—a. News digest
I Andrew moves inland
NEW IBERIA, La. — Hurri
cane Andrew carved its way
through plantation country
Wednesday with its now-familiar
cruelly, throwing tornadoes like
darts at a 100-milc-wide target and
pumping torrents of rain at storm
weary Louisianians.
Damage along the coast “looked
like the bombing of Kuwait City,”
state Rep. Hunt Downer said in
Houma. ‘The destruction from this
storm goes beyond anything we
have known in recent years,” said
President Bush, who planned to fly
to Louisiana to inspect the damage.
Andrew was downgraded to a
tropical storm early Wednesday
afternoon after its winds dropped
below the hurricane threshold of 74
mph, but it continued to drench
Louisiana with heavy rain.
The hurricane’s 54-hour U.S.
rampage left 180,000 homeless in
Florida. About 1.5 million people
remained without electricity.
Drinkable water, unspoiled food
and medical relief remained criti
cal priorities in ravaged neighbor
hoods south of M iam i. Search team s
continued to explore wreckage for
bodies.
One death was reported in Loui
siana, a 63-ycar-old tornado victim
from LaPlace found in rubble
Wednesday. Another death was
reported in the Bahamas, where
three other people died when the
storm hit Sunday. That raised
theoverall toll to 20 dead.
Preliminary estimates in
Florida’s Dade County alone put
the damage at $15 billion to $20
billion.
There were no comparable fig
ures available for Louisiana. As
widespread as the damage appeared
there, authorities noted that it could
have been worse. The storm had
spun itself out a bit and weakened
before crossing the coastline. And
it spared the state’s largest city,
New Orleans.
All around the low-lying south
central part of the stale, houses
were ravaged, trailer homes were
turned upside down, majestic oak
trees in front of antebellum man
sions were toppled and several gas
leaks were reported.
Dozens were injured and at least
322,000 lost electric power, Seven
people from a sink ing tugboat were
plucked from a caldron of Missis
sippi River waters; another seven
were rescued from a 70-foot Viet
namese fishing boat that ran ,
aground in the Gulf of Mexico.
A dozen barges broke loose from
an Exxon refinery and were cor
ralled by the Coast Guard. Chabert
Memorial Hospital in Houma lost
power and part of its roof; patients
were helicoptered to New Orleans.
I Bush warns Iraq of‘no-fly ’ zone
I ■ *> ■ -
W AS HINGTON—President Bush
on Wednesday warned Saddam
Hussein to keep his warplanes out of
. a “no-fly zone” covering the southern
onc-thirdoflraq.U.S. and allied forces
will “respond decisively” if the zone
is violated, he said.
Iraq said it would not abide by the
order. It proposed setting up a
“wisemen committee” to investigate
conditions in Iraq’s south for Shiite
Muslims, whom Western govern
ments contend have been brutally re
pressed by Saddam.
Iraqi Ambassador Abdul al-Amir
Al-Anbari said he delivered that non
compliance message to the French,
American, Russian and British United
Nations ambassadors when they sum
moned him to inform him of the allied
plan to protect Iraqi Shiites.
The ban lakes effect Thursday si
multaneously with the start of aerial
surveillance of southern Iraq.
Bush said the allies agreed to act in
response to “new evidence of harsh
repression” by Saddam against Shiite
l^Iuslims.
“What emerges from eyewitness
accounts ... is further graphic proof
of Saddam’s brutality,” the president
told a While House news conference.
He said Iraqi helicopters and fixed
wing aircraft had been bombing and
strafing civilians in the south.
Bush said his aides notified Demo
cratic presidential nominee Bill
Clinton of the action against Iraq.
“I’m not worried about the politics
of it at all,” the president said.
Speaking to reporters while cam
paigning in Memphis, Tcnm, Clinton
said he supported Bush’s action. He
renewed criticism that Bush had not
’“moved faster to prevent Saddam from
attacking Iraqi Kurds in the north, as
well as the Shiites.
At the Pentagon, officials said the
ban would take effect at 10:15 a.m.
EDT Thursday.
State Department spokesman Jo
seph Snyder said there was no evi
dence of fighting Thursday between
Saddam’s forces and Shiite insurgents
in the southern marshlands. The
Shiites rebelled against Saddam at the
close of the 1991 Gulf War, but they
received no U.S. backing and were
quickly crushed by Saddam’s army.
Rear Adm. Michael W: Cramer,
director of intelligence for the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news
conference that keeping Iraqi aircraft
out of the skies would make it harder
for Iraqi ground forces to pinpoint the
locations of Shiite insurgents and to
use artillery against them.
Bush said the no-fly ban, dubbed
“Operation Southern Watch,” would
remain in effect “until the coalition
determines that it is no longer re
quired.”
The president said the action was
intended only to ensure that Iraq ful
fill its obligation under U.N. Security
Council Resolution 688, which calls
AP- •
for a halt to repression of Iraqi civil
ians.
“We seek Iraq’s compliance, not
its partition,” Bush said.
Egypt and some other Arab na
tions that participated in the anti-Iraq
coalition that liberated Kuwait in 1991
reportedly have expressed concern
that the “no-fly” order would lead to
the breakup of the Iraqi state.
| TURKEY ■
SAUDI
Population
breakdown Christian or non
by religion Muslim minorities
and ethnic 5%
group
Muslim
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