The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 3

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER it Monday, January 6, I997 A-3 3 THE NIGHT CABBIE Water homes still engulfs in the Delta Wanted: Home fcr Etae g.LJ 4 APJOEL ROSENBAUM son Sean filled sandbags in Rio Vista with saving homes there. from the restaurant and other places, he said. Paul Rause, who leases the Rusty Anchor restaurant from the Vieras, said, "We're losing a lot of business. But you live along the river, and these are things you have to expect You wish they had a little more control over the" water." Rause feels badly for the people he knows so well. "Some people lost everything.

Really, when water's five feet deep in your house, and your furniture is there, there's nothing you can do." Maggie Miller, a 26-year resident at Viera's Resort, was red-eyed and exhausted from a combination of crying, throwing sandbags and losing sleep. "There were a few of us that stayed here Thursday night We worked throughout the night to re-shore with sandbags, hoping to keep the river out" Miller said. "I was in my house about 6 a.m. Friday, and they came to get me. The water just started coming over the banks." 2.0 magnitude: Dec.

27, 10:25 a.m. 2.2 magnitude: Dec. 30, 3:35 a.m. 3.0 magnitude: Dec. 28, 2:06 p.m.

EXAMINER GRAPHICS A fare's opinion on OJ. AYLORAND POST.Headingto Nob Hill, I see a man in a tuxedo. He looks like he'seoine to a ball and he flags me down. I ask if he's going to a holiday bash. "I just came from one at the Bohemian Grove," he says.

'Take me to the airport" Passing Potrero Hill on the freeway, I point out the projects where OJ. Simpson grew up. He says he lives in Brentwood, two blocks from where the murders happened. "The police left the bodies on the sidewalk for almost eight hours." He tells me the killer mutilated Nicole in a specific way "and that is something only an abuser and lover would have done. Pathologists know about these things, but no one wants to talk about it" I drop him at United and he tips me $10.

LEAVENWORTH AND SUTTER. At 2 a.m. it's pouring and every hooker I see has an umbrella. One of them gets in as I stop at a light and asks if I can take her to a phone booth, "somewhere drier, out of the area." I head for South of Market but she changes her mind and wants to go to the airport Getting on the freeway, I ask where she's headed. "Why are you asking so many questions?" she wants to know.

"I'm not interested in talking." I drop her off at America West, she tips me 20 cents and I tell her "have fun in Las Vegas," then I head for the airport taxi holding lot MASON AND GEARY. I see a tall blond woman waving at me, so I change lanes and pull up. She says she's getting off work and gives me an address. I ask how work was. "We had a long performance tonight for the anniversary of "Phantom of the Opera." Willie Brown came on stage with a phantom mask and cape on." She asks if I've seen the production.

I tell her yeah, five times. She says she plays Carlot-ta and has for over two years. I look closely at her in the rear-view and ask her name. She tells me. I know Geena Jeffries plays Carlotta and she's a brunette, not like this one.

I ask her how long she thinks Phantom will run. "They've done the numbers and we give it one more year because attendance is starting to drop off." I tell her maybe she should polish up her resume. She smiles, pays me and gets out The next day I pull out my Performing Arts magazine and look for her picture. I find her but she plays a much smaller part Maybe she confused herself with Carlotta Valdez, who Kim Novak impersonated in the movie, "Vertigo." She was off by a couple of decades, but for stars it doesn't really matter. GEARY AND VAN NESS.

This is something I've never figured out At about 2 or 3 in the morning, I sometimes see this speeding wheelchair flying through the intersections. The guy in the chair usually has a second regular wheelchair thrown across the back of the motorized one and he just zips through the streets. Once, on Van Ness, I saw him do a U-turn and flip over. People stopped, righted him, and he sped of again. I almost hit him once when he came flying out of a Burger King about 1 a.m.

There doesn't seem to be a license plate on his vehicle, but I guess he doesn't care. Sometimes he doesn't even look where he's going, he just bolts down the road. BROADWAY AND COLUMBUS. At 2 a.m., I'm ready for almost anything. Two men flag me and want to go to "the seedier part of the city." As they get in, I sense something is wrong but cant put my finger on it "Take us to the ladies," one says.

I head for the Tenderloin. At Jones and Ellis one guy says to stop, and I do. He yells to a hooker, "I have a hundred bucks for you," and she gets in. We drive around and they snag another hooker the same way. I'm thinking these guys dont look like they have $5 between them, so I decide to call their bluff.

I pull up next to a police cruiser on Eddy, get out and tell them I need the fare now. They say they have to go to an ATM first I walk over to the cruiser and tell the officer my fares won't pay me. Meantime the hookers and the fares jump out of the cab and take off. "What do you want me to do now?" the officer asks me, not getting out of his car. Nothing, I tell him.

An hour later I find this bag the two guys left in the cab. Inside, there's a cow bell, dirty clothes and a letter from the Vacaville Correctional Facility, probably addressed to one of them. I drive by a trash can and dump it all in. VAN NESS. A police officer has just helped me get a drunk out of my cab who wouldn't pay when another officer comes over and puts a young woman in.

He says, "she's upset, so take her home." It's 2 a.m. New Year's morning and it's raining. I look at this soaking wet woman and she's crying. "All my friends left me, my boyfriend abandoned me and I need to go to upper Market," she tells me. I ask if she has any money.

"No, but I have some there when we find the place." I start staring at her in the rear-view, thinking I've had enough and I tell her I should drop her off right there in the rain so she can really cry her heart out "No, please don't," she says. "We can find the place together, we really can." She convinces me and we head up Market Starting at Castro, she has me pull over at every intersection because she can't read the signs. I tell her she needs glasses, too. We find her place on Ord, and she pays me. I drive back to the heart of the city, ready to call it a night But I have three hours to go, so I pick up another fare on Castro.

The Mgkt Cabbie appears every other Monday in The Examiner. You can call him and leave a message at (415) 777-8738, write him clo The Examiner, P.O. Box 7260, San Francisco, CA 94120, or e-mail him at cabbieexaminer.com. able to communicate." The Eagle High School freshman suffered burns on more than half of his body and respiratory damage last week after running back into a burning home near Santa Rosa to save 3-year-old Tommy Tyler. The toddler was the only child of Bill and Suzanne Tyler and died from smoke inhalation after the fire destroyed the family's home.

Heidi Tyler said Stephen is still listed in critical condition at St Francis Memorial Hospital's burn center in San Francisco. Sacramento River continues high, flooding island settlement By Jane Kay OF THE EXAMINER STAFF IDA ISLAND, Sacramento County When newlyweds Deron and Amy Lopes revisited their home Sunday, they did so in a flat-bottomed boat "I guess well wait til the water goes down, and see what we can save," Amy Lopes said, surveying the high muddy waters of the Sacramento River that continue to engulf 110 houses and mobile homes on this little Delta island near Isle-ton. Residents were prevented from returning home for the third day. "I didnt think the river was going to come over the bank," she said. "We had all our new wedding things in there.

We just got married in May." The Lopeses came back Sunday to see if the river had gone down around their house, part of Viera's Resort, a now-abandoned riverside settlement of 250 people two miles northeast of Rio Vista on Highway 160. Couple fleet with baby No, the river hadn't dropped much at all, they said, watching the wind-whipped waters lap halfway up the sad collection of houses and the tattered Rusty Anchor restaurant The couple rushed out Thursday night about 8 p.m., fleeing the rising river with their 3-month-old baby, Anthony. Since then, theyVe been among a few hundred displaced people staying with families and friends or at a Rio Vista Red Cross shelter or the Del Rio Hotel in Isleton at a special $20-a-night rate. Although Viera's Resort was the first and hardest hit in the Rio Vista area, the town of Rio Vista itself was saved. Town officials sandbagged and evacuated 25 houses on Edgewater Drive and 50 mobile homes on River Road Saturday.

By Sunday, everyone returned home to find only a few garages on Edgewater flooded. River a foot below flood stage The river normally about 36 feet high was running around 45 feet high Sunday, about one foot below the flood stage. Strapped Guard must cut training By Steve Gibson SCRPPS-MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE SACRAMENTO Continuing budget cuts will force the California National Guard to further reduce training this year, but a top Guard general says that wont affect the role it plays in earthquakes and other natural disasters. Although flying hours have been slashed, "we're maintaining basic aviator skills and qualifications to fly day and night in almost all situations that would be required in disaster relief," Maj. Gen.

Robert Brandt, the Guard's second-in-command, said recently at Guard headquarters in Sacramento. During the flooding of the past few days, for example, more than 1,000 Guard members using 150 vehicles and two dozen aircraft were mobilized to assist with rescues and evacuations. "What it (the smaller budget) really affects is our combat mission," Brandt said. "We're not going to have as many flying hours to do combat training. But the basic pilot proficiency training is there.

So when we have a state emergency, we can respond." The California Guard's budget 95 percent of which comes from the federal government totals $439 million this year, down from $449 million three years ago. When I Mayor changes mind, now courts hardware giant By Gregory Lewis and Gerald D. Adams OF THE EXAMINER STAFF Home Depot one of the bare-bones, big-box retailers so common in suburbia, had tried to set up shop in San Francisco and been thwarted most recently by Willie Brown. But now the mayor himself wants a Home Depot in The City. And he wants it soon.

It isn't Home Depot's decor, which runs a gamut from faux-ga-rage to faux-warehouse, that attracts the mayor. Nor is it the merchandise, which features wire, nails and linoleum. It's the money. Sales tax revenue It seems that just before Christmas, Brown visited Home Depot's gargantuan hardware-homeware emporium in Colma and came away as wide-eyed as a kid at FAO. Schwara toy store.

One fact made a particular impression: "The manager told me that more than 50 percent of his customers are from San Francisco," Brown said. "That's sales tax revenue I want to get" So Brown, whose own taste runs to well-appointed boutiques, has announced he is searching for waterfront space in The City to offer up for a Home Depot outlet adding Tm definitely Home Depot shopping." Only last March Brown quashed the latest attempt to bring the giant retailer (120 outlets nationwide) to town. At that time the Port of San Francisco was quietly attempting to sign a lease with Home Depot But when The Examiner reported that the site was at Pier 80 in space that would have impeded cargo shipping, Brown nixed the deal, terming the proposal "a terrible idea." Home Depot was all ready to settle in San Francisco the previous year as well. Catellus Corp. was on the verge of leasing space in Mission Bay for a $30 million Home Depot outlet That deal died when the Board of Supervisors decided that a comprehensive community planning process should precede any such project The deal was also hurt by small business fears of the big-time competition.

And Home Depot officials had made it clear they wanted all entitlements arranged and all hazardous waste removed from the Mission Bay site by June 1996, a date now long passed Throw It up in 90 days Now the mayor professes confidence that once he locates a new site, a Home Depot structure with its trademark barn-like interior could be "thrown up in 90 days" possibly, he said, within the former naval base at Hunters Point If he finds a spot will Home Depot open here? So far, the company will not make a commitment "We're certainly anxious to look at other places up there," said Home Depot public affairs officer Amy Friend. "But I can't Bay whether locating inside the city border makes that much difference." An aide to Brown said a search for a site will be launched within weeks. Army rape suspect found dead in room REUTERS ABERDEEN, Md An Army soldier who died just days before facing a court-martial on rape charges has been identified as Pvt Alan May, 22, of Texas, officials said. May was found dead in his bar- racks room Saturday by his roommate at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground He was a graduate of the proving ground's Army Ordnance School The cause of death has not been determined. IS.

i Karen Johnson and her 11-year-old Saturday, part of an effort credited "It's a combination of the hard rain storms and the increased releases coming down from Shasta, Oroville and Folsom dams that are making the river run higher," said Robert Nobrega, assistant chief of Rio Vista Fire Department 'The river was one inch lower Sunday than it was Saturday at high tide. The seasonal tides are actually higher but the runoff started to recede and made the river lower," Nobrega said. The slightly dropping river brings hope to Bruce Viera, a third-generation member of the family that owns the flooded resort He estimates losses could reach $250,000, including $60,000 in January rents from 45 houses and 65 mobile homes and the Rusty Anchor, plus cleanup and repair costs. "We wont make them pay in January. That's what we can do for them," Viera said.

Expensive equipment saved Viera had enough warning to remove some expensive equipment Hayward Fault San Francisco 2.3 magnitude: Dec. 27. 7:06 p.m 2.8 magnitude: Dec. 30, 3:51 p.m. Dec.

26-Jan. 1 Number of earthquakes of magnitude 1.0 or greater: 20 Highest magnitude: 3.0 SOURCE: U.S. Geological Survey inflation is taken into account, that's a substantial cut, Brandt said. During the past year, that translated into substantially fewer training hours for pilots and the closure of armories in Napa, Alameda and Delano. From 1993 to 1995, four other armories were closed.

"We now have 50 percent less flying time for our helicopters," Brandt said "Things like night-vision goggle training, combat training, we're not doing that as much." Like the rest of today's U.S. military, the California National Guard is composed entirely of volunteers, a majority of whom train one weekend a month and two weeks during the summer. But a substantial number of Guard members put in much more time. For example, 125 members of the Guard's 649th Military Police XJose i 2.2 I Jan. r-.

magnltudei'V 2, 9:00 p.m. Youth burned in rescue gets skin graft Company in San Luis Obispo and Richmond will be mobilized later this month for nine months of active duty in Germany. "They will backfill for active-duty troops going to Bosnia," Brandt said. During 1996, the Guard sent soldiers and airmen for training and to "backfill" active duty troops to 25 countries, including Ukraine, Italy, Bosnia and Panama. The Guard's biggest overseas training exercise in 1996 was in Panama, where more than 2,000 personnel, including a Sacramento engineering unit took part in public works projects.

In addition, the California Guard sent military police and other personnel to help local law enforcement officials at the Republican convention in San Diego and the Olympics in Atlanta. 7 ASSOCIATED PRESS Stephen Tyler underwent his first skin graft in San Francisco for third-degree burns received while trying to rescue his half brother from a Sonoma County house fire. The 14-year-old Meridian, Idaho, boy is back in his room and doing well, said his mother, Heidi Tyler. A second surgery is scheduled for later this week. "The doctors say he's doing good and everything went well with the surgery," she said.

"He can't talk yet but we can read his lips, and that's how we're ft.