Coping with Nature

By WALTER ISAACSON

Texas takes a hurricane, the Midwest simmers, the West floods

It was the wettest of times, it was the driest of times. Devastating summer storms pounded places begging for relief from flooding, while the scorching sun broiled farmlands thirsting for rain. For the first time in three years, a full-blowing hurricane slammed onto the U.S. mainland, rumbling through Texas with a counterclockwise crunch of 115-m.p.h. winds. Galveston was swamped. Window panes popped from Houston's glass-and-steel towers, spewing shards over the streets below. What was hell in Texas held out some heavenly hopes for parts of the parched heartland, where the corn is withering on the stalks. But Alicia's leftover showers as it moved north were probably too late to save much of the devastated crop in what threatens to be the smallest corn harvest in a decade.

Texas residents had done little to prepare for Hurricane Alicia. It popped up without much warning in the gulf last week and gained its powerful punch just before it lunged across the barrier island where Galveston is located. Galveston Mayor E. Gus Manuel declared that only the low-lying areas need be evacuated, and scorned Governor Mark White's warnings that greater precautions should be taken. Declared the mayor: "We've heard them cry wolf before."

Some of Galveston's more hardy, or perhaps more foolhardy, residents went down to the beach as the storm approached to cast for "bull" drum, the big ocean fish that loves to feed in turbulent waters. Many homeowners hunkered down to ride out the storm. "If they're crazy enough to stay on the beach, then we're going to ask them for the names of their next of kin," said one frustrated police officer. Cornelia Ruff, 70, a retired secretary, said she was staying "to protect my property." Her home, built in 1894, has withstood all the storms since, including the unnamed but unforgettable 1900 hurricane that killed 6,000 people in Galveston. Ann Ferguson, 40, a Galveston museum director, remarked on the curious effects of an impending hurricane. "Everyone is in extremely good humor," she said. "The storm brings out the best in people."

But as Wednesday wore on, and the storm's winds accelerated, the mood grew more serious. Windows in the imposing Hotel Galvez, facing the gulf, began imploding into rooms, sending many of the 300 guests scurrying into the hallways. Then an entire wall of the 1911 building collapsed. "We just heard one crash after another," said Hotel Manager Dan Dick. After midnight, Mayor Manuel finally ordered a widespread evacuation, but by that time it was impossible for people to drive across the bridges leading to the mainland. Hundreds headed instead for the three Red Cross shelters. Said Cora Handy, 73, as she walked with the help of her cane through a shelter at a local school: "I just couldn't see that I could stay in my house, so I left. I was still trembling when I got here."

Particularly hard hit were the luxury condominiums built during the past few years; Alicia ripped many of them apart. The storm was kinder to the older homes near the center of town. Ann and Richard Ferguson lost a tree and the railing to their front steps. Cornelia Ruff's home survived intact.

Alicia, however, was not yet spent. By Thursday morning the storm had rolled 45 miles inland to Houston. Over the past ten years, the city's skyline has been transformed by glass-sheathed showpieces, like the S-shaped Allied Bank building. With rapid-fire pops, wind and flying debris punched out scores of windows in these architectural landmarks. "I stood upstairs in my office this morning and watched large sheets of plate glass coming down from 30 stories high," said Civil Defense Administrator Jonell Toole.

The Hyatt Regency Hotel proved particularly vulnerable. A twister, one of a score that gusted up during Alicia's onslaught, blew open the cavernous 30-story atrium, allowing water and wind to swirl inside. The hotel and its seven restaurants were brimming with 1,000 guests, many of them refugees from the hurricane. As some 80 windows shattered, guests were moved into the ballroom, where the hotel provided blankets and baskets of free food. Some 20,000 other evacuees were given sanctuary in 83 Red Cross shelters in the area.

With the eye of the storm traversing two cities, property damage was high. Some estimates put it near $1 billion, far less than the $2.3 billion caused by Hurricane Frederic four years ago in Alabama and Mississippi, but still one of the most costly storms ever. At least 13 people were killed, including two who were crushed in cars by flying trees.

But, as always, there were uplifting vignettes. As Alicia bore down on Houston during the predawn hours of Thursday, Surgeon Denton Cooley, who had finally been able to find a suitable heart donor for a 48-year-old patient, performed a successful transplant. At St. Mary's Hospital in Galveston, the wife of a Coast Guard yeoman seaman gave birth to a baby girl. She was named (what else?) Alicia.

As the remnants of the storm crept north from Texas over the weekend, containing little force but plenty of leftover moisture, they brought the first sustained rains on Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska since the beginning of July. Any rain, however, was likely to be too late to save much of the harvest in the Midwest. In Dewitt County, Ill., Lester Thorpe went out into his fields of brown stalks and plowed under his 1,100 acres of corn last week. "There's not enough here for seed or to cover the cost of harvesting," he said with a sigh. "Best just to dig it up and forget it."

Agriculture Secretary John Block is considering declaring certain areas in the Midwest "agriculture disaster areas," which would free up emergency federal funds. Block had a chance to see the situation for himself this past weekend when he visited his own corn and soybean farm in northwestern Illinois. Says Jim Swise, who helps run Block's farm: "Some of this corn is brown all the way up to the tassel. Corn just doesn't pollinate when it's 100DEG. Some of it didn't even put out an ear shoot."

The 1 billion bu. of corn that are expected to be lost to the drought are in addition to the 2.2 billion bu. not planted as part of the Government's payment-in-kind (PIK) program, which provides subsidies to farmers for keeping their fields fallow. Analysts estimate that the corn yield will be down by 25%, or $4.5 billion worth. In the short term this may mean lower prices for meat as ranchers rush their herds to slaughter rather than continuing to fatten them. But in the long run it could mean significantly higher prices for both meat and grain.

Sustained rains so desperately needed in the corn belt were causing havoc in the deserts of Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. Nine Italian tourists and their pilot were killed when a small plane crashed in a thunderstorm near the Grand Canyon. Four other people were killed in accidents related to the freak August cloudbursts in the Southwest. Among them were two motorists who were caught in flash floods that swept through San Bernardino, 65 miles east of Los Angeles. Four inches of rain fell in four hours in the desert area.

Meteorologists, who subscribe to the faith that no weather is truly inexplicable, said that the drought in the Midwest has been caused by a particularly stubborn high-pressure system stuck over the center of the country. The system has been pulling rain-bearing winds from the Gulf of Mexico to Southern California and Nevada. Alicia was caused by a cooler front slanting down from Canada along the East Coast. As its leading edge crashed into the hot air over the gulf, a storm was born that soon grew into a hurricane.

Having poked the eyes of Texas, the destructive Alicia now has a chance to do a good turn or two. Not only is she bringing rain to the dry fields of the Midwest, she is also edging the brutish high-pressure system eastward. That could cause a lot of raised temperatures this week on the East Coast, but it might salvage some of the harvest in the Midwest and allow Southern California and Nevada to dry out. For a nation coping with a most cantankerous and confounding summer, such a shift would be welcome indeed.

-- By Walter Isaacson Reported by Lee Griggs/Chicago and Geoffrey Leavenworth/Galveston

With reporting by Lee Griggs, Geoffrey Leavenworth This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.