News Digest &«&*-•
Honecker steps down
as E. German leader
Rescuers search for survivors
of devastating California quake
SAN FRANCISCO - Rescuers
searched with dogs and sensitive
microphones Wednesday for any
survivors of the killer Bay Quake, as
thousands of Californians picked
their way through glass-strewn
streets in search of a semblance of
normal life.
Across San Francisco Bay in
Oakland, hopes faded for finding
anyone alive within the tons of steel
and concrete left when Tuesday’s
earthquake brought one level of
Interstate 880 down atop another.
Approximately 250 people were
feared entombed in that twisted
wreckage, and at least 21 others were
dead elsewhere in the quake area.
Some 1,400 people were injured, said
state emergency services spokesman
Tom Mullins.
“To the best of our knowledge
now, there arc not any people still
alive on this freeway,’’ Oakland
Mayor Lionel Wilson said of the col
lapsed roadway.
The figure of 250 dead was based
on estimates of the number of cars
trapped in the rubble, and that as
sumed only one person per car.
Searchers had been hindered by
darkness and the condition of the
wrecked freeway, which Acting
Oakland City Manager Craig Kocian
described as ‘‘a house of cards” that
could collapse further unless rescuers
work carefully.
The 1 1/4 miles of the Nimitz
Freeway that collapsed was one of the
oldest in the area, built in the 1950s,
and apparently was not included in a
program to make spans earthquake
proof, said state Transportation De
partment spokesman Kyle Nelson.
In just 15 seconds, the earthquake
destroyed or damaged hundreds of
buildings along 100 miles of the San
Andreas Fault, collapsed a section of
the San Francisco-Oakland Bay
Bridge and two spans near Santa
Cruz, cracked roads, and severed gas
and power lines, sparking fires.
The temblor, the nation’s second
deadliest, surpassed only by the San
Francisco quake of 1906, measured
6.9 on the Richter scale and was felt
350 miles away.
Even as residents and officials
tried to evaluate the damage, Presi
dent George Bush signed a disaster
declaration making federal funds
available for recovery, and said we
will take every step and make every
effort” to help.
Bush directed an initial $273 mil
lion to relief efforts and said he would
inspect the area. The White House
said the money will come from unal
located funds in a $1.1 billion appro
priation for Hurricane Hugo relief,
and the president’s trip probably
would be Friday or Saturday.
Vice President Dan Quayle and
Transportation Secretary Samuel
Skinner loured the area Wednesday
by helicopter.
Th<». fpYtftml government normally
pays at least 75 percent of the cost of
rebuilding bridges and public facili
ties that are destroyed, and provides
low-cost loans. The disaster declara
tion covered seven counties.
Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy said dam
age was “the better part of $1 bil
lion.” Other estimates were in the
billions in San Francisco alone.
Gov. George Deukmejian headed
home from a trade mission to West
Germany.
In San Francisco’s Marina Dis
trict, where a fire fueled by gas de
stroyed a block of 12 apartment
buildings, about 500 people packed a
cafeteria at Marina Middle School for
breakfast after spending the night on
cots and mats.
Deputy Fire Chief Mike K. Farrell
said he strongly suspdeted people
were trapped in collapsed buildings.
“We’re going to bring in dogs to see
if people are trapped in there. I saw
three- and four-story buildings that
are now one-story buildings.”
Los Angeles donated sonic equip
ment to help detect any sounds of
people trapped alive in rubble, said
Scott Shafer, a spokesman for Mayor
Art Agnos. Ten people are known
dead in the city, according to the
coroner s office.
The death toll elsewhere included
five people in Santa Clara County,
five people in Santa Cruz County,
and one in San Mateo County.
State Sen. Milton Marks of San
Francisco estimated damage in the
Marina area alone at SI billion.
Shafer said damage throughout the
city would run into the billions. Most
of the damaged buildings were Victo
rian-cra.
Agnos estimated 40 buildings as
either damaged or unusable, and said,
“The city is well-organized and re
sponding effectively to the crisis.”
Agnos described the city’s emer
gency services’ performances as
“sensational,” and asked city work
ers not at work to volunteer for the
D r1 rncc Ua »rACiHAntc
conserve electricity and tourists to
stay away.
San Francisco District Attorney
Arlo Smith said about 50 people were
arrested downtown Tuesday night on
felony charges of looting and bur
glary. He had few details of the loot
ing incidents.
The transportation system was
crippled by the closing of the San
Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and
Agnos urged commuters to stay home
Wednesday.
Tourist ferries that helped Tues
day by giving commuters free rides to
Oakland charged the normal $4 on
Wednesday. The Oakland and San
Francisco International airports reo
pened and BART, the rapid transit
system, was open.
BERLIN - Hard-line East Ger
man leader Erich Honecker, who
oversaw the building of the Berlin
Wall, stepped down Wednesday
and was replaced by a younger
Communist Party loyalist amid
growing unrest and calls for demo
cratic reform.
Two other ruling Politburo
members also lost their jobs in a
shake-up during a meeting of the
Communist Party Central Com
mittee, but changes from
Honecker’s course were unlikely.
Communist Partj^leaders have
made clear they will resist pro
democracy movements like those
under way in Warsaw Pact allies
Poland and Hungary, which on
Wednesday approved constitu
tional amendments creating a
democratic political system.
Tens of thousands of East Ger
mans have fled the country in re
cent months, turning their backs on
. the rigid authoritarian system, and
thousands of citizens have staged
massive demonstrations in recent
weeks.
Honecker’s replacement, 52
year-old Egon Krenz, has a reputa
tion as a hard-liner opposed to the
growing pro-demoerpey move
ment. The state-runjtfHS agency
ADN said Krenz wit! fake over as
Communist Party chief, head of
state and head or the military, re
placing his mentor in all three
roles.
The 77-year-old Honecker,
who was reported ill following a
gall bladder operation in August,
said he was resigning for health
reasons.
“My health no longer allows
me to bring the energy to bear that
the fate of our party and people
requires today and in the future,”
he said in a statement carried by
ADN.
Krenz, the youngest member of
the Politburo, is known as a tough
backer of the country’s orthodox
communist structure. He had been
in charge of internal security issues
and government-run youth organi
zations while being groomed as
Honecker’s successor.
“I told the Central Committee
that I realize this is a difficult task
that I have taken over,’ ’ Krenz told
East German television after his
appointment. “In this very com
plicated time there is much work
before us.”
During a recent visit to China,
Krenz led an East German delega
tion that expressed support for the
way Chinese leaders handled pro
democracy protests in June. The
protests were crushed when Chi
nese soldiers moved in with tanks
and guns, and hundreds of people
were killed.
However, Communist Party
sources nave sata n was ivrcn* s
decision to ask East German police
to stop attacking pro-democracy
demonstrators earlier this month in
East Berlin and Dresden.
The demonstrations were the
largest in the nation’s 40-year his
tory.
In West Germany, the mass
circulation newspaper Bild re
fer East Germans.
fe Hungary, amendments for
mally ending one-party domina
tion, regulating free elections by "
next summer and creating the of
fice of state president won over
whelming approval at the nation
ally televised session of Parlia
ment.
EPA tests show widespread concentrations ot radon gas
WASHINGTON - Tests in eight
states by the Environmental Protec
tion Agency show surprisingly wide
spread concentrations of cancer
causing radon gas, including almost
three of every four homes tested in
Iowa, the agency said Wednesday.
The latest results prompted EPA
Adminstrator William K. Reilly to
repeat his agency’s call for every
homeowner to test for radon.
Radon is colorless, odorless and
radioactive gas produced by the de
Nebraskan
Editor Amy Edwards
472- 1786
Managing Editor Jana Hlrt
Assoc. News Editors Brandon Loomis
Ryan Stasvas
Editorial
Page Editor Laa Rood
Wire Editor Victoria Ayotte
Copy Desk Editor Oeanne Nelson
Sports Editor Jstt Apal
Arts & Entertain
ment Editor Llaa Donovan
Diversions Editor Joeth Zucco
Graphics Editor John Bruce
Photo Chief Eric Gregory
Night News Editors Eric Planner
Darcle Wlegert
Librarian Victoria Avotta
Art Directors AndyManhart
Sower Editor Laa Rood
Supplements Editor Chris Carroll
General Manager Dan Shattll
Production Manager Katharine Pollcky
Professional Adviser Don Walton
473- 7301
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cay of uranium in all soil and rocks.
Seeping from the ground and concen
trating in houses, radon has been
blamed for up to 20,000 of the na
tion’s more than 130,000 annual lung
cancer deaths.
“Radon is one of the most serious
environmental health problems to
day. It is the second leading cause of
lung cancer (after smoking) in this
country,” Reilly told a news confer
ence.
Reilly said radon tests have been
conducted in 37,000 homes in 25
slates during the past two years and
about one-fourth showed unhealthy
radon.
The latest tests in the eight states
and three regions of the Indian Health
Service covered 11,268 homes.
Overall, about 27 percent of the9,876
non-Indian homes checked in the lat
est round showed radon above EPA’s
recommended threshold. Not enough
information was given to calculate a
similar percentage for all 11,268
homes, but the result would not
change much.
Reilly estimated that as many as
10 million homes nationwide could
have year-aiound average radon ex
ceeding 4 picocuries per liter of air,
which is roughly equivalent to smok
ing a half a pack of cigarettes a day
and the concentration that EPA says
should trigger corrective action by
the homeowner.
In an effort to boost radon testing,
the Advertising Council announced it
is launching a national public service
campaign to urge homeowners to
test
The latest tests covered Iowa,
Georgia, Maine, New Mexico, Ohio,
West Virginia, Vermont and Alaska
as well as three Indian Health Service
regions: Aberdeen, covering parts of
North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa
and Nebraska; Bemidji, parts of
Michigan, Minnesota and Wiscon
sin; and Albuquerque, parts of Colo
rado and New Mexico.
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Atlantis astronauts launch Galileo on 6-year trip
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -
Space shuttle Atlantis soared into
>rbit Wednesday and its astronauts
started the Galileo probe on a six
year journey to Jupiter for ihcclos
;st look yet at the colossus of the
solar system.
Earlier, concerns about Gali
leo’s nuclear power supply were
left behind as Atlantis lifted off
flawlessly on its mission to carry
the $1.5 billion space probe into
orbit on the first leg of its trip.
After Atlantis had made five
trips around the world, Galileo was
ejected from the cargo bay by
springs, on schedule over the Gulf
Coast. The shuttle moved away to
put distance between itself and ihc
space probe’s rocket.
The “bum” was to be an hour
later — first for 2 1/2 minutes, then
for a minute, 45 seconds -- giving
the 6,700-pound Galileo the initial
push toward Venus, its first plane
tary port-of-call.
The five astronauts spent their
first hours in space giving a final
electronic checkout to Galileo, a
probe so sophisticated that one
NASA official dubbed it “the
Rolls-Royce of spacecraft.
“Eveiything looks real good,”
said astronaut Shannon Lucid, a
one-flight veteran from Bethany,
Okla., who had charge of the probe
deployment.
The crew members reported a
few problems with their own ship
as it orbited 184 miles above the
Earth. One was with a cooling
system that might cause them to
have to return slightly earlier than
planned in what a flight director
called “a worst-case scenario.”
“You looked marvelous going
up,” Mission Control told Atlantis
Commander Don Williams as the
winged spacecraft reached orbit
after two launch postponements.
“I feel a lot better,” said Wil
liams.
Galileo, named after the 17th
century discoverer of Jupitei’s
moons, will use the laws of physics
to get to Jupiter, the largest planet
in the solar system, in 1995. Flying
by Venus will cause it to gain
momentum and so will two subse
quent close encounters with Earth.
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