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University Daily Kansan / Monday, April 27, 1992
Quakes jolt Ferndale
Historic Northern California town suffers damage to 100-year-old Victorian cottages
The Associated Press
FERNDALE, Calif. — Residents milled in the streets yesterday among Victorian buildings that stood more than 100 years before being joined to their foundations by a string of powerful earthquakes.
The epicenter of a Saturday earthquake that registered 6.9on the Richter scale and two aftershocks early yesterday damaged more than half the buildings in this dairy community a few miles from the Pacific Ocean.
"It comes at a very bad time," said Patty Pervis-Thielman, who brewed coffee on a barbecue grill outside her Fern Cafe.
Pervis Thielman gave up a job as an insurance analyst in San Francisco four years ago and moved 270 miles north to this town of 1,400.
"It was the dream," she said. "It was to get away. It was to come to a safe place and lose the stress of city life."
Established in the mid-to-late 1800s by dairy farmers of German and Portuguese ancestry, Ferndale has developed into a tourist attraction. The entire town is a registered historical landmark.
The brightly painted Victorian storefronts, known as "Butterfat Palaces" because they were built with dairy for their main their original ginger-bread trim.
"The great tragedy here is that many of those beautiful Victorian houses were knocked off their foundations and could have to come down," said Managing Editor Rex Wilson of the Eureka Times Standard.
Neighbors gathered at the Fern Cafe yesterday for coffee. Robbie Griegess picked up a few cups for his family, took shelter at the town fairgrounds.
"After that last one, my kids couldn't
take it any more. "Grieges said.
Danielle Gyurik, owner of the Fern-
The Richter scale
The Richter scale measures the amount of force released by an earthquake. Each whole number represents a tenfold increase in a quake's power.
SOURCES: U.S. Geological Survey, World Book, The Washington Post
dale Inn, spent the night bundled up on her front lawn after being chased out by the second afterschock, which registered 6.5 on the Richter scale.
Her collection of primrose yellow and white Victorian cottages were tilted on their foundations. One cottage teetered over the bank of a creek. The
Knight-Ridder Tribune News/Pat Carr
"I won't have an inn any more, that's over," Gurik said. "I was a long night. I kept coming back in, and I kept thinking that it's, but after that last one, now I don't trust the house, so I'm on the lawn for a few days."
main building, the third oldest in Ferndale, was built in 1859.
Modified food pyramid satisfies USDA critics
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department has decided to use a pyramid to illustrate what Americans should eat every day, and knowledgeable sources say it's only slightly different from one criticized by dairy and meat groups.
Agriculture Secretary Ed Madigan will unveil the new pyramid tomorrow, according to an industry and a research group that asked their names not be used.
The pyramid will replace the old food wheel that showed four equal slices representing the basic food groups: Meats, fish and legumes; fruits and vegetables; grains, and dairy products.
The government recommends that people eat more grains, fruits and vegetables and less meat, fat and sweets. The pyramid's positioning of meats in a narrowing section of the drawing made the point painfully clear.
Meat and dairy groups objected and Madigan withdrew it a year ago and promised further study.
The illustration being released tomorrow is a modified version of the original pyramid. But it wasn't immediately clear if modification meant slight changes in the color or size of the food drawings or flipping the pyramid on its point so the most-recommended foods would be at the top.
The industry has now withdrawn its objections.
"USDA has really done its homework," said Sara Clarke of the American Meat Institute, adding that they were now ready to support whatever the department chooses.
The original illustration put the greatest emphasis on grains—bread, rice, pasta and cereals—and showed them at the wide pyramid base. It recommends eating six to 11 servings a day from that group.
The next level up had vegetables — three to five daily servings — and fruits — two of four servings.
The third level had two groups — meat and dairy — and recommends two to three daily servings. At the top were fats, oils and sweets with the suggestion that they be eaten sparingly.
Some health groups criticized the positioning of sweets and fats at the top, saying people might misinterpret this as a signal they should be eaten first or were the most important part of the diet.
But Ellen Haas, executive director of Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, said Friday, "my feeling was that it needed some refinements but the basic objective was right."
The departmentran 28 focus groups in five cities with children to senior citizens from various ethnic groups and income and education levels. They were shown a modified version of the original pyramid and several other images, including a cereal bowl, a shopping cart and a tablecloth with food on it.
U.S.-Canadian deal ends beer dispute
The Associated Press
he said.
WASHINGTON — The United States and Canada tentatively ended a beer dispute Saturday that had caused diminished sales of U.S. brands in Canada and produced threats of U.S. duties on imported Canadian beer, officials of both countries said.
In return, the United States has agreed to rescind plans to place a tariff on imported Canadian beer that would have been retroactive to April 13.
The threat of the duties had slowed shipments of Canadian beer into the United States. Because of the dispute, the province of Ontario stopped buying American brands. Canadian provinces regulate beer sales.
Under the agreement in principle, the Canadian government — which sets minimum beer prices — would halt practices by June 30 that drive up the price of U.S. beer, said Malcolm McKechnie, representative at the Canadian Embassy. Canada will also eliminate other marketing barriers,
"Normal trade in beer between the (v) countries resumes today." McKee
agreement can be reached expeditiously."
Julius Katz, acting U.S. trade representative, hailed the agreement and said, "I believe the details of the final
Officials of the two countries will meet as early as next week to work out a deal.
The two nations have long bickered over restrictions each said the other placed on its imported beer.
About $170 million of Canadian beer is sold each year in the United States, about 1 percent of the U.S. market. Canadians buy about $30 million worth of U.S. beer annually, about 3 percent of the Canadian market.
Negotiators in Washington and Ottawa reached the agreement working through the telephone and telefax.