✓
SPORTS: Boston Celtic forward Reggie Lewis dies, Page 7.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
VOL.102.NO.159
WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 1993
(USPS 650-640)
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
NEWS:864-4810
Medical insurance at KU rises
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
Mary Rose-Shaffer, Lawrence graduate student, opened her KU insurance bill and discovered her quarterly premium payments had gone up $148 in one year.
She said the 31 percent increase, which took her annual premiums from $1,800 to $2,744 in year, was a burden of a burdain for her family of threw.
Although Student Senate approved the increase in student health insurance fees in March, many policy holders did not become aware of the change until they received their latest bills, because policy holders are only billed four times a year. For policy holders such as Rose-Shaffer, the increase and changes in coverage came as a surprise.
"We're going to have to take out student loans where we haven't had to take out student loans for two years." Row-Shaffer said.
An increase in insurance premiums is unavoidable and long overdue, said Jim Boyle, associate director of Watkins Memorial Health Center. He said premiums for the policy, which is offered by G-M Underwriters Agency, Inc of Rochester, Mich., had been too low since 1991.
"They've had a tremendous deal the last several years because we've been so far behind the market," he said.
Boyle said that the annual premium for a single policy from 1903-94 is $7.39. In 1901-92 and 1902-93, the annual premiums were $655 for a single policy and $1,800 for a family policy. In 1980-90 and 1990-94, the premi-
He said that over those four years the average increase was a little more than 2 percent. This year's 81 percent increase is a direct result of the low rate of increase during the past four years.
policy and
$1,717 for a family policy.
GM has no choice but to raise its rates drastically. Boyle said. Either the costs go up or the coverage shrinks.
"There's a direct connection between anything you do," he said. "You keep back the premiums, and then you raise the deductible."
He said that a large number of students filed insurance claims last year, including 10 clamies over $10,000. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas lost $1 million in 1992-93 because a lack of estimates kept them from raising their rates from the year before. Blue Cross and Blue Shield subsequently dropped its coverage of KU for 1993-94.
"I think we'll see in the long run we're pretty much following the CPI for the medical field," he said.
Rose-Shaffer said the increase was too excessive in one year for a person on her budget.
Steve Vogelsang. Lawrence senior and head of the Senate's student health advisory board, said the rate of increase over the past five years was fair. He said it was better than both the nation's medical consumer price index of 12 percent and the rates of any other university in Kansas.
"I understand it" supposed to be the most affordable," she said. "The thing I cannot understand is why the premiums were raised so dramatically."
Moneyman retires
Keith Nitcher,
University director of business and fiscal affairs,
will retire in mid August.
Keith Nitcher
See story. Page 10.
County has big plan for the big one
Nuclear disaster evacuation plan in need of update
By Todd Puntney Kansan staff writer
in the movie "The Day After," victims of radiation sickness were sprawled across Allen
field House, moaning and crying, with oozing sores and bloated, sunburned limbs. They waited to die in a makeshift hospital that to be alive with Kansas basketball.
That movie, which came out 10 years ago, rattled Lawrence as well as the entire nation with its disturbing portrait of life after nuclear war, of what it might be like to survive holocaust and to know, perhaps, what it is to be alive and dead at the same time.
Lawrence was not a target in the movie. Survivors — including those from a destroyed Kansas City — converged on Lawrence, seeking help at the University of Kansas Medical Center, which, in the movie, was part of the main campus.
Source: Crisis Relocation Plan
But that was fiction.
Reality would be much different.
A Defense Department study in the late 1970s determined potential targets for Soviet nuclear weapons. Criteria for these high-risk target areas included location of military facilities and industries that contributed to national defense; population, communication and transportation centers; and related institutions that would help re-establish American society after a nuclear war.
Of the 400 U.S. sites determined by the Defense Department as high risk, seven were in Kansas.
One was in Douglas County
Unlike the movie, Lawrence was considered by the federal government to be a high-risk target area because of its population, its location wedged between Topeka and Kansas City, and its university.
Unlike the movie, Lawrence and Douglas County, using a plan devised in 1881 specifically for nuclear war, would be evacuated and made a hollow ghost town.
And unlike the movie, Allen Field House would not be a way-station for terminally ill patients. Indeed, the roar of cheering fans and the echoing chant of Rock Chalk would be replaced by cold, hard silence.
Allen Field House would be a morgue.
---
Civil defense in this country has seen aawesaw between two concepts: reliance on shelters to protect local populations or widespread evacuation to low-risk areas.
Since 1976, evacuation — or "crisis relocation," as the Federal Emergency Management Agency calls it — has been the focus of civil defense.
According to Douglas County's Crisis Relocation Plan, devised in 1981 and not updated since, a nuclear attack would come only after several days or weeks of heightened international tension, providing government with the time to evacuate from high-risk target areas.
Current relocation philosophy says that moving people from potential target areas to low-risk areas is better than keeping people in shelters during a direct hit. Even the most elaborately constructed shelters like Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, headquarters of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, would be hard-pressed to withstand the blast and winds of one-megaton warhead.
The Crisis Relocation Plan calls for a countywide, three-day evacuation before a nuclear attack to three host areas: Franklin, Anderson and Allen counties.
Using that plan and another one, called the Emergency Operations Plan, which is used by the Emergency Preparedness office for natural disasters as well as manmade ones, the local
government hopes to save as many people as it can.
And keep Allen Field House empty
B ut would it work?
"The plans in place now probably wouldn't work today," said Paula Phillips, Douglas County Emergency Preparedness coordinator. "Those plans have been on the backburner for a long time."
The plan uses 1880 population figures, when about 50,000 people lived in Douglas County.
Story continues, Page 6.
Agency aim: dual-purpose crisis control
By Todd Puntney Kansan staff writer
Planning for nuclear war is, admittedly, only part of the Emergency Preparedness Office's duties. More immediate problems, such as a 100-year flood, take precedence.
Paula Phillips is more concerned now with rising waters than with rising international tensions.
"In 1976, we changed from civil defense to emergency preparedness with an all-hazard approach, meaning we plan for all types of disasters, not just nuclear war," said Phillips, Douglas County Emergency Preparedness coordinator.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency requires all emergency preparedness offers to plan for both manmade and natural disasters.
"Everything we do has to be dual purpose." Phillips said. "Everything has to have a national security function as well as a natural disaster one."
She said the most likely threat to Lawrence would be from a natural disaster, like the flood, or an accident, like a chemical spill.
With the Emergency Operations Plan, which is updated regularly and is separate from the one dealing with nuclear attack. Phillips hopes her office can be prepared for any disaster.
"This flood has been a learning experience," she said. "It's the first major disaster in a long time, and it freshens people's minds as to what needs to be done."
Managing the situation has been a strain on the small emergency preparedness staff. Driving around the county, checking emergency preparations in other cities, and stopping rumors has lengthened Phillips' work day to at least 12 hours.
"A lot of it is rumor control," she said. "We've had calls about leaves breaking, that Lawrence water is unsafe to drink. And we've heard for two weeks now that the Perry Lake dam has burst."
Through coordination with other government agencies, Phillips said her office could accomplish what it is designed to do: save lives.
"The key is working together," she said. "We have to work with other offices and outside sources. We can't do it all alone."
City, KU use flood as lesson for future
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
The waters may have only begun to recede, but city officials already are using the flood as a lesson for handling future floods — and that lesson involves KU.
At a City Commission planning meeting Monday afternoon, officials spoke about the way Lawrence handled flood water and the role the University of Kansas played in the matter.
Shontz said the amount of development in Lawrence in recent years had caused much of the city's recent flooding problems. Developments cover land that would naturally absorb large amounts of rainfall, so water runs off those surfaces and into streams that are too small to handle the additional volume.
"The University needs to be part of this system," said Nancy Shontz, Lawrence planning committee member. "The University needs to be part of the solution, not part of the problem."
She said because KU was a large paved surface at Mount Oread, it caused a large amount of snow.
George Williams, city engineer, said most complaints about flood water came from places other than flood plains, where such water would have been expected. Instead, flooding occurred when runoff was blocked in drainage ditches by obstacles such as fences or inadequate drains.
Drains and conduits for runoff need to be built around KU. Shonzit said.
"We thought we knew what we had over there, but we didn't," he said. "When water comes down we need to know what happens."
Williams said because a proposed storm water management system was not passed by voters in 1981, few laws existed to prevent building in places that could be hazardous in flooding situations.
Bob Moody, city commissioner, agreed with Williams. He said that because the laws were insufficient, people bought homes with hazards such as driveways that slope into the house or are located next to a storm drain.
"Nothing in our code says you have to build above the curb or above your backyard," he said.
"People buy houses not knowing the potential for flooding" he said
John Nalbandian, Lawrence mayor, said current laws did not take such developments into account.
The city's inability to handle floods falls under two categories. Nalbundian said. In the newer part of town west of Iowa Street, ordinances would keep developers from building in hazardous situations. Developers would have to be responsible for following the ordinances.
"We don't have adequate ordnances and regulations," he said. "It's not that we're building on flood plains. It's being cognizant of storm runoff."
"People think you just pass a regulation, but it's very hard," he said. "It requires you to look at every individual building or lot. The city doesn't have that money."
On the other hand, older parts of the city will need renovations. Nalbandian said that as this stage of planning nobody knew how much such renovations would cost.
Angelique Lower / KANSAN
Don Farmer aids flood victims by selling T-shirts at the Riverfront Plaza. The Red Cross will receive the profits and distribute the money to flood victims.
"Just start rinsing the cash register," he said.
Nalbandian said that storm and sewer systems underneath the city also needed to be attended to, but that calling attention to them was difficult.
"They're out of sight, they're out of mind," he said. "It's not popular to spend money on them because there's nothing visibly wrong."
See related stories. Pages 3,5.
Finally, the Kansas weather news is starting to sound a little better.
FLOOD BRIEFS
Despite rainy summer forecast calls for sun
More heavy rains fell in the north-central section Tuesday morning but there was no rain in today's forecast.
While there was a chance for thunderstorms Thursday, mainly in central and western Kansas, it was described as slight. Dry weather was predicted for both Friday and Saturday.
See forecast, Page 2.
Governor visits sites damaged by flood waters
Gov. Joan Finney traveled to Kansas City, Kan., today and estimated 3,500 people had been evacuated from the city's Armourdale area.
She later visited a site where sandbags were being filled at a shopping center. Among the volunteers was James Elder, 38, a prison inmate from Topeka.
"People out here really needed help bad. We locked up and don't get much chance to get out, so we're more than glad to do this," he said.
Briefs compiled from Associated Press reports.
Regional flood coverage, Page 5.