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s P0R]jj A TlON 1 Tali the battalion Monday, June 24, 2002 Wildfires continue to burn in western U.S. \£m SHOW LOW, Ariz. (AP) — Two mammoth wildfires raged unchecked Brough paper-dry forest Sunday, 2 20 seir th reatening to join in a 50-mile-long it clair line of flames and burn right into this >ts. town of 7,700 people, ineup iy The blazes already had destroyed v erse sii about 185 homes elsewhere in the high- was pb lands of eastern Arizona, and as many whentjjl 25,000 people had fled more than m (Uni half a dozen towns, including Show Amenc.: Low. iguay) T “It’s gut-wrenching watching this 'ugoslav plume of smoke come up over us and Biowing what’s behind it and knowing s after: wliat it’s going to do to our communi- iree coiiM,” said Show Low Police Chief John opresemBorder. “My house is Mobably going to be one to be the of the first houses to go.” h Korea B Firefighters braced to means Itfend neighborhoods on or theloBie west side of town, rst rotirJ “This is going to be a lamed tjiugh day,” said fire _ okesman Jim Paxon. final irea? \V- mol Gc.f In west Show Low, ess WortBhere an estimated 80 J succeBercent of residents live, ipact. | wall of smoke hovered he big: Over treetops near the - exclusive community of w “We’re going to get beat I up pretty hard.” I in west Show Its gut-wrenching watching this plume of smoke come up over us and knowing what it's going to do to our community. — John Corder Show Low police chief mt. but* e the fin lot in or upset tit m Tuesi st. next >:r e to pla* Torreon, a lated subdivision on a golf course. I “Torreon’s going to be a wasteland ich Goif'hen this is over,” said police officer the undfAllan Meyer, himself a resident of west Bhow Low. I Most of the community was a virtu al ghost town by afternoon. All the new cars had been moved off the lot of a ■byota dealership and stores stood empty. Cars, pickups and RV’s covered he. ox the parking lot of a K-Mart and Family ung dot' Dollar, a safehouse of sorts for aban- se.Wer doned family vehicles. ! The wildfires had burned more than 293,000 acres by Sunday. Afternoon temperatures were expected to reach the 90s, with single-digit humidity and shifting wind that was expected to fur ther fan the flames. As flames overran Heber- Overgaard, 35 miles west of Show Low, on Saturday, firefighters were able to save a large number of houses with help from air tankers that had dropped /Tame-retardant slurry directly on fooftops Paxon said. Seventy homes purned there, he said. ; Firefighters likely couldn’t stop Hlames from entering Show Low, either, said Larry Humphrey, the incident commander. Their plan called for pulling back, letting the fire hit and then fighting where they could. pan I “We’ll spend our time on the ones we can possibly save,” Humphrey said. “It’s a tough call, but we have to make it.” Show Low’s residents were ordered out late Saturday after flames leaped a firebreak that crews had bulldozed about eight miles west of town, and the 3,500 residents of neighboring Pinetop- Lakeside followed early Sunday. The two wildfires had earlier over run parts of the evacuated towns of Pinedale and Clay Springs, and late Saturday, flames jumped a bulldozed firebreak and entered Heber-Overgaard, an already-evacuated community of 2,700. The area, popular with hikers and Phoenix-area residents who have built second homes to escape the desert heat, is covered with pinon, juniper and pine trees made explo sively dry by years of drought. Paxon said prelimi nary counts showed 1 15 homes had burned in towns just west of Show Low in a wild- fire that exploded in size after starting Tuesday. It was thought to be human-caused, although authorities didn’t know whether it was an accident or arson. Seventy others were burned by a smaller fire started Thursday by a lost hiker trying to signal for help. More than 3,000 evacuees had regis tered at a shelter in Eagar, where cots covered the artificial turf of a domed high school football stadium, said National Guard Maj. William Wilhoit. Show Low resident Melissa Walker had parked her motor home outside the Eagar shelter. “This is probably going to drive everybody out,” Walker said of her hometown. “Our livelihood depends on everyone else’s livelihood. The econo my is going to crash.” Across the West, 17 large fires were burning on 721,806 acres in seven states on Sunday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In Colorado, crews fought a 67,700- acre blaze that had destroyed 45 homes in the southwestern corner of the state. A larger, 137,000-acre blaze south of Denver had destroyed at least 1 14 homes and was 60 percent contained. The National Interagency Fire Center said about 2,300 people remained under evacuation orders, down from 8,900 last week. KRT CAMPUS Firefighters from North Teller County mop up hot spots from the Hayman fire in Rainbow Falls Park, Colorado over the weekend. For Arizona fire evacuees, hope fades as days pass EAGAR, Ariz. (AP) — The woman in the plaid sun dress apologized as she brushed tears from her face. For four days, Melissa Walker had put up a brave front — for her children, her friends, herself. On Sunday that courage collapsed, trampled by the savage wildfire on a destruc tive march toward her home. “This happens to other people,” Walker said in dis belief as she wandered through a domed football stadium that had been turned into a Red Cross shelter 45 miles from her house in Show Low. “You just never think this is going to happen to you.” She is just one among 25,000 people forced to flee as two wildfires surged through drought-ravaged forests on a collision course with a half-dozen towns in eastern Arizona. Many stayed with family and friends, or even strangers who opened their doors, and most hotels in towns within an hours drive of the area were booked. Yet more than 2,000 people sought refuge at three shel ters on the outskirts of the destruction, anxiously await ing word. One by one, they flooded into high schools turned temporary homes, clutching keepsakes they feared could be all they have left. They cried and sought comfort in one another — friends, neighbors, strangers brought together by disaster and held together by hope. “People are nervous and teary, not knowing what to expect — not even knowing where to go,” said Marilyn Scher, who left her home in Pinetop on Thursday morning. Since then, she has been helping to register other evacuees at the Eagar shel ter, where the displaced sleep on cots in the middle of a domed football field. A large screen TV offers con stant updates on the fire, Wildfires threaten to merge As wildfires continued to bum throughout the west on Sunday, two Arizona wildfires threatened to join in a 50-mile long line of flames. The blazes already had burned more than 293,000 acres. Wildfire acreage ak 10.000 or less ^ 10,001 to 50.000 Over 50,000 IDAHO WYO. * 150 mi NEV. UTAH ▲ CALIF. ARIZ. * ah Pacific Ocean £ Current as of June 23 0 150 km Hayman ^ A' COLO. 4 * N.M. Jt Rodeo SOURCES: NIFC: Associated Press: ESRI while a nearby basketball court provides a much-need distraction for children. Walker, 40, had noticed the darkening sky as she walked out of a Wal-Mart store on Tuesday. That night, as the smoke drifted closer to Show Low, her family started packing their motorhome with photos and clothes, even business files from the computer. Twenty-four hours later. Walker, her husband and three teen-age children set up camp in the parking lot of the shelter at Round Valley High School, watching help lessly as the flames and smoke advanced on their town. al-Qaida appears to be regrouping with or without bin Laden I WASHINGTON (AP) — Al- ffiaida terrorists appear to be ^grouping as a lethal threat with II without Osama bin Laden, con gressional leaders said Sunday. 1 Lawmakers cited recently pub- p licized warnings from U.S. offi- ‘ Bals and a bin Laden spokesman to underscore the persistent dan- g to'* r from terrorists chased from )rdinaffl e fr Afghan havens. as |,o( They appear to be more capa- ancelefi 6 °f attacking Americans than gjngB^y were a month or two ago, GauJaid Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., I nif' Cllairrnan the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said bin Laden might be in Pakistan’s western tribal lands. ■ NCA Added Sen. Richard Shelby of hed i Alabama, the committee’s top NCA! Republican, “They could hit us any day.” The senators offered no evi dence of an impending attack other than the uncorroborated warnings issued lately, including one that al-Qaida could use fuel tanker trucks against Jewish inter ests in America. But with the approach of Independence Day, an attractive target day for terrorists, forebod ing was heard throughout the Sunday talk show circuit. “They would love the symbol ism” of attacking on July Fourth, said House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. “We must be doubly alert on that day.” It was left to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sound a note of confidence about the progress made against al-Qaida and the Taliban both. “They are a defeated force,” he said on CNN’s ‘‘Late Edition.’’ “They are on the run.” Individuals might be plot ting terrorism but basically, “they’re crimi nals in hid ing.” — Officials have not established the authen ticity of an audio interview made u They would love the symbolism [of attacking on July 4th.] We must be doubly alert on that day. — Dick Armey House Majority Leader public on the weekend in which bin Laden associate Sulaiman Abu Ghaith says the al-Qaida leader and most other top fig ures in the network are alive, well and ready to attack again. “Lot of bravado there,” said Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, noting bin Laden did not look well at all when last seen on video. Karzai said dis- missively of bin Laden, “his days are anyway numbered.” But Graham, for one, put some stock in the claims. “It’s not sur prising that there is a statement that bin Laden is still alive,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “That’s the best assessment of U.S. intelligence.” Regardless of bin Laden’s fate, al-Qaida appears to be regenerat ing, he said, and even the Hamburg, Germany, cell believed central to the Sept. 1 1 attacks has been showing signs of life. “What we have seen is a dis turbing pattern of the reformula tion of al-Qaida and their renewed willingness and capability to con duct terrorist attacks.” Bush administration officials have pointed to numerous indica tions of al-Qaida activity but questioned whether the network still has the command structure or communications to plan some thing from the top. They believe midlevel opera tives are having to do their own hasty planning with whatever tools they can muster, and the result could be more frequent but less sophisticated attacks than before. A White House official speak ing on condition of anonymity said the administration viewed the Ghaith remarks as no surprise, but would not comment on whether bin Laden may be alive or on the likelihood of a new attack. Lawmakers said al-Qaida does not need bin Laden in order to go on. il ram Iropfl on. in cat ir tel mtiofl n S3 1 Si tl; 3 nd th[ vvhid of Texas ioney iP p jt was , Kn# jlancfc i unday- WHAT WOULD A REAL MAN DO? Men Helping Men Find Answers Free Pregnancy Test for Your Partner All Services Free & Confidential Open Mon-Fri 9-5 & some evenings & Saturdays Call for an appointment 695-9193 846-1097 205 Brentwood 3620 E. 29thi St. College Station Bryan # Radio news from the newsroom of THE BATTALION campus and community news 1:57 p.m. Monday through Friday on KAMU-FM 90.9 College Station / Bryan IMMANUEL & HELEN OLSHAN TEXAS MUSIC FESTIVAL JUNE 3 MOORES SCHOOL OF MUSIC JUNE 24, 2002 UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON TICKETS! 845-1234 Student $5 - Regular $10 Around the World in 30 Days! ‘American Masterpieces JAZZ!” Monday, June 24, 7:30pm Chamber Concert Bush Conference Center American Masterpieces is devoted to America's greatest contribution to music: /AZZ/ Noe Marmolejo and the TMF Jazz Project Band track the music and influences of jazz greats Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Stan Kenton and others.
