The University Daily
KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Monday, July 20, 1981 Vol. 91, No. 158 USPS 650-640
From staff and wire reports.
One and a half hours after two walkways fell on dancers at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City. Mo., police officer Mike Coughlin walked into the hotel lobby.
At first he saw only the twisted metal beams and chunks of concrete. But gradually he began to notice the crushed limbs and moving bodies amid the rubble.
COUGLIN, 24, has been a police officer four years, and has seen gunshot victims and has pulled bodies from the 1977 Plaza flood.
"I saw movements in the debris and could hear people calling out for help," he said yesterday afternoon. "There was so much going on it was hard to comprehend."
But nothing prepared him for the tragedy and destruction of Friday night.
Coughlin tried to help a Paola man, who had has right leg trapped. The man also had severe injuries. Doctors decided it was essential to amputate the doctor's legs so he could be rushed to the hospital.
"The man was yelling, 'Don't take my leg off,' Couphin said. 'But there was no way move the horse.'"
After the man lost consciousness, doctors did not have to amputate the leg or the man would die then.
"As they started cutting I thought, my God, I can't believe it's 'happening'. Coughlin said. "The doctors got to the point where they couldn't do any more with their surgical tools. They had
to finish the amputation with the fire department power saw."
LATER TREAT NIGHT, Coughlin learned that the man had died on the operating table.
"That left me with a lot to think about all the things I take takes a bit of time for the whole thing to ink in."
For the victims, their families and friends, the tragedy is also just beginning to sink in.
And for the entire city the details of the events are now painfully familiar.
At 7:05 p.m. the 60-yard-long walkway over the
bridge, two places near the center, crashing down on
the sidewalk.
The two walkways then plunged onto a crowd attending a weekly tea dance.
At the time, several dozen people stood on the 20-foot thick wall, watching the dance scene listening to the music of the Steve Miller Orchestra. A crowd of more than 1,500 filled the lobby.
HYATT HOTEL, Crown Center and Hallmark
theater, has no cause for the tragedy has been detected.
At least four investigations were under way yesterday. The Hyatt Hotels Corp., Crown Management Corp., and firms involved in the building contracts instruction have each begun separate investigations
The hotel, at 2345 McGee St., is operated by Hyatt Hotels Corp., but is owned by Crown Center Redevelopment Corp., a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
The Hyatt Hotels Corp. officials said they had been assured by the building's owners that the walkways "were designed to hold people to-to-shoulder, as many as you can jam on there."
The Kansas City Star reported yesterday that the Hyatt Corp. had told hospital administrators that it would pay the bills of people injured in the accident.
THE HOTEL WAS designed by the Kansas City-based firms of Duncan Architects Inc., Patty Berkebile Nelson Associates and Monroe and Lefevre Architects Inc.
The firms' investigation will be led by its own design team, a spokesman said.
The general contractor, Eldridge & Sona
Construction Co., plans to hire its own consultant
The St. Louis firm of Gillum-Colaco wrote the specifications for the skywalk. Officials of the firm have said that they will make changes.
In a statement released Saturday, Hallmark president Donald Hall said, "The past 18 hours have been the darkest of my life as well as one of the worst nights in the history of Kansas City.
"The catastrophe and the suffering of one in which brings forth a personal and community grief that I cannot endure."
Mayor Richard Berkley ordered all city records opened relating to the building and managing it, saying he said the city had no legal reason to open its separate investigation, since the hotel was
See HOTEL page 6
Moment of terror leaves lingering aftershock
By RITAL. SOOBY
Special to the Kansan
We were standing on some steps in the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Mo. Friday night near one of those trees architects put in modern buildings to imitate the outdoors.
Jackie and Susan Ward, Lawrence, Ron Mallonee, Kansas City, Mo., and I had just walked over to the Hyatt from Crown Center to watch the tea dance. Susan turned around occasionally to tlick the ashes of her cigarette into* he grating around the tree.
BETWEEN SIPS OF our drinks, we would point out interesting people to each other, inventing identities according to their appearances. Beside us stood two middle-age women with teen-age figures. Narrow hips, firm arm muscles and dark tans brought to mind images of morning tennis matches and hot afternoons by the pool.
Further off, we watched a deeply-tanned man. He was dressed in white patent leather shoes with small tassels, crisp白 pants topped with a white belt and a blue short-sleeved pullover with white stripes down each shoulder. Neat, white hair completed his appearance.
He seemed to be alone, but he knew many people at the dance. Couples approached and talked. Men returning from the bar, a drink in each hand, paused to exchange words.
When he laughed, he laughed hard, bending at the waist, then straightening to draw on a cigarette. And he was laughing all the time, his dark face clenched by smiles instead of age.
BEHIND ME, THE greater part of the large room was equally as festive. Men and women were dressed in light-colored clothing, some couples in suits and dresses, others in sports clothes. Pastel balloons filled with helium were around the room, tied to ashtrays, chairs for people. Above the usual din associated with large crowds, bursts of laughter were heard.
The band was on a break, but recorded swing music was playing and couples were dancing.
I saw the sandaled feet of women fall just in front of me.
Ron and I get to the dance floor once before the dance contest is announced and the participants, each with a number pinned to his back, beg congregating before the judging stand.
The band started playing "Satin Doll" by Duke Ellington. Older couples were frotting to the music, mapping their disco moves to the swing music. I measured my attention to a lone couple dancing nearby.
"This isn't a very good song to dance to."
Shaan said. "I thought they would play Glenn Mills."
"I'm sure they will," I said
But they didn't
AT THE HIGHEST point of my vision I saw the sandaled feet of women rushing down toward the floor a few feet in front of me. Comprehension of my movements, and I turned and ran, running my arms over.
The roar of impact was tremendous, but the aftershock seemed endless.
Glass particles blew past horizontally, many pebble-sized pieces bouncing off my back, the finer dust forming on skin and clothing. My hair was blown forward and whipped at my face as I tried to protect my eyes from the airborne dust. All I could think was, "Don't breathe this stuff in." But I was hyperventilating and I couldn't help it.
TREN, SUDDENLY it was quiet. Clouds of dust began settling to the floor. I turned and immediately saw Jackie and Susan sprawled face down on the floor. They got up quickly, Jackie running toward the pile of rubble—to look for Ron.
I couldn't find Ron either. A woman came out of the rubble, blood splattered on her white dress and droplets running down her face. Her arms stretched, "Where's my husband?", she asked.
helped her over some debris. I
see HYATT page 6
Mike McCormie, a member of the KU Skil Club, takes off, tears through the air and lands while making a practice jump on a lake east of Lawrence. He and several other members of the club participated in a meet at the lake last weekend. Related story page 3.
Gene Budig Chancellor-designate
Budig positive after trip across Kansas
By MARTHA BRINK
Staff Reporter
Chancellor-designate Gene Budig has completed a 2,000-mile trip through the state convinced that Kansas has the financial and scientific for an outstanding system of higher education.
"I found genuine optimism about the long-range prospect of the state economy," he said Friday, two days after his return. "It is important to point out that the state of Kansas first-class system of higher education. I found few citizens disagreed with this position."
BUDIG SPENT THE past two weeks traveling in Kansas and visiting with alumni, community leaders, legislators and media people. Richard Von Ende, executive secretary, and Del Brinkman, dean of the School of Journalism, accompanied Budig.
One important aspect of the trip, Budig said, was to tell citizens about KU's programs and needs. Wherever he went he outlined University's top priorities: higher faculty positions; increased number of new faculty positions, modern scientific equipment and a strong library.
"Public support for these essentials will be orheirning if we do an effective job of health care."
Citizens want to know KU faculty, staff and students, he said, and they want to be involved in the activities of the University. They are interested in KU's long-range needs and objectives and how the University can enrich the quality of life in Kansas.
"I RETURNED CONVINCED that we must
considerably more time with the
According to Budig, making KU's needs known and encouraging citizens' input are the key elements to gaining solid, statewide support.
citizens of the state in the immediate years ahead," he said. "There is no substitute for visibility. Accessibility to the general public is central to my future plans."
"I am convinced that the people of Kansas have no intention of backing away from their historic commitment to higher education," he said.
Budig said legislators he met with were troubled by potential impact of massive cuts. However, most legislators are strongly in favor of higher education, he said.
"This brings me back to the belief that the time has arrived for higher education in Utah, again in its high position on the state's list of colleges said. "The time is right for effective action."
BUDIG MET PRIVATELY with business and communities in an effort to gain an unmarried assessment of their views of KKK, he said the same, some biting criticism was expressed.
Many people felt that KU officials should spend more time traveling the state, he said.
"They think KU has an obligation to be more active in seeking their views about how University programs can be more responsive, he said. "Some of the criticism was biting. There were friends of the University who felt ignored and forgotten."
BUDIG INTENDS TO travel extensively in the state during the next year. He has already made plans for a joint trip with Kansas State University president Duane C. Acker.
See BUDIG page 6
Federal disaster loan funds available to tornado victims
Lawrence home and property owners who suffered uninsured losses from last month's emergency leave may be able to apply for federal emergency grants. Mr. John Carlin said yesterday.
Mike Swenson, Carlin's assistant press secretary, said federal representative Joe Winkle would be in Lawrence today to set up an office to handle grant applications.
Windle will set up a similar office in Great
Warwick on the opposite coast from last month's flood damage there, Swanson said.
PRESIDENT REAGAN approved the grant money, a maximum of $5,000 for each individual, and signed a presidential declaration of disaster for Lawrence and Great Bend Saturday morning.
According to Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman David Cobb,
the grant money would be used only to make damaged homes inhabitable, not to restore all
"We're not coming in to make everybody
we're against. Cobb said. We 'just provide
supplemental help.'"
Carlin's original request for grant money was denied by the federal agency, but in a rare reversal, the agency accepted Carlin's second appeal for a disaster declaration.
Federal appraisers apparently found that federal contracts than original reports indicated. Swenson said.
Carlin's request for Small Business Administration loans was granted last week.
The SBA has set up an office on the second floor of the Douglas County Courthouse to handle low-interest loan applications for tornado victim
Weather
It will be partly cloudy and warmer today and tomorrow, according to the National Weather Service in Topeka. The high today will be in the low 90's and the low hwil will be around 70. Whilst will be out of the northwest at 10 15 mph.