home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=90TT2129>
- <title>
- Aug. 13, 1990: American Notes:Disasters
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Aug. 13, 1990 Iraq On The March
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 49
- American Notes
- DISASTERS
- The Goo Keeps Flowing
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> More than a year after the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million
- gal. of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound, the U.S.
- still lacks the ability to cope speedily with such disasters.
- That shortcoming was dramatically illustrated last week when
- a Greek tanker crashed into three oil barges in the Houston
- Ship Channel near Galveston. Though Houston handles more crude
- oil than any other U.S. port, no fast-response cleanup team is
- stationed in Texas. By the time emergency crews from along the
- Gulf Coast arrived, 500,000 gal. of crude had leaked into the
- relatively shallow Galveston Bay, threatening shrimp, oysters,
- crabs and birds.
- </p>
- <p> After the accident Congress passed a bill that had been
- languishing for years until the Alaskan catastrophe. Among
- other provisions, it establishes a $1 billion oil-cleanup fund
- and sets up 10 quick-response teams, one in each Coast Guard
- district. The action came too late for Galveston Bay.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-