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Page 9 • Wednesday, August 25, 1999
avidiifarmers eye hurricane’s aftermath Movin’ 0 n in
Bret harms cotton, but benefits other rain-deprived crops in Texas
at any pyrotech®
to evidence to su,
echnic devicesweHCORPUS CHRIS PI (AP) — First came
nent on April 19, Onds th at ripped cotton tufts from their
3 rson Myron Mai| nitective locl< - s ancl dragged the delicate
‘e said that allal#P through the dust.
^thpr the t.'Ri ft Then came rain that left entire fields
einer me roi < j i j t.
t day is a m submerged and washed away any hope
v the Texas ri foi a decent market price.Hurricane Bret
nendine fpalpr®y not have lived U P to cataclysmic ex-
i t ti â– ctations, but it whipped up plenty of
cigams ^ rr y for South Texas cotton farmers,
ns ana tamiiiesc«„ It made us sick >. said Bill 0 rdner, who
ventured into his 1,500-acre cotton field
Southwest of Corpus Christi with heavy
â–  1993 tragedy si. i| arl; a f ter t j ie s t 0 rm blew through,
nd-boggling estimates the storm cost him
in the fire. | 0 o,000.
yays been thaltfeB«\y e j ust we nt back home,” he said.
?re that day, CapiB^ej-e’s quite a few depressed farmers
m the agency here now.”
some seriouscnrsB B re t rolled ashore Sunday with drench-
ney have testilieiBg rains and 125-mph winds,
uigress. TheyhaiiByhe storm caused relatively few prob
lems considering its size and strength,
aer people to lerKuckly deteriorating into a tropical storm
hnics used, hesaBat was still soaking western portions of
e right, then - South Texas yesterday.
problems i
ilify evidences:
' a stricter star:
summary judge
endants.
Laredo and other cities in the region
had braced for flooding, but the antici-
â– ted deluge never arrived for most areas.
Only minor spot flooding was reported.
“It was not as bad as we thought it was
to be,” Laredo spokesperson Jerry
(firza said. “We were well-prepared, and
these two factors played a role.”
â–  Agriculture officials said growers
around Corpus Christi lost nearly half the
cotton left in the fields before Bret.
And because of the rain, which discol
ors cotton a dingy brown, what remains
is worth less.
“[The hurricane] was not
as bad as we thought it
was going to be”
— Jerry Garza
Laredo spokesperson
Farmers might as well kiss the wet cot
ton goodbye, said John Norman, a Texas
A&M agriculture specialist in Weslaco.
“It’ll sprout and rot and basically be of
no use,” he said.
Fred Burkhart said the storm cut his ex
pected cotton yield on his 500 acres in
half. The loss is particularly hard, he said,
because this year’s crop had been the best
he has ever seen.
The bumper crop was going to help
him overcome market prices that, at $250
per bale, are lower than in past years.
“The price wasn’t good but it was go
ing to make up it for in yield,” Burkhart
said.
Much of the damage was west of Cor
pus Christi. To the south, into the Rio
Grande Valley, farmers fared better because
most had already finished their harvests.
Bret was not bad news for everyone.
Some South Texas farmers, notably citrus
growers, have been praying for rain to end
months of drought.
“This is probably the best thing that
could have happened to the citrus indus
try,” Pat Walsh, owner of Mission Ship
pers, told The Monitor in McAllen. “The
fruit is going to be larger than normal.
That benefits the grower because you get
more weight.”
Walsh estimated 3 inches of rain fell on
his groves in Mission over the weekend.
Jay Johnson, farm manager for Planta
tion Produce, said his fields of bell pep
pers, cabbage, parsley and knob onions
benefited from the weekend’s rain, al
though muddy fields will delay further
planting of cabbage.
Sugarcane fields also will benefit from
the rain, building up the plants before the
harvest begins in October. Rainwater is
better than irrigation water for the plants
because it has less salt content.
Most livestock also have easily weath
ered the storms, said Dr. Joe Paschal, a
Corpus Christi livestock specialist with the
Texas Agricultural Extension Service.
“The cattle can hide deep in the brush
and most calves are pretty big by now, so
they were okay,” he said.
Paschal said cattle are unique because
they will drift with a storm, unlike hors
es, which will wander around aimlessly
in the storm.
Suspect in girl’s disappearance employee of school
idded, “This i
:onsumers and:
tiave nothing io :â– 
1 10 1 Jkrt Worth officials unaware of man's past employed him as elementary students' crossing guard
CODY WAGES/The Battalion
Joe Niven, a sophomore journalism major, moves into Appelt Hall Tuesday after
noon. Niven said he is eagerly awaiting the upcoming semester.
Supreme Counts
there on a quesfl FORT WORTH (AP) — The
'pretationisgoicBan accused in the disappear-
â– ice of 6-year-old Opal Jen-
tch, in its annuaiBngs worked as a crossing
sions, said injitiHjard at an elementary school
others suing tB Fort Worth for four months in
iges or physical: 1995, according to a published
is inchupto27»port.
jgust 1998 anfl The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
4 percent thepisBported today that convicted
Ichild molester Richard "Ricky”
Hranks, who pleaded guilty in
1|991 in Wise County in a case
f volving a young girl, was
red to work from May 1995
itil September 1995 as a cross-
ig guard at J.T. Stevens Ele-
lentary School.
iod.
Fort Worth police
spokesperson Lt. Ric Clark
confirmed that Franks was
hired.
Capt. Michael Baldwin, su
pervisor of the police depart
ment’s traffic division said
crossing guards are temporary
city employees and are subject
to local and state criminal
background checks.
Clark said a check of
Franks’ state criminal history
still reveals no arrests or con-
victions from Wise County so
it is likely it was not on the
database in 1995.
He said Franks would not
have been hired if officers had
known about the record.
Court records show that at
the time Franks was hired, he
was not prohibited from having
contact with children. But in
June 1996, the terms of his pro
bation were changed to forbid
contact with children under 17.
Wise County Deputy Chief
Doug Whitehead said he has
no idea why Franks’ arrest was
not recorded by the state.
"We do report to DPS,”
Whitehead said.
"But that is nine years ago.
I do not have the answer at this
time why it does now show
that arrest and conviction.”
Franks has been charged
with kidnapping and indecen
cy with a child and is being
held in the Tarrant County Jail
in lieu of $1.5 million bond.
FBI agents searched Franks’
home on Monday in an at
tempt to find evidence, author
ities said. Agents and others
have conducted extensive
searches in areas near Saginaw
after Franks was arrested.
The girl has been missing
since March 26 when she van
ished while playing in her
front yard in the Fort Worth
suburb.
New 911 system to enhance emergency services
AUSTIN (AP) — A new emergency data
base system that will provide 911 service to
wireless customers has been successfully
tested, SCC Communications said.
The company said yesterday the Texas
Commission on State Emergency Commu
nications approved its enhanced 911 pilot
program.
SCC can now begin providing the en
hanced system statewide.
‘‘The pilot helped prove that SCC has
the technological savvy and expertise
needed to increase the reliability of our 911
database and that’s what we’ve wanted all
along,” said Carey Spence, deputy director
of the commission, which manages the
state’s 911 system.
The testing was the source of conflict
between the company and Southwestern
Bell, which had been reluctant to allow
them.
As a part of the testing SCC proved that
its database — which includes a list of
phone customers’ names, addresses and
phone numbers — works with Bell’s net
work.
The new database will be used in the
state’s plan for wireless phone customers
to have the same 911 protections as those
provided for wired phones.
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