. Kris _ _ . _
Wraa said. See Quake/Page 12
Couple gives $500,000
to College of medicine
The Texas A&M College of Medi
cine received a $1 million endow
ment for research in clinical medi
cine at the Temple campus, the first
endowed chair for the Temple cam
pus.
John L. Cox, of Midland, who
serves on the college’s Advisory
Council and is chairman of the
board of trustees of the Scott &
White Memorial Hospital, and his
wife Maurine, donated $500,000 to
ward the endowment. This was
matched with another $500,000
from A&M’s endowment funding
program.
Billy Rankin, assistant dean of the
College of Medicine, said research
would be funded by the interest
earned after the money is invested.
Rankin said the endowment
would be instrumental in recruiting
faculty and staff for the college.
“These are the kinds of things
that enable schools to attract lead
ers,” he said.