THE BEHREND BEACON Death toll from Mexico floods could reach 600; over 200,000 left homeless by Ricardo Sandoval Knight-Ridder Nevpaper Oetoher 12. 1999 NIEXICO CITY continue to unearth holies after last week's tragic flooding, politicians here are facing tough questions ahout why they have permitted flimsy neighborhoods of tin and laminate shacks to spring up in city after city, leaving thousands of poor Mexicans vulnerable to nature's After a week of hard rains turned dry riverbeds into torrents, hillsides stripped of trees and brush gave way and rivers rose over their banks, leaving whole cities and ru ral valleys throughout southeastern Mexico under water and mud. Uncoil Firmed reports say the death toll could reach 600. More th an 200,000 people remain home less, and dozens of roads and bridges are closed. Rain from a new hand of storm clouds Dell Mon day in southern Mexico. Further threatening towns along the Pacilie coast. The disaster ranks as one of the worst in decades for a country Mill reeling from a major earthquake earlier this month and disastrous floodine. in 1997 and 1998 events that killed 1.500 and crippled several cities. Mexican officials face a possible political disaster, too. Opposition politicians and engineering experts say enough is enough, and that pour and working-class Mexicans must no lomier he allowed to homestead in floodplains and on unprotected hillsides. Nis is not nev,, - said Estivlla Vasquez, a Conges , ,wornan from the )1 - )poition Part, of the I)emo cratie Re\ olution aml ranking U.S. offers aid to Russia on radar site by Steven Nlufson and Bradley Graham The Washington Post WASHINGTON -- The Clinton ad ministration has ollered to help Rus sia complete a ke . \,, radar site. Also it oltered to share more Aink:rican ra dar data if Russia agrees to renego tiate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty so that the United States could build a national missile delense s}stem, senior administration official said Saturday. In a project that would cost tens of millions of dollars, the United States would help Russia complete a partially constructed radar site near the Siberian city of Irkutsk that is oriented eastward, covering north ern Asia, North Korea. and parts of the North Pole. Russia might also he given access to data from U.S. early warning radars on the full trajectory' of missile launches, and the two countries might collaborate on sonic satellite systems. Together with the Senate's defeat last week of a treaty banning nuclear test explosions, the attempt to modify the 27-year-old ABM treaty is a sign of tremendous ferment in the realm of arms control• The collapse of the Soviet Union, the advent of new technology and the rise of missile threats from coun tries such as North Korea. Iraq and Iran are pushing Cold War-era agree ments toward obsolescence. Wary of tearing up the entire quilt of agree ments that took decades to negoti ate, however, the Clinton adminis tration is trying to keep Russia as a partner in the process of developing a system to shoot down incoming missiles. "We've raised with them a num ber of cooperative activities to show that we see this as a threat that af fects both countries," said a senior WORLD AND NATION member of the legislature's Civil Protection Committee. "What's new is the radical increase in rain. and that's focusing attention on some thing politicians have allowed for \~ rescuers decades After Hurricane Pauline killed at least 400 people in Acapulco in 1997. Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo promised to crack down on politicians who had allowed home construction along riverheds and ecologically sensitive hillsides over looking that Pacific coast resort city. Some low-ranking politicians were construction site ejected from office. mid others faced At a press conference to present criminal charges. the government's response to administiation - We don't see this its anything 'against Russia. and we're to look at a whole range of cooperiake Ille'astireS that would address the saline rogue threat we're concerned ;.thout." The Older. Illade inore than a month ago and lit t rt.morted in the early edi tions of Sundae's New }/or k limes, is con,i,tent ith ezu her stateittent the "We're not at the point where we have substantial feedback from the Russians that any of these proposals might bear fruit." -A U.S. official administration has made about find ing ways to win Moscow's support for national missile defense. Such a system, administration officials say, would provide a limited defense ori ented primarily toward rogue states, not Russia. American assistance for other ra dar arrays in the former Soviet Union was also discussed, although the sta tion in Mishelevka, near Irkutsk, was the only one discussed in detail. Although the Russian government has officially rejected U.S. propos als to renegotiate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, it has nonetheless agreed to listen to American ideas. The latest round of talks took place OCTOBER 22, 1999 Yet homes have since been re built in the same areas, and little has been done to stop such construction elsewhere That was the case in Teziutlan, where at least 125 bodies have been recovered from just one neighbor hood buried by a mudslide last week. Many residents of that neigh borhood worked for garment fac tories that stitch clothes for U.S. companies. It is unclear whether their homes, below a cemetery high above the town, were on a legal last week, and the United States has not yet received a Russian response. To improve the chances that the Russians will go along, the adminis tration decided last month to ask ini tially tor modest changes in the ABM treaty, rather than seeking wholesale re‘isions, as some Republicans in Congress have advocated. U.S. negotiators are trying to con vince Russian counterparts they have a common interest in guarding against rogue states that have greater and greater capabilities for launching intercontinental missiles capable of hitting either Russia or the United States. The United States believes it would benefit from Russian radar data covering countries such as Iran and North Korea, and believes it can offer valuable information in return. "We've been doing a lot of very blue-sky thinking about what kinds of cooperation might conceivably be possible, - another senior administra tion official said. "We've told the Rus sians we're prepared to be pretty far reaching in cooperation." The United States has given the Russians a list of several potential areas of cooperation, some of which would represent an expansion of ex isting programs and others of which would break new ground. In addition to completing the radar at Mishelevka, the administration has offered joint computer simulations of antimissile systems and collaboration in deploying satellite systems. The United States also has sug gested expanding the agreement reached a year ago to share data from U.S. early-warning radar stations. Another possibility, which remains a subject of intense debate inside the administration, would involve offer ing to help Russia regain use of a ra dar in Lyaki, Azerbaijan, that covers some Middle Eastern nations. "We're not at the point where we have substantial feedback from the Mexico's latest natural disaster, Interior Minister Diodoro Carrasco bristled at criticism of the government's presumed role in such tragedies, calling it politi cal opportunism without "genu ine concern" for people who've lost family and homes. But it's not just the political op position that is slamming the rul ing Institutional Revolutionary Party for allowing uncontrolled growth in risky zones. "Politicians won't respond to this chronic problem until it hit,t them directly," said Alberto Ar royo Montes de Oca, an engineer with Grupo Roche Syntex in Mexico City. Typically, a local political or la bor union boss will encourage poor people to build homes on empty ground to enhance his power base. Around Mexico City. entire suburbs have sprung up in this fashion, denuding hillsides and filling floodplains. Monies de Oca said the poor chase off politicians who try to evict them from dangerous zones by asking, "Where will we build instead'?" It's difficult, he said, for politicians to dislodge people without any place to put them. Congresswoman Vasquez said opposition leaders already have won approval for changes in the Mexican constitution, giving leg islators more say in where hous ing is built and how local com munities prepare for disasters. Those decisions are now in the hands of federal bureaucrats. "My party is guilty too, hut it's important to change how we look at housing to avoid yearly disas ters, now that nature is hitting us hard year after year," she said. Russians that any of these propos als might hear fruit, - a U.S. offi cial said. The American negotiators have cited conflicts in the Muslim re publics and territories along Russia's southern border as one reason why Russia should he in terested in guarding against launches. This is not the first time the United States and Russia have dis cussed sharing radar information. Talks about sharing data on mis sile launches began late in the Bush presidency. But the issue has taken on greater urgency because of American plans for moving ahead with national missile defense. The Clinton administration has said it will decide next June whether to move ahead with the first phase of the system, which would consist of 100 missile inter ceptors based in Alaska. The sec ond would involve expansion to a second site in the continental United States and a total of more than 200 interceptors. One of Russia's concerns, ac cording to an administration offi cial, is the possibility the system might be expanded. At the mo ment, it will be a challenge for U.S. technology to intercept even a small number of missiles, and im possible to shoot down the hun dreds of missiles that Russia might launch at once. Thus, the U.S. ne gotiators argue, the missile defense system would not decrease Russia's nuclear deterrence against the United States. Russian negotiators, however, want assurances against a "breakout in capacity from limited to something much bigger" that would be capable of knocking down scores of missiles, the ad ministration official said. Derailment damage kept to a minimum by Douglas P. Shuit LOS ANGELES -- With more than 200 freight trains moving in and out of Southern California each day, Saturday's 7.0 quake had the poten tial to paralyze traffic from one of the United States' busiest rail hubs. Aside from derailment of the Amtrak passenger train, which caused the shutdown of a twin set of eastbound and westbound tracks, the earthquake caused relatively little dis ruption to rail traffic. Union Pacific operates 110 to 120 freight trains in the Los Angeles area every day, and the Burlington, North ern, and Santa Fe Railway runs an other 75 freight trains daily through its Barstow switching yard. Union Pacific trains were halted while crews inspected tracks, then began rolling again. Burlington, Northern and Santa Fe trains faced longer delays because the disruption was caused on its main lines into and out of Los Angeles. "We had to stop the trains for a while while we inspected the tracks, hut that was all, - said Mike Furtney, a spokesman for Union Pacific. Burlington, Northern and Santa Fe hoped to have repairs completed to the damaged track and trains running in both directions by early Sunday. All of Burlington. Northern and Santa Fe's trains were put on hold, - causing substantial delays, pending inspection of the tracks, said Lena Kent, a spokeswoman for the rail road. Heavy equipment, including a 125- ton crane, and work crews began moving to the area about eight miles west of Ludlow to repair the tracks soon alter the derailment. The Amtrak cars were said to have suffered mini mal damage. The crane was able to literally lift the cars up and place them down on undamaged track. "We plan to work around the clock until we have the tracks repaired, - Kent said. Union Pacific and Burlington, Northern and Santa Fe operate a state of-the-art computerized communica tions center in San Bernardino. Out fitted with sensitive seismological equipment, train system operators know immediate' when there is a Bush as the `artful dodger' by Terry M. Neal The Washington Post Gov. George W. Bush's GOP rivals have found him harder to corner than Oscar Dc La Hoya, the boxer Who lost his title belt last month after using an evasive strategy against his opponent. Steve Forbes and Gary Bauer have been particularly vocal, accusing Bush of ducking the competition. The Bush campaign had resisted any plans to put their guy on the same stage as his Re publican opponents until mid-January in lowa, just days before the nominat ing contests begin. But this past week, Bush reversed course and announced that he would attend a Dec. 2 candi dates forum sponsored by WM UR-TV in Manchester, N.H. Still, Bush will skip forums in New Hampshire this Friday and next Friday. But he won't be skipping New Hamp shire. He will campaign there at week's end -- that is, until the night of the de bate, when he will dip over to Vermont for a campaign fund-raiser. "Governor Bush's decision to duck debates in New Hampshire this month is wrong," Forbes said. "Is Governor Bush afraid the American people will find out what each candidate stands for? 'Don't ask, don't tell' is no way to run a presidential campaign. The American people deserve better." Bush's reluctance to debate hasn't hurt him much with New Hampshire voters. But it hasn't helped him either. A Zogby International poll puts his support at 40 percent in the state, about where it has been for months. The big mover is Arizona Sen. John McCain, major earthquake. Once a major earth quake is detected. trains are ordered to stop at once, pending an inspection of the tracks. Kent said. Saturday's quake hit before a warn ing could he issued. The relative lack of major disrup tion is in keeping with the generally good record railroads have of main taining serv ice during past California earthquakes. even as those quakes took heavy tolls on bridges and free ways. San Francisco's rapid transit rail system played a critical role moving commuters in and out of the city alter the 1989 Northern California earth quake caused the collapse of the Nimitz Freeway and part of the Bay Bridge. Southern California railroad offi cials said this was the first derailment they could recall that was caused by an earthquake. Amtrak said it was forced to cancel only one other train: a passenger train scheduled to leave Los Angeles for Chicago Saturday night. An east bound train en route to San Antonio, Texas, Saturday morning was delayed 3 hours while crews inspected tracks for damage. Amtrak hoped to resume service to and from Chicago Sunday. Amtrak said other passenger rail lines in and out of Los Angeles continued to op erate Saturday. Four persons were injured in Saturday's Amtrak derailment, hut railroad officials said the number of injuries might have been much higher had the Southwest Chief not been slowed down by a freight train run ning on the tracks ahead of it. Normally, the Southwest Chief would have been running through the Mojave Desert at its allowed speed of 90 mph. But it was operating at 60 mph when the quake hit because of a Burlington, Northern and Santa Fe Railway freight train running ahead of it. "We were very fortunate," said Amtrak spokesman Ray Lang. The violent shaking knocked 21 of the 24 cars off the tracks, including all 12 of the freight cars, many of which were carrying U.S. mail, attached io the back end of the train. whose support has steadily risen. He is in second place, with 21 percent, followed by Forbes at 12 percent and Elizabeth Dole at 7 percent. McCain spokesman Todd Harris credited McCain's extensive retail politicking -- in the past eight months, he has spent 28 days campaigning in the state -- for his improved showing. "Governor Bush's decision to duck debates in New Hamp shire this month is wrong." -Steve Forbes presidential candidate Bush spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said criticism from Bush's rivals had nothing to do with his decision to at tend the December forum. "The gov ernor has said all along that he was looking forward to debating," she said. "The primaries are moving earlier and earlier, and we wanted to make sure there was ample time for voters to see the candidates in debates." PAGE 6
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