The Anniston Star from Anniston, Alabama • Page 1

QC7C Zmm Paxil Cool reception for ti tetoricj Region9A Heart problem dampens "Tide back's chances; SportslC Area dancers head for Joffrey ballet EscapesIB February 16, 1995 Alabama largest home-owned newspaper 50 cents 1 tQ0 0sqs Browder sounds off on warning systems cfl -y jr CD y--v-' Rescue personnel from Arab, Marshall County and other surrounding areas in Arab for possible tornado victims. fr More on the storm7 A By Jay Reeves Associated Press Killer winds 4 killed, scores hurting Tornado trailer 2 ii i if i i AVJLL Trainees killed Three Army rangers were killed and another was missing following a training exercise in the swamps of Eglin Air Force case near port Walton Beach, base officials said today. The three rangers died during exercises when they were patrolling Wednesday in the swamps 'in water that was about chest- deep. Four Ranger trainees began suffering from hypothermia late Wednesday while waning in me swamp waters. I nree or them died and another was placed in intensive care, according to an Eglin statement.

A search was under way by Army and Air Force rescue teams for another Ranger wno was missing. Wanna fight? Labor Secretary Robert Reich today challenged House Republican Leader Dick Armey to a nationally televised debate over whether to increase or abolish the minimum wage. the Clinton administration has proposed raising the $4.25 an hour minimum wage to $5.15 an hour, with two 45-cent increases spread over two years. Armey, R-Texas, has said he will oppose any increase with every fiber in my being" and even suggested eliminating the wage altogether. But Reich challenged Armey to a debate over the airwaves so every American can watch." "He's bigger than me.

and has more fibers in his being than I do, but I'm ready to take him on about the entire subject of jobs and wages for ordinary Amen- i Reich said, who is 4-foot-10. Armey, who stands 6-foot-3, declined the debate invitation. Search continues An ambulance rolled up to Upper Bear Creek Reservoir after divers found a black plastic bag where a Russellville woman admitted throwing her 5-year-old stepdaughter's body into the water, but it was a false alarm. Region9A Don't blame her One of O.J. Simpson's most important alibi witnesses, a maid who lived next door to him, apparently has gone home to El Salvador to escape harassment from the media and others.

News2A "TO 5Kr More rain Tonight will see a 90 percent chance of thunderstorms and occasionally heavy rains. Friday looks wet, too. Forecast1 OA One good turn After Matlock (Andy Griffith) is mugged, he repays the man who helped him by offering legal representation in a lawsuit on "Matlock" (ABC, 7 p.m.). Listings1 6A T7 Jimmy L. Bone, Lincoln Jessie Cunningham Crim, Talladega Louise Phillips Grogan, Talladega Elsie Morris, Roanoke Nelia Springer, Anniston Mary George Weathers, Roanoke Cynthia Whatley, Anniston Harvard G.

Wheeler, Anniston Jacksonville Obituaries12A Calendar 7C Editorial 4A Classifieds 5B G.Smith 9A Comics 6C Movies 4B Docket 10A People 7C una Vol. 115, No. 47 (USPS 026-440) 60 pages In six sections By Mail, 32 pages In four sections Consolidated Publishing Co. By Richard Coe Star Staff Writer Rep. Glen Browder says a federal program to protect the public from a chemical weapons accident at Anniston Army Depot has fallen short and he wants to know why.

Browder, D-Jacksonville, today called for a detailed report of how the Army and Federal Emergency Management Agency have spent the $200 million provided by Congress since the 1980s to protect the eight communities in the country with chemical weapons stockpiles. The bill, which harshly criticizes the Army and FEMA, also would add three additional warning sirens to each of those communities. "The communities are still not prepared to deal with a chemical emergency, the i program cost has almost doubled, and incredibly, FEMA cannot account satisfactorily for how the public's money has been spent," Browder said. "This is outrageous and unacceptable." In the 1980s, Congress established the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program to provide "maximum protection" for Calhoun County and other communities near chemical weapons stockpiles. Browder's bill cites annual reports from the General Accounting Office, the government watchdog agency, that have said communities near chemical weapons stockpile sites are still not prepared to respond to an emergency and lack adequate siren or shelter systems.

For example, in a local preparedness drill last September, officials said Anniston Army Depot took nine minutes to report the accident to local Emergency Management Agency and gave wrong information about the direction of the imaginary plume of deadly gas. In a Ma1993 drill, imaginary evacuees were turned back at the state line because Georgia officials had not been notified. The Calhoun County EMA has made requests the past two years for money for more sirens and to build See FEMA7A Democrats say Foster case shows i Analysis By R.W. Apple Jr. New York Times WASHINGTON Already smarting from an election debacle for which many blame President Clinton, Democrats on Capitol Hill and across the country have reacted angrily to what they see as White House bungling on the nomination of Dr.

Henry Foster Jr. as surgeon general. It is not Foster's record of having performed a substantial number of abortions that has caused the most damage, but the seeming inability of Clinton's aides to handle a nomination cleanly and quickly, and thus to keep the focus on experience, temperament and the capacity to serve effectively. "A gulf has opened up between the. president and the Congress," said Sen.

J. Bennett Johnston, a four-term Louisiana Democrat who has decided not to seek re-election next year. "But it is more an exasperation than a fundamental difference of philosophy. What people are saying about the Foster thing is: 'There he goes again. Can't he learn how to run his office, even after two years? Why can't he be more He has such towering strengths, but also such appalling faults." See Clinton6A neptitude Birmingham ARAB A pre-dawn tornado ripped across north Alabama today, killing at least four people and injuring more than 50, authorities said.

Rescue teams searched for more possible victims. The dead, all in Arab, included a child about 6 years old, Marshall County Coroner Dempsey Hibbs said. In addition to the four tornado deaths, a fifth person died in a traffic accident that may have been caused by rain-slicked roads, authorities said. RESCUE WORKERS said the deaths occured in four separate locations, three houses and a trailer home. Kelly Meade, a spokeswoman for GuntersvMle-Arab Medical Center, said 53 people were brought into the hospital emergency room this morning.

She described their injuries as "everything from cuts and scrapes to the more serious." Authorities said the tornado, which struck around 5 a.m., apparently hit the rural community of Joppa, where about a dozen injuries were reported. Then it damaged the apartment complex and trailer homes at Arab, some three miles east of Joppa, before continuing across the hilly, forested north Alabama poultry country. Farm buildings collapsed, metal buildings peeled open, trailers and homes were torn apart and pink insulation was left hanging from trees and toys and furniture were strewn amid the rubble in the torando's wake. THE AMBER WOOD apartment complex in Arab was left in ruins, Hibbs said, with a search team looking for any people trapped inside wrecked apartments. They are trying to get the trees cleared away," Hibbs said.

Robert Reynolds of the Arab Fire Department said there were miraculous surprises amid the destruction. "We found a 1-year-old baby under two trailers. He was sitting there not making a sound," said Reynolds. He said the dead were the child of 5 or 6 killed in a house, a man about 50 killed in a house, an elderly woman killed in a house, and a man in his 30s killed in a trailer. He said no one was killed in the apartment complex, which was heavily damaged.

"It blew the roof off a whole row of apartments, but no one was hurt," he said. See Storm7A search ruins early this morning Tornado kills 4 strikes park A Anniston An upper level disturbance along a cold front in Northwest Alabama this morning generated severe weather that included tornadoes, thunderstorms and flash floods. The deadall in Arab, included a 6-year-old child, Marshall County Coroner Dempsey Hibbs said. In addition to the four tornado deaths, a fifth person died in a traffic accident that may have been caused by rain-slicked roads, authorities said. Kelly Meade, a spokeswoman for Guntersville-Arab Medical Center, said 53 people were brought into the hospital emergency room this morning.

She described their injuries as "everything from cuts and scrapes to the more serious." Miles David BonsThe Annislon Star do their job Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency paying attention to the weather for the rest of the day, EMA spokeswoman Delois Champ said. Although meteorologists were predicting more bad weather tonight, the worst of it should pass to the north of Calhoun County, predicted Jay Holland, an air traffic controller with Anniston Flight Service. Anniston and environs would probably see on-again, off-again light rain throughout the day, with little or no chance of flooding, Holland said. "Cherokee County will be right on the fringe. They might have light to moderate be rgulljr" Holland said.

Area tone-alert By Eric Larson Star Staff Writer GOSHEN Tone-alert radios bought by residents living near the site of last year's Palm Sunday tornado failed to -warn their owners of severe weather this morning. None of the radios was activated by the severe weather signal sent out by the National Weather Service in Alabaster, said Leon Smith, director of the Cherokee County Emergency Management Agency. We had a lot of people in the Goshen and Spring Garden areas who have really been concemedA Smith saidIILyou had, a scanner, you would have heard it. If you had a radio, it did not activate." radios failed to The National Weather Service this morning could not get power to the two Fort Payne transmitters that should send the signal to radios in a 50-mile radius, said Gary Petti, a meteorologist with the service's center in Birmingham. Petti speculated that the storm may have caused the problem.

Two other transmitters on Mount Cheaha also may have failed. Petti said. Local emergency management officials were aware of the weather alert because their radios are on a different warning system, Petti said. Cherokee and Calhoun counties were spared the casualties and damage felt in more northern counties, but a flash flood watch for east Alabama would keep officials with the.