PAGE 6A
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEATHER
Tornado hits same spot in Alabama this year
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARVEST, Ala. — Cody Stewart is done owning a home for a little while. He has lost his house to tornadoes twice in 10 months.
A killer twister wiped out his neighborhood in the epic Alabama storms April 27, causing Stewart $40,000 worth of damage that forced him to temporarily move in with his parents. In his house for less than two months with repairs still incomplete, another tornado hit again Friday, ripping off the roof, slinging it into the backyard and leaving the walls bowed outward.
This time, the damage is beyond repair.
"I kind of expected there to be more storms again this year, but you never expect it to hit the same place twice." Stewart said Saturday as he stood in what remains of his wood-frame home. "I think I'm going to live in an apartment awhile. I'm not superstitious, but it just kind of seems there's a path here and I don't want to be in it again, and I hope other people make the same choice."
While scattered damage was reported elsewhere, the worst destruction was in Limestone and
The damage included nearly every house in Stewart's neighborhood on Yarbrough Road, located in the Tennessee Valley about 15 miles northwest of Huntsville.
Madison counties, where 190 homes were damaged or destroyed.
The storms were not as deadly in Alabama this time. Nearly 200 miles south of Harvest, which is near the Tennessee state line, one person was killed in the Tallapoosa County community of Jackson's Gap. Last year, twisters cut a wide path of destruction across the region, killing about 250 people statewide, including at least two near where Stewart lived.
The twister Friday was smaller and didn't cause any serious injuries, but it hit homes where people were still recovering.
Across the street from Stewart, Jason Kerr and his wife lost their home to the April 27 twister but weren't injured. Kerr had just finished demolishing the house, rebuilding the garage and hauling
in $5,000 worth of dirt for a new foundation when the latest storm stuck. Their brand new garage was damaged, and they might not be able to repair it.
Dozens of homes were damaged or destroyed a year ago in his neighborhood, which was left looking like logging crews had come through because all of the trees were snapped and tossed to the ground.
Family and friends begin the task of clean-up after a tornado left a path of destruction in the Harvest area on the same path that an F5 tornado left destruction on April 27, 2011 this Saturday in Athens, Ala. Emergency crews desperately searched for survivors Saturday after a violent wave of Midwest and Southern storms flattened some rural communities.
"It makes it hard for the people on the ground who have lost everything," he said. "It's a difficult time for everybody."
Kerr dreads again dealing with insurance companies that he said seem to pinch every dollar.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
That includes James and Judy Hodges, who live up the street on the corner. They just finished $65,000 in repairs to their home and moved back in; now the house looks it was hit with a giant ax that flayed open the roof and ripped off the front of the structure.
"Time to rebuild again," she said as church volunteers helped clear away debris and pick up belongings scattered through the yard.
Longtime residents talk about the 1974 tornado outbreak that wiped out hundreds of homes, killed nearly 90 people and injured about 950 people in north Alabama. Stewart remembers a twister in the early '90s, when he was still a boy. The repeated bashings have left people feeling short on luck, at the very least.
As Stewart left home Friday to
drive to work at a tech company in Huntsville, something felt eerie. Forecasters had been warning of the chance of severe weather for days, and he said it was too warm
"It was just that sick feeling in your stomach," he said. "It was like, 'It feels familiar.'"
for early March; the sky looked too gray.
Now, with Yarbrough Road hit twice in such a short period, Stewart said nothing will ever be the same there.
"It's time to move on," he said.
OIL SPILL
Health concerns remain a big issue in the BP oil spill case
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOOTHEVILLE, La. — A settlement that BP is hammering out with victims of the massive Gulf oil spill finally provides a system for monitoring health concerns and compensating people whose illnesses are found to have a link to the disaster.
Government and university doctors studying locals' health haven't found significant evidence of spill-related illnesses, but problems years from now remain a question mark. Gulf Coast residents say they're happy their complaints are getting a serious look, even if they'll face hurdles in proving that rashes, shortness of breath and other maladies were caused by the oil or chemical dispersants sprayed to break it up.
Under the settlement announced Friday, BP said it expects to pay out $7.8 billion to settle a wide range of claims that also include property damage, lost wages and loss to businesses. While a previously created fund had already been paying such economic loss claims, it hadn't paid claims over illnesses related to exposure.
Nicole Maurer, a resident of this fishing community, said she feels optimistic about getting medical
bills paid under the court-supervised process. She blames the spill for a number of her family's health problems.
"Bright and early, I'm getting my kids on the school bus and calling my lawyer tomorrow, and see what's going on," she said Sunday. "I'm being very hopeful and that it all works out in our favor."
First, Maurer and others like her will have to show that they got sick from the spill. To receive compensation, claimants will be examined by a court-approved health care practitioner. Then, a claims administrator working under the supervision of a federal judge will determine who should be paid.
"The workers have a different kind of exposure because they were there all the time, but anybody living in an area where they were at risk of exposure will be eligible to participate in the program," said Ervin Gonzalez, one the plaintiff lawyers leading the litigation.
The settlement also establishes a program to monitor claimants' health for a period of 21 years. People whose physical symptoms haven't yet developed will also be able to pursue claims. BP has also promised to pay $105 million to improve health care around the Gulf region.
KU HALL CENTER SCHOLAR AWARD 2012-2013
The Hall Center for the Humanities is looking for undergraduates with strong academic credentials who have demonstrated significant engagement within the university community. Hall Center Scholars interact with the well-known authors, scholars and public intellectuals who speak in our Humanities Lecture Series.The $500 award is sponsored by the Friends of the Hall Center.
Questions may be directed to Associate Director Sally Utech at 864-7823 or sutech@ku.edu
www.hallcenter.ku.edu/grants/undergrad/support for application guidelines.
The deadline for applications is Monday, March 12, 2012.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Visit our website at
Hall Center Scholars 2011-2012
KU HALL CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Fire boat response crews spray water on the blazing remnants of BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. BP agreed late Friday to settle lawsuits brought by more than 100,000 fishermen who lost work, cleanup workers who got sick and others who claimed harm from the oil giant's 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster. British Petroleum PLC estimated it would have to pay out about $7.8 billion, making it one of the largest class-action settlements ever.
"You don't know what the long-term (health) effects will be," said another of the plaintiffs' lawyers, Steve Herman. "You don't know how the science is going to play out."
Herman said medical claims won't be paid until U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier gives final approval to the overall settlement, which could take months.
www.hallcenter.ku.edu
Observers said the legal wrangling over who will be eligible for medical compensation likely will be contentious and could take years to play out.
Blaine LeCesne, a tort law professor at Loyola University New Orleans, said getting medical claims covered under the proposed settlement was a victory for the plaintiffs.
At a trial, he said it would have been difficult to prove medical damage. "Medical claims are inherently speculative. We really don't know what the full scope of the medical problems are to exposure to the dispersants and the oil itself."
How much BP will be forced to pay will depend on how broad the criteria for verifying health problems are, he said.
Mitch Crusto, a Loyola business and environmental law professor, said it was a smart move for BP. "It helps give the impression that BP is a responsible company."
He added that Barbier will be more likely to approve the settlement offer because of the medical provision. "Barbier would be less inclined to accept settlement if there was not some process to handle medical claims."
The process is a step in the right direction for residents who felt their health concerns had been ignored. The previous compensation fund, called the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, received roughly 200 claims asserting spill-related illnesses, but none were paid. The older fund did cover injured rig workers on the Deepwater Horizon, the drilling rig that exploded on April 20, 2010.
Since shortly after the spill, government and university researchers have been investigating public health complaints, but so far haven't found significant evidence of illnesses caused by the spill. Still, some caution that their work has
only begun
For example, studies by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Health Sciences are in their early stages, according to a researcher involved.
"We are trying to pinpoint exposure and unravel those complex questions," said Maureen Litchfeld, a lead researcher at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. "Two of the most persistent concerns are those about seafood safety and if the air is safe to breathe."
Some doctors along the coast say they routinely treat cleanup workers and residents for chemical exposure and other problems that they blame on the spill. Dr.
"The illnesses are very real, and the people who are ill are apparently people who have sensitivities to these substances that not all of us are sensitive to," he said.
Mike Robichaux, a nose and throat specialist in Raceland, La., said he has treated 50 people for a range of health problems that he believes were caused by exposure to chemicals released during the disaster.
BP employed thousands of fishermen and other locals to respond to the oil spill, and scores have expressed health concerns. Many of those people can be found along the sliver of land south of New Orleans in the fishing and oilfield communities of Plaquemines Parish.
Glen Swift, a fisherman in Buras,
"I got nauseated, just real weak and sick with diarrhea for a few days," he said.
said he worked cleanup boats and got sick one day cleaning up a big patch of oil.
Swift said he wasn't sure if he would file a medical claim.
More serious were the complaints of the Maurer household in Bootheville. Maurer said she'd developed cysts on her body since the spill, while her fisherman husband has suffered bleeding from his ear and nose since he did cleanup work. They also believe their daughter's asthma has gotten worse.
"I'm so tired of being sick," she said.
STATE
Bill would require senior citizens to pay hunting fee
TOPEKA, Kan. — A compromise may be in the works on a proposal to start making older Kansans pay for hunting and fishing licenses.
The annual licenses cost $20.50 each, which goes to support fish and wildlife programs that don't receive state funding. Kansas adopted a license exemption for people 70 and older in 1937, then dropped the age to 65 in 1971.
Now, with the population aging and a crisis looming in funding for state
Jennison's legislation has drawn heavy resistance from some lawnmakers and interest groups, including the Kansas State Rifle Association and the Silver Haired Legislature.
park maintenance, the Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism has proposed repealing the exemption — a move that department Secretary Robin Jennison has said would reap his agency $1 million or more in each of the coming years.
Jennison told the committee he's open to a compromise, such as raising the exemption age from 65 to 75 or creating a fee-based "senior pass."
One option would create an annual half-price hunting, fishing or combination hunting-fishing license for people 65 through 74, at $9 for the individual licenses or $18 for the combination permit. The exemption for those 75 and older
"This bill has an uphill battle," Sen. Macktadiken, a Republican from Clifton, said at a hearing last week of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources.
His office later issued a news release praising an amendment offered by Sen. Allen Schmidt, a Democrat from Hays, that would give older hunters and anglers two options.
would remain in place.
Schmidt's other proposal would let senior citizens buy a one-time, lifetime combined hunting and fishing pass. The wildlife and parks commission would set the cost of the pass, probably around $40, Jennison said.
He said older Kansans are some of the heaviest users of the state's natural resources, accounting for as much as 90 percent of the people who fish at such places as Lake Perry.
ASSOCIATED PRESS