European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 11, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday february 11,1994 the stars and stripes r Page 5 r \ " West Virginia bears Brunt of icy storm  the associated press ice and Snow thursday hampered West Virginia s re covery from the state s worst flooding in nearly a dec Ade. Farther North a cold blast made digging out from a snowstorm a brutal task. Even Salt trucks were sliding across icy roads As temperatures in West Virginia plummeted wednesday from the 40s and 50s to the teens where they hovered thursday morning. Earlier we were Busy with the flood situation. Now we re working on complicated Snow and icing situations said capt Ron Garton spokesman for the West Virginia National guard. The same Winter storm that spread Snow and ice from the Plains to the East coast caused hundreds of traffic accidents wednesday and shut schools and Busi Nesses. Thousands were without Power. The storm was followed by a High pressure system that dropped temperatures into the single digits in Many areas with windchill readings As cold As 30 de Grees below Zero in Rhode Island. Two Michigan cities set record lows for the Date Early thursday 16 below in Flint and 27 below in Marquette. In the South a new weather system thursday dumped freezing rain from Texas to the Carolinas. Weather related deaths tuesday and wednesday reached 19 six in Minnesota three in West Virginia two each in Oklahoma Illinois new Jersey and new York state and one each in Massachusetts and Arizona. /. On wednesday hundreds of West virginians fled their Homes along swollen Rivers As More than 4 inches of rain fell. Authorities compared the flooding to the 1985 floods that killed nearly 50 people and caused More than $500 million in damage. One death was blamed on the flooding. A 71-year old woman drowned when she fell from a footbridge into a swollen Creek near her Home in Wayne county. The rainfall was followed in some West Virginia counties by ice or Snow. More than 13,000 people lost electricity about 4,000 were still without Power thurs Day. Gov. Gaston Caperton ordered the National guard to help flood victims in Grantsville Glenville and Phil Ippi and declared a state of emergency in four coun ties there s got to be tremendous damage said Ken Jarvis a state emergency services spokesman. We have some flood Levels near or at the 85 Levels. We be got to have some tremendous personal hardship out  the worst flooding was reported in Northern West while parts of the . Reeled under storms a new York pedestrian walked peacefully across a Snow blanketed Park. Virginia. The Tygart Valley River in Barbour county crested 10 feet above flood stage and the cheat River crested about 8 feet above flood stage in Preston county / ". -.". ". About 1,000 people were asked to leave their Homes along a stretch of the cheat from St. George to Hen Dricks authorities said. A helicopter rescued four peo ple trapped on an Island. As the High water of the Monongahela River moved downstream toward the Ohio River it flooded base ments and streets in Point Marion a. At least 50 peo ple fled Riverside Homes in West Elizabeth about 20 Miles South of Pittsburgh. In Maryland Delaware and much of the South the problem was ice. The Trees Are falling As fast As we put the lines up said spokesman Bob Behlke of the Choptank electric cooperative on Maryland s Eastern Shore. Several Post offices halted mail deliveries. It just was t Worth the risk because it s really treacherous said postal clerk Jim Cooke at the Camden Wyoming Post office near Dover Del. The ice was so bad in Northwestern Mississippi on thursday that it looks like Mother nature made a bombing run said Wayne Nicholas managing editor of the Bolivar commercial in hard hit Cleveland miss. When i went outside thursday morning you could hear limbs popping All Over the  elsewhere More than 160 avalanches were reported in Colorado while new York City reported it has Al ready spent about $21 million to fight Snow and ice twice what it usually spends All Winter. Lake Superior the largest of Hie great lakes was declared ice covered for the first time in nearly 16 years. The last time the 31,800-Square-mile Lake was pronounced ice locked was March 3,- 1978 feuding Somalia clans free last of hostages Mogadishu Nairobi a somalian kidnappers freed two Mem Bers of the British parliament and Charity worker thursday a Day after armed clansmen took them hostage. The two lawmakers were to Fly out of Somalia today a spokesman for the foreign office said in  clansmen had initially taken six hostages in Northwest Somalia but Julia Felthouse spokeswoman for the London based Charity action id said three were freed earlier thursday. The foreign office spokesman said that no Ransom demand had been made for the final three who were re leased and that the kidnaps resulted from a dispute Between their captors members of the Mousa Ismail clan and a rival clan. Felthouse said Community elder negotiated the hostages release. The last three released after being held for 24 hours were Mark Robin son and Tony Worthington members of British parliament who had Beeton a we Klong fact finding tour and action id s external relations manager Jeff Chinnock she said. Anne Johnstone a reporter for the Glasgow Scotland Herald and a Tio Naid s Robert Lemare and Harou Yusuf were released earlier. Johnstone later told journalists i London in Telephone interview that. Her captors did t want Money or watches or anything like that. They wanted to take us so that they could use us As a bargaining  Bennett a . Spokesman in Mogadishu said the six were seized wednesday evening about 150 Miles East of the Northern port of Berbera. The area in which the six Ere kid napped is in the self proclaimed Somaliland Republic which was British Somaliland before Somalia won its in dependence from Britain and Italy in the Early 1960s.the Somaliland Republic which in t recognized by any nation seceded from Southern Somalia in May 1991. It largely avoided the clan warfare that wracked the South and brought on devastating famine in 1992, but nonetheless widespread banditry and inter clan Dis Putes plague the North the United nations which has about 25,000 peacekeepers in South Ern Somalia has no troops and Little representation in the Northern half of the Horn of Africa nation. Astronauts drink isotope in study of body functions space Center Houston a astronauts aboard shuttle discovery underwent More medical tests thursday and had a Laboratory full of science experiments to wrap up on their last work Day in orbit. Cmdr. Charles Boldenjr. And payload commander Franklin Chang Diaz barely had time to Wake up before Mission control asked them to gulp water laced with a nonradioactive oxygen isotope. Of Well be glad to drink that that stuff Bolden replied. By tracing the isotope researchers Hope to learn More about How the Astro nauts bodies Are functioning in space. The Experiment is part of joint .-rus Sian studies that have had Crew members ingesting various solutions and donating bodily fluids since their feb. 3 launch. Thursday s schedule revolved mostly around finishing up 12 Nasa sponsored experiments under Way in a cargo Bay lab module. A drug designed to stimulate immune functions is being tested on 12 rats there crystals Are being grown and Beetle kill ing microbes studied. The Crew including russian Cosmo naut Sergei Kri Kalev also was to begin stowing gear and securing discovery for today s scheduled return to Florida. Group urges viewers to turn off to by Kathryn Rogers St. Louis Post dispatch morality in Media a National Organiza Tion is asking viewers fed up with Vio Lence sex and profanity on television to turn their sets off All Day today. The group s third annual turn off to Day is aimed this year at Nype Blue picket fences Donahue and Bra vis and butt head a spokeswoman for the organization said. Morality in Media based in new York says it objects to what it Calls gratuitous nudity and profanity in Nype Blue and assaults on religious values on picket fences. Donahue features sleaze the spokeswoman says with strippers and nude artists appearing on the program. Beavis and butt head Are two animated teen age morons who have set fire to buildings and done other violence she said