CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, July 14, 1993
3
Past weather more intense than 1993
Violent storms are part of city's history
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
Margaret Shirk remembered the day was Friday the 13th.
On July 13, 1951, Shirk and her family watched their North Lawrence home from a distance as their chickens, steers, lumber and their neighbors' houses floated away in one of the most devastating floods in local history.
"Everything went down the river," she said. "The water was so treacherous. It's eerie what it can do."
"You're dealing with a lot more water in both 1903 and 1951." he said.
Floods and tornadoes are nothing new to the region, said Steven Jansen, director of Watkins Community Museum. He said the flood that hit Lawrence on Friday was by no means the worst flood in the city's history.
He said the rainfall that culminated with a flood 42 years ago yesterday dumped 16.5 inches of rain in 23 days. The river rose to 30 feet, ifeither higher than its banks. Most of northern Lawrence was completely covered, and the only road out of town was to Topeka.
Jansen said Kansa's system of reservoirs, which regulates the amount of water let into the
Kansas River, had kept such floods from recurring. However, the system will not last forever, because artificial barriers eventually erode.
"They are manmade," he said. "They will fall within 100 years."
Sometimes the river has swelled enough to swallow pieces of land, Jansen said. He said flooding had removed tracts of land southwest of Johnny's Tavern, 401 N. Second St., in the past.
"I've had people show me abstracts of property that doesn't exist anymore," he said.
In the past, Lawrence also has been hit with other forms of violent weather besides floods.
Tornadoes, though less common, have struck Lawrence before, Jansen said. The last time a tornado did any damage to the city was on June 19, 1981. Two tornadoes struck Kmart, 3106 Iowa St., and the Gaslight Village Mobile Home Park across the street.
Philip Rankin, Lawrence resident, was a weather spotters when the tornadoes struck. He said he had been driving to southwest Lawrence to get a better view of the approaching storm when the funnel cloud descended
"All of a sudden, I saw a hundred black bits swirling in front of me," he said.
His car turned over as the tornadoes passed, he said. He managed to radio a warning to the spotter station, but lost an eye to broken glass.
Rankin said he was relieved the tornadoes that struck Friday did not come touch in heavily populated areas.
Angelique Lower / KANSAN
Nino Mendoza, Lawrence Fire Department firefighter, waits in front of Johnny's Tavern, 401 N. Second St., when flood water is drained by a pump truck. Working Monday, Mendoza said he was not sure how long it would take to pump all the water from the area.
Lee, left, Jeremy Garcia, Donny Parker and William House spent Monday evening swimming in the flood waters covering North Third
Floods linked to volcanic activity
By Lisa Cosmillo
Kansan staffwriter
The worst floods in the last 100 years have hit the Midwest within two years of the worst volcanic eruption this century.
Paul Handler, professor of physics at the University of Illinois, does not think this is a "disaster."
Handler cited weather occurrences which showed a distinct pattern between low-latitude volcanic eruptions and weather patterns.
Mount Pinetau in the Philippines erupted in June 1991. It was the worst volcanic eruption in 100 years. Handler said.
A recurring yet unpredictable phenomenon known as El Nino arrived six months later. Within two years, the East Coast had its most devastating winter followed by the Midwest's worst flooding since 1884. Handler said.
According to an article by Handler in The Christian Science Monitor. El Nino is the warming by a few degrees of the water off the coast of Peru. It occurs around Christmas and causing global weather disruptions.
El Chichon, the second-worst volcano erosion in 100 years, erupted in Mexico in 1983, followed by the most intense El Nino and the flooding of the Mississippi.
El Nevada del Ruiz erupted in Colombia. South America in 1985 followed by an El Nino and the California drought.
Handler's research suggests that volcanoes cause El Nino and much of the climate around the world.
El Nino is only one of the climatic changes caused by volcanoes. Handler said.
"Volcanoes shoot sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere (the upper part of the atmosphere 60,000-80,000 feet above the earth). Handler wrote: "That creates a volcanic aerosol' similar to the mist that is emitted by an aerosol can. The suspended droplets reflect the sunlight and shade the earth, depriving the earth of solar energy. Volcanic aerosols encircle the earth within a few months and remain there for years at a time."
Handler explained that this drop in energy and lowered temperatures in the atmosphere caused climatic disruptions.
Based on Handler's theory and his own research, Charlie Perry, research hydrolo-
gist for the U.S. geological research, said that severe and wet weather was likely to continue for another year.
"We've been in this pattern since last fall." Perry said. "Anything that affects warming or cooling of the tropical ocean water will ultimately affect our weather."
David Braaten, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, said there was little doubt that the volcanic eruptions influenced the weather.
Braaten explained that physicists could recreate the Earth's atmosphere in a computer model and disrupt the model to study the effect. However, actual weather involves so many factors that it is impossible to test all of them with the models.
"No one understands the direct connection," he said. "We can measure, for example, Pinatubo's cooling effect. How that relation relates to the weather is the question."
Handler said he did not think long-term patterns in weather were unpredictable.
"If you understand what's going on, you should be able to forecast, and if you don't, then obviously, you can only hindcast." Handler
Expanding bedrock warps Wescoe Hall
Topeka firms to release final recommendations for solutions by Friday
Special to the Kansan
By David Stewart Special to the Kansas
Results from a study conducted this spring by a geological firm concluded that the base of Wescoe Hall had not sunk, but risen.
James Modig, director of Design and Construction Management in Topeka, said an expanding shale foundation beneath Wescoe had shifted and warped the first floor. In some areas of the building, the floor has moved up three to four inches from its original position.
"This isn't a construction or structural failure." Modig said. "The shale is simply rebounding. It is basically lifting the floor up."
This expansion of the bedrock primarily has affected the southeast portion of Wescoe's first floor, causing rippled hallways and warped ceiling tiles.
Modig cited two factors from the study that contributed to the expanding foundation; the release of pressure from the removed topsoil and the shale's clay particles that expanded as they absorbed ground water.
"Because we had to excavate to form the foundation, we took pressure off the shale when we removed the soil above it." Modig said. "With this release of pressure, the shale now has a tendency to expand up."
Modig said that clay in the bedrock's shale had acted like a sponge swollen with ground water coming naturally from the soil and from an existing buried tunnel below Wescoe.
"This tunnel was part of the old Robinson Gymnasium," Modig said. "It's now acting as a reservoir for water to leach into the clay."
The Wescoe foundation study recommended several solutions for keeping the first floor of Wescoe level, including removing and levelling the floor, replacing the dividing walls and keeping the ceiling separate from the building's foundation.
According to the summary, any remedy for this lifting would be short-term since the movement is expected to continue.
Modig he anticipated a recommendation report for addressing this problem by Friday from the engineering firm Finney & Turnipseed and the architectural firm Slemmons Assoc. both of Topeka.
Raymond Moore, professor of civil engineering, said there may not be a permanent solution for the problem.
"You can't really cure the problem of this clay shale," Moore said. "As long as it has a source of water and isn't yet saturated, it will continue to expand."
Doug Hesse / KANSAN
Carcrossing
Mike Sutic, student assistance center employee, eats lunch near where a Lawrence woman jumped her car over the service road behind Wescoe Hall on June 26. An unknown person added to the crosswalk sign behind Stauffer-Flint Hall early his week.
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