Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 31, 2008 Page: 3 of 20
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Murray W. Judson
Publisher
Mary Henkel Judson
Editor & Co-Publisher
Phone (361) 749-5131 E-mail: southjetty@centurytel.net
Port Aransas South Jetty
Opinion
Members
South Texas Press Association.
Texas Gulf Coast Press Association
Texas Press Association;
National Newspaper Association
Dave McNeeiy
Foes agree on
unlikely issues
Sometimes south is
north, down is up, and
out is in. Or that’s the
way it seems lately.
Move over and make
room, A1 Gore.
Billionaire T. Boone
Pickens of Amarillo,
one of the world’s more
successful oilmen, is
now spending a sizable
chunk of money not only constructing
an electricity-producing wind farm, but
appearing in TV ads he’s sponsoring say-
ing that it’s a critical matter of national
security.
Not only does 70 percent of the oil
consumed in the United States come
from foreign countries, Pickens says, but
the country sends $700 billion a year to
pay for it. Pickens says this country must
switch to wind and solar power over the
next decade.
“I’ve been an oilman my whole life,”
Pickens, who is 80, says in the ad. “But
this is one emergency we can’t drill our
way out of.”
Next thing you know, you’ll hear the
polar ice caps are melting.
This is the same T. Boone Pickens that
four years ago kicked in $3 million to help
pay for the Swift Boat advertising cam-
paign that savaged decorated Vietnam vet
John Kerry, the Democratic presidential
nominee that year.
“The goal is to have a greater impact
than A1 Gore has had on global warming,”
Jay Rosser, a spokesman for Pickens,
told The Huffmgton Post. “He envisions
an aggressive campaign to make this the
No. 1 public policy issue in America and
drive to real measurable change.”
And not to be left out, state Rep. Rick
Noriega, D-Houston, the Democrats’
nominee to challenge Republican U.S.
Sen. John Comyn, was making the rounds
in Dallas, San Antonio and elsewhere
pushing to have Texas commit to getting
all its household electricity from renew-
able resources by 2019.
That’s why it’s critical to have transmis-
sion lines capable of carrying that load,
Noriega said. Texas is big in wind energy,
“but it doesn’t matter how much wind or
solar energy you generate if you can’t get
that power to the people who need it.”
The “100 percent in 10” is an ambitious
plan, Noriega acknowledged. “But we’re
at a tipping point and we must show strong
leadership.”
Noriega, for what it’s worth, differs
from some environmentally oriented folks
in backing the lifting of a federal ban on
offshore drilling in federal waters. But he
stands firm against drilling in the Alaska
National Wildlife Refuge.
His opponent, Cornyn, while saying
he endorses conservation, nonetheless
favors drilling in the Alaska refuge, and
in oil shale fields in Colorado, Utah and
Wyoming.
• • •
The Guv and Ethanol. . . . Gov. Rick
Perry winds up in line with environmen-
talists who think the feds should cut back
on the required percentage of ethanol that
goes into gasoline.
The environmental forces think that
should happen partly because it takes
more energy to make ethanol from com
than it produces.
Perry campaign reports show that Bo
Pilgrim, the East Texas chicken magnate
who has been a sizable donor to Perry’s
political fortunes, kicked in more than
$9,000 to fly Perry and some staff mem-
bers to the nation’s capital in June, plus
$25,000 to the guv’s political committee
a few weeks later.
That’s not chicken feed, but Pilgrim’s
interest in the issue appears to be exactly
that. As a chicken producer, he’d be much
better off if com prices drop and he can re-
turn to feeding his fowls more cheaply.
• • •
The Reverends Are Righteous.... This
climate crisis has even got the liberal Af-
rican-American preacher A1 Sharpton and
the ultraconservative white evangelist Pat
Robertson agreeing on something.
While they disagree on just about
everything else, the pair say in a TV ad
produced by wecansolveit.org, they agree
that the world’s climate problems need
huge attention from everybody.
Contact McNeeiy at dmcne.e.lvt&nuxtin
rr.com or 512/458-2963.
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City did well in hurricane test
Port Aransas dodged the bullet that put a
big hole in South Padre Island on Wednesday,
July 23.
That “bullet” was Hurricane Dolly, a storm
that became a Category 2 hurricane before
making landfall Wednesday near that island
resort community that hugs the Texas-Mexico
border.
Oddly, South Padre Island did not evacuate,
and tourists huddled in the convention center,
which sustained damage during the 10 hours
the storm raged.
Tourists who stayed in their lodgings, that
also were damaged by the storm surge and high
winds, were left without power.
Not a pretty picture.
In Port Aransas, the city’s emergency man-
agement officials, led by City Manager Michael
Kovacs, were on top of the situation from the
time Dolly was a tropical storm until well after
landfall. Keeping a close watch on the storm,
Kovacs prepared for a “wind event”, but was
ready to step up to a “shutter event” and, if
instructed by Mayor Claude Brown who is the
city’s emergency management coordinator, call
for an evacuation had the storm taken a more
northerly turn.
Had that happened, Port
Aransas could have ex-
ecuted a full-scale evacu-
ation in advance of the
storm so that residents and
visitors would not have
been left on the island,
vulnerable to the wind
and tide surge generated
by Hurricane Dolly.
Of course, anyone can choose to.stay put
during a hurricane. If they do, they should be
prepared to weather mosquitoes, the likeli-
hood of a contaminated water source and no
electricity or gas. That boils down to no air
conditioning in 90-plus-degree heat, no lights
other than battery-operated lights or candles,
and no ability to refrigerate or cook food. And,
hope you filled your gas tank before the storm
because, if you decide after the storm you don’t
like the conditions, you won’t be able to get
gas if you need it because the pumps require
electrical power.
Sounds miserable to me, and I’ll pass, thank
you.
■MB■
mmm
Letters to the editor are the views of the
respective authors and not necessarily
those of the South Jetty.
Venting
Top 10 ways to spot a tourist from San An-
tonio in Port Aransas:,
No 10: A large pile of trash neatly stacked
on beach, usually Bud Light cans/bottles with
two diapers on top
No 9: Gang looking clothing, usually a Spurs
shirt with matching ball cap turned around
backwards
No 8: Male walks like Mike Tyson
No 7: Forty-foot long fishing poles
No 6: Several small children running naked
in surf
No 5: Women dragging their men by the ear
No 4: Buying every single hot dog at Stripes
Convenience Store
No 3: Pick-up truck has mountain oysters
tied to bumper
No 2: Two huge pit bull dogs without a
leash
And, finally the No 1 way to spot a tourist
from San Antonio in Port Aransas is: little
or no tip left after waiting hand and foot on a
table of 16.
Gary Truax
Port Aransas
City well-prepared for Hurricane Dolly
Continued from Page 1A
tion covers things like warnings, commu-
nications and evacuation preparations, the
intermediate level requires cities and counties
to provide for firefighting, recovery opera-
tions and search and rescue if that should be
needed.
The advanced level adds hazard mitigation,
donations management and legal direction to
the two lower levels.
To be considered current, preparations must
have been completed and reviewed within the
past five years, the Division of Emergency
Management said. Some of the requirements
must also be reviewed and updated each
year.
Kovacs said workers actually faced a some-
what unfamiliar situation in that Dolly was
only a Category 1 hurricane as it approached
the shore. (It became a Category 2 storm
shortly before landfall.)
“It was a new scenario for a Category 1 or
2,” he said. “We’ve prepared before for major
storms, but there’s a somewhat different level
of preparation when you’re facing a storm
that’s not that intense.”
Dolly presented “a different set of circum-
stances,” he said.
For example, in the event of a major hurri-
cane, a mandatory evacuation would have been
ordered, including the city staff. Kovacs, as the
emergency management coordinator, would
have been in the Corpus Christi Emergency
Operations Center; Mayor Claude Brown, who
is the city’s emergency management director,
would have decided when and if to order the
evacuation as well as other details.
Since Dolly only reached Category 2 status,
none of that was needed.
Because of that, the city staff will start
work on refining its plans for facing a minor
storm.
“It was good in that it was a learning experi-
ence for us,” Kovacs said.
Dolly sends tourists packing to Port Aransas
Continued from Page 1A-
South Padre Island draws visitors from virtu-
ally the same areas of Texas that Port Aransas
does, with vacationers coming primarily from
Dallas, San Antonio and Austin areas.
Hurricane Dolly striking near South Padre
Island “will add to our summer. We were al-
ready having a good summer and this is going
to push us to the limit because we’re going to
see much higher bookings at our lodging facili-
ties,” Vaughan said.
“I hope they’ll find we’re different, enjoy
their stay and come back,” she added.
South Jetty
(946-020)
Pays Periodicals Postage at
Port Aransas, Texas
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Phone 361-749-5131
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South Jetty . 141 W. Cotter. 749-5131
You want me
to clean what?
Fortunately for residents of, and visitors to,
South Padre Island, the causeway connecting
the island to the mainland was not damaged, so
they had a way out once the storm passed.
Fortunately for Port Aransas, our emergency
management officials were keeping us posted,
and we relayed that information via updates
on our Web site, www.portasouthjet.ty. com.
several times a day throughout the storm. Those
updates were available to everyone, not just
subscribers to the online edition.
With weather forecasting as sophisticated as
it is, with communication through the Internet
that allows us to provide up-to-the-minute
information specific to Port Aransas, and the
efficiency exhibited by Port Aransas emergency
management officials, we were not likely to be
left here to ride out a Category 2 hurricane and
experience the aftermath in misery.
Kudos to Michael Kovacs, Claude Brown
and city staff for looking out for the residents
of, and visitors to, Port Aransas, and making
our safety their first priority.
Mary Henkel Judson is editor and co-
publisher of the South Jetty. Contact here
southjetty@centurytel.net.
Shivers run down
spines with such ferocity that seismolo-
gists receive confusing data.
Don’t get me wrong. It is not requisite
that a journalist be a hoarder - some of
my best friends have been neat journalists
- but it is common and defensible that one
finds it comforting, if not actually useful,
to hold on to scribbled notes.
The stack may include legal pads and:
reporter notebooks full of quotes and
facts from interviews or meetings. There
absolutely must be various ideas or sug-
gestions scrawled out on scrap pieces of
paper, the backs of receipts, napkins and
envelopes.
In the days of cubicles, we all had walls
against which we could stack such useful
information.
Take reference books, for example.
Even though the Internet brings the world
to my fingertips, the right comer of my
desk is home to an unabridged dictionary,
a U.S. atlas and an AP Stylebook. Well,
usually there are a few sheets of various;
important information there, too.
As the walls of cubicle land came;
down, many journalists were left with
delicate balancing acts and I suspect
gravity played a role in partially cleaning:
more than a few desks.
Information mining
Neat people will challenge us that we
can never find anything in the mess (them
term, by the way, not ours).
Quite the contrary, I retort. I can never
find it once I am compelled to throw it
away. If it remains on my desk, there is
a better-than-sporting chance that I can
turn it up. especially if I have a “feel” for
when it was last handled. , u - !
As I go through my stack of important
information, I do something akin to a
Vulcan mind meld with The loose leaves
of notes, press releases and photos.
“The item I seek would have been
before this (and therefore lower in the
stack) but after this,” I deduce from my:
first excavations. That means I’ve been
lucky enough to establish two end points;
and can concentrate on just the strata
between them.
Odds are, in short order, I’ll have the
desired information in hand.
Unless, of course, I have forgotten that
it has been handled since its first appear-;
ance, which means it has likely worked its
way up the stack. That can mean trouble
and may result in it being misplaced until
a later discovery when I’m looking for
something else and, when I find it, can
no longer recall why I wanted it in the
first... or second ... place.
Cleaning does mot mean you have to;
throw everything out, someone may
suggest. You can put it away in a filing
cabinet or stick it in a drawer.
Sure, we could do that, but it is then
rendered practically useless. It no longer
has meaning ... a spirit, if you will... toi
guide us in our quests. ;
You see, this stack of papers is a living
organism (no cracks about insect infes-
tation, please) that grows and - yes, it’s
true - diminishes as it interacts with its
owner. We have melded minds, I remind
you, and have developed a symbiotic
relationship. I take care of it and it take$
care of me.
And you suggest I just throw it out of
lock it in a drawer? I*
That’s just not an easy thing to do. **
Steve Martaindale is a self-syndicatefi
columnist. Write him at penmanmai\\
steve@yahoo.com. J
3
4
Letters to the Editor ;
Deadline: Monday, *
10 A.M.
Letters to the editor should be limited to about 4
300 words • contain a valid signature and mailing
address, cjay and-evening telephone numbers
aaaress, qay- ana-evening telephone numbers *
where the writer may be reached • names of persons ^
writing letters will not be withheld frctfh publication • 4
unsigned letters will not be published -only one letter 4
per person per 30 days period • letters endorsing or 4
opposing political candidates are political advertising
and should be taken to the advertising department •
all letters are subject to editing • letters of complaint
about private businesses will be forwarded to the 4
business and will not be published • “thank you” let- 3
ters are classified advertising and should go to the ^
classified ad department
Letters may be mailed to
P.O. Box 1117 Port Aransas, TX 78373\
or e-mailed to:
southjetty@centurytel.net
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 31, 2008, newspaper, July 31, 2008; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth496571/m1/3/?rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.