8604 Newspaper Files

8604 Newspaper Files

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38-1
Owens

Jeffrey

4-11-86
postmark

April 4, 1986

SCIENTISTS

My geopsi (new word that I have coined, meaning psi-control over geographical areas) job is now finished for my UFOs. I had just returned home from pawning some things to pay some bills when M. called from Vancouver and said that she was sending me to Hong Kong in order to complete the last part of the UFO jigsaw puzzle. You will recall that it was necessary for me to get to Peru so that my UFOs could control that Continent. All that was left in my work with the UFOs then, after I went to Peru, was to get to Hong Kong so that my UFOs could control Russia and China. A biggie. It nearly ruined me, but I got there and back. So that was done. The only thing left now...bigger than anything...is the ten-million dollar UFO base, from which I can, working with other-dimensional powers and my UFOs, telepath psi-force through the "psi-pipelines" that I have set up on other continents...to bring about constructive, helpful results everywhere for the human race and Earth itself.

Now let us proceed to my current report to you.

First, let me refer you to my file to you of February 12, 1986, in which I pointed out to you that I informed Dr. Mishlove before the space shuttle exploded that the UFOs were going to cause such. Also I told him that my UFOs were going to cause an earthquake on the West Coast, 8-10 on the Richter. (See enclosed.) Now the earthquakes on the west coast are slowly building up to major intensity. Not only must the tektonic plates slip beneath the west coast, but elsewhere...like the mechanics of a swiss watch. Note the Georgia quakes on p. 4.)

My UFOs explained to me, in simple (At this point my back up typewriter broke down, so am here now with two typewriters rendered hors de combat by some odd force; it seems. Owens.) Anyway, my UFOs explained to me, in simple terms, how an earthquake is triggered. When I was a child my grandparents gave me a Chinese Box, which was composed of many small wooden panels. To open the box, one had to slide one certain panel forward...then a second certain panel elsewhere...then a third panel, at which time a small wooden "trigger" was exposed behind the panel. One pushed downward on this trigger and the Chinese Box sprang open...i.e., the drawer inside sprang out. In like manner, the plates slip underneath Georgia...then plates slip underneath California...finally the plates slip one more time and the "trigger" is exposed and sprung...big earthquake. This is my own theory...some of you might think it comical. Or my UFOs gave me the info. Whichever. Now, to the work at hand.

In my file to you of Feb. 12, '86, paragraph (3) I informed you that I had warned Dr. Mishlove that a shuttle would be exploded by my UFOs. They did, in fact, explode it. See p. 10 re "unusual wind" then more important p. 9 re "wind shear". Put simply, the shuttle was struck by terrific force as it took off, then as it cleared the force into slow speed the disparity destroyed the shuttle.


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2

In the same paragraph I warned Dr. Mishlove that my UFOs would cause an 8-10 on the Richter earthquake in California. (This was before any earthquakes happened.) On Pages 2, 3 and 4 you can read what has happened since then. My UFOs have tried to give people and the govt. time to give them their Base...used these relatively small quakes as warnings...but the Base has not been forthcoming. Therefore...I can only assume they will strike with the Big Quake. Just up ahead, in time.

On p. 5, translate "El Nino" into my UFOs Sun Attack, which it is, indeed, factually. They (scientists) guess that whatever El Nino is, it will not be as tough in 1986. My UFOs have stated that their effect increases exponentially, with time. That means that 1986 will be far worse than 1985. What a pity that my UFOs cannot have their base, on their terms, and turn all this chaos around. That, put simply, is the name of the game.

On p. 6 is more on the Sun Attack...plus an article on another earthquake near Lima, Peru, where I was not long ago.

Ps. 7 & 8 bear on the terrible damage my UFOs did to NASA.
Ps. 9, 10 and 10½ point out that "wind shear" (force) sprung or broke the joint that wrecked the space shuttle.
Ps. 11-17 point out further the great damage done to NASA by my UFOs.
P. 18 has an article describing the great pickpocket activity (remember they got my moneybelt off me, somehow, when I flew to Lima, Peru.
Ps. 18-28 point out the results of the UFOs Sun Attack.
P. 26 has a clip re the penetration of killer rebels into Lima, Peru, that robbed a bank and shot down a bunch of people just blocks from the hotel I stayed in while there.

In closing...why not have a voice-stress-analyzer and operator seated just past the metal-detector and have each passenger read a card out loud: "I am not carrying any weapons onto the plane...guns, knives or explosives...and do not plan to cause any trouble on the plane while I am on it."

Ted Owens (PK Man)

Owens


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①

February 12, 1986

SCIENTISTS

(1) Years ago, while living in Philadelphia with Martha, my wife, and Beau, our baby...one night a roaring fire sprang up on the floor below and the firemen came and extinguished it. The Fire Chief came to me and told me that the fire had been deliberately set...in the room directly underneath our room...and if it had not been discovered when it was then we'd have been burned up. (This happened at the time when Saga magazine was doing articles about me and Dr. Zakow, of the U.S. Government, came to our apartment and investigated my work and warned me that the U.S. Govt. would have me killed considering my work with UFOs and attacking NASA with psi-force). Several days later Astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee were burned up on the pad at NASA. My UFOs telepathd and explained that they had caused it because of my great value to them, the UFOs, and because of the U.S. Govt's effort to assassinate us. (There were two other blatant attempts to murder me at that time on the streets...but I am pointing out the fire connection.) I passed along this information to the scientists that I was dealing with at that time.

(2) In 1969 I was in a court-reporting office in Norfolk, Virginia, and Apollo 12 was just getting ready to lift off at NASA. The court reporters were all listening to the proceedings on the radio. I called out to them: "How would you like to see me hit that spacecraft with lightning?" They all stopped talking and stared at me incredulously. Minutes later the spacecraft lifted from the ground then all was pandemonium at NASA. One of the astronauts aboard the spacecraft, still ascending, said to ground control "We don't know what happened but it seems that we were struck by lightning!"

(3) This last November, 1985, my UFOs telepathd to me unexpectedly one night and told me that (1) they intended to cause an earthquake on the West Coast 8-10 on the Richter Scale, and (2) they were going to explode a space shuttle of NASA while it was in action. They were going to do it because their request for a ten million dollar UFO Base from the U.S. had not been taken seriously...also that for a long while they had deliberately harassed shuttle flights, ruining experiments etc., but not harming the astronauts. They had finally decided that they would have to destroy astronauts to get the U.S. Govt's serious attention. I explained all this to my son, Beau...then picked up the phone and called Dr. Mishlove in San Francisco and gave him the message. The result, of course, is in this file. You probably saw it yourself on TV.

Re (2) above...I have an affidavit signed by all the court reporters who were present attesting to the validity of the matter.

Re (3) above...I would not be presumptuous enough to ask Dr. Mishlove for an affidavit to that effect, for my files...but if anyone is interested in checking it out they can contact Dr. Mishlove. I do not believe that he would double-cross me and lie about the matter as Dr. Hynek did some years ago. I think that Dr. Mishlove is a finer scientist, in every sense of the word, than is Hynek. And I could know - have worked with scientists.

After the shuttle exploded my UFOs telepathd to me (I was as saddened and shocked as anyone who witnessed the event) and explained why they had deliberately chosen this particular flight and shuttle. Follow this now.

p. 4 -- "It's a setback. The tragedy is that so many kids were watching


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# Extra crews enter battles against raging wildfires in a dozen states

United Press International

Job Corps volunteers, convicts, Air National Guard water bombers and "Hot Shot" crews from Arizona and New Mexico were thrown into the fight Monday against wildfires flaring in dry woodlands across a quarter of the nation.

Firefighters battled the blazes in a dozen states from Ohio to Georgia, many of them working with little rest since last week. Three firefighters died in the fight, all apparently collapsing from overexertion.

Authorities said arsonists, active over the Easter weekend, were playing a big part in the fires.

One blaze set by an arsonist burned across the Big Sandy River from Prestonsburg, Ky., sending clouds of smoke over the town.

Federal investigators began a search for arsonists, particularly in east Tennessee, where convicts helped fight 27 arson fires in mountain areas.

"We're going to start dogging these arsonists," said Tennessee district forester Ted Dailey. "We hope to get some convictions."

With little or no recent rainfall and none in the immediate forecast, authorities expected conditions to get worse.

"We feel we can handle the situation at this point, but if it continues to worsen we may not be able to. There are only so many people you can shift around," said Cynthia Page of the Alabama Forestry Commission.

She said more than 900 fires have destroyed more than 15,000 acres in Alabama since last Tuesday with timber damage alone estimated at more than $2.8 million.

Joe Ferguson of the Kentucky Forestry Commission said 166 fires damaged 6,000 acres over the weekend, destroying two homes and a barn and inflicting more than a $12 million loss to timber. Ferguson issued a call for volunteers, saying his men had been working 16 days with little break.

Three firefighters died fighting the blazes over the weekend. Ray Scott, 57, and Vincent Eckrote, 48, died of apparent heart attacks near Londonderry, Ohio, and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., respectively, and Robert K. Bell died at the wheel of his tractor plow fighting a fire in Tennessee Friday. Officials said Bell's death "was possibly related to exhaustion."

Firefighters from two Job Corp Centers and specially trained "Hot Shot" teams, including an all-Apache crew, flown in from Arizona and New Mexico helped fight four fires in Kentucky on Sunday.

North Carolina, which, along with Tennessee, has issued a ban on outdoor burning, reported 81 fires over 406 acres over the weekend.

# Fires Hit 13 Southeastern States

By The Associated Press

Thousands of fires, many of them crackled through bone-dry forest and brush in 13 states totaling 600,000 acres, and officials in Virginia considered closing state land.

Teams of firefighters looked to the skies for help but ceding a drenching rain is not expected before the weekend in most areas. In Tennessee, officials said wind pre-ceding a slow-moving cold front could whip smoldering ashes into new blazes.

In Virginia, where emergency teams are fighting the worst forest fire in the western part of the state in 15 years, officials said they would ask the governor to close state forests if the number of fires increased when the trout fishing season brings an expected 100,000 people into the woods Saturday.

Since Jan. 1, there have been more than 42,000 fires in the U.S. Forest Service region encompassing 13 Southeastern states, burning about 600,000 acres, said Sunny David, spokeswoman for the service in Atlanta. The total is about twice as much as burned in the same period last year, she said.

Officials in Ohio have died fighting fires. Southeast region - an area that includes Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma - have already imposed bans on open burning.

"The forest is so dry right now that even careless smoking could set off a forest fire," said Lou Southard, a spokesman for the Virginia Forestry Division in Charlottesville.

Chris Bridge, a spokesman for Virginia Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, said the governor would consider imposing the Forest Closure Act if asked to do so by the Forestry Division. Southard said the measure has not been used since 1971 and not for any significant length of time since 1963.


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# Crews Battle Forest Fires In Southeast

# Crews Battle Forest Fires In Southeast

By The Associated Press 4/1/86

Crews battled hundreds of wildfires today in the drought-parched hills of Dixie, and forecasters held out little hope that rain would end the siege that has charred more than 90,000 acres in the past week. Forest fires, which contributed to two deaths since last week, were raging today in Alabama, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri. Many of the blazes were set, officials say. Large fires were extinguished Monday night in New Jersey and Massachusetts. More than a half million acres across the Southeast have been consumed this year in nearly 38,000 fires, said Bruce Jewell, regional information officer for See Crews Battle on page 8A

4/1/86
Continued from page 1A
the U.S. Forest Service in Atlanta.

At least 300 fires blazed across 2,000 acres in North Carolina during the weekend, while Alabama officials reported 158 blazes Sunday alone.

"Fire danger remains at critical levels across North Carolina and no letup from the dry weather is expected through this coming week," the National Weather Service said Monday.

Dry weather also was expected for the next few days in other states where crews were battling major forest fires.

"It's so dry, we're losing our control lines," said Ralph Glover, deputy state forester in West Virginia, where 56 new fires were reported Monday and 12 continued to burn. "Without rain there isn't a whole lot we can do."

Officials expanded a fire alert Monday to 40 of Alabama's 67 counties. Since last Tuesday, 905 fires have burned 15,000 acres, said Cynthia Page, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Forestry Commission. The cost in "timber, jobs, products and taxes" exceeds $26 million, she said.

This year, 7,394 fires have burned nearly 80,000 acres in North Carolina, compared with 4,952 fires on 114,800 acres in the first three months of 1985.

Four trained "hot-shot" firefighting teams from New Mexico and Arizona battled a 344-acre blaze Monday in the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky.

Of the state's four largest blazes, one at Hinkle in Knox County was contained Monday after scorching more than 1,000 acres, but crews were battling an Owsley County fire nearly the same size, said Townley Bergmann, the state Forestry Division's special projects director.

# Guerrillas Bomb U.S. Targets

4/5/86

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Leftist guerrillas bombed the Colombian Embassy, branch offices of several American companies and a U.S.-funded cultural institute, press reports and diplomatic officials said Friday.

Two rebels were captured and another shot to death Thursday night while trying to escape after the embassy bombing, the reports said. A night watchman was reported wounded at the cultural institute.

Police officials have provided details of such attacks in the past, but announced a new policy Friday under which only the joint military command can give information on guerrilla actions in areas under military jurisdiction.

Lt. Col. Oscar Checa Castillo, press spokesman for the command, said he did not consider it "necessary to issue a communique confirming or denying" the reports.

President Alan Garcia claimed earlier this week that foreign journalists had exaggerated the guerrilla violence in Lima.

Guerrillas also struck outside the capital, police said, shooting a policeman dead Friday as he left his home in Huangcayo.


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# Tornadoes Rip Marion, Snap Pines Like 'Sticks'

## Downs Power, Phone Lines

UFO & Sun Attack 3-5-86
By Ocala Star-Banner Staff 3/12/86

Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes whipped through rural sections of Marion County early today, snapping giant pines "like matchsticks" and leaving trash and debris strewn in its destructive path.

There were four reported sightings of tornadoes in the county: south of Orange Lake off U.S. 441; off County Road 484 about one mile east of Interstate 75; at Breezewood Estates, south of Belleview; and in the Lake Weir area.

While there was scattered minor property damage, no injuries or major tornado-related damage were reported.

Marion County Sheriff's Department officials received reports of a funnel cloud touching down on U.S. 441, near Ocala's northern boundary, knocking down power lines and closing both southbound lanes of traffic about 6:30 a.m.

The twister ripped through giant pines in the area, tossing limbs and debris across all four lanes of traffic. Increasing the danger to early morning motorists were torrents of rain, accompanied by heavy lightning displays and thunder.

Residents in the north part of the county said the tornado sounded like freight trains that used to travel the railroad tracks in the area. But those trains don't travel in that area anymore.

Crews from Florida Power Corp., the Marion County Road Department and telephone repairmen worked rapidly to restore service and clear the highway as rush-hour traffic neared.

Power was restored locally within an hour, although scattered outages were still reported in isolated sections later in the morning.

See Tornadoes on page 12A

# Air Force Warns Of Satellite Backlog

UFOs & Space Weapons 3/7/86

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Air Force wants additional rockets to launch satellites and a replacement for space shuttle Challenger to meet a backlog that in one to two years could total 10 to 21 satellites the service says are essential to national security.

"The near-term impact on the Department of Defense is severe if the orbiter fleet is down for a year," Edward C. Aldridge, the Air Force's top space official, said Wednesday. "There is no recovery option that will mitigate this impact within the next two years."

Aldridge, testifying before two Senate subcommittees, said decisions must be made immediately "to minimize the negative long-term impacts of the orbiter loss."

The Air Force has had 10 expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) on order since last year when it convinced Congress that the nation could not afford to rely on only one launch system -- the shuttle.

"Even with additional ELVs, it is not clear that the current three-orbiter fleet can meet the demands of both NASA and DOD," said Aldridge, the undersecretary of the Air Force.

"Our view of this is that it's a national emergency," he said.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which once fought to prevent the Air Force from getting throwaway rockets that might divert military payloads from the shuttle, endorsed them Wednesday.

"The right thing for us to do is to have a balance between shuttle capabilities and ELV capabilities," said Richard Truly, a Navy rear admiral and former shuttle astronaut who was appointed as NASA's shuttle chief after the Jan. 28 Challenger explosion.

Truly said, as he has before, that NASA expects at least a year's down time before any shuttle flies again.

When the flights resume, Aldridge said, the Pentagon will exercise its "bumping rights" to reduce a backlog of 10 military payloads that will have accumulated by then.

If the down time is two years, there will be 21 backed up military payloads, Aldridge said.


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# U.S. influence in Pakistan raises ire

See Back

Opposition leaders predicted Zia's fall and said U.S. influence must go if they are to have democracy.

By BARRY RENFREW
Associated Press
3/24/86

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan -- People by the tens of thousands shouted anti-government and anti-U.S. slogans Sunday and opposition leaders said that President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq's pro-American government was in its last days.

The Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, an alliance of 11 opposition parties, held one of its biggest rallies since martial law was lifted Dec. 30.

About 60,000 people marched through this city of about 1 million people and listened to anti-government speeches. The opposition staged dozens of smaller demonstrations across the nation to commemorate Pakistan Day, celebrated as independence day here.

"Did we create Pakistan so the army could rule? Did we create Pakistan so the people could be whipped? Did we create Pakistan so the people could be oppressed?" one speaker asked the huge crowd that waved the red, black and green opposition flags.

Speaker after speaker asserted that Zia's military government would fall soon for lack of support, and said this entire nation of 88 million people hungers for the return of democracy.

The United States was repeatedly criticized for supporting Zia, the army chief of staff who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1977.

"If we want democracy in the country we must rid Pakistan of American influence, we must struggle against the Americans," said Afzal Zahda, a leader of the Peasants and Workers Party.

"American imperialism should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Pakistan," he said.

The crowd chanted "Zia is a dog!" and "Down with the Americans!" as speakers called for abolishing the government, the end of military influence in politics, and immediate free elections.

Hundreds of riot police armed with rifles, bamboo clubs and shields were stationed around the city.

Zahda charged that Zia's government wanted Pakistanis to fight the Communist regime in neighboring Afghanistan to serve U.S. interests. He held up political and social changes in Afghanistan as an example to be emulated.

"In Afghanistan they have destroyed capitalism and oppression, so the generals want us to fight against Afghanistan. But we do not accept this," he said.

The Pakistani and American governments support and aid Islamic anti-Marxist guerrillas fighting the Af-

See PAKISTAN, Page 4A

# Florida temperature records fall but warming trend follows chill

Tribune Staff and Wires
3/24/86

Sunday morning's temperature in Tampa of 37 degrees broke the record for this date of 41, set in 1915. But the weather should get warmer by 2 or 3 degrees each day for the rest of this week, according to the National Weather Service.

Meteorologist David Rittenberry said it should be breezy and mild, near normal for late March.

Today's forecast calls for a high in the mid-70s, sunny then partly cloudy, with northeast winds at 10 to 15 mph. Tonight, the weather should be partly cloudy and not as cool, with a low near 50 degrees.

Tuesday, expect partly cloudy skies with a high in the upper 70s.

The blast of cold Canadian air responsible for the record also brought record low temperatures to every corner of the state Sunday.

Key west had a record low 53 degrees, the island city's lowest temperature in 109 years. The old record of 54 degrees was set in 1877.

Miami Beach had 48 degrees, breaking the record of 50 set in 1960. Orlando had a low of 42, one degree lower than the record set in 1983.

Tallahassee was the coldest of all, breaking two records with a 25 degree reading. That was five degrees below the record low set back in 1915. It was also the coldest spring temperature ever recorded.

Elsewhere, dry and mild weather prevailed over most of the country Sunday, and temperatures rose in the Southeast after a third straight morning of record low temperatures.

Colder air pushed southward out of Canada across the upper Mississippi Valley and freezing temperatures extended from eastern North Dakota to upper Michigan.

Rain extended from northwestern California through western sections of Oregon and Washington.

# Thunderstorms soak Texas; Colorado digs out from snow

United Press International
4/5/86

Violent thunderstorms blitzed Texas Friday, sinking a flotilla of boats, flooding streets and killing an elderly invalid in waist-high water while a spring storm that dumped 4 feet of snow on the Rockies roared into the high Plains.

The massive storm spread snow blown by 30-mph wind gusts from northern Colorado to South Dakota. Lead, S.D., had 12 inches and Deadwood had 9 inches. Up to a foot of snow in Nebraska closed Route 71 near Kimball, the National Weather Service said.

The storm's southern arm unleashed strong winds, hail and thunderstorms across Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana overnight, closing roads, downing power lines and damaging buildings, officials said.

(In the Tampa Bay area, forecasters are calling for a "rather pleasant" weekend with fair skies, a slight breeze, temperatures in the 80s and a few afternoon clouds.)

Near Sherman in North Texas, high winds slammed into the Paw-Paw Creek resort area on Lake Texoma, sinking or casting adrift many of the 40 boats moored at a dock.

Nearby, an elderly invalid slipped from the porch of his home into floodwaters. Authorities said it was unclear whether White, an invalid, drowned or suffered a heart attack.

In Wyoming and Colorado residents Friday cleared away up to 4 feet of snow that stranded thousands of travelers, snapped power lines and closed roads, schools and businesses. Many Coloradans were still without heat and electricity.

More than a thousand weary travelers, who spent the night Thursday at Stapleton International Airport because of snow-covered runways, were forced to wait in line behind Friday's ticketed passengers.


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# Polk mare, foal die after attack by bee swarm

By BILL HEERY
Tribune Staff Writer 3/22/82

BARTOW -- A swarm of bees attacked a quarter-horse mare and her week-old foal Thursday afternoon in Alturas, leading to the death of both animals.

Jim Fiveash, owner of the horses, said Friday the foal, a stud colt, died from suffocation several hours after being stung numerous times. He said the foal's nostrils were swollen from the stings and it could not breathe.

Fiveash said he then shot the 1,200-pound mare, which was lying on the ground, struggling to breathe.

An inspector said there was no indication the insects were African "killer" bees.

"My wife and kids had watched that foal strangle to death, and when she (mare) got to that point, I just went ahead and put her out of her misery," he said.

Fiveash said the scene in his pasture, off of Estes Road, was like a science fiction movie about killer bees.

"I've never seen bees act like that before," Fiveash said. "I'm just thankful it was not one of my kids or one of my neighbor's kids."

Richard Dunaway, a honey bee inspector with the state Department of Agriculture, said Friday that his agency is sampling the bee hives in the area. He said some dead bees found on Fiveash's property also were turned over to him by the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

"We won't know anything until about the end of next week," Dunaway said.

He said there was no indication that the bees were Africanized bees, commonly referred to as "killer" bees.

Fiveash, who works as a ranch hand at a Dundee ranch, said that when he arrived at his home Thursday afternoon, Lake Wales veterinarian A.S. Ryland already was there. He said a neighbor, Chuck McReynolds, had used a water hose to get the bees off of the horses.

McReynolds said that he came to the horses' aid after he saw two teen-age boys running from the bees.

McReynolds said there were hundreds of

See BEES, Page 4A

# Bees

* **From Page 1A** 3/22/86

bees on the animals.

"They were dazed and crazed," he said. "They were really tormented. It was a real unpleasant thing to see."

Ryland and Fiveash, who was stung six times while treating the mare, saturated their heads with flea spray to keep the bees off.

Fiveash said, "You couldn't put a finger on those horses' bodies without touching a place where they had been stung."

Fiveash and Ryland, who gave the horses medication and painkillers, said they had never heard of a horse dying from bee stings.

Fiveash contended the bees came from commercial hives located on a neighbor's property. He said the owner of the hives, Stoney Sadler of Lakeland, removed them Thursday night.

Sadler said Friday there is no proof that the bees that stung the horses were his.

"There are so many commercial beekeepers in that area now that you can't even count them," he said. "There are several yards of bees in that general vicinity."

Grove owners often let bee hives on their property to help pollinate citrus blooms. There are several hundred bee hives in the Alturas area.

Fiveash, who raises registered quarterhorses, said bees often hang around his barn to get water from the horses' trough.

"This morning there are bees all out at the barn but they're not messing with anything," he said.

Dr. Frank Robinson, a retired University of Florida agriculture professor and secretary of the American Beekeeping Federation, said Friday the only report of Africanized bees in this country was an incident in California about a year ago.

Robinson, who taught beekeeping and conducted bee research for the University of Florida, said he had never heard of a horse dying from honey bee stings, "but it wouldn't surprise me under certain conditions."

"If a cow was stung, it would leave the area and run off," he said. "A horse, on the other hand, tends to stay right around there, running around and around, and ends up attracting more bees and getting more bee stings."

Fiveash said the mare's eyes were swollen and she apparently couldn't see. He said she ran through a fence and ran into the side of the barn.

Fiveash said he buried the 6-year-old mare, which was registered as both a quarter horse and a palomino, and the colt Friday morning.


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Destructive tornado injures 15 in Georgia

Associated Press

A tornado packing winds up to 160 mph tossed cars on a Georgia highway and trapped a family in the rubble of their house, while 2 feet of snow and blizzard conditions forced schools to close in parts of Michigan on Wednesday, the last full day of winter.

Thunderstorms, spawned when cold air from Canada collided with warm Gulf of Mexico air, extended from the Mississippi delta to the southern Appalachians.

Fifteen people were injured and 100 homes damaged when the twister hit the suburbs northwest of Atlanta, and the National Weather Service estimated damage at $10 million to $20 million.

The twister tore the roofs off buildings in an industrial area Wednesday morning before skipping to a subdivision.

In Michigan's upper peninsula, a late winter storm covered Marquette with 26 inches of snow in just over a day. The snow on the ground reached 47 inches deep.

Blizzard conditions were reported, and gale warnings were posted for all the Great Lakes. Power lines and trees were toppled. Winds to 60 mph reduced visibility to near zero in some places, the weather service said.

The most snow fell in Herman, where 24.2 inches was recorded in the 24 hours since 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, the weather service said.

In Georgia, Tamara and Brett Jordan, both 27, and their 4-year-old daughter, Jessica, were on their way to the basement of their house when the twister lifted it off its foundation, said Cobb County Fire Chief David Hilton.

Mother and daughter were in stable condition at Kennestone Hospital in Marietta after being rescued from the rubble, said hospital spokeswoman Leslie Kelly. Jordan was in the intensive care unit, but his condition was not immediately available.

Also treated at the hospital were 12 people who were injured in cars on Interstate 75, said Kelly. Nine were released.

Martha Lamanac of Canton said her car was lifted off the ground and rolled five or six times before being hit by a truck.

"The sky was black as night," she said. "Next thing I knew, my windshield broke and the truck fell on top of my car. Somebody started screaming a tornado had hit. Everyone was screaming and crying... it looked like a flock of birds flying over us, but it was pieces of metal."

The twister's path was 4 to 5 miles in length, and its maximum winds were estimated at 140 to 160 mph, the weather service said.

Japanese snowstorm kills six

The spring storm swept into the Tokyo area leaving crews missing from three ships and at least 294 people injured.

TOKYO (AP) -- A spring snowstorm in the Tokyo area left six people dead, seven crew members from three ships missing at sea and at least 294 people injured, most in a train collision, police said Monday.

The bodies of four crewmen were found Monday by Japan Maritime Safety Agency rescue boats after the crew of eight from the Japanese freighter Shoei-maru abandoned their sinking vessel Sunday night south of Tokyo. The agency said one crew member was rescued but the three others were missing.

All three crewmen from another Japanese freighter were missing in the same coastal waters after the boat sent distress signals late Sunday, the agency said.

It also reported that one Chinese seaman was missing but 19 were saved from a capsized Chinese freighter, the Shi Zui Shan, by rescue boats Sunday night off Irozaki, south of Tokyo.

Winds of up to 49 mph whipped the capital area from early Sunday till late in the night as the storm dumped up to 20 inches of wet snow in the area, according to forecasters.

A 36-year-old man was killed Sunday when he was struck by an awning that collapsed under the weight of snow in Saitama Prefecture (state), north of Tokyo, police reported.

They said a 21-year-old firefighter clearing snow from fire hydrants was electrocuted Sunday when he accidentally touched a fallen 6,600-volt electric wire.

At Tanashi, in Tokyo's northwestern suburbs, 204 people were injured when a commuter train, apparently slipping on snowy tracks, ran down a slope and crashed at 15 mph into the rear of train that had stopped for repairs to an electrical line damaged by snow, police said.

They said 18 of the injured were hospitalized and there were some 1,400 people aboard the two trains.

A total of 81 people were injured in falls on slippery streets, and nine were hurt in car accidents in the Tokyo area Sunday and early Monday, police and fire department officials said. They reported 29 were hospitalized.

In Hachioji, two people were trapped briefly and one was hurt when the zinc roof of a movie house caved in under the weight of snow, police said.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Chiyuki Okazawa said six of its electric power pylons in Kanazawa Prefecture, west of Tokyo, collapsed, leaving 318,000 homes without electricity Sunday night.

Numerous surface rail lines in the metropolitan area, home to about 12 million people, suspended or curtailed service at midday Sunday, but most resumed limited service Sunday evening.

Officials at the new Tokyo International Airport at Narita, 45 miles northeast of the capital, said the airport resumed operations Monday after 18 international flights were diverted Sunday due to the snow.


=== Page 10 of 31

21

# Twister Destroys Gainesville Store

GAINESVILLE (AP) -- At least one tornado ripped through northern Gainesville early today, destroying a drug store and downing power lines and trees, police said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Damage was also reported from other tornadoes and possible tornadoes across central and northern Florida late Thursday and early today.

"The Gresham drug building is believed to be totally destroyed. Trees and power lines are down," said Officer Andrew Chamblin of the Gainesville Police Department.

"There has definitely been one and maybe as many as three (tornadoes) that hit in the Gainesville area," Chamblin said.

The drugstore was in the Northgate Shopping Plaza. Nearby stores also received some damage, as did a state Health and Rehabilitative Services office. Eyewitnesses said a truck was overturned in the parking lot of the shopping center and a service station pump was pulled from its base.

"It looks like a war zone out here," said one witness.

Severe thunderstorms had earlier forced the National Weather Service to issue tornado watches and warnings for much of the region.

Unspecified damage was reported this morning in the Lake County communities of Yalaha, Bassville Park, Astor Park, Fruitland Park and between See Gainesville on page 12A


**Blowin' in the wind**

Londoner Keith Plummer and his daughters, Clare and Olivia, struggle against a fierce wind Monday as they cross the River Thames. Hurricane force winds were expected at Britain's capital, accompanied by a severe temperature drop.

# Tornado Touches Down In Duval

JACKSONVILLE (AP) -- Officials are still assessing the damage to cars and businesses left by a tornado that touched down several times in southern Jacksonville, injuring at least one person.

John Langdon, 29, was listed in good condition Thursday night at Baptist Medical Center, undergoing treatment for back and internal injuries, said a hospital spokeswoman.

Langdon had been operating a forklift at Great Dane Trailers Inc. about noon Thursday when a tornado "tore him from his seat and threw him about 15 feet away," said Sgt. Charlie Hill, a police spokesman.

A co-worker, Jimmie Lee Williams, escaped injury.

"All I saw was a big ball of wind and dust and everything started flying, including me, because I started running," he said.

Officer Steve Schwader was southbound on the Phillips Highway about 11:45 a.m. when he spotted the funnel cloud. Police reported that it jumped the highway and then swept northeastward, touching down several times on a mobile home sales lot, a shopping mall, a car dealer and a busy street intersection.

Clyde Montgomery, a spokesman for Jacksonville Electric Authority, said 13,000 customers were without power for portions of the afternoon because of the tornado.

At St. Johns Bluff Road and Beach Boulevard two utility poles snapped at midpoint, dangling high-voltage lines across the busy intersection. But motorists crossed the intersection despite live wires that swayed 10 to 15 feet overhead until police arrived, Hill said.

"That's one of the most dangerous things this life that people can do," he said.

National Weather Service forecaster Jim Keegan said most of the damage was caused by heavy winds.

Forecasters had predicted heavy thunderstorms in the area Thursday, but tornados were unexpected and weather officials couldn't find damage patterns to confirm that a tornado had breezed through the area, Keegan said.

But he said a small, short-lived "mini-tornado," the kind common to Northeast Florida, may have touched down.

Officer David Gray, who saw the twister hit in a shopping center parking lot, described it as a "small tornado." He said it was about 50 feet tall.

Beth Jones said she was cleaning a motel room at Plaza Motor Lodge on Phillips Highway when she looked up and saw her 4-year-old niece standing outside. The child was frozen with fear of an immense black cloud.

"I saw the twister coming and it looked like it was headed for us so I went running for her," said Ms. Jones.

Ms. Jones fell and cut her leg, but was able to scoop up the child and run to a nearby office.

The twister then hit a nearby sales lot. "The roof and signs and stuff were just swirling around in the air," she said.

At Prestige Pontiac, the twister "pushed open our doors and everything started flying around. The wind just whipped through here. All four doors to the showroom just swung open and the fence outside was going crazy," said Joan Sims, who works in the parts department.


=== Page 11 of 31

UFD Sun Attack 3/22/86

# Unseasonable cold embraces eastern U.S.; record lows set

Associated Press

A large high pressure system centered over Missouri brought unseasonable cold to most of the eastern half of the nation Friday, with record lows in more than a dozen cities and freezing temperatures as far south as the Gulf states.

Afternoon readings were only in the 20s and 30s from southern New England and the mid-Atlantic states to the Ohio and Tennessee valleys.

At 1 p.m. CST, Great Falls, Mont., reported 65 degrees while Atlanta was only at 40 degrees.

Freeze warnings were issued for northeastern Texas, Arkansas, southern portions of Mississippi and Alabama, most of northern Florida, central and southern Georgia and much of South Carolina.

Georgia agricultural official Steve Rich said experts were concerned that an extended cold snap could damage vegetable crops. But he said the cold may have helped growers of peaches, which are in full bloom -- "There are very heavy blooms this year and the growers would have had to thin the blooms anyway."

Record lows for the date included 5 at Binghamton, N.Y.; 8 at Canton and Akron, Ohio; 8 below zero at Caribou, Maine; 21 at Evansville, Ind.; 10 at Hartford, Conn.; and 15 at Lexington, Ky.

The former record at Lexington had stood since 1876.

The weather service's official low for the day was 9 below zero at Saranac Lake, N.Y., but normally frigid Mount Washington in New Hampshire had a record 23 below zero.

For today, scattered rainshowers were predicted over the northern Pacific Coast, with strong, gusty winds prevailing across the northern Plains and Minnesota.

UFD Sun Attack 3/24/86

# Severe Tokyo Spring Snowstorm Kills 13, Causes Train Collision

TOKYO (AP) -- The worst spring snowstorm in Tokyo history killed at least 13 people, caused a train collision in which more than 200 passengers were hurt, and brought the city of 12 million people to a soggy halt.

Maritime Safety Agency officials said they had recovered the bodies of 10 sailors who had been aboard two ships that sank Sunday after being buffeted by winds of more than 54 mph.

Air and sea rescue missions were being conducted in the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo today for one other sailor who still was missing.

The Meteorological Agency said 3.5 inches of snow fell on central Tokyo on Sunday, the most ever recorded for the city after the spring equinox. More than double that amount fell in outlying districts.

Bright sunshine returned to the Tokyo area today. Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Yoshimitsu Tsurubushi said 1.32 million households in the Tokyo area lost electric power because of overturned transmission towers.

Areas of northern and western Japan customarily are buried under feet of snow every winter. But snow is rare along the heavily populated eastern seaboard and even small amounts can hopelessly snarl traffic in Tokyo.

20

UFD Sun Attack 3/13/86

# Tornadoes Thrash Deep South

By The Associated Press

A wave of violent thunderstorms swept through the Deep South today, and cleanup continued after three days of deadly storms that spawned more than 55 tornadoes from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes.

Tornadoes and gale-force winds raked the South on Wednesday, killing two people in Alabama, injuring dozens and flipping mobile homes, trucks and cars. Five twisters were sighted in Alabama and eight in Mississippi, Bill Barlow of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center in Kansas City, Mo., said today.

Other storm-related injuries and damage Wednesday were reported in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee.

At least eight people have died in tornadoes and high winds since the first wave of storms rolled across the Plains on Monday, injuring more than 100 people in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, and doing nearly $30 million damage.

Barlow estimated there had been 57 tornadoes through Wednesday night.

"It looks like the area today will be parts of the Southeast," he said in a telephone interview.

Heavy and severe storms spun out today across parts of the Southeast from a storm system centered over Missouri, the National Weather Service said.

# Pro-Cuban group claims bombings

LIMA, Peru -- A pro-Cuban rebel group issued a statement in Lima Saturday claiming responsibility for a series of explosions primarily against U.S.-owned or linked buildings late Thursday and early Friday.

Rescuers, meanwhile, scoured a mountainous area in a rebel stronghold of central Peru for an army helicopter that lost contact with air controllers after the pilot radioed he had to make an emergency landing, authorities said.

The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement said the bombings were in support of Central American countries and Libya, "brother nations that today are attacked by imperialism."

In Ayacucho, 230 miles southeast of Lima, soldiers left Saturday to hunt for a helicopter believed to have crashed in a rugged area of ravines and gorges.

The pilot of the six-passenger helicopter, Carlos Sotil Mayta, radioed to an air base in Ayacucho Friday that he had to make an emergency landing, police said. Trib 4/6/86


=== Page 12 of 31

19

2 die in Ala. as twisters hit South

By Jean Becker
USA TODAY 3/14/86

At least 17 tornadoes pounded the South Wednesday, killing two people in Alabama and ripping Kentucky again. The storms cut a 200-mile swath through Kentucky, which is still recovering from Monday's storms. The toll Wednesday: 19 hurt, and 260 homes, 245 barns and 20 businesses destroyed or damaged. Mississippi and Louisiana also were hit. Elsewhere:

- [x] Near Carrollton, Ala., a twister toppled the chimney of a farmhouse, crushing to death Guy Rollin, 82, and his daughter, Annie Laura Hale, 59. At least 30 homes were damaged. "You could hear a roar from it," said resident Travis Walker. "I never saw one so close."
- [x] Chicken barns were destroyed near Farmerville, La. Cars and storefronts in Franklinton were damaged.
- [x] A steeple was ripped from a church in Lauderdale County, Ala.
- [x] High winds lifted a pickup truck off a highway in Lauderdale County, Miss. The driver suffered a separated shoulder.

Planes in near-collision in Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Federal investigators are reviewing radar printouts and tower tapes to determine what caused a near-collision between a TWA Boeing 727 and four military jets.

TWA Flight 489, carrying 141 passengers en route to St. Louis, had taken off Saturday from Port Columbus International Airport, was climbing and had reached 23,000 feet when four A-7 jets passed 200 feet overhead and about 500 feet off the wing, said Mort A. Edelstein, public affairs officer for the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago.

# Twisters usher in new season

## Ind., Ky. hardest hit states

By Mike Pulfer and Jean Becker
USA TODAY 3/12/86

COVINGTON, Ky. -- A dozen small towns and cities Tuesday began cleaning up the rubble left by a pack of storms -- the first of the 1986 tornado season.

Hardest hit: Indiana and Kentucky, where hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed, one school was destroyed and damaged by the roaring winds.

At least 15 tornadoes touched down Monday in Indiana, including one that wiped out a trailer park in Indianapolis. Among the two fatalities: a Hancock County man who died when his barn -- where he sought refuge -- collapsed.

The National Guard was patrolling downtown Covington and nearby Newport to keep sightseers out.

Temporary shelters were opened for the homeless.

The twisters hit during late afternoon. "It sounded like hell," said Tom Gors of Lynn, Ind., where 85 percent of the buildings were damaged, including the elementary school.

Said Jerry Cragen of Martinsville, Ind., who watched his barn collapse around him, "The wind started blowing and I felt the barn start to breathe. It was pumping like a lung and I just got underneath the tractor and stayed there."

In Covington, Debra Meece, 26, and her brother, Lonnie, 29, were trapped inside their car when a portion of First United Methodist Church fell on it.

"I never thought about a church falling on us. ... I guess I have a guardian angel."

Alaskan volcano erupts

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The 4,000-foot Augustine Volcano erupted Thursday with flames, smoke, ash and a bright orange glow that interrupted airline traffic and spewed an ash cloud over Anchorage. No injuries or damage resulted from the eruption on the barren island at the mouth of Cook Inlet in the North Pacific. The nearest town is Homer.

The first eruption occurred at 2 a.m. (6 a.m. EST) on an island 180 miles southwest of Anchorage, volcanologist Tom Miller of the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Scientists were most worried about the volcano generating a giant wave like the 30-foot wall of water triggered by an 1883 eruption. Augustine also erupted in 1935, 1964 and 1976.


=== Page 13 of 31

18

Trib. 4/1/86

# Airport Bandits

Security officials at some of the nation's largest airports are warning travelers to keep a tight hold on their luggage and a lookout for pickpockets.

Bands of well-trained Colombians have been working the major air terminals on a regular basis. They can snatch valuable bags in a split second and create diversions to distract victims while their pockets are picked.

Police at airports in New York, Miami, San Francisco and other large cities are pooling information in an attempt to intercept these specialized thieves before they set up operations.

They haven't become a problem at Tampa International yet. This can be attributed to the lack of direct flights to Latin American destinations and tight security measures that include the presence of plainclothes officers in critical areas of the passenger terminal.

Police have found that the criminals tend to pick on foreign travelers and those waiting for connecting flights to distant states. If an arrest is made in one of these cases the victims are less likely to be returned to testify.

The crooks are experts at their trade. Apparently, there are several crime schools in South America run by modern Fagins who teach the fine art of picking a pocket by having their students practice lifting items from a coat covered with bells -- without ringing a bell.

They are also trained to snatch carry-on luggage while passengers are distracted at a ticket counter or otherwise occupied. Travelers are advised to watch their luggage at all times or to keep a leg or foot against it if they have to put it down for a moment.

Prevention is the best defense because these wandering thieves have little fear of prosecution. If one is jailed, a confederate will appear almost at once to post bond. They continue to work the area until the trial date arrives, then they move on to another city.

Law enforcement officials have considered exhibiting a seven-minute inflight film made by the San Mateo Sheriff's Department showing the airport bandits at work. The idea was vetoed by airlines on grounds it would generate fear and discourage travelers.

It may, however, be wise to instill sufficient fear to encourage vigilance rather than pretend the problem doesn't exist.

Forewarned is still forearmed.

# Wind puts controllers on runway

By Jean Becker
USA TODAY

Cincinnati air traffic controllers Monday moved onto the runway -- in radio-equipped cars -- to direct planes after high winds blew out control tower windows.

The windstorm ripped through the south side of Cincinnati Greater International Airport about 4:30 p.m. EST, (21:30 GMT) destroying three hangars and as many as 50 planes. Six controllers were hurt.

"They're just calling it high winds but I don't know," said airport spokesman Ted Bushelman. "I'm looking at three hangar buildings that now look like pretzels."

The wind was part of a storm that spawned at least 21 tornadoes in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois, killing five and injuring 70.

ComAir commuter owned many of the destroyed planes; damage was estimated in the millions of dollars.

The airport -- in Boone County, Ky. -- was closed for 90 minutes and planes were rerouted. When it reopened, controllers used two-way radios to communicate with pilots.

The radar room -- separate from the control tower -- was not damaged.

# Two killed in US storms

NEW YORK: Thunderstorms and tornadoes swept across the southern part of the United States on Wednesday, killing two people, tossing trucks about and derailing a railroad train.

Two people died when a tornado struck near Carrollton, Alabama, Pickens County officials said.

"It hit several homes. We have houses blown down on people. We have a row of houses that was blown down," said Virginia Kennedy of the sheriff's office. She did not know how many people were injured.

A tornado that struck the small East Texas community of Pineland destroyed three small businesses, unroofed two mobile homes and knocked out electricity. No injuries were reported. -- AP

# Floods cause havoc in New Zealand

CHRISTCHURCH: One person was missing, presumed dead, and hundreds were left homeless following one of the worst floods in New Zealand this century, Civil Defence and police officials said yesterday.

Civil Defence officials declared a state of emergency for the east coast area of the Canterbury Plains as cleanup operations got under way. The region was just recovering from a massive drought last year.

The deluge began on Wednesday, dumping 150 mm of rain in 18 hours. A 73-year-old farmer was the only reported casualty. -- AP

# Three die in whirlwinds

Washington: Tornadoes whirled across Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio on Monday leaving at least three people dead and 20 injured and cutting off power supplies to thousands of homes.

The winds of up to 140 kph blew down trees and pylons, sent cars and caravans bowling and ripped the roof off scores of houses.

In Indiana, a man sheltering in a barn was killed when the building collapsed and another man was fatally injured by a falling tree. In Ohio one occupant of a caravan blown over by the wind was killed and three others badly injured.

At Cincinnati international airport, 30 to 50 aircraft were damaged. -- AFP

# Flooding leaves two dead

Jakarta: Floods in West Java have killed two people, left nearly 39,000 homeless and inundated more than 18,000 homes, the West Java Representative Office said yesterday.

Rivers have burst their banks after incessant rains in the past few days resulting in flood waters of up to 2.5 m high.

Thirty-three villages in seven districts were flooded, two people drowned in torrents and 38,577 people left their homes for safe areas. The districts are south of the West Java capital of Bandung.

The local government has sent food and medical supplies to the stricken areas, an official said.


=== Page 14 of 31

17

prime contractor for satellite processing, laid off 90 of its 1,000 employees.

Planning Research Corp., which performs engineering tasks, furloughed 150 of its 500 workers.

Lockheed Space Operations, which services the shuttle before and after flights, let go 660 of its 6,200 workers.

Ironically, there was almost a sense of relief when the layoffs were announced, said Lockheed's Williams. "There were rampant rumors of layoffs within six days of the crash," he said. "The layoffs served to clear the air a little bit."

He said the Lockheed layoffs include workers from Lockheed's subcontractors, including Pan Am, Grumann and Morton Thiokol.

Lockheed is trying to find work for the furloughed workers, but it won't be easy, Williams acknowledged. Other high-tech companies in the area are "not in an expansion mode," he said.

Many of the idled employees may well have to leave the Brevard area to find similar work. Others who want to stick around may have to settle for lesser paying jobs.

The slowdown will take its toll outside the aerospace industry as well. Thousands of small businesses - hotels, restaurants and the like - depend upon the space program for their livelihood.

At Mr. Ni's Chinese restaurant on Merritt Island, "our business is probably 95 percent from the Cape," said owner William Ni. "Since the shuttle exploded, our business has dropped 15 percent."

Perhaps the biggest worry around here is over the estimated $75 million a year in tourism spending brought here by the space program.

Business has actually picked up at the Spaceport USA visitor center, due in no small part to curiosity inspired by the accident. Florida's fourth most popular tourist attraction, the Spaceport received 200,000 visitors during February, the busiest February in history.

But Catrambone of the Titusville chamber said increased tourism at the visitor center will be more than offset by the fact that there won't be any launches for a year or longer. "A launch brings in 30,000 people," he said. Titusville's 1,300 hotel rooms "are booked solid during a launch," he said.

Although Brevard has a winter beach crowd, "we don't have a tourist attraction per se, other than the space program," Catrambone said.

Many companies haven't cut back yet, but they are taking their time filling vacancies, said Roger Manley, an industrial psychologist at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne.

Even companies that aren't tied to the shuttle program "are being cautious as all get-out," Manley said. "Things seem to have turned soft just in the last three or four weeks."

"Economics is as much psychology as it is dollars and cents," Manley added. "It's the dismal science."

A few aerospace companies have reversed their plans to move into Brevard, Catrambone said. He wouldn't identify the firms.

"People are saying, 'Wait until the next one goes up,'" Catrambone said.

Yet, existing companies, both residential and commercial, are ward, and some are expanding.

A dozen buildings are under way at Saturday, including the Tyler Independent School District office, which had 2 inches of water in the basement.

Severe thunderstorms have battered Texas, Arkansas and Missouri with heavy rain, hail and tornadoes.

# Texas lashed by vicious storms; one person killed, roads flooded

Tribune Staff and Wires

Vicious thunderstorms Saturday unleashed relentless downpours, hail and tornadoes across Texas and Arkansas, derailing a freight train and covering roads with up to 6 feet of water that killed at least one motorist.

Stalled cars littered flooded Texas roads after up to 6 inches of rain blown by 60-mph wind gusts fell for the second day.

"It's bad," said Caroline Beverly, Smith County Sheriff's dispatcher. "I'm getting reports of bridges under water in all areas of the county."

Flood waters invaded at least a dozen buildings in Tyler, Texas, including the Tyler Independent School District office, which had 2 inches of water in the basement.

Severe thunderstorms have battered Texas, Arkansas and Missouri with heavy rain, hail and tornadoes for two straight days. Malikoff, Texas, had 6 inches of rain and Murfreesboro, Ark., had 5½.

# Fatal home fires

Home fires in six states Thursday killed 10 people, four of them children, authorities said. Twelve people were injured in the blazes.

BERLIN, N.H.: Joseph Saseen, in his 60s, his wife Margaret, in her 50s, and her elderly mother, Beatrice McKay, in her 80s, died when a fire of undetermined origin sent flames "gushing" from the windows of their two-story house, officials said. A police officer and a firefighter were slightly injured.

NANTICOKE, Pa.: Melissa Getz, 6, her brother, Wayne Jr., 12, and their grandmother, Alice Getz, 69, were killed and three other family members injured when a fire apparently caused by a short-circuit in an electric heater engulfed the top floor of a two-story wood-frame house.

CLEVELAND, Ohio: Two-year-old Tamara Dill died in a blaze of unknown origin in a two-story brick house. Three firefighters were treated for injuries.

HERRIN, Ill.: Dusty Feezor, 8, was killed the day after his birthday and four other family members were injured in a fire of unknown origin that heavily damaged a one-story home without a smoke detector.

YONKERS, N.Y.: Edward Hogan, 37, died of smoke inhalation in a fire that consumed a three-story apartment building under renovation.

PARKVILLE, Mo.: A 37-year-old man whose identity hasn't been released was apparently overcome by smoke when he tried to flee a ranch house ravaged by fire of undetermined cause.


=== Page 15 of 31

Space

- From Page 1E

3/30/86

(pop. 330,000), and the spinoff effect means hundreds of millions more.

In the Titusville area closest to Cape Canaveral, it is estimated that 75 percent of the economy depends on NASA business.

The layoffs at the space center have already hurt some local restaurants and put some development projects on hold. And the drought in space shots will undoubtedly damage the tourist trade.

"Yet the coast that NASA built will survive. "This used to be a little bit rinky-dink town," said Davis, parking his horse in front of an empty lot that will soon be a high-tech industrial park called Spaceport Center. "Now there's so much development around here, I don't have any room to ride my horse."

That's unlikely to change. Economic experts said the county's boom may subside for a while, but most development plans should continue on schedule.

Brevard has a fairly diversified economy -- at least when compared with 15 years ago, when the space program was everything.

Besides, NASA says the worst of the layoffs is over.

"The other shoe, so to speak, is not going to drop," said Joseph Malaga, the space center's comptroller.

NASA can't afford to cut back too far. It would cost that much more to rehire people and get the program flying again once the shuttle launches resume.

On the other hand, even if the shuttle program starts up again on schedule, it's likely the shuttle program will proceed cautiously at first. There were to have been 14 more flights this year; under NASA's new projections there might be only half as many flights next year.

"Fewer launches mean less work," said John Williams, a spokesman for Lockheed Space Operations Co. Lockheed, which laid off more than 600 people, handles maintenance and other ground-servicing needs between shuttle flights.

The people who work on the shuttle fret about the future.

"No one knows the full impact," said a laid-off shuttle worker sipping beer at the Challenger Lounge, a Merritt Island tavern decorated with space photos and an inflatable replica of the shuttle dangling over the bar.

"If the birds stay down ... then your high-tech people are going to have to go," said the man, a quality control inspector for Lockheed Space Operations Co. "The layoffs could mushroom."

It wouldn't be the first time. Many around here can well remember when the Brevard economy collapsed in the mid-1970s.

When the glamour of moon landings wore thin, Congress pulled the plug on the Apollo program. A few short years after moon walker Neil Armstrong took his historic "one giant leap for mankind," the Space Coast took one giant step backward.

Space center employment fell from more than 20,000 to less than 10,000; and the county's unemployment rate skyrocketed from 2 percent to 13 percent.

Engineers and scientists fled the area in droves, leaving behind America's first high-technology ghost town. "All you had to do was just look at the gas stations that were shut down," Malaga said. "It was really traumatic."

"You could pick up a house for zero downpayment and just what was left on the mortgage," recalled Harold Zweigbaum, a former NASA engineer.

The exodus of scientists changed the fabric of the community. "When I came here in '62, they said the average age in Cocoa Beach was 26 or 27," said Zweigbaum, now an executive with Astrotech Space Operations, a supplier idled by the shuttle hiatus. "Now, I think it's 60. A lot of retirees moved in here."

So did a lot of companies not directly related to the space program.

Today, two-thirds of Brevard's 138,000 workers draw paychecks from companies not tied to the space center. In the late 1960s, only half of Brevard's wage earners could make such a claim.

"We have a lot of resiliency to fall back on this time that we didn't have when half our population was employed" by the space program, said John McCauley, executive director of the Brevard Economic Development Council. "We have this real enviable manufacturing base."

Even if the space program fell into a prolonged, severe slump, McCauley argued, Brevard will be in far better shape than it was 10 years ago.

McCauley listed a coterie of manufacturers that have come to Brevard in the last few years, companies for which NASA "is not their bread and butter." They include Dictaphone, Collins Avionics, ITT and Melbourne's own computer giant, Harris Corp. "They do not depend on the space program," he said.

Yet, for all its economic diversification, Brevard will always be the Space Coast.

"That's where our future is," said Joe Catrambone of the Titusville Chamber of Commerce.

In Brevard, merchants and restaurateurs take a proprietary interest in the space center. "Around here, everyone's 100 percent behind the space shuttle program," said Bill Woods, manager of Space Shuttle Liquors, which is adjacent to the Challenger Lounge.

"They want the problem worked out, but they want to see it fly," Woods said.

The identifications with NASA are everywhere. Walk into the chambers of commerce and county government offices, and you'll see models of the shuttle on executives' desks and photos of launches on the walls. Drive down U.S. 1, the main drag here, and you'll see tourist traps hawking space shuttle T-shirts. A few restaurants still sport signs out front saluting the seven astronauts killed aboard the Challenger.

Jim Niehoff, owner of the Golden Corral restaurant in Titusville, started a campaign called "Reach for a Star" to raise money to build a new shuttle orbiter. "We needed to do something to be helpful," said his wife, Dottie. So far, $2,000 has been collected.

At Gateway Center, a 10,000-acre industrial park just outside the space center, the streets are named after Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee, the astronauts killed in the Apollo 1 launchpad fire in 1967. Many of the park's more than 30 occupants have ties to the shuttle program. Astrotech, located on Chaffee Drive, services and warehouses commercial satellites scheduled to be launched into space on shuttle flights. Because of the explosion, "we have to go into hibernation, a caretaker status," said vice president Zweigbaum.

Astrotech, which set up shop here in January 1985, is laying off four of its 10 employees, with the others getting reduced work weeks, Zweigbaum said.

It has been reported that military payloads will get top priority once the program resumes; that would put a commercial operation like Astrotech even further behind. Zweigbaum said he doesn't expect any business before 1988.

Compounding his difficulties is an acceleration in the European space program, which is sending up commercial satellites on unmanned rockets. Nonetheless, Zweigbaum said Astrotech isn't pulling up stakes.

The large shuttle contractors suffered the brunt of the layoffs.

Boeing Aerospace, which manufactures fuel rockets, laid off 200 of its 500 workers here.

(16)


=== Page 16 of 31

15

# SPACE COAST GROUNDED

UFDC vs Space Works Trib 3/30/86

JOHN F. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

TITUSVILLE

ORANGE

Cocoa

Merritt Island

Cocoa Beach

OSCEOLA

Melbourne

BREVARD

### The economic reverberations from the shuttle explosion are being felt along the Space Coast.

By DALE KASLER
Tribune Business Writer

TITUSVILLE -- It was a pastoral scene reminiscent of the days before rockets and astronauts ruled the so-called Space Coast: Just off U.S. 1, not far from the launchpads at Cape Canaveral, a man named Jeff Davis was riding his horse.

"All up and down here, it used to be woods," he said, a little sadly. "Not any more."

It isn't easy being a cowboy on the twin frontiers of high technology and big business. But these days, it's the scientists and developers who are circling the wagons.

While Davis mourns the passing of a bygone era, others here worry that they're headed back to hard times.

Since the space shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff Jan. 28, Brevard County's space-age economy has been under siege.

As salvage crews scour the ocean floor for clues to the disaster, the business community is bucking a wave of layoffs and other cutbacks, the likes of which haven't been seen around these parts since the Apollo moon program was mothballed.

Barely a month after the shuttle accident, NASA announced the layoff of 1,100 of the 16,000 workers at Kennedy Space Center. About 450 of the layoffs were attributed directly to the 12- to 18-month hiatus in shuttle launches prompted by the tragedy.

The space center employs more than 10 percent of the county's work force. Altogether, about one third of the county's working population is employed directly or indirectly by NASA.

The space center pumps $450 million in payroll alone into Brevard

See SPACE, Page 3E

### INSIDE

- [x] Hundreds of workers laid off -- 2E
- [x] Contractors can survive until liftoff -- 2E
- [x] Honeywell preparing for future flights -- 2E


=== Page 17 of 31

14

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST 3/5/86

# Shuttle analyst 'ordered to lie'

Washington: A former US space agency budget analyst says his superiors pressured him to lie about the follow-up to safety issues he raised about the space shuttle, according to a published report.

"I felt I was under official orders to deny publicly the validity of my earlier July 23 memorandum, a denial which of course I could not and did not make," Mr Richard Cook wrote in an opinion-page article in Sunday's editions of the Washington Post.

Six months before the January 28 explosion that killed the seven-member crew of shuttle Challenger, Mr Cook wrote a memo "summarising my concerns about the safety of the solid rocket booster used in the space shuttle."

As the post-accident probe was getting under way and news media inquiries mounted, "I was told to say that after I filed my report, the problem was discussed in the comptroller's office, inquiries were made to the programme office, and work was under way that satisfied us that the safety issue was being dealt with," he wrote in the newspaper.

Mr Jim McCulla, a spokesman at National Aeronautics and Space Administration headquarters in Washington, said on Saturday he found Mr Cook's comments about being told what to say incredible.

"I've never heard any of that. I can't imagine that," Mr McCulla said. "NASA has always had since its inception a rule that says that any member of the press can go to anybody (in NASA) and talk to them."

Mr Cook, who now works for the Treasury Department, wrote his memo after investigating the possible budgetary impact of the o-ring seal problem.

The investigation of the Challenger explosion has highlighted possible failure of the o-rings, which are designed to prevent leaks in the shuttle's rocket boosters.

In his article, Mr Cook wrote that NASA "understood completely the implications of a possible o-ring failure. It's just that it was viewed as no problem."

After the accident, "There were many hushed conversations as more information came in to support the solid rocket booster failure hypothesis. There was concern about who might be blamed," Mr Cook wrote.

He said if NASA had listened to "a small number of individuals . . . who feared that the booster seals were unreliable in cold weather . . . the Challenger and its astronauts might still be with us today." --AP.

# NASA's wasted millions

Miami: The US space agency has wasted millions of dollars on space shuttle contracts because of excessive mark-ups on parts, freeloading contractors and loafing work crews, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Audit records show the space agency routinely paid US$30 (about HK$234) for pins that should cost three cents, paid US$159,000 (about HK$1.2 million) for a US$5,000 (about HK$39,000) cooling fan and paid US$256 (about HK$1,996) to fly a contractor's dogs coast-to-coast, the Miami Herald reported.

Up to one-third of NASA's budget, which was more than US$8.3 billion (about HK$64 billion) last year, is wasted, estimated Mr George Spanton, a former Defence Contract Audit Agency supervisor of contractor filings at Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral.

The charges, backed by dozens of NASA and DCAA audit reports obtained by the Herald from the Government, follow recent disclosures by NASA that it had cut back on its safety staff, slashed shuttle reliability programmes and abandoned back-up safety features because of lack of funds.

Officials for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, stung by recent criticism from the presidential commission investigating the January 28 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, denied NASA was wasting taxpayers' dollars.

"Over the years, we've proved that we've done a very efficient job," said Mr Richard Bankowski, NASA's director of procurement policy.

Mr Bankowski told the Herald he "wouldn't even attempt" to estimate the extent of waste at NASA, saying, "I don't have any feel for what the problem is."

NASA spokesman Mr Dave Garrett in Washington declined to comment on the Herald article without first seeing the audit reports obtained by the newspaper. --AP.

Twin-Engine Jet Crashes In Texas; All 7 Passengers Are Dead

REDWATER, Texas (AP) -- A twin-engine turboprop jet crashed in a severe thunderstorm, killing all seven people aboard, most of them aerospace engineers with the Singer Co., authorities said.

The Westwind 24 Aero Commander crashed and exploded in a fireball about 7:20 p.m. Friday in a field near a trailer park, gouging a 12-foot-deep hole in the red clay and scattering debris for more than 100 yards, said Bowie County Sheriff Thomas Hodge.

The plane took off from Redbird Airport in Dallas at 6:55 p.m. for Teterboro, N.J.


=== Page 18 of 31

United States

The Astronauts Bail Out

A stern memo depicts NASA's long-standing safety problems

As concern mounted over NASA's handling of the doomed space shuttle Challenger, the space agency's astronaut corps had stayed stoically tight-lipped. When beleaguered NASA officials trotted out four shuttle veterans for a press conference last week, the astronauts expressed concern about the agency's conduct, but not condemnation. In particular, they reserved judgment on reports that NASA had failed to heed warnings that the weather on Jan. 28 was too cold to launch, leading to Challenger's destruction and the deaths of its seven crew members. "I'm not sitting here angry," said Astronaut Vance Brand. "If there was a mistake, that doesn't bring down the whole system."

But by week's end that solid front was cracking, and the astronauts were firing off criticism as damning to NASA's reputation as any yet heard. Astronaut Sally Ride, a member of the presidential commission investigating the Challenger disaster, was the first to speak out publicly. Until the agency solves its safety problems, "I'm not ready to fly again," said Ride. "I think that there are very few astronauts who are ready." A more pointed reproach was made public Saturday, when the Houston Post printed a memo sent to space-program officials by Chief Astronaut John Young on March 4, citing safety compromises on shuttle flights dating back to October 1984. The list, said Young, "proves to me that there are some very lucky people around here." Safety had to become a top priority, Young wrote, or NASA "will not survive and neither will our three space shuttles or their flight crews."

In a separate safety problem--on a launch last Jan. 12 of the shuttle Columbia with Florida Congressman Bill Nelson aboard--sources on the presidential commission told TIME that NASA tried to persuade technicians of Rockwell Corp.'s Rocketdyne Division to bypass faulty valves on lines feeding the liquid-oxygen fuel tank. Rocketdyne refused, and NASA learned later that a foul-up was causing the huge external fuel tank to drain rather than fill. "If that orbiter had lifted off with the tank almost empty, it would have imploded, collapsed, and that would have finished the shuttle," said the commission source.

NASA, meanwhile, continued to defend itself in the commission's public hearings at Cape Canaveral. NASA technicians speculated on a variety of reasons--other than the cold weather--why a joint in Challenger's right solid-fuel booster began leaking, spewing superhot gases and probably triggering the catastrophe. The commission seemed unimpressed. Chairman William Rogers urged NASA to include independent experts in making its evaluations. Otherwise, he protested, "The people running the tests, if successful, can prove that they were right all along."

To rebuild the battered agency, the Administration brought back a former NASA administrator: James Fletcher, 66, leader of NASA from 1971 to 1977 and a physicist who headed a commission that urged Ronald Reagan to develop a Star Wars defense against missiles. The mild-mannered Fletcher comes to the post with one handicap: he has accused the Rogers commission of being engaged in a "witch-hunt."

--By Ed Magnuson.

Reported by Jay Branegan/Washington and Jerry Hannifin/Cape Canaveral

tice has been that investigators first "understand technically why a failure occurred and then subsequently follow up with the rationale and management actions and other factors leading up to it."

He added that his "biggest problem ... is not the findings and comments of the commission itself, but the partial reporting of those throughout the media."

Engineers and astronauts express irritation and concern about poor communication between NASA centers.

Marshall engineers have been under scrutiny since the commission zeroed in on a solid rocket engine failure as a key factor in the Challenger explosion. The rocket engines were managed by the Marshall center. Some Johnson officials, who asked not to be named, said it has become very difficult to work with the Marshall Center.

At one point, Johnson engineers had to do thermal calculations on the solid rocket boosters because, as one engineer said, "We couldn't get the data from Marshall."

NASA's leaders say they are trying to heal the rifts.

Physicist James Fletcher: a reluctant savior for a beleaguered space agency

Returning with an unblemished record--and a gripe against the investigators.

TIME, MARCH 17, 1986


=== Page 19 of 31

12

ORBITAL EXPLOITS AT A STANDSTILL

Indefinite delay of shuttle launches has halted a variety of major projects and is forcing space customers to seek alternatives. Science missions--including probes of Jupiter and the sun's atmosphere--are in doubt for two years.

Military intelligence satellites and Star Wars research are being diverted to expendable rockets. Also stymied: A host of commercial ventures, including orbital communications links and space factories.

Grounded: Rescue-and-repair missions

Postponed: Satellite launches

individuals willing to apply enormous pressures on subordinates.

"Where was common sense during all these deliberations?" asked commission member Joseph Sutter, a Boeing executive. "Why didn't someone react to these obvious warnings that the launch was in jeopardy?"

The intense scrutiny of NASA's management came at a time when the agency was at its most vulnerable point in years. Administrator James Beggs, who resigned February 26, was under criminal indictment for actions unrelated to his work at NASA. Beggs had been a strong proponent of the shuttle program and had long experience in aerospace ventures. Acting Administrator William Graham, who has been on the job less than two months, probably will be replaced soon by a new permanent agency chief.

Problems at the top already are filtering down through NASA's demoralized employee roster. Says a contract engineer at Johnson Space Center: "A lot of old-timers say Challenger was the inevitable result of taking too many shortcuts and getting too many mixed signals about priorities. A lot of us aren't going to wait around for the next disaster."

A study of NASA management by the National Academy of Public Administration released last October also predicts a "mass exodus of senior executives in the next several years and a gap in high-potential midlevel replacements."

Pressures on NASA are expected to build as Congress monitors the probe

ROUGH SKETCHES

UFOs vs Space Work Trib 3/21/86

NASA

HELL NO, I WON'T GO!

UFOs vs Space Work

Steelworker Killed In Canaveral Fall

CAPE CANAVERAL (AP) -- A steelworker who plunged 90 feet to his death while working here was identified as Joseph L. Tyre of Apopka, NASA announced.

Tyre died Monday when he fell while helping install an overhead crane near the roof of a building under construction in the industrial area of the Kennedy Space Center, officials said Tuesday.

O.S.B 3/26/86


=== Page 20 of 31

-A THE TAMPA TRIBUNE-TIMES, Sunday, March 23, 1986

11

# NASA family

## Investigation leaves wounds that must be healed

By PAUL RECER
AP Aerospace Writer

SPACE CENTER, Houston -- The investigation into the explosion of Challenger has caused splintering and mistrust within NASA, and top officials say these wounds must be healed before the space agency can return to the close teamwork that was key to its past success.

Rifts have developed within what some call "the NASA family" as investigators publicly track the cause of the Jan. 28 explosion that destroyed space shuttle Challenger and killed its seven crew members.

The estrangement centered on recent memos in which chief astronaut John Young accused NASA management of letting launch schedule pressures compromise crew safety. The documents were taken from departmental files and published in newspapers nationwide.

Engineering managers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston said they are hurt and puzzled by the memos and feel estranged from astronauts who have been colleagues for decades.

Some astronauts are dismayed because they believe the memos are being misinterpreted, leaving the impression that "the astronauts have the wagons circled" against NASA "bad guys," one said.

Some in NASA management feel a presidential commission investigating the Challenger accident has needlessly damaged reputations while on what NASA administrator designate James Fletcher has called "a witch hunt."

Communications between the NASA elements has broken down, some officials say. Managers at Johnson report problems in getting data for the investigation from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Astronauts at Johnson claim they never were informed of problems in rocket engines developed at Marshall.

And, invariably, the NASA managers at Johnson, Marshall and Kennedy Space Center in Florida blame the media for many communication problems. Some have flatly refused to talk to reporters since the Challenger accident.

In his statement to reporters at KSC, Smith said he did not intend to "make a frontal attack on the integrity or capability" of the panel but that he did not agree with "its initial approach and the first series of hearings" on the accident.

Smith said the commission should have first learned "technically why a failure occurred" before making statements about NASA officials.

Young has declined interviews, but his deputy, astronaut Paul Weitz, said Young is distressed that his memos have been published and is worried they will damage astronaut office communications with NASA management.

"The underlying theme of many of the articles in the press about John's memos is that the astronauts have the wagons circled and they're fighting off the rest of the bad guys in NASA," said Weitz. "The last thing we need or want is a polarization."

Weitz said Young wrote the memos to emphasize astronaut concerns over engineering problems that had been thoroughly discussed in committees, only to have management rule against the astronaut position.

"I'm sure in any organization there are policy decisions made with which you don't agree and some of them you are willing to accept and some of them you think you can live with but I still think you are wrong and I'm going to continue to make my case," said Weitz. "I know that is the spirit in which John wrote those things."

He cited concerns that NASA management could be alienated by opening the newspaper "at breakfast and here's an article that infers that the astronauts don't trust a damn thing that NASA does.

"The normal human reaction is 'Who do they think these guys are talking to? Who do they think got them to where they are?'"

Kennedy Space Center Director Richard Smith found himself recently trying to explain what he meant when he aired some frustrated opinions in an interview published in the Washington Post. He had accused the presidential commission investigating the Challenger disaster of running "a great risk of needlessly damaging the reputation of people, companies and the agency."

Eugene F. Kranz, director of mission operations, said managers are puzzled about the Young memos. He said all of the issues Young raised had been discussed in open forums and that "an effective use of the system" could have resulted in changes without such strong views being expressed in public.

"I can't speculate on the purpose of the memos," said Kranz.

Jesse Moore, the new director of Johnson Space Center, said in an interview he was unaware of the Young memos until they were published in the paper.

"I thought that they (astronauts) had a role in the decision-making process ... but apparently there is some feeling that they have not," Moore said.

Rep. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., announced recently that he intends to hold congressional hearings on the issues raised by Young.

In the Washington Post interview, Smith had blamed the press for pressure NASA felt to maintain a launch schedule.

"Every time there was a delay," Smith said, "the press would say, 'Look there's another delay ... here's a bunch of idiots who can't even handle a launch schedule.'

"You think that doesn't have an impact? If you think it doesn't, you're stupid," he added.

Citing "long-term damage that cannot be repaired," he said many NASA officials are considering resigning because they are "fed up" with the battering the agency is taking.

Later, said the Post, Smith asked that comments not be published, noting, "I may get fired for this interview."

In his recent statement, Smith did not deny making the remarks. But he toned down his criticism of the commission. He said past prac-


=== Page 21 of 31

10 1/2

UFOs vs Space work

# Investigator: Rocket joint caused shuttle explosion

tie 4/9/86

CAPE CANAVERAL (AP) -- A top NASA investigator said Tuesday that a faulty rocket joint definitely caused the explosion of Challenger, and that engineers failed to take notice when design flaws "winked at us" on earlier flights.

"We missed it in this joint," said J.R. Thompson, vice chairman of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration investigation task force. "We missed it in the design, and I think some of the prior flight anomalies were not taken seriously."

Thompson told a news conference that he was positive the explosion was caused by a failure in the joint between two segments of the right solid fuel booster rocket.

"Clearly the failure was in that joint," Thompson said. "Clearly that joint has to be redesigned.

"NASA has taken a lot of bows for its flights in the past, but this time it fumbled it," he said.

The presidential commission investigating the disaster has said for weeks that the joint was the leading suspect, and other possible causes have been systematically eliminated. However, Thompson's statements appeared to be the most emphatic yet on the subject.

Thompson is deputy director for technical operations at the Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University. Before that he worked 21 years with NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., where he managed development of the space shuttle's main engines.

Thompson said the task force investigation is focusing on possibly defective O-rings designed to stop hot gases from escaping through the joint; on the effect of the rotation of the joint when subjected to ignition pressures; on characteristics of the putty intended to put pressure on the rings; a possible joint alignment problem; and the effect the freezing temperatures on launch day might have had on the rings or the putty.

"It may be a combination of some of these factors," he said.

Launch day photographs show a puff of black smoke spurting from the joint just after ignition and a plume of flame shooting from the area 58 seconds later.

Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on Jan. 28, killing the crew of five men and two women.

Thompson said the smoke indicated the joint had degraded on ignition and "opened up when it got a bumpy ride 50 to 60 seconds later." The bumpy ride referred to the period when the shuttle passed through an area where it was buffeted by maximum outside pressures such as a combination of speed and wind.


=== Page 22 of 31

10

# Film of doomed shuttle

THE TAMPA TRIBUNE, Saturday, March 22, 1986

# pinpoints leak as cause

Tribune Wires

WASHINGTON -- NASA experts ran a riveting movie Friday for the Challenger investigating commission showing, in dramatic frames a few thousandths of a second apart, the flame from a booster rocket leak triggering the explosion that cost seven lives.

One NASA official said "busy winds" buffeting the shuttle high over Florida may have helped cause the flame leak, by reopening a booster rocket seal that apparently was damaged on launch but had since closed. The experts said the flame forged a 45-square-inch hole in the booster rocket.

"We've looked at the heating that would result from that type of flame coming out," said Wayne Littles, after the 14.5-minute, computer-enhanced film showed flame from the booster shooting for about seven seconds toward a tank containing volatile liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel.

"There's more than sufficient heat during that time to burn a hole through the tank," said Littles, associate director for engineering at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "You could burn a hole in that tank in a couple of seconds."

Challenger exploded during the 73rd second of its flight after launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 28.

The films and still pictures shown to the presidential commission came from 14 cameras routinely trained at the shuttle from liftoff until it nears orbit. Littles and other experts from Huntsville provided the commission a new, more detailed timeline of events from ignition to explosion.

Like all of the witnesses Friday, Littles testified that tests and analysis during the last two weeks had ruled out all potential causes other than a failed seam in the aft portion of the right solid booster rocket.

"I believe we have eliminated all the other possibilities," he said, adding that the remaining theories "all deal with the joint."

A commission source said the panel intends to recommend the joint be redesigned, even if the exact way in which it failed cannot be pinpointed. NASA officials have said the shuttle will not fly again until joint problems are remedied.

After a review of the three-year history of problems with the joint, commission chairman William P. Rogers noted, "Some of the people who made the decision to launch (Challenger) said they were not familiar with the problem."

Littles responded: "I do know those problems have been reviewed in flight-readiness reviews" attended by launch decision-makers. "I can't imagine it was not known."

Dan Germany, head of NASA's accident photo analysis team, said in answer to a question by commission member Albert Wheelon that cold weather on launch morning caused the failure of 11 other cameras. Among the failed cameras were two that Germany conceded "would have provided an excellent view of the area in question."

The temperature overnight on launch day was 24 degrees, and cold is suspected of having somehow caused the booster rocket seam to fail.

Marshall engineer Harold Scofield testified the shuttle encountered "a busy wind" that shook it unusually hard.

"We don't think this would open a gap in a healthy solid rocket motor seal," Scofield said.

With the cause narrowed to the right booster rocket's lower seam, Littles said the remaining theories for that failure include:

* Damage to the joint when the rocket was assembled;
* A manufacturing defect in a secondary O-ring used to seal the joint;
* Ice in the joint that may have forced the O-ring seals open;
* Cold weather that might have robbed the O-rings of the resiliency needed to seal;


=== Page 23 of 31

UFOs vs Space Work

9

# Wind shear cited in shuttle disaster

Trib 3/28/86

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The space shuttle Challenger rocketed through a 70-mph drop in wind speed shortly after liftoff, which may have contributed to its explosion, a wind radar expert said Thursday.

William P. Birkemeier, who teaches engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said he deduced the wind speeds by studying atmospheric data for Jan. 28, the day of the ill-fated flight.

The craft's entry and exit from a wind-shear zone 60 seconds into the flight resulted in a 70 mph change in wind velocity, which may have put too much pressure on the shuttle booster and caused the explosion, he said.

Wind shear is a sudden change in wind speed or direction.

Birkemeier said the leak in Challenger's right solid-fuel rocket booster corresponded with its entry into the wind shear, in which 84-mph winds put 400,000 pounds of pressure on the shuttle. Four-tenths of a second later, the shuttle broke through the shear into calm air and 14-mph winds.

"It would appear that the booster leak was caused by the sudden deceleration of the rocket as it flew through the shear zone," Birkemeier said.

In a letter to Richard Feynman, a member of a presidential commission investigating the explosion that killed seven astronauts, Birkemeier noted: "Sixty seconds, of course, is close to the point of maximum aerodynamic stress and coincides closely with the instant the right booster failed."

Birkemeier said he began forwarding his suspicions about the accident to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration soon after the accident.

On Friday, a NASA official told the presidential commission that "busy winds" buffeting the shuttle high over Florida may have helped cause the flame leak by opening a booster-rocket seal.

Birkemeier said he was told by an official at Rockwell International, which helped design the shuttle, that Challenger had veered 8 degrees north of its programmed flight path at the precise time it would have entered the shear zone.

"This was to compensate for the 84 mph wind," he said.

He also said he learned that the shuttle shifted back 3 degrees to regain its path as it broke out of the shear.

This steering action would have placed an additional 200,000 pounds of outward force on the bottom section of the booster where it attaches to the main fuel tank.

"This would have tended to buckle the booster at the attach point," Birkemeier said.

In his letter to Feynman, Birkemeier said he wondered "whether it would have come loose when it did if this 200,000 pounds of steering force hadn't been applied at that point. In which case, the shear is responsible for the accident," not the booster design.

Birkemeir mailed the letter to Feynman this week and hadn't received a response as of Thursday.

Strange that "wind shear" had never before struck a space shuttle before my Nov. warning to Jeffrey!!


=== Page 24 of 31

8

U.S.NEWS

An agency that brought America the wonder of a moon landing and the thrill of exploring the heavens now faces intense scrutiny from critics. No one expects an end to U.S. ventures in outer space, but serious delays lie ahead

On hold: $1.3 billion space telescope

In question: Star Wars defense shield

# NASA falls from grace

UFOs vs. Space Work

America's space program, stunned by revelations that its chain of command was fatally flawed, now faces a rebuilding effort that will postpone military, commercial and scientific projects, perhaps for years.

Seldom has a U.S. agency fallen so quickly from shining star to scapegoat. Despite its admirable safety record and a quarter-century of towering achievement, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is suddenly defending itself against allegations from Congress, from a presidential investigating commission and even from its own contractors.

Above all, critics are asking if NASA's vaunted "can do" spirit may have unwittingly triggered the January 28 Challenger catastrophe that killed seven astronauts and brought manned U.S. space ventures to a halt.

"NASA was the outfit that could do no wrong," said a source close to the shuttle-investigation commission. "Now, it looks as if somebody got overconfident and twisted arms to get that launch off even though the red warning flags were flying." Although official findings won't be announced by the White House commission until May, this much appears certain:

* Shuttle flights, which NASA had hoped to resume by mid-1986, will be grounded for as long as two years. The reason: Extensive overhauls and retooling of rockets and fuel systems.
* Congress will insist on improvements in NASA management and internal communications. But lawmakers are still expected to approve the nearly $3 billion it will take to build a replacement orbiter for Challenger.
* Sending mission specialists into space will remain a priority, although plans will be scaled back to exclude cargo that can be placed in orbit by unoccupied, expendable rockets. If for no other reason, astronaut-piloted U.S. flights will continue because the Soviet Union is intent on pursuing its goal of a human presence in space.
* Business interest in space development remains high, though fledgling entrepreneurial start-ups in space are on hold. Revenues from commercial space ventures were projected as high as $50 billion by the year 2000. Moreover, few projects will shift immediately to the European space effort, in part because Europe's Ariane rocket is booked nearly solid for the next two years.
* Military payloads scheduled to go aloft on the shuttle will be transferred to Titan rockets without crews when possible. But once the shuttle missions resume, crucial military cargo may bump commercial items lower on the flight manifest. Until the shuttle is again ready to fly, Air Force Under Secretary Edward Aldridge says, inability to carry military equipment to orbit constitutes "a national emergency."

Launch went ahead despite ice on the launching pad

Although a February 20-25 Los Angeles Times poll shows that 3 out of 4 people support the shuttle program, the agency has come under increasing fire that will surely spur a major revamping of its management procedures. In public hearings, the presidential commission on the shuttle disaster grilled officials involved in launch preparations with questions that seemed prosecutorial in tone. William Rogers, the former Secretary of State who chairs the commission, warned in his opening statement that the accident "may involve human error, as distinguished from equipment failure."

After days of testimony, in which shuttle engineers told how they had argued that Challenger should not be launched in extremely cold weather, Rogers remained unsatisfied. "You will remember that I did say at one point that we thought the decision-making process may be flawed," he told four senior NASA officials. "I think I'm speaking for the whole commission when I say we think it is flawed."

Despite strong denials, there is continuing suspicion that high-level NASA officials were informed of the potential danger before the launch. "The issue was so controversial I thought people were aware" of it, said Allan McDonald, engineering chief at Kennedy Space Center for Morton Thiokol, manufacturer of the solid-rocket-booster motors. "I have a hard time believing they didn't."

Another vigorously denied report: That the White House pressured NASA to get the Challenger up on time so the President could place a call to the crew during his state-of-the-union message. Presidential press spokesman Larry Speakes called the story "the most vicious and distorted rumor I have ever heard."

Whatever the conclusions eventually reached by the commission, the hearings reveal a decision-making process at NASA's highest levels that showed

20

U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT, March 10, 1986


=== Page 25 of 31

7

# NASA astronauts threaten to quit

Hong Kong Post 3/16/86

## Confidence lost over Challenger

UFOs vs space work

Houston: Several NASA astronauts are considering resigning because of the halt in the shuttle programme while the January 28 Challenger explosion where seven crew died is investigated, sources close to the US space agency said.

Some astronauts are disappointed, have lost confidence, and are angered by the death of the seven crew. Some even blame National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineers for the disaster which they feel should have been avoided, said Paul Weitz, a senior astronaut official.

"A lot of people say: 'I don't trust those bastards any more'," he said.

Veteran astronaut Don Lind resigned this week to work at Utah State University, but NASA said that his decision was made before Challenger exploded.

Some are thought to be considering leaving because they think the suspension could last two years, reducing their chances of flying.

One of the biggest losses among the 95 astronauts could be military pilots who have the greatest experience of flying.

Many have been with NASA longer than their five-year contracts, but the Defence Department is considering changing its policy so that military pilots keep strictly to their contracts.

"I think it potentially is a problem," said Mr Weitz, who is a pilot himself. "There will be a loss of continuity in the corporate knowledge among our pilots."

A top US space agency official said on Friday NASA plans to resume shuttle flights after a 12-month pause. Other NASA officials have said it may take as long as 18 months to two years before the shuttle flies again.

Dr Raymond Colladay, chairman of a shuttle replanning task force, said his group was working with other US Government agencies on a recommendation to President Ronald Reagan on what needs to be done "to restore launch capability."

However, a member of the Presidential Commission investigating the January 28 explosion that destroyed the Challenger said NASA will have to redesign a space shuttle booster joint, suspected as the cause of the accident, before it launches another shuttle.

"There's no doubt whatsoever the design of that joint is hopeless," commission member Richard Feynman told the Huntsville Times on Thursday.

Mr Feynman, a Nobel physicist from the California Institute of Technology, visited the Marshall Space Flight Centre with three other commission members.

Stormy seas on Friday interrupted the search for vital Challenger wreckage, including more human remains, but sources reported the recovery of the space shuttle's flight recorders and some of its computers.

The instruments may tell investigators about the moments before and after the explosion that destroyed the spaceship and killed its seven crew members.

Dr Colladay, associate administrator of space technology at NASA's Washington headquarters, said the replanning task force was working with the Department of Transportation, the Department of Defence and other agencies.

Once the shuttle starts to fly again, Dr Colladay said: "We adopted a build-up rate of nine flights in the first year, 14 in the second, to a level of 18 flights per year with a three-orbiter fleet."

He emphasised the 12-month moratorium was for "purposes of budget planning" with a view towards setting shuttle manifest priorities for military, planetary, science and commercial payloads.

In a televised talk to NASA employees, Dr Colladay said agency officials intend to conduct a series of similar communications so that employees would not have to rely on the media for news about the agency.

"Yes, the accident did stun us, that's to be expected, but it wasn't a mortal wound," Dr Colladay said.

At the Kennedy Space Centre, sources requesting anonymity said some of the crew compartment wreckage recovered over the past few days included pieces of the astronauts' seats, a treadmill used by the crew for exercising in space and two space suits carried along for possible use in space walks.

The items were brought in late Wednesday along with some human remains by the Navy salvage ship Preserver, the sources said.

Weather conditions in the Atlantic Ocean recovery area were so poor on Friday that they "pretty much obliterated any chance" for diving or photography of underwater debris of the crew cabin and rocket boosters, said NASA spokeswoman Andrea Shea.

In Washington, presidential investigators received consideration from new film studies shown privately on Friday that safety seals on the Challenger's right booster rocket caused the shuttle to explode in flight, a source said.

The source, who is close to the probe but asked not to be identified by name, said the enhanced film the commission saw first time this week "for the first time provided a considerable confirmation of our view on the dent and timeline of the fire" that caused the explosion.

The source added the panel is still trying to determine what caused the failure of the seam designed to contain hot gases inside the solid fuel booster rocket.

Leading theories are that cold weather reduced the effectiveness of rubber-like O-ring seals, or that the seals were harmed by the normal motion of the rocket, or were defective on manufacture, the source said.

The commission met as the chairman of the Senate sub-committee that oversees NASA said that Congress probably will approve a replacement for the lost shuttle Challenger unless the space agency is forced to accept across-the-board budget cuts in accordance with a new US law.

In that case, "there certainly wouldn't be a replacement orbiter," and NASA will have to make do with the three shuttles left in the fleet, said Senator Slade Gorton, who chairs the Senate Space Sub-committee.

The panel also announced it would hold its next public hearing on Friday after two weeks of information-gathering around the country.

-AFP and AP.


=== Page 26 of 31

6

(Could there be a connection between my UFOs sending me to Peru recently + oncoming "El Nino" phenomena? Owens)

# El Nino

* **From Page 1AA**

During El Nino, the plankton-rich cold water is displaced by relatively sterile warm water in the fishing grounds off the South American coast. Anchovy, which feed on plankton and are a mainstay of the Peruvian economy, then migrate to other feeding grounds, leaving the sea birds that produce guano deposits (used for fertilizer) to starve. The name El Nino, Spanish for the Christ Child, was coined by Peruvian fishermen because the phenomenon usually occurs around Christmas.

The key new idea, according to Cane, is that "at the peak of an El Nino, water moves not only from west to east, but also poleward, emptying the reservoir of warm water at the equator." When there is no longer enough warm water to sustain the above-normal surface temperatures, the El Nino begins to break down.

By the time the El Nino is over, the eastern Pacific is colder than normal. A new El Nino cannot begin until warm water flows back from the higher latitudes. A similar hypothesis about the poleward flow has been developed independently by Klaus Wyrtki, a researcher at the University of Hawaii, Cane and Zebiak said.

They said they tested the theory with a computer model that simulated the physical processes that occur in the interaction between the ocean and atmosphere in the Pacific Ocean near the equator. The model makes predictions by solving a complex series of mathematical equations that describe the motion of the ocean and the atmosphere over a given period.

The scientists made retrospective, one-year forecasts for 12 of the past 15 years. Nine forecasts were correct, they said, and the others were inconclusive. They said that forecasts prepared in six successive months from August through January all predicted an El Nino effect this year.

The forecast model predicted that surface temperatures in the forecast region, an area of the Pacific along the equator that reaches from the South American coast to a north-south line that passes just east of Hawaii, would peak at about 1.9 degrees C. above normal.

"This is the most typical-looking thing we've ever forecast," Cane said. "It would be unprecedented for it to turn around and abort." The forecasts were made using surface-level wind reports from ships, he said.

Cane and Zebiak said their model is the first computer model designed to forecast El Nino that relies on physical interactions. Other prediction methods rely on statistical models that correlate current observations with previous El Nino events.

Barry Raleigh, director of the Peru already have been notified of the prediction.

Eugene Rasmusson, chief of the diagnostic branch of the Climate Analysis Center in Camp Springs, Md., a branch of the National Weather Service, called the computer model "extremely interesting," but said it would have to withstand scrutiny from other scientists attempting to develop techniques to predict El Nino events.

Rasmusson also said that rising Pacific Ocean temperatures about 100 miles off the South American coast and changes in air pressure over the Pacific may, indeed, be signaling development of an El Nino.

"It's still pretty early to see how this thing shapes up," he said. "We haven't seen the classical El Nino warming on the coast yet." He said meteorologists would watch the area for another "two to four months."

Michael Hall, director of the U.S. office of the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere project (TOGA), which provided a grant for the forecast project, called the computer model "remarkable for what it's done so far," but he noted that it cannot predict the worldwide effects of an El Nino.

Hall said that more information about the possible El Nino is expected to be gathered in coming months by scientists from about a dozen nations involved in TOGA, a 10-year project begun in 1985 to

![Photograph of people sifting through debris]
Reuters photo

### After the quake

**W. Da Sun Attack**
**Trib 4/7/86**

Residents of Cuzco, Peru, sift through debris for belongings Sunday, following an earthquake that killed at least seven people, left 600 families homeless and damaged Inca ruins and five churches in the Andean region.


=== Page 27 of 31

5

# Computer predicts El Nino

The cause of El Nino, a reverse trade-winds phenomenon, is unknown, but it soon be pinned down.

By PHIL MINTZ
Newsday

In June 1982, weather observers watching the western Pacific Ocean noticed an ominous sign. The easterly blowing trade winds had reversed and were blowing from the west. There were drought conditions in Australia, and an area of heavy rainfall usually located near Indonesia had drifted to the east.

It was the first sure indication that the reverse trade-winds phenomenon called El Nino that wreaks havoc on worldwide weather had begun.

By November, its characteristic warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean off South America would begin. Over the next several months, areas of Peru and Ecuador would be lashed by heavy rains, a gargantuan forest fire would rage through a drought-stricken rain forest in Borneo, and massive storms would slam into the coast of California.

By the time it was all over, El Nino would be blamed for as many as 2,000 deaths and about $8 billion in damages.

Although El Ninos have been observed for centuries, and occur at intervals of two to 10 years, scientists are still trying to understand what causes them. Now, two Columbia University scientists say they have found a reliable way of predicting El Nino up to a year in advance, and they are forecasting its return later this year.

The scientists, Mark A. Cane and Stephen E. Zebiak, made their prediction recently, using a new computer model developed at the university's Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory in Palisades, N.Y. The computer model incorporates a new hypothesis of how one El Nino ends and another one begins, the scientists said.

"We're confident that El Nino is coming," said Cane, a senior research scientist at the observatory, who predicted the event would peak late this year, in October and November, and disappear in early 1987. The severity and duration of the predicted El Nino is less certain, but Cane said it would be "moderate." He said it would be less severe than the 1982-83 El Nino, which was considered the worst in a century.

According to Cane and Zebiak, El Nino develops when the normal interaction between the ocean and atmosphere near the equator is disrupted.

Normally, the Pacific Ocean is warmest in the west and coldest in the east, with a large area receiving tropical rainfall in the far western Pacific. This temperature differential is maintained by strong easterly trade winds that drive warm surface waters to the west, at the same time drawing up colder subsurface waters at the east.

In the complex web of events that marks El Nino, however, the eastern Pacific Ocean begins to warm and the surface winds begin to slacken, part of an atmospheric event known as the Southern Oscillation. Warm water from the west begins to migrate east, and less cold water is drawn up. The tropical rainfall spreads eastward, along with the warm water.

See EL NINO, Page 8AA

AROUND THE
# Nation

## Southern California Shakes Again, Rocked By 3rd Quake In 17 Hours

BOMBAY BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- A mild earthquake shook Southern California on Saturday, the region's third temblor in 17 hours, but a geologist said the timing was coincidental and no damage was reported.

The third quake, at 9:21 a.m., was the strongest, measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale, said Robert Finn, spokesman for the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Its epicenter was Bombay Beach on Salton Sea, a brackish lake 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

"It sure shook this building," said Bobbie Todhunter, assistant manager of the Bombay Marina. "It was a boom, and then everything shook."

The Salton Sea quake followed a 3.8 shaker in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, late Friday, which was preceded by 3.1 temblor in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles on Friday afternoon.


=== Page 28 of 31

School System Praised

To The Editor:
This is a true story. My family arrived here and took a home about two years ago. School Supt. Archibald and his assistants went to great pains to help my two children get into the Ocala schools.

One son, Jerome, who is now seven, had a severe speech handicap and had only a vocabulary of perhaps a dozen words. My son, Teddy, now 14, was hopelessly behind his class level because of my former travels. First, Jerome attended Oakcrest School where he was tremendously helped by three dedicated women who extended his vocabulary. This year, through the kindness of Supt. Archibald, he was transferred to Wyomina School and assigned to Mrs. Stewart who could give him more time and personal attention and who has done wonders with him. Now he can actually put sentences together and I would estimate his vocabulary at roughly 100 words.

My other son, Teddy, in Fort King Middle School, was taken over by Mrs. Sorrells who, through some magic of spirit, has managed for him to "hang in there" and improve himself tremendously. She utilized a strange mixture of affection for Teddy, belief in Teddy and other techniques. The nice lady principal, Elaine Laine, and her regular teachers have cooperated in a team effort.

The reason for my writing to the Ocala Star-Banner is, I wonder if the local citizens know what a gem of an educational system you have here for the children and how extraordinarily it is carried out and "ramrodded" by people like Skip Archibald and Mrs. Sorrells.

Ted Owens

OCALA STAR BANNER 3/14/86(?)

AROUND THE
# Nation

UFOs Sun Attack 0.5B 3/13/86
## String Of Minor Earthquakes Rattle Windows In Georgia

ATLANTA (AP) -- A string of earthquakes that rattled windows and toppled dishes from shelves in central Georgia may be the main event of a month-long string of minor tremors or a preliminary to something bigger, seismologists say.

"This could be a buildup. We've had 50 events in the last two weeks. With the kind of event we had today, we can expect hundreds of earthquakes or maybe one or two more big ones," Karl Zelt, research assistant in the geophysics department at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said Wednesday.

"As far as we're concerned, those people down there are going to have a lot of shaking going on."

The biggest of Wednesday night's string of quakes measured 2.5 on the Richter scale, big enough to rattle windows and topple dishes, but not enough to cause structural damage.

UFOs Sun Attack 0.5B (signed Dr. Michlowe) 3/31/86
## Earthquake Shakes San Francisco Bay

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- An earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay area Saturday, but there were no reports of any damage or injury.

In Sacramento, the state Office of Emergency Services reported the quake struck at 8:25 a.m. PST with an intensity of 4.0 on the Richter scale of ground motion. The temblor was centered in Oakland, the office said.

The quake was felt in a wide area around the epicenter, according to phone calls to The Associated Press.

"It felt like an incredible crash, like a 500-pound bomb had landed," said William Brand.

In a high-rise near downtown San Francisco, the quake felt like a brief rumble through the floor, lasting about a half-second.

4

"geopei projects"

UFOs Sun Attack (signed Jeffrey) 0.5B 3/30/86
## Quake shakes San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO -- A moderate earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay area at 8:24 a.m. Saturday with a jolt that felt like "an incredible crash," but there were no reports of significant damage or injury. The quake, centered four miles east of Berkeley, measured at 4.0 on the Richter scale of ground motion.

Earthquakes with the magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter scale can cause slight damage, and quakes measuring 4 can result in moderate damage. Each increase in one number means a tenfold increase in magnitude. (This one just a warning Owens)

UFOs Sun Attack
OCALA * STAR-BANNE
8A
# Quake Hits Bay Area For 3rd Day

FREMONT, Calif. (AP) -- A strong earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay area early today, rocking skyscrapers in the region's third temblor in as many days. There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage.

The earthquake had a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter scale and was centered 10 miles east of Fremont, which is 35 miles southeast of San Francisco, said Willis Jacobs of the U.S. Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. It struck at 3:56 a.m., he said.

It was followed by moderate aftershocks measuring 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 on the Richter scale, according to the state Office of Emergency Services. 0.5B 3/31/86


=== Page 29 of 31

3

Mt. Des Sun Attack

# California Shaken By Big Quake

0.5x5 4/1/86

FREMONT, Calif. (AP) -- A strong earthquake that shook skyscrapers, rattled shelves and roused thousands of people could have been deadly and is a reminder that the earth's crust in northern California is unsettled, an expert said.

"It may be several decades before we have a quake like the one in 1906, but quakes like (Monday's) can do a lot of damage if they hit populated areas," said Robert E. Wallace, chief scientist of the U.S. Geological Survey's Office of Earthquake Studies.

Five people suffered minor injuries and no major damage was reported from Monday's quake, which had an epicenter about 15 miles southeast of Fremont and 65 miles southeast of San Francisco.

The great San Francisco earthquake on April 18, 1906, killed at least 2,000 people and destroyed 28,000 buildings, leaving more than 225,000 people homeless.

Monday's quake, which hit at 3:56 a.m., was estimated to measure 5.3 on the Richter scale, according to the University of California Seismographic Station at Berkeley. The state Office of Emergency Services estimated the reading at 5.6, a magnitude that is capable of causing extensive damage.

The 1906 quake was before the Richter scale was developed, but has been calculated to have had a force of 8.3.

The Richter scale measures the energy released by quakes as measured by ground motion. Each increase by one number indicates a tenfold increase in ground motion. Thus, a quake of 5.0 has 10 times the ground motion of a temblor with a magnitude of 4.0.

Drug store manager Craig Troxclair looks over bottles shaken from shelves of Fremont, Calif., store.

AP

The latest earthquake followed a moderate one Saturday morning that measured 4.0 on the Richter scale and a slight temblor of 2.2 on Sunday night, University of California officials said.

San Francisco police dispatcher Irene Voorhees described Monday's quake as "a long, rolling motion" and said the switchboard was jammed with callers.

It was felt as far north as Santa Rosa and as far south as San Luis Obispo.


=== Page 30 of 31

3rd earthquake jolts California

Only a few minor injuries were reported from the quake 50 miles southeast of San Francisco.

By STEVE WILSTEIN
Associated Press

FREMONT, Calif. -- Skyscrapers swayed, bottles crashed from store shelves and people and parakeets were shaken from their slumber Monday as a strong earthquake, the third temblor in as many days, hit northern California.

Damage was not serious and only a few minor injuries were reported from the quake, which hit at 3:56 a.m. and was estimated to measure 5.3 or 5 on the Richter scale. Scientists put the epicenter about 15 miles southeast of Fremont, some 50 miles southeast of San Francisco.

"My birds started screaming just before it happened," said Valerie Wirth, 21, of Hayward. "My little parakeet started it and the parrots joined in. They can sense it happening, just before earthquakes and storms. But my husband slept through it."

CALIFORNIA
Earthquake epicenter

Santa Rosa
San Francisco
Berkeley
Fremont
San Jose
San Luis Obispo
Pacific Ocean
NEVADA
CALIFORNIA

Tribune map by VAUGHN HUGHES

John Skeets, manager of the Lucky Food Center in south Fremont, said more than 300 jars and bottles were smashed, 14 ceiling tiles fell and a crack appeared in a concrete wall of the 3-month-old store.

"Two guys on the night crew were stocking in the pickle section when all the pickle jars started falling," he said. "They cleared out of there real fast."

"This quake is a reminder that the earth's crust around here is very active," said Robert E. Wallace, chief scientist of the U.S. Geological Survey's Office of Earthquake Studies.

"It may be several decades before we have a quake like the one in 1906, but quakes like today's can do a lot of damage if they hit populated areas," said Wallace.

The University of California Seismographic Station at Berkeley estimated Monday's quake at 5.3 on the open-ended Richter scale. The state Office of Emergency Services estimated the Richter reading at 5.

By noon, 230 aftershocks had been recorded, the strongest a 3.4 at 5:05 a.m., said Edna King at the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park.

"We don't find any particular significance to it, no," said Rick McKenzie, staff research associate at Berkeley, when asked if the series of three quakes and swarms of aftershocks were important in forecasting future temblors.

After Monday's initial shock, thousands of people were without power for short periods as electric lines snapped.

"My wife felt it first," said Greg Madrid, 34, who lives in an apartment in Fremont near where the wires broke. "We have a waterbed and it started rolling. She screamed and I woke up. Then we saw two bright blue flashes and everything went dark."

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said the outages affected about 7,500 people in San Jose and about 1,800 in Fremont.

See QUAKE, Page 4A

Quake

From Page 1A

The temblor reportedly was felt as far north as Santa Rosa, as far south as San Luis Obispo, a range of about 350 miles, and as far east as Stockton.

It was the strongest quake to hit northern California since Jan. 26, when a temblor of 5.5 on the Richter scale jolted the Hollister area about 120 miles south of San Francisco.

Alexian Brothers Hospital in San Jose reported three minor injuries. The victims, who suffered cuts or were hit by objects falling in their homes, were treated and released. Two other people were treated at Washington Hospital in Fremont, including a woman who broke her toe leaping out of bed.

The quake smashed hundreds of bottles at newly opened Abe's Liquors in Fremont, and owner Abe Sousa has no earthquake insurance.

"I came down at 4:15 a.m. and saw all the bottles broken," Sousa said. "But we didn't have any power, so I went back home."

At Syquest Technology, half a dozen wooden structural beams suffered cracks, some as long as 15 feet. But inspectors said the factory, which makes computer disk drives, is in no danger of collapse and could open for business.

The building also suffered cracked walls and a minor gas leak.

The quake was felt at least as far east as Stockton, about 75 miles east of San Francisco. "It woke me up and sloshed the water in my swimming pool," said Jim Hushaw, managing editor of the Stockton Record.

Monday's earthquake followed a moderate one Saturday morning that measured 4.0 on the Richter scale, according to the University of California, and a slight temblor of 2.2 on Sunday night.


=== Page 31 of 31

New fires burning in Southeast forests

Associated Press

New fires flared Tuesday across the Southeast, where thousands of acres have been charred in the past week under rainless skies and unseasonable warmth.

"Every day it gets a little drier, with the fires burning with a little more intensity. It hasn't taken any spectacular leap, just a slow gradual buildup in a situation that's already pretty bad," said Bruce Jewell, spokesman for the regional office of the U.S. Forest Service in Atlanta.

Hundreds of fires have broken out in the past week in parts of Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio. Outbreaks of grass and brush fires were reported over the weekend and Monday in parts of Michigan, western Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Mississippi.

Jewell said, "Everything in the South except Florida has very high fire danger."

Since Jan. 1 in the 13 Southern states covered by his office, Jewell said 42,204 fires have burned 563,056 acres of private, state and federal land. The region covers Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Outside the region, West Virginia and Ohio also have been hard-hit.

In West Virginia, where more than 25,000 acres have burned this year, the worst since 1976, crews battled 12 new forest fires Tuesday. But while they were under control, two large fires burning for several days in rugged terrain in the south remained out of control, said Jerry Atkins, assistant state forester. Last year, just 7,450 acres had burned by this time, he said.

"I don't know how we're going to carry through," District V Forester Gerald Wimer said. "We're reaching the point where we can't take care of the fires that we do get. My people are getting so tired."

West Virginia officials estimate at least one-third of the fires are caused by careless trash burning, arson set by another third are caused by Gov.

Kentucky Martha Layne Collins visited fire crews in the area Tuesday. Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste ordered state officials to beef up enforcement of open-burning laws.

At least three fires raged out of control Tuesday in Tennessee. The state had 283 fires Sunday which blackened 2,745 acres, said Roy Ashley, director of the state Forestry Division. So far this year, 3,730 fires have claimed 42,658 acres, he said, while the state usually loses 40,000 to 42,000 acres of land to fires in an entire year.

"I would say this is the worst year for arson in Tennessee," Ashley said.

Nine Kentucky fires totaling about 2,200 acres burned out of control Tuesday, after state crews extinguished 97 fires Monday which charred about 5,100 acres. U.S. Forest Service crews battled a 200- to 300-acre fire in the Daniel Boone National Forest, where 65 fires raged Monday.

Ohio has had an estimated 10,000 acres of state forest land burned in the past week by 600 fires.

UPI photo

In Malden, W.Va., the once peaceful woods have turned into raging infernos with brush fires sweeping across dry forests.