BA THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 12, 2002
Hundreds isolated by mudslides
The Associated Press
DENVER Heavy rains sent full-grown trees, massive boulders and rivers of mud rushing across charred hillsides in southwestern Colorado on yesterday isolating hundreds of residents in their homes for the second time in less than a week.
No one was in immediate danger but roads near Durango were blocked by debris 10 feet high and boulders weighing several tons apiece, said La Plata County sheriff's Lt. Dan Bender.
"What used to be a pine forest next to an upscale home is now a gaping hole and a boulder field," Bender said.
One to 3 inches of rain had fallen in the area since Tuesday afternoon. More rain was forecast later yesterday, and authorities were bracing for more mudslides
Bender said the rain sent mud
trees and boulders rolling down hillsides that were left barren by the 70,485-acre Missionary Ridge wildfire in June.
"It was almost running like whitewater." Bender said.
There were no reports of mud moving into homes but several driveways were buried under boulders and gouges were cut across several properties as the mudslides literally changed the course of creeks, Bender said.
Mudslides hit the same area Saturday. At least five families had to leave their homes because of the damage, and another 12 families had heavy debris inside their homes.
The burned landscape is especially susceptible to mudslides because there is little vegetation to hold the soil in place.
Residents say the mudslides are one more nightmare in a summer marked by disaster.
"We call it the summer of hell," said Shirley Andersen, who has lived in the Durango area for 36 years. "This is the worst."
Andersen said there were mudslides on both sides of her house along County Road 250 on Wednesday, but her home was spared from damage.
"We were up all night. It rained real hard all night and I could hear the plews and stuff trying to clean up the mud," she said.
Bender said the area about nine miles north of Durango along County Road 250 was the hardest hit, though mudslides also forced road closures in the Vallecito area several miles away.
Heavy equipment crews yesterday cleared debris from roads and used it to build makeshift dikes and culverts to try to steer future debris away from homes.
By afternoon, the county road was reopened. But Bender said
residents were told to remain on alert for possible evacuations, as they have been for most of the summer.
The area remained under a flash flood warning Wednesday National Weather Service hydrologist Brian Avery said.
He said the rains were remnants of Tropical Storm Fay, which came ashore Saturday in Texas.
"More rain is still coming. It hasn't let up." Avery said. Drier weather could return this weekend, he said.
Bender said residents may see problems for one to three years, until the vegetation has had sufficient time to grow back.
The land will be marked for years beyond then. "The debris that was scattered Saturday and today will be here for decades," Bender said.
Study: Blood pressure could indicate diabetes
The Associated Press
Blood pressure that doesn't drop at night is an ominous indication that juvenile diabetes patients may develop kidney disease, a new study concluded.
The study looked at "type 1" diabetics, whose bodies make no insulin and who make up 5 percent to 10 percent of the nation's 17 million diabetics.
The lead author, Dr. Daniel Battle of Northwestern University, said it was likely the results could apply to "type2" diabetes, a form that used to be called adult-onset diabetes but which is becoming increasingly common in children.
"There are enough similarities in the two conditions, in terms of kidney involvement, that it is very likely it will apply to type 2 diabetes as well," Battle said.
Dr. Nathaniel Clark, vice president for clinical affairs of the American Diabetes Association, agreed.
"The study is very exciting. I think it has a lot of potential areas of importance," though more studies are needed to confirm the results, Clark said
Diabetes is the underlying cause of about 40 percent of all kidney failure, which affects about 380,000 Americans. Most are on dialysis, with about 80,000 living with transplanted kidneys.
High levels of the protein albumin are an early sign of kidney disease. It shows up years before any symptom the patient would notice.
Type 2 diabetics usually have high blood pressure when their diabetes is diagnosed, but type 1
ONLINE
New England Journal of Medicine: http://www.nejm.org
American Diabetes Association: http://www.diabetes.org
National Kidney Foundation: http://www.kidney.org
diabetics often have normal blood pressure. While most people's blood pressure drops during sleep, it often stays near daytime levels in those type 1 diabetics who also have high albumin levels in their urine.
But do both symptoms develop at the same time?
To answer that question, Battle and doctors at the University of Valencia and the Hospital de Sugunto in Spain looked at 75 adolescents and young adults. All had type 1 diabetes but normal
blood pressure and urine — 32 of them did not show the normal nighttime drop in blood pressure.
After about five years, 14 had high urinary albumin; the other 61 did not.
The patients with high urinary albumin included seven of the 32 with an abnormal blood pressure pattern at the start of the study, and 10 of 32 with an abnormal pattern at the end.
The other seven were among the 43 with a normal nighttime blood pressure pattern at the start of the study. By the end of the study, only four were among 43 with a normal pattern of blood pressure.
Clark said the findings supported the idea that higher than normal blood pressure over any period of time is significant, and 24-hour checks can give vital information.
Security concerns ground two flights
The Associated Press
Strange passenger behavior on two commercial jet flights cut the flights short yesterday.
Authorities said the behavior did not appear to be terrorist-related.
in Texas, American Airlines Flight 1702, with 50 passengers on-board, returned to Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston after reports of a disturbance. A crew member saw a suspicious item that turned out not to be a weapon, said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House Office of Homeland Security.
"We do not believe there was any terrorist-related incident, but we continue to investigate," he said.
The flight was bound for Dallas, then Nashville, Tenn.
"The captain returned to Houston due to a potential security incident," said American spokesman Todd Burke. "We did have two federal air marshals on board."
Someone on board reported seeing a pocketknife but it turned out to be a harmless object, said the senior law enforcement source. Police and firefighters surrounded the aircraft, sitting at the end of a runway, and other passengers were taken to a terminal.
One passenger was removed and was being questioned by the FBI yesterday.
In Arkansas, Northwest Airlines Flight 979, with 94 passengers and a crew of five, was diverted to Fort Smith, Ark., because four men, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, behaved strangely, authorities said.
The Transportation Security Agency initially said three of the men had locked themselves in a restroom together, with reports that they were shaving their bodies. A law enforcement source in Arkansas who spoke on condition of anonymity said it was believed the men went to the restroom one by one but drew attention because they were shaving their beards.
All four men were being questioned by the FBI yesterday.
After last year's terror attacks, documents found in the luggage of attack leader Mohamed Atta gave what appeared to be instructions for the suicide hijackers: "The previous night, shave the extra hair from the body (and) pray."
Northwest spokeswoman Mary Beth Schubert said she couldn't elaborate on what alarmed the crew and couldn't confirm information about the alleged shaving.
The Northwest jet was traveling from Memphis, Tenn., to Las Vegas. No fighter jets were launched to accompany the aircraft, said Maj. Douglas Martin of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
The Northwest pilots decided themselves to land at Fort Smith as a precaution, the airline said in a statement yesterday.
A senior law enforcement official in Washington said both incidents appeared to be misunderstandings and did not involve terrorist threats and attributed some of the alarm to Americans being on high alert for the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
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