Iowa City Press-Citizen from Iowa City, Iowa • Page 1

IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN Iowa City, Iowa 20' A Gannett Newspaper Saturday, August 5, 1978 Bus plunges into lake, 41 handicapped drown SOT- in EASTMAN, Quebec (AP) A bus carrying mentally and physically handicapped people home from an outing went out of control on a hill, shot off a roadway and plunged into a deep lake, drowning 41 persons who screamed desperately for help as they sank slowly in the murky water. Six volunteer assistants and the driver escaped before the vehicle sank in about 60 feet of water in Lac d'Argent, 50 miles southeast of Montreal. The Friday night tragedy was the worst bus disaster in Canadian history. Survivor Alain Pouliot said the brakes failed and the driver was unable to make a turn at the bottom of the hill. He said the bus floated for about five minutes before it went down.

Police said it had drifted out about 150 yards on the surface of the lake. The victims, members of the Society of Infirmed and Handicapped of the Asbestos Region, ranged in age from 14 to 86. Two were in wheelchairs, but the rest were believed able to move unaided. Some were mentally handicapped, while the AP laserohoto Seven feared dead Construction blamed in pipeline explosion The small town of Albany, Texas, in the period. A creek that flows through the area northern part of the state is inundated after went out of its banks Friday and as many as 16 inches of rain fell in the area in a 24-hour seven people are feared dead.

Texans face more flooding; death toll continues to climb others had a variety of physical ailments. Also among the dead were two nuns, a priest and parents of some of the disabled persons. The victims were returning to their homes in the nearby mining town of Asbestos at about midnight after seeing a play called "A Simple Double Wedding" in Eastman. It was a special performance for the group. "We have already investigated the driver and he was in perfect condition no alcohol, nothing," Police Constable Alain Perron told a news conference.

"The bus started to speed, and the driver told me to tell everyone to get set because he was going to do a 90-degree turn," said Pouliot. "But at the speed we were going, he couldn't turn and drove right into the water." Pouliot said he managed to get the bus door open, and the first thing he saw was a boat anchored offshore. "I swam for the boat. There was nobody on shore so I yelled for help," he said. People came running from nearby summer cottages and tried unsuccessfully to help him free the boat from its mooring, Pouliot said.

"Everybody in the bus was yelling, 'Help! he said. Moments later, the bus sank with 41 trapped inside. Pouliot said his wife escaped from the bus through a window. "I don't know how she made it to shore, because she doesn't swim," he said. Eric Whitehead, president of a scuba diving club helping in dragging operations, said: "The bus floated on the water for about five minutes, and the wind blew it around.

"Now we can't find it. We'll have to wait till there's better visibility. "There's nothing we can do now. With a 10,000 candle spotlight you can't see more than four inches or a foot. "It's from 50 to 60 feet deep as soon as you get away from the shore." The worst previous Canadian bus accident occured at Morrisburg, Ontario on July 31, 1953, when an express bus heading for Montreal from Toronto plunged into a ditch, killing 20 and injuring 19.

Just two months ago, 12 schoolboys and a teacher drowned in a lake on the Quebec-Ontario border when their canoes capsized in a storm during a wilderness outing. Safety said 20 bodies had been recovered across the state, including 16 in central Texas and four in Albany, a farming town of 2,500 residents. The storm inundated Albany with nearly 16 inches of rain late Thursday night and early Friday and sent a "tremendous wall of water" down Hubbard Creek that flows through the middle of town. Although the water receded by late Friday, four people were still listed as missing in Albany, officials said. Lawrence Winkler, the county agriculture extension agent who was serving as a press spokesman, said there was almost no hope they would be alive.

"Please stay away from the Brazos ALBANY, Texas (AP) Waterlogged residents of western Texas, already inundated by up to 30 inches of rain in the last two days, braced for more flooding today as the runoff sent rivers gushing from their banks. Water poured over earthen dams and spillways, and creeks that barely trickled a few days ago grew two miles wide across the rolling west Texas prairies. The killer storm remnants of Tropical Storm Amelia has claimed at least 20 lives while carving a 200-mile-long swath of destruction from central to northwestern Texas. No rain was falling early today and skies were forecast to remain partly cloudy. The Texas Department of Public Kiver," begged the National Weather Service in a flood warning late Friday that predicted a very rapid rise in the river caused by rains of up to 30 inches in its drainage area.

The Clear Fork of the Brazos, north of Albany, was running two miles wide Friday night, the service said. Normally, the fork is a dry creek bed. Residents of Albany suffered through a night of terror, some of them clinging to trees, rooftops and oil rigs. Rescue helicopters plucked 26 survivors from such roosts Friday morning. Forty-two people were evacuated from a nursing home.

The surge of floodwater ripped across U.S. 283, washing the pavement away. The road, like most others into Albany, was still closed late Friday. our records indicate it didn't get above 1,330 pounds. That's why we suspect the lowering.

"It was a routine procedure. We do it whenever there's road construction or like when a farmer tiles a field. The only thing unusual was lowering it that much. Generally they don't put them lower than 8 or 10 feet." Rohlader said the stress of lowerinu the line may have weakened it, or the rupture may have been caused by heavy machinery rumbling over the area after the line was lowered. Mid-America and federal officials from Washington, Kansas City and Fort Worth were sent to the blast site to investigate the cause of the rupture.

Rohlader said Mid-America also is investigating charges that no one answered at an emergency telephone number that is supposed to be manned round the clock. Wayne Smith, who lives two miles west of where the explosion occurred, said he called the number after closing the pipeline valve shortly after the blast. "It rang and rang but nobody answered," said Smith, who then drove to Fort Madison and closed the valve on the other side of the rupture. "We've been checking that," Rohlader said. "There must have been some telephone trouble, because that number is manned 24 hours a day." FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) A gas pipeline that ruptured and sparked a fatal explosion and fire may have been weakened during a road construction project, a spokesman for the pipeline company said Friday.

"We're speculating, but we think it probably ruptured as a result of being lowered," said Gilbert Rohlader, senior vice-president of the Mid-America Pipeline Co. of Tulsa, Okla. An eight-inch underground liquid petroleum gas line ruptured about 12:01 a.m. Friday and the escaping gas ignited and devastated an eight-acre area about six miles west of Fort Madison. Robert Knight 79, and his wife, Claricy, 82, were killed and their farmstead leveled when the line ruptured in a cornfield about 100 yards away.

Robert Rider, 52, his wife, Mary, 49, and their 23-year-old daughter, Cindy, who lived across Iowa 2 from the Knights, were listed in critical condition early today in the burn unit at University Hospital in Iowa City. Rohlader said the pipeline, which was laid in 1962, was lowered about two months ago as part of a road-widening project. "It was lowered from 4 feet (below the surface) to 15 feet. Either at that time or since then it was weakened." Rohlader said it was not a case of too much pressure in the line. "That line can withstand 2,700 pounds, and Carter commissions carrier vowing to keep defense strong Vance begins mission to save peace talks good afternoon on the inside Stennis' committee is instrumental in deciding the fate of the administration's defense programs.

The cruiser, with a crew of more than 500, will join the Atlantic fleet surface force, according to James Johnston, a spokesman for the Norfolk Naval Air Station. Carter was then heading to Wilson, N.C., in the heart of tobacco country, to try to soothe tobacco farmers angered by the administration's anti-smoking campaign and to help a Democrat challenging conservative Republican Sen. Jesse Helms. The president was flying to the Rocky Mount-Wilson Regional Airport in a Jetstar, which seats fewer than 10 persons, because the airport's runway is too short for Air Force One, a modified Boeing 707. After a rally on the lawn of the Wilson County library for Senate candidate John Ingram, Carter was to tour a tobacco warehouse and witnessing a mock auction of flue- cured tobacco, the main ingredient in cigarettes.

He may encounter hostility from tobacco growers over the anti-smoking campaign of Joseph A. Califano, the secretary of health, education and welfare. Carter has said he will continue the government's tobacco price support program despite Califano's efforts. Califano in January proposed a $30-million campaign that would nearly double federal research and anti-smoking activities. Some $6 million would be added to the government's current $l-million effort to distribute anti-smoking materials to schools and the general public.

Deputy White House press secretary Rex Granum has said repeatedly that there is no impropriety in a president visiting a tobacco warehouse at the same time his administration is waging a campaign against cigarette smoking. NORFOLK, Va. (AP) President Carter today commissioned a $262-million nuclear-powered cruiser, the USS Mississippi, in deference to that state's powerful Sen. John C. Stennis.

Carter pledged, "We have not and we will not become a second-rate power." In his prepared remarks, the president praised Stennis, saying it was "fitting that this new guided missile cruiser be named for the home state of a man who has done so much to keep our nation safe and strong." Although the administration has cut the Navy's proposed shipbuilding plan in half, Carter sought to reassure his audience, noting that he was stationed in Norfolk as a young naval officer. Stennis, the powerful Democrat who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, invited Carter to commission the ship, the Navy's eighth nuclear-powered cruiser. 'A, Ml LAJES AIR BASE, Azores (AP) Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance was bound for the Middle East today to try to head off a complete breakdown in peace initiatives between Israel and Egypt. Unless Vance succeeds in getting negotiations going again, his five-day mission could lead to new steps by President Carter to mediate the dispute.

The secretary of state stopped for three hours at the U.S. air base here so his plane could be refueled and so he would not arrive in Israel before the end of the Jewish sabbath. He did not talk to reporter during the flight across the Atlantic. "At the moment the discussions are at a critical point," Vance told the House International Relations Committee on Friday. He will report' to Carter on his return.

The options open to the administration then might include: Putting forward a U.S. peace plan. Shifting the negotiations to Geneva and including all Arab parties and the Soviet Union. Trying to set up a summit meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. MECCA alive, well' after budget cut University Hospital's new trauma and emergency treatment center opens today in the Roy J.

Carver Pavillion. Page 7 A. Complete results of Friday's beef, sheep and swine auction listed. Page 6A. Classified 5B-7B Comics, TV 8B Comment 4A DearAbby 8B Emphasis 5A Entertainment 3B People 3A i Sports 16 pages 2 sections and 1 supplement Funding sources include the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, which has allocated $53,825 compared to $117,000 last year; Iowa County, which is contributing the State Department of Substance Abuse, which is providing the City of Iowa City, which is contributing $25,635, and Coralville, which has allocated $1,000 to MECCA.

Other fund sources include client fees, carryover balances and billings to other counties for persons served from those counties. The MECCA reorganization under a reduced budget comes after several years of controversy that has resulted in frequent changes of executive director, board resignations, public accusations and establishment of alternative alcoholism counseling services in Johnson and Washington counties. Last January, an organization of MECCA critics elected five persons to the agency's board of directors. This spring, former executive director David Henson resigned. agency's new staggered workday that allows the center to remain open untu 8:30 p.m.

The counseling center staff now consists of Colston, who works from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., a second full-time counselor on duty from noon to 8:30 p.m., and a part-time counselor for the elderly. Gone is the position of assistant director, which Colston filled previously, a data coordinator and a family therapist. Also gone is the structured, formal family counseling program that involved "educational and coping groups" for spouses of alcoholics, and group and individual marital counseling sessions. But MECCA "still encourages families to come in," and the name of the local office, "Alcohol and Family Counseling Center," has been retained in recognition of a nationwide trend toward family counseling, Colston said.

"We're less structured, but we're still doing it," he explained. MECCA'S family counseling program was a focal point of criticism leveled at the agency, before critics elected five persons to MECCA'S 15-member board of directors last January. Critics argued that the program was unduly time consuming and costly, that it duplicated services offered by other community agencies and that it failed to meet the needs of many "hard core" alcoholics. Now, Colston said, the agency still offers family counseling in a "less-structured way." And the staggered shifts permit a staff member to be available during evening hours for a wider variety of activities, like riding with police on intoxication calls and handling Monday and Wednesday evening group counseling sessions, he said. Total money savings resulting from reductions in counseling staff this year are about $50,000, including salaries and benefits, Colston said.

The fisal-year budget for the local counseling center is $83,673. $49,158 is budgeted for Voss Recovery House, $30,289 for the Iowa County outreach office, and $10,825 is allocated for counseling elderly persons. But MECCA'S part-time offices in Cedar and Washington counties are gone, though residents of those counties may still seek help through the Iowa City center. The local counseling center has a reduced staff, and formal, structured family counseling programs are gone. Nevertheless, Colston says, MECCA is still equipped to meet the community's needs.

"Now we're back to basics looking at what really needs to be done and then going out and doing it," he said. "We have a dynamite board of directors and advisers a working board that knows what directions we're taking and provides the leadership and support for going in those directions," the new director added. What are MECCA'S directions? One change that has come with a reduction in counseling staff from five to three is greater flexibility and less structure, MECCA directors say. "With less staff, we're now more available to the alcoholic and his family," said Colston, explaining the By JOHN R. MUNSON Press-Citizen Reporter Alcoholism services in the Iowa City area are "alive and well" despite a 30 percent budget cut for the Mid-Eastern Communities Council on Alcoholism.

That's the assessment of MECCA Executive Director Allen Colston, who took the agency's top post this spring following a long period of controversy. Last fiscal year, MECCA had a $238,537 budget that operated the Alcohol and Family Counseling Center at 23 S. Gilbert the Voss Recovery House for Alcoholics at 611 S. Clinton a full-time counseling center in Marengo for Iowa County residents, and part-time offices in Tipton and Washington for residents of Cedar and Washington counties. Starting this month, the agency went to a $174,000 yearly budget, as a result of reduced funding from the Johnson County Board of Supervisors.

Still here are the counseling center, the recovery house and a Marengo counseling office. local weather Warmer. Forecast on page 2A..