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Thousands flee homes
Appalachia hit by floods
Rain-swollen rivers inundated towns
in the hilly Appalachians yesterday,
cutting communications and forcing
thousands to evacuate or wait for
rescue.
Rain and wind storms have killed at
least 28 persons in the region.
The worst flooding was in southern
West Virginia and eastern Kentucky,
where the Cumberland, Big Sandy and
Kentucky rivers topped flood-walls built
to protect cities.
“This will be the highest flood ever
recorded on the upper Cumberland,” the
National Weather Service said.
“I’d say it’s the worst in 40 years,"
said Lou Bondurant, a Red Cross
spokesman in Louisville. “Hundreds of
people are being taken to shelters.
Thousands of people are out of their
homes.”
The flooding Tug Fork, a tributary of
the Big Sandy, forced the 500 residents of
the town of Matewan, near Williamson
on the Kentucky border, to flee their
homes. Some were reported trapped
Pilot tried
NEW HOPE, Ga. (AP) — The pilot of a
DC-9 jet, his two engines out and his
windshield cracked in a violent storm,
made a heroic effort to avoid a crash
that left at least 68 dead, federal in
vestigators said yesterday.
The pilot glided three or four minutes
after warning the passengers they would
crash.
He was told to try for a nearby
military base, but he knew he.couldn’t
make it.
So he concentrated his last, desperate
hope on a rural road.
Investigator Rudy Kapustin called it
“a hell of a try.”
Despite it, the jetliner slammed into
trees, cars and a grocery store and then
exploded and burned in the woods of this
small, north Georgia town about 35 miles
northwest of Atlanta.
Sixty of the 85 passengers and crew
aboard , Southern Airways’ Flight. 242
from Huntsville, Ala., to Atlanta died in
the wreckage Monday. Eight people on
the ground also were killed.
At least two dozen injured were taken
to five hospitals.
Some families may lose aid
Food stamps program proposed
WASHINGTON (AP) President Carter asked Congress
yesterday to stop charging food stamp recipients for the
stamps. ,
But about $450 million in food stamp aid to families with
incomes above the poverty lines would be taken'away under
Carter’s proposal.
The President promised to veto any congressional changes
in his proposal that would increase by more than $lOO million a
year the program’s current projected budget of about $5.5
billion annually.
The authorizing legislation for the program, which now
helps about 5.44 million families buy groceries each month,
expires Sept. 30. Two congressional committees have until
May 15 to decide what kind of new program to approve.
Agriculture Secretary Bob Bergland told the House
Agriculture Committee that Carter’s two-year proposal is
fiscally responsible, would benefit the truly needy, help
reduce fraud and curtail paperwork for recipients and local
welfare offices.
After two years, he said, reform of all federal welfare
programs should be on its way “and that will be the end of the
food stamp program as we now know it.”
On the average, an eligible family now has to pay about 44
cents for every $1 in food stamps. Those with incomes below
$3O a month already get the aid free.
For ecample, a three-person family now has an allotment of
$l3O a month in stamps but must pay $57 a month for them.
Under the Carter plan, it would simply get about $73 in
stamps. It wouldn’t pay anything.
Carter plans to battle inflation
WASHINGTON (UPI) The Carter
administration may be planning to
“jawbone” both business and labor to
head off possible inflation resulting from
the severe winter weather, Senate
Democratic whip Alan Cranston said
yesterday.
After a morning meeting among
Democratic congressional leaders,
Carter, economic advisor Charles
Schultze and budget director Bert
Lance, Cranston said there, were in
dications the administration wants to
discuss with business and labor any
inflation actions they may be planning.
But he said there was no “arm twisting”
in mind.
' For its own part, the administration
will cope with unexpected economic
downturns restricting inflationary
White House undecided on Sadat military aid bid
WASHINGTON (UPI) President
Anwar Sadat put Egypt’s bid for U.S.
military aid directly to President Carter
and congressional leaders yesterday,
but White House spokesmen said he won
“no commitments or decisions.”
White House officials also said Sadat
endorsed U.S. opposition to “in
terference from non-African powers” in
African disputes. American criticism in
that area has been aimed at the Soviet
yesterday on upper floors of taller
structures.
A reporter who reached Matewan
yesterday afternoon reported a few two
story houses poking above the water but
the rest of the town completely covered.
Many houses had tipped over.
T.I. Varney, a former West Virginia
legislator, said the flood meant the end
of the town. '
“I don’t believe there’ll be any fixing
back. I believe this iafiriished,” he said.
Wilson Cisco spent the night in a boat
rescuing stranded Matewan residents.
“They were screaming and hollering all
-over the place,” he said.
The flooding killed at least four per
sons in Kentucky, two in West Virginia
and two in Virginia; an additional five
persons were reported missing in
Virginia before cdmmunications were
lost in flooded areas.
Patients at a hospital in Welch, W. Va.,
were moved to upper floors when the
Tug Fork poured into the town, flooding
the first floor. Methodist Hospital in
vainly to avert crash
The pilot, Capt. William W. McKenzie,
54, of La Place, La., died, as did First
Officer Lyman Keele, 34, of East Point,
Ga.
Kapustin was a member of an eight
member National Transportation Safety
Board team sent to the scene. Among the
questions to be answered was why both
jet engines had failed.
“It was an. apparently severe thun
derstorm .. . the hail really got
bad . . . Lightning 'struck the left wing
tip ... I believe the hail being ingested
in the engine is what brought it down,”
said passenger Don Foster, a licensed
pilot from Decatur, Ala.
But an investigative coordinator for
the Federal Aviation Administration,
Bill Ayton, questioned whether the hail
was at fault.
“I would speculate that the hailstones
probably had little or no effect on
flameout of the engine,” he said. “It was
probably caused by heavy,
precipitation.” Flameouts are usually
caused by air turbulence or by a large
amount of water in the engines, he said.
“We know that he was,in a heavy rain
government actions such as over
regulation and under-enforcement of
antitrust laws, the California senator
quoted Schultze as saying.
Cranston said passing the $5O rebate
for most taxpayers, the keystone of
Carter’s economic stimulus package,
will be “a tough fight but, in our view, a
winnable fight”
Many senators, however, are ready to
oppose the rebates unles Carter backs
down on his review of certain water
projects around the country.
And on Capitol Hill, Senate majority
leader Robert Byrd told reporters
Carter perhaps should abandon the
rebate, “a battle the President can do
without and not one; that is winnable.
. . . As of today it would not pass,” he
said.
Asked if it is fair to hold the rebate
Union and Cuba, although the thrust of
Sadat’s commitment was left vague.
The Egyptian president made his pitch
for a share of U.S. weapons sales both at
the White House and on Capitol Hill in
concluding two days of official talks with
U.S. leaders.
Carter pronounced himself “very
pleased" with the “personal friendship”
he established with Sadat, who leaves
Washington today, and White House
Coming up with the necessary cash is the major barrier for
the 50 per cent of eligible families that don’t now participate in
the food stamp program, Bergland said. About 10 per cent
more of the eligible families would participate if the cash
requirement were dropped, he predicted
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Herman E.
Talmade, D-Ga., is strongly opposed to, dropping the cash
requirement.
Bergland said the Carter plan would:
Brihg into the program about 880,000 households that
don’t have the cash now to obtain the coupons. They would
come from the ranks of the elderly, the disabled, rural
residents in the South and those on welfare in states with low
assistance levels.
Reduce the rolls by about 600,000 families, all of them
among the 13 per cent of recipients with gross incomes above
the official poverty lines. Some would quit because of sharply
reduced benefits at that level.
Reduce benefits to about 1.58 million families by more
than $5 a month. The average household now gets about $72 a
month in benefits.
Maintain or slightly increase benefits for the remaining
3.26 million families among the present recipients.
—, Use the $450 million taken from those who leave to pay
for those attracted by the dropping of the purchase-price
barrier.
In the end, he said, only 5 per cent of the caseload would
have gross incomes above the poverty lines.
Pikeville, Ky., on the Big Sandy, was
surrounded by water, and emergency
patients had to be brought in by boat.
Pineville, Ky., a town of nearly 3,000.
was reported covered by 15 feet of water
after the Cumberland rose 18 feet above
flood stage and poured over the flood
wall.
Williamson, W.Va., with 12,000 resi
dents, was completely cut off from the
outside world except for a radio in a for
est lookout tower. The weather service
predicted a flood crest there of 52-54 feet,
25-27 feet above flood stage and 10 feet
above 1963’s record crest.
The governors of Virginia and Ken
tucky declared disaster areas in their
states.
The flooding was caused by nearly five
inches of rainfall which the National
feather Service said would be followed
by temperatures in the 30s. In both
Kentucky and West Virginia, a chance of
snow and below freezing weather were
forecast for Wednesday.
at the time,” Ay ton added.
The investigators recovered from the
wreckage the cockpit voice recorder and
the “black box” which records technical
flight data. The devices were sent to
Washington for analysis.
Francis McAdams, the head of the
federal investigative team, said a
transcript of the conversation was ex
pected soon, but a readout of the
technical data would take more time.
“We’ll move the engines as soon as
possible,” McAdams added, “and take
them where we can tear them down and
examine them.” Work crews and heavy:
equipment were being called in to move
debris.
Also at the crash site were
representatives from Southern, the
plane’s engine manufacturer and the
maker of the aircraft.
Shortly before the crash, McKenzie
had reported both engines stopped and
.his.windshield cracked. A spokesman for
the Federal Aviation Administration in
Atlanta said the pilot was told to try a
landing at Dobbins Air Force Base in
Marietta.
hostage for the water projects, Byrd
replied, “It’s a realistic thing. You have
to be a realist when you’re talking about
votes.”
Cranston said the White House
briefing touched on the President’s
economic stimulus package, inflation
and the administration’s forthcoming
energy program.
Carter energy advisors have been
hinting for days as to general directions
the energy proposal would take, but
Cranston said, “Very few people know
what it (the energy plan) is .. . even in
the executive branch.”
In other developments:
Carter will answer some questions
when he signs a government reorgan
ization bill Wednesday but postponed
until next week his biweekly news
conference.
press secretary Jody Powell said the
two-day visit confirmed the “excellent
state of relations” between Egypt and
the United States.
But, Powell said, Carter agreed only to
take Sadat’s requests for U.S. jet
fighters, antitank missiles and cargo
planes under consideration and to
consult on the matter with Congress.
"The arms discussions were in
general terms, and no commitments or
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The cover of Klaatu’s album bears a resemblance to a by some as evidence that the Klaatu album actually
picture on the inner cover of George Harrison’s was recorded by the Beatles.
“Thirty-Three and a Third” album, a similarity used
Promoters cagey about Klaatu
Chances areyou’ve never heard of Klaatu. Not yet, that
is. Klaatu, you see, is the pseudonym under which the
Beatles have released a new album. Maybe.
The story goes like this. In August, 1976, Capitol
Records released an album called “Klaatu,” which at the
time of its release received little promotion. The album
was purchased by Capitol as a completed master
recording, which the label agreed to release because of
the quality and commercial sound of the music.
When the tape was purchased, Frank Davies, Klaatu’s
representative, refused to divulge any information about
the band, claiming it wanted its music to stand on its own
merits.
The album slowly gained minimal nationwide
recognition in the press, with many critics pointing out
similarities to other groups. Then, on February 13,1977,
Steve Smith, a reporter for the Providence Journal, wrote
an article entitled, “Could Klaatu Be Beatles?” which
analyzed the group’s music, name and lyrics.
Smith pointed to several “clues” in his exploration of
the possible hidden meanings of the album.
“Capitol claims to have no knowledge of the identities
of the band,” Smith said, “but this raises a question: Why
would Capitol invest in an unknown? ’ ’
“The whole album,” he said,” “is about magic,
mystery and touring, and true Beatles freaks know that
‘Magical Mystery Tour’ was the only album the Beatles
considered a failure. Could ‘Klaatu’ be their answer to
that?”
Perhaps. But beyond the rampant media speculation, a
key question arises: Can anyone offer conclusive
evidence as to whether or not the Beatles are in any way
involved with Klaatu?
The one person who could, Klaatu manager Davies, has
offered no answers to the Klaatu puzzle. In different in
terviews, Davies has managed to maintain a tactful sort
of ambiguity that neither confirms nor dispels existing
rumors.
Smith reported that in his interview he asked Davies if
it were the Beatles or whether they had anything to do
with Klaatu.
“First, he gave me a flat ‘no’ and said the only Beatle
connection was ‘inspirational,’ ” Smith’s article report
ed. But when asked if any Beatles played orf the album,
Davies hesitated again and then said that ‘everything
you’ve summarized is pretty well accurate all the way
around,’ and that ‘everything that is there can and will be
identified, even without, perhaps them, the people, being
seen.’
Later, the University of Washington Daily concluded
that Klaatu is not the Beatles, citing an interview with
Davies which went as follows.
Daily: “If I were to ask you, say, if one of the Beatles
were on the album, would you tell me?”
Davies: “That’s hard to say, really. I’ve said that the
Beatles are not connected with the album in any way.”
Daily: “Okay, well, I'd like to try. Is Ringo Starr on the
album?”
“No, he’s not. . . ” “George Harrison?” “No.” “John
Lennon?” “No.” “Paul McCartney?” “No.”
Proof positive? Not according to Smith. In a telephone
interview Monday, Smith said that, “Yes, I’ve seen The
University of Washington Daily article. It doesn’t really
change my opinion, because when I talked to Davies he
first said that Klaatu was not the Beatles. Then he said
that even if I correctly guessed the group’s identity, he
would say no.”
Smith went on to cite several clues he has uncovered,
decisions were anticipated, nor will they
be made without appropriate con
sultation with Congress,” he said.
Leaving the White House en route to
Capitol Hill, Sadat told reporters he had
raised the arms sale issue in his final
talk with Carter, but added, “I’m not in a
position to say anything.”
Seri. Charles Percy R-111., said the
Egyptian leader “discussed his request
for arms” as well as his views of Middle
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By TOM BUTCH
Collegian Staff Writer
East peace requirements during three
hours of discussions with Congressional
leaders.
“Obviously, he is supplying arms to
certain brethren in Africa,” Percy said,
without elaborating. ,But he said Sadat
emphasized “the defensive nature of the
purchases” he wants to make.
Powell described the Sadat-Carter
talks as “friendly, comprehensive and
productive.”
w 202 i’ATTEE
Ten cents per copy
Wednesday, April 6,1977
Vol. 77, No. 143 20 pages University Park, Pennsylvania
Published by Students of The Pennsylvania State Unlversil
which to him leave open the possibility that the Beatles
are involved with the Klaatu album:
The group’s name comes from the 1951 science
fiction film, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” in which
Klaatu was the name of a peace emissary from outer
space. On the cover of Ringo Starr’s “Goodnight Vienna”
album, the drummer is seen standing next to the
spaceship from that movie and is dressed like Klaatu.
In the film, when Klaatu is asked where he’s from,
he says, “Venus and Mars,” the title of a Paul McCartney
album.
At McCartney’s last concert at the Boston Garden,
he said “See you when the Earth stands still” at the
show’s conclusion.
On the back of a Wings album, McCartney thanks
two people named Ken and Terry. Two men at Toronto
Sound, where most of theKlaatu album was recorded, are
named Ken Morris and Terry Brown.
A song on the “Venus and Mars” album is called
“Magneto and the Titanium Man,” two characters from
Marvel Comics. Thus, the song “Doctor Marvello” on the
Klaatu album.
On his last tour, McCartney’s stage set included
posters of the Hulk, another Marvel Comics character.
Marvel Comics confirmed that the pictures of the Hulk
that were used came from an episode called “The Hulk-
Klaatu Confrontation.”
A quotation from John Lennon’s “Walls and
Bridges” album says, “On August 29,1973,1 saw a flying
saucer.” Presumably, Klaatu would have formed in 1973.
On George Harrison’s “33 and a Third” album, there
is a sun which matches the sun on the Klaatu album
cover.
Smith said he still feels the same about Klaatu as when
he wrote the orginal article. The article stated that “the
mystery band could be the Beatles, a couple of Beatles
with other people, a Beatle-backed band, or a completely
unknown but ingenious and talented band.”
When asked, Smith stressed that he is “in no way in
volved with Capitol Records, GRT Records or Klaatu.”
To add to the confusion, Capitol Records makes it a
point to stress that they Had nothing to do with the Klaatu-
Beatles rumor. Nor do they have any additional in
formation regarding the situation, which, under the
circumstances, is quite natural
Capitol’s manufacturing plants have worked overtime
to press and package more than 100,000 copies of the
album to fill orders throughout the country. The record
company thus cannot reasonably be expected to deny
flatly Beatle involvement with Klaatu. Ray Tusken,
Capitol’s national album oriented rock program
manager, says only that “when an unidentified group
comes along which sounds like the Beatles, naturally it’s
going to cause quite a stir.”
Capitol’s New York publicity department, contacted
Monday, had no further information on the Klaatu affair.
Ken Leighton, of Capitol’s Los Angeles office, however,
contacted the same day, offered his own opinion on the
album.
“Personally, I don’t think it’s the Beatles,” he said,
“but then again, we don’t know.” Leighton conceded that
it’s not exactly standard procedure to buy a tape without
knowing the slightest thing about the artist submitting it,
but explained: “Rupert Perry, a Capitol executive, knew
Frank Davies personally, and agreed to the anonymity
which Davies insisted on preserving. Perry might know if
the Beatles are involved, but he won’t say.” In addition,
Klaatu’s manager Davies, apparently weary of the whole
Klaatu affair, has refused to speak with any more
reporters
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Continued on page 6
Weather
Old man winter refuses to give up and
will take control of our weather for
the next two days. This will insure
strong wi.ids and scattered snow
flurries today and tonight along with
partly cloudy skies. The mercury will
only reach 37 today, and dip down to
26 tonight. The wind should gradually
diminish tomorrow, but cold tem
peratures will remain with a high
only near 40.