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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
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Vol. 108 • No. 155
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House damaged in blaze; six KU students displaced
By Ronnie Wachter Kansan staff writer
Several KU students awoke yesterday morning to flames and smoke in their house at 839 Mississippi St. The fire caused $40,000 in damage, said Jerry Karr, Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical Department battalion chief.
Karr said the house had eight occupants, six of whom were University of Kansas students.
The fire was reported at 7:58 a.m., and firefighters arrived at 8:02. Karr said.
"We had heavy fire and smoke coming through the roof and out of the windows of the third floor." he said.
None of the occupants were injured during the blaze, but one firefighter suffered minor injuries in a fall inside the house, Karr said.
The cause of the fire was determined to be an overheated electric motor in an attic fan, he said.
"The third floor is basically obliterated." said Brian Jones, Apple Valley, Minn., junior. "The people in the floor that burned weren't there. They were really lucky."
The six KU students living in the house were Wade Kelly, Atwood freshman; Christopher Stoddard, Lawrence junior; Michael Brenner, Iowa City, Iowa, sophomore; Amy Rose, Erie sophomore; Katie Rcvhel, Tulsa, Okla., freshman and Jones.
Karr said firefighters had the fire under control within 22 minutes, and firefighters had put it out before 9:15 a.m.
"It's really unexpected," Jones said. "I was at work, and my roommates were asleep. The people from the Kwik Shop saw the fire and woke them up."
The residents of the house said that they were moving out.
He said that the residents of the basement, first and second floors were able to safely return to the home last night. The third floor, which housed only one occupant, was too damaged to be immediately inhabitable, he said.
"An inspector came by and checked the wiring, and told us we needed to get out." Jones said. "There's water all over everything."
Karr said that cleaning the water out of the building's basement would be the first priority.
the intersection of Ninth and Mississippi streets was blocked off by Lawrence police officers until about 10 a.m. yesterday to keep traffic away from the scene, said Dave Davis of Lawrence Fire Department's occupational services.
Wreckage sits outside 839 Mississippi St., following a fire that caused $40,000 dollars worth of damage and injured one firefighter. The fire was reported at 7:58 a.m. yesterday. Photo by Lizz Weber / KANSAN
Thunderstorms follow scorching heat wave
By Graham K. Johnson and Michael Martin
Kansas staff writers
If variety is the spice of life, then the weather sure has spiced up life in Lawrence.
Residents have experienced extremes in weather from thunderstorms to heat waves this past week. A week of searing heat and humidity culminated in a severe thunderstorm Monday night that had 70-80 mph winds.
At 7:25 p.m., the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for northern Douglas County and southern Jefferson County, said Mike Akulow, meteorologist at the NWS's Topeka office.
The tornado warning quickly brought home the severity of the storms to students such as Paula Hetherington, Lenexa senior.
"It was exciting, but I get paranoid," Hetherington said. "Natural disasters scare me."
The tornado never materialized, but a strong thunderstorm arrived shortly afterward.
Hetherington is a conference assistant for a cheerleading camp staying in Oliver Hall. She said that they had to shepherd 50 to 60 teen-age girls to the basement when the warning came.
"There were actually a series of them; a line of them went through, but the strongest one was at 8 p.m.," Akulow said.
Akulow said that the storms were part of a large front that also covered Iowa and Missouri. He said it was a typical Kansas June storm, although the winds were rather strong.
The storm was reported to have winds as strong as 85 mph. Akulow said.
The winds managed to down tree limbs and power lines, but were not reported to have caused any injuries or major property damage, said Ron Wilson, deputy sheriff with the Douglas County Emergency Management Association.
"It really wasn't a major deal." Wilson said. "It appeared a lot worse than it was."
About 12,000 to 13,000 people were without power for much of the night, a Western Resources spokesman said.
Students and residents also have had to deal with sweltering temperatures more than 90 degrees which are worse with added high humidity. The heat index has reached the 100 degree mark several times this week.
The heat index is a number calculated using the actual temperature plus the amount of moisture in the air to determine what the temperature feels like on the skin. Akulow said. He said that humidity makes it feel hotter because it does not allow sweat to evaporate and help people cool down.
Akulow said that the heat may subside for the next few days because of a wave of cool air, but that residents should expect continued chances for thunderstorms throughout the week.
The humidity and the storms are linked together. Akulow said. Humidity is a main ingredient in any thunderstorm.
"If you have a lot of humidity it sort of goes like a firecracker," Akulow said. "If you have a lot of black powder, the bigger the bang it makes."
Storm knocks out residents' power
By Michael Martin Kanson staff writer
Monday night's storms cut off the power supply to approximately 12,000 to 13,000 Lawrence residences, a representative for Kansas Power & Light said yesterday.
Power had been restored to all but 1,400 residences by yesterday afternoon, said Mark Schneider, manager of community relations for KPL.
Schneider said that KPL planned to restore power to those residences by 9 p.m. last night.
Gina Brown, Overland Park senior,
spent an uncomfortable night without
electricity or air conditioning.
Brown said that her house at 1028 Tennessee St. went dark when the storm hit at 8 p.m. Monday, and that power was not restored until 8:30 a.m. yesterday.
"We had no electricity, so we had no fans. It was pitch black. Everything was knocked out except the phones," she said.
The storm also affected stoplights and street lamps.
At 9:30 p.m. Monday, several stoplights and street lamps along Tennessee and Iowa streets were not functioning. Most had been repaired by yesterday morning.
Tennessee Street plagued by high speeds, accidents
Residents complain city stays indifferent as accidents pile up
By Michael Martin
Kansan staff writer
Travis Alderson came home to find his car parked exactly where he left it, in the street outside his house at 10th and Tennessee streets, but with a few modifications.
The back windshield was shattered. The back of the car was crumpled. The car, a 1989 Honda Civic, had been totaled without leaving the side of the curb.
It had been hit by a car traveling at high speed along Tennessee, a two-lane, one-way street with a 30 mile per hour speed limit.
Lawrence resident Travis Alderson stands by the wreckage of his car on the side of Tennessee Street Alderson's car, a 1989 Honda Civic, was hit by a car traveling south in the 1000 block of Tennesse. Photo by Michael Martin/KANSAN
The incident was not entirely unexpected by Alderson, who had observed cars speeding by his house before.
"You have to wait five minutes on the curb before you can even cross the street," said Alderson, a 26-year-old Lawrence resident.
Rosel was struck by a car and killed while crossing the street in front of Bull Winkle's Bar, 1344 Tennessee St.
In the past three months, several accidents have occurred within the 900 and 1400 blocks of Tennessee, an area heavily populated and trafficked by KU students.
On June 6, a car carrying four persons traveling 70 mph swerved off the road and wrapped around a tree at Ninth and Tennessee streets.
Alderson's friend Alley McDermott, a 26-year-old Lawrence resident, heard that accident happen and was on the scene before police, she said. It was the third accident on Tennessee Street that she and Alderson had experienced firsthand in the last six months.
McDermott said that city officials were indifferent to their part of town.
Sgt. George Wheeler of the Lawrence police department said Tennessee Street was a major thoroughfare which always has had a high accident rate.
In April, Overland Park freshman Lisa
"I don't think the city is doing anything in the student ghetto." McDermott said.
Police officers run radar checks only when not responding to emergency or service calls, which allows an overextended staff little time to enforce speed limits. Wheeler said.
"Tennessee Street is a high-volume street, and we're there," he said.
Wheeler said he didn't know if Lawrence police had increased patrolling Tennessee Street in the past few months and that adding stop signs or traffic lights would be infeasible.
"We don't have the staff to back it up," he said.
Mike Wildgen City Manager
"Some of those accidents have been related to drinking,and that's something a stoplight isn't going to change."
"If you're just doing it to slow traffic down, you could put a stoplight at every corner. I don't think that's a viable option." he said.
Tennessee street has fewer stop signs and traffic signals than surrounding streets.
From Sixth to 23rd streets, Tennessee Street has one stop sign and four traffic lights. Kentucky Street, an adjacent street that runs one-way in the opposite direction, has two stop signs and six traffic lights. Vermont Street, a less-trafficked residential area east of Kentucky and Tennessee streets, has three traffic lights and six stop signs.
City Manager Mike Wilden said that the city had no plans to add additional stop signs or traffic signals to Tennessee Street.
Wildgen said the city had acquired a
Smart Trailer, a mobile unit that informs drivers of their speed, and would begin using it on city streets in combination with increased speed-limit enforcement.
The Kansas Department of Transportation reported 83 accidents in 1995 on Tennessee Street and 113 in 1996, the last year for which figures were available.
For Travis Alderson, anti-speeding
campaigns won't help get his car back. Because he has no collision insurance, it will not be replaced, he said.
Alley McDermott said Tennessee Street's high accident rate has made her yearn for New York City, where she lived for years—without a car.
"This has reminded me why I had stopped driving," she said.
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