12—The Daily Collegian Wednesday, Aug. 29, 1984
High winds fan forest inferno in Montana
Raging fires spread throughout state, damage 100,000 acres, force hundreds to flee
By TOM LACEKY
Associated Press Writer
HELENA, Mont. Scores of wind
whipped fires raged out of control
yesterday across Montana, charring
100,000 acres of forests and rangeland
and forcing hundreds of people to flee
their homes, while fresh firefighters
began arriving from other states.
“Our state literally is on fire from
Glacier Park in the extreme north
west corner to the Custer (National)
Forest and the Bull Mountains in the
southeast,” said Gov. Ted Schwin
den.
President Reagan declared two
fires that were threatening populated
areas to be federal disaster areas
yesterday, Schwinden announced.
The designation makes an unspeci
fied amount of Federal Emergency
Management Agency funds available
to help firefighting efforts. FEMA
officials met with state officials yes
terday in Helena to discuss qualifying
other fires for the federal assistance.
“A number of the fires are out of
control,” Schwinden said in an inter
view. “We’ve had a number of homes
burned, some animals- lost. In some
areas our major effort is on evacua
tion rather than containment of the
fire.”
“Some of these fires are totally out
of control at the present point, and the'
major priority has to be trying to
save buildings, communities and
evacuating people,” the governor
said.
Schwinden called the outbreak the
worst in Montana in a decade, but the
breadth was even greater than he
said: The fires extended westward
Army ingenuity being used to tame the mighty Mississippi
City, La., instead of the 312 meandering miles
it now takes past New Orleans.
Such a shocking rearrangement of the
SIMMESPORT, La. Army engineers river’s course would, among other things,
think they’ve got it made if the Mississippi cause billions of dollars in damage.
River will just behave itself for a couple more Some 140,000 people who live in the Atcha
years in wet weather. They are about half falaya Basin would be displaced. A Louisiana
finished building a massive auxiliary dam State University study said that Morgan City,
near here to keep the mighty Mississippi Houma, Thibodaux and Raceland, among
By BILL CRIDER
Associated Press Writer
from changing course. other towns, would be isolated and flooded.
The river is struggling to cut through an old East-west highways would be ruined, and
river bed across a narrow neck of land and new swamp areas created,
take over the Atchafalaya River for a 140- The salty Gulf waters would push about 250
niile run to the Gulf of Mexico at Morgan miles up the present Mississippi River as far
THE FOUNDERS I
ROOM J
even beyond Glacier, to Libby in the
extreme northwest corner of the
state.
Scores of fires were burning, but no
one was sure how many because
several state and federal agencies
were involved.
“We’re monitoring 13 to 16 fires
around the state from 1,500 to 45,000
acres,” said Department of State
Lands spokesman Steve Jorgenson in
Missoula. ,
He said federal forest firefighters
from other states were flowing into
the state yesterday.
The state’s two biggest fires were
coming together to form a 45,000-acre
blaze near between Roundup and
Billings, and two major new forest
fires erupted in northwestern Mon
tana, driving about 600 people from
their homes.
High wind driving the flames con
tinued to buffet the state and was
forecast to continue today.
“We are getting somewhat cooler
temperatures, and what we need is
for the wind to go down because in
some areas we haven’t even been
able to use the aerial slurry aplica
tions simply because of high winds,”
the governor said. “With extremely
high winds in timber, and some of the
fires are in very rough, mountainous
country, you simply can’t get the
heavy equipment in.”
One volunteer firefighter was crit
ically burned over the weekend and
taken to the University of Utah Burn
Center, but other injuries have been
minor.
At least a dozen fires qualified as
“major,” and the governor listed
these four as the most dangerous:
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• The North Hill fire, 14 miles
north of Helena, 8,000 acres.
• The Houghton Creek fire burn
ing an eight-mile swath on both sides
of U.S. 2 about 30 miles south of
Libby, 10,000 to 12,000 acres.
• The Red Owl Creek fire south
east of Kalispell, more than 2,000
acres.
• The Hawk Creek Fire northeast
of Billings, more than 30,000 acres.
The North Hill and Houghton Creek
fires were covered by the. federal
disaster declaration.
as Baton Rouge, shouldering in against the
weaker flow. Salty water would be tough on
city water systems and on industries that now
use the river for water and as a sewer.
A new fresh water source would have to be
found for the one million residents of New
Orleans, who now drink purified water from
the polluted river.
The Mississippi is being kept on course by
the Old River Control Structure, a 25-year
old, 565-foot-long dam built into the west bank
of the Mississippi. It allows 30 percent of the
flow to pass through the old river bed into the
Atchafalaya.
Above, clouds of smoke billow Into the
skies north of Billings, Mont., as seve
ral fires bum out of control. The fires
have damaged forests and rangelands
across a large section of the state. At
right, ranchers survey damage 20
miles of east of Roundup, Mont.
The new addition to Old River is a $144.5 will stand for 100 years to keep a throttle hold
million auxiliary control structure a spe- on Old Man River.
cialized dam with six ponderous gates, each “Of course, it’s a big river and you can only
75 feet high and 62 feet wide. do so much. But as long as Congress is willing
Engineers for the Army Corps of Engineers fund additional things as needed, we will be
say Old River Control Structure, beefed up by able to control the Mississippi,’’ he said,
the auxiliary structure, will prevent any It takes a lot of concrete and steel to deal
change in the river’s course indefinitely. with this unpredictable stream. Collecting
.. . . ■ water from 31 states and two Canadian prdv-
However, the LSU study predicts that the | n ces, the Mississippi can develop enormous
river eventually will win. force. If you stoo f on the levee above Old
Work on the auxiliary goes on 24 hours a River at full flood stage, up to three million
day, seven days a week. Domingo Elgueza- cubic feet of water would rush by every
bal, resident engineer, figures the structures second, hemmed in between the levees.
AP Laserpholo
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Harare gives Arafat warm welcome
By MICHELLE FAUL
Associated Press Writer
HARARE, Zimbabwe PLO leader Yasser Ar
afat, packing a pistol on his hip, arrived in Harare
yesterday to a 19-gun salute usually accorded
visiting heads of government.
Prime Minister Robert Mugabe welcomed him
on a red carpet as a police brass band played the
anthems of Zimbabwe and the Palestine Liber
ation Organization.
In a mixture of military pomp and tribal pag
eantry, African dancers and drummers performed
on the tarmac of Harare International Airport.
Diplomats from East bloc and African nations
were among hundreds of people gathered at the
airport to welcome Arafat, who earlier visited
Zambia and Tanzania on an African tour to renew
ties with black leaders.
The PLO chief left his pistol in his room when he
Sinking freighter stabilized
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) Rescue
vessels rushed toward a hurricane
lashed freighter that lay dead in the
water yesterday, a gaping hole in its
bow, after its “frantic” captain and
22 crew members stabilized the
foundering ship.
Aircraft dropped pumps early yes
terday to the 350-foot Blue Falcon,
which emitted a Morse Code mayday
at 9:30 p.m. Monday saying it was
sinking in the Pacific Ocean about 900
miles southwest of San Diego. ;
“The vessel is no longer sinking,”
U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Debra Har
baugh said about 9:45 a.m. Tuesday.
Officials were unsure how the crew
stabilized the ship, but, said Har
baugh, “It’s holding its own.”
“the captain of theship was pretty
frantic and he wanted to abandon
ship” early yesterday, said Har
baugh. “The Coast Guard has in
structed ithem not to abandon ship
unless absolutely mandatory.”
The merchant vessel Joseph Roth
was speeding toward the scene was
expected to arrive last night, and it
was to stand by and offer emergency
help until a Coast Guard cutter ar
rived about 1 p.m. today, said Petty
Officer Charles Crosby. Another mer
chant ship, the Nalo Express, was
expected to reach the scene early
today, he said.
The 15-foot swells washed one life
raft away from the freighter, and
officials said the crew would be safer
on board than on the remaining life
rafts or rafts that could have been
lowered by aircraft, Petty Officer
Rick Woods said.
“Life rafts can get blown around,
they can get blown over,” he said. “I
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know from personal experience that a
lifeboat looks very small out there.
I’ve been on search aircraft looking
for them.”
After the Blue Falcon, registered in
Cyprus and bound for Panama from
Honolulu, issued its mayday, pro
ceeded for several hours at about 4
knots, then fell dead in the water,
officials said.
The Coast Guard dropped three
pumps able to move 250 gallons of
water a minute to the ship about 4
a.m., but officials were unsure what
stabilized the ship.
“It could be the pumps, or it could
be that they have damage control,”
Harbaugh said.
The freighter, carrying 5,000 tons of
goods including manganese ore, ap
parently crossed the path of Hurri
cane Lowell, but the storm’s center
and the ship were about 240 miles
from each other by mid-morning yes
terday, said Petty Officer Rick
Woods. \
“It looks to me like the hurricane
passed right over the top of it,”
Woods said.
Winds of 65 knots had dropped to 40
knots, about 55 mph, and water had
ceased washing over the main deck,
Harbaugh said.
“The weather on the scene is chop
py, but good weather for aircraft,”
she said. “The winds are flyable and
they (the aircraft crew) won’t lose
sight of the vessel.”
The ship was 190 miles southwest of
the tiny Mexican island of Isla Clar
ion and about 570 miles southwest of
Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of
Baja California, Woods said.
50-75% off
was the guest at a state banquet in the Monomota
pa Hotel and heard Mugabe attack both Israel and
South Africa’s white-minority government.
“Today, Zionism and apartheid have become
birds of a feather,” Mugabe said. “They flock
together as they jail, maim, disperse and even kill
your people and the people of South Africa. They
flock together as. they invade and destabilize
neighboring states and as they collaborate in all
spheres economic, technical, technological and
military.”
Arafat was officially invited to Africa’s youngest
nation by Mugabe.
Before he arrived, the Zimbabwe Foreign Min
istry said in a statement that Arafat would hold
“wide-ranging talks... on the current situation in
the Middle East.”
Arafat, wearing his distinctive black and white
headdress and a tan military-style safari suit, flew
from the Zambian capital of Lusaka in a private
‘lt looks to me like
the hurricane passed
right over the top of
it.’
—Rick Woods, U.S. Coast
Guard petty officer
What caused the hole in the bow
was unknown.
“That area down there is one where
the tropical hurricanes form,” Woods
said. “It’s possible that they just got
caught in the area and couldn’t get
away fast enough.”
The Coast Guard sent three aircraft
carrying communication gear, ra
dios, life rafts and food supplies, but
there was no immediate decision on
using the equipment, said Harbaugh.
The ship was out of range for most
land-based helicopters, said Woods.
“I understand that it’s theoretically
possible to get there and back with a
helicopter, but it would take special
preparations and it would take days
to get ready,” Woods said.
The Venturous, a Coast Guard ves
sel from Long Beach, was expected to
arrive at the scene at 1 p.m. (PDT)
today, but the merchant vessel Nalo
Express, contacted late Monday, was
to arrive at midnight last night,
Brown said.
When the Nalo Express was con
tacted by the Coast Guard, it was
reported about 360 miles from the
crippled frieghter, Harbaugh said.
jet with Saudi Arabian markings.
Two Zimbabwe air force jets screamed over
head in salute as the plane touched down.
Arafat reviewed a green-uniformed presidential
guard and then was driven into central Harare in a
motorcade for talks with Mugabe.
In Lusaka, Arafat met privately with Zambian
President Kenneth Kaunda. Kaunda later de
nounced the United States for supporting Israel
and white-ruled South Africa and condemned Arab
countries opposed to Arafat’s leadership of the
PLO, according to the Pan-African News Agency.
Arafat said the PLO’s aim “is to find a peaceful,
comprehensive and lasting solution to the Middle
East problem,” he was quoted as saying, and
added that the government of Israel which he
called a “military junta” was the PLO’s enemy
not all Jews.
Illegal beer case
to go to court
FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) - A
judge yesterday ordered a Nov. 8
trial for three parents who allegedly
tried to attract cash donations to an
athletic program by illegally offering
free beer at a girls’ softball game.
Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge
Henry Buslee set the trial date during
a brief court appearance of two of the
parents, Elizabeth Bednarek, 34 and
Alexandria Braun, 37. Both pleaded
innocent to charges of sejling beer
without a license. The third parent,
Gary Friess, 42, entered an innocent
plea by letter and did not appear in
court.
The parents had intended to raise
funds for a girls’ softball program in
North Fond du Lac by selling beer
during the weekend of Aug. 3-5, at the
start of a three-day softball tourna
ment. But sponsors had missed the
deadline for getting a license:
The parents said they then got the
idea of serving the beer free and
asking customers to make cash dona
tions to the program.
About two dozen supporters of the
parents attended a village board
meeting Aug. 6 to protest the arrests
and vowed to be in court when the
case came up. Originally set for Aug.
14, the case was postponed until yes
terday. Few people were in the court
room yesterday when Buslee set the
trial date.
At the time.of her arrest, Bednarek
said it was embarrassing to be
charged in front of the young people.
The defendants were accused of ille
gally selling beer to a policeman’s
wife, who sat sipping the beverage
through the incident.
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The Daily Collegian. Wednesday, Aug. 29, 1984—1
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