AGAIN! The Bay l‘age 6...The Portland Observer...October 30,1991 by Mallie Ann Callier-Spears was tw o years and three days ago when a giant earthquake ripped, cracked into and violently tore through the earth and into the lives o f so m any unsuspecting citi­ zens o f the Bay area populous. Build­ ings sw ayed and fell, bndges cracked and fell. Many lives were lost. Homes and fam ilies w ere ripped apart at the seam s. O n a quiet Sunday M orning, O cto­ ber 2 0 ,1 9 9 1 , around 10:30 AM, while on o u r way to church, looking into the sky to the east o f San Francisco, a dark plum e arose. Someone exclaimed, “ L ooks like som ething exploded or is b u rn in g !” Then, everyone went into church service. W e had a wonderful tim e praising the Lord, giving thanks and being spiritually fed. W hen the W ord had gone forth and the closing pray er was uttered, everyone said “ A m e n ” to signify the end o f a won­ derful m orning o f worship. But - un­ know n to all who sat safely inside the church, there was great sorrow across the bay. W hen we arose, all smiles and happy from experiencing such an en­ lightening service, we stepped out into w hat appeared to be a dark evening. Instead, it was supposed to be a bright afternoon. The sky was covered by a dark heavy cloud. I looked up into the sky to Find the sun and it shone “ red.” T he only other time that I ever w it­ nessed such a sky was when I was on my w ay to Roseburg, Oregon to take my son to college. And as we approached the campus, the Umpqua National Forest w as ablaze. The sun was attempting to shine through. 1 had never, ever, in my life seen anything like that before. I was truly frightened. However, this time I prayed. Because - 1 asked “ W hat’s in ■ K K K t that direction?” The response was “ houses.” All that I could say was “ Oh, Lord help the people and save their lives.” The parked cars were covered with debris that had fallen from the air. People had coverings over their mouthes. The children were running about catch­ ing the large falling objects that were floating and had drifted across the bay. As we turned on the radio in the car, the disc jockey proclaimed the w o rst “ A flash fire is out of control and is taking over. People are running from their homes, scream s can be heard.” Then, we got home and turned on the television to actually see what was happening. The devastation was much more, more than we expected. It was som ething how the people com plained about the surface of their cars being damaged — not stopping to give thought about the lives being af­ fected and destroyed by this devasta­ tion. One of the victims, on the news asked “ W hat did we do to deserve this?” Another fire victim was a lady who had relocated to this area follow­ ing the earthquake. She felt doubly victimized. The fire traveled so fast. No one had time to do anything but... “ RUN! RUN! ” Get out fast! ’ ’ The police shouted on loud speakers. The flames leaped from trees to houses and from houses to the trees. The east hills o f Berkley is a very exclusive area like the west hills of Portland. Death, ashes and tears reigned. “ W hat am I going to do?” was the lamenting cry of an elderly woman sitting in a shelter. “ I know that we can never get back all the things that we U.S. Bank Pledges More Than $500,000 To Oregon High School Activities The Oregon School Activities Asso­ ciation (OSAA) and U.S. Bank today announced a $500,000 sponsorship agree­ ment which will help support all high school state cham pionships and related activities through the 1993-94 academic year. Don R. Peterson, executive director of the OSAA, and Kevin Kelly, president of U.S. Bank of Oregon, extended the exclusive sponsorship which was an­ nounced at a downtown reception for the OSAA executive board and U.S. Bank representative. “ O ur ongoing partnership with U.S. Bank helps us offset increasing tourna­ m ent costs at a time when school budgets are growing tighter,’’said Peterson. “ U.S. B ank’s more than $1.2 million in direct and indirect cash contributions since 1984 has enabled the OSAA to reim burse more funds to high schools around the state.” “ The bottom line is that OSA A ac­ tivities are challenging and productive outlets for teens in Oregon. W e’re com ­ m itted to seeing these com petitions con- tinue year after year,” said Kelly. The OSAA is a non-profit organiza­ tion which regulates high school inter- scholastic activities, including 70 team and 224 individual state cham pionship events for boys and girls annually. Ac- tiviites range from volleyball to speech. In addition to being a cash sponsor, U.S. Bank offers numerious marketing and production resources to the OSAA. Many OSAA materials used for promo- tions and events during the academic year are designed and produced by U.S. Bank, “ Tim e, resources and realtionships, not just money, have helped establish a very productive, years-long partnership between the OSAA and the bank,” said Kelly. U.S. Bank o f Oregon, O regon’s larg- est bank, is a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, the largest financial services company headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, with assets of $18.6 billion as of June 30, 1991. O ther U.S. Bancorp subsidiaries include U.S. Bank o f W ashington and U.S. Bank o f California. For Best Results Advertise in the Observer 4th ANNUAL PRO-AM BASKETBALL PREVIEW Featuring Seattle, Vancouver B.C., & Oregon November 9th & 10th Free Admission PCC Cascade 9-00 am - 8:30 pm 4th ANNUAL DANCE at the BEST WESTERN INN at the COLISEUM N o ve m b e r 9th, 1991 8 :3 0 pm - 3:00 Discount with Ticket $6.00 Companies Boost United Way to 40 Percent of Goal Area Mourns had; but, I thank God that we are still alive. It happened so fast.” 1 spoke to my cousin in the Berkley area. He said that their house is about three miles up the hill from where the fire was. He said that, at approximately 10:15 - 10:30, he was about to get into his car, after picking up a few things from the gorcery, when a strange, strong gust o f wind just came up out o f no­ where. The force o f the wind, blew him against the car. He saw all the leaves of the surrounding trees just blow off into the street. Then - he got into the car and started for home. As he approached the hill, he saw the smoke. He thought it was his house. The angle and the direc­ tion o f the fire changed as he got closer. He was relieved to know it w asn’t his house but saddened to see others loose their homes.. “ These houses range in price from four hundred thousand to two to three m illion dollars’ ’ said Dave. Clarem ont Terrace, in the east hills of Berkely, California, will never be the same. The fire raged on and on and on for over ten hours. It was ten arduous hours for the police departm ent and the fire department. There were helicopters with huge sw inging buckets dropping water on the blaze. And planes were diving and swooping dropping retardant on the fire. “ Fire! Fire!” everyone shouted. The governor had been contacted by the m ayor o f Oakland, Elihu H am s. The governor, after receiving word of the disaster, signed a proclam ation, declaring Berkley as a disaster area, on the hood o f a car just outside o f the capitol in Sacramento. He boarded a helicopter and quickly flew over the area and witnessed a sight o f saddness. Once, it was an area to beautiful to behold; but, now it was all blackened by a raging fire still out of control. Homes that people had scrimped, scraped and saved-up to get - and now, it was all gone in an eye wink. The M ayor o f Oakland, Elihu Har­ ris and Assembly W oman, Anna Lee along with other dignitaries, took the helm immediately and declared it a “ state o f em ergency.” In ten and one half hours, which seemed like a lifetime, over one thou­ sand homes were destroyed, over five thousand people were left homeless, fourteen people were know dead, five people in one family was consumed in the fire, acres and acres of w hat was once beautiful, landscaped homes was now charred, black, smoldering and ugly, policemen are dead, firemen arc dead and schools are closed. The east bound traffic on 580 to St. Stephens was blocked by the fire. The news caster announced “ Stay A w ay!” All ateries from San Francisco to East Bay roadways are all closed. Traffic is being re-routed. Monday morning found many homeless and weeping. The fire is still smoldering and the area is still not out of immediate danger. Some had accused the fire depart­ ment for the fire because there had been a bursh fire on Saturday which had been ignited by som eone burning trash. There are many fingers being pointed but to no avail. The tragedy is so wide spread. Insurance companies certainly have their work cut out for them . Some people had just m oved into the area. O ne ques­ tion which was asked was “ Does a person still have to make paym ents on property that has been destroyed? The sad answer is “ Y es!” To the people of California, “ May God grant you peace in your time of sorrow .” PCC Cascade Campus Announces Links Up With Saturday Academy In order to expand learning oppor- tunities for children in north and north- east Portland, Portland Community College recently met with Saturday Academy officials and have established a pilot science Saturday Academy course at the Cascade Campus. The Cascade Saturday Academy Program will offer classes for students in grades six through 12. Tuition assis- tance will be available for families with financial need. Current plans are to offer the pilot course spring term, ac- cording to John Korololf, PCC biology instructor and liaison with the acad- em y- Saturday Academy is a non-profit education program hosted by the Orc- g ° n Graduate Institute o f Science and Technology. Classes are olfered after school an d o n Saturdays in computing, engineering physical and biological sciences, com m unications, business, humanities and the arts “ H opefully, the pilot course will get this up and rolling for kids in the north and northeast neighborhoods. The science course is the seed... there is the potential o f much broader curriculum and PCC will be a resource in the community,’ Koroloff added that PCC’s collaboration with Saturday Academy will provide an opportunity for com ­ munity professionals and faculty members to become involved in creat­ ing learning environments for children in north and northeast Portland. The pilot science course will ex­ pand a program developed last year for children from Beach and Humboldt elem entary schools which received the 1991 Award o f M erit for schooi-busi- ness partnerships from state Superin­ tendent Norma Paulus. Biology instructor John Koroloff, will be developing a course based on m aterials from PCC course in environ­ mental science titled, “ Race to Save the Planet.” In addition, other faculty members and community profession­ als will have an opportunity to become involved in creating learning environ­ ments for children in Portland’s north- northeast community. For more information, please con­ tact either Gary Story, Cascade C am ­ pus dean, at 244-6111, ext. 5280 or John K oroloff at 244-6111, ext. 5401. ADVERTISE WAÄRVEI «si » »■*