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TEXAS County strained by debris collection
By Pat Gordon, Globe Correspondent, 2/3/2003
''New site locations continue to come in faster than we can handle them,'' said Sheriff Thomas Kerss of Nacogdoches County. He said the county was receiving about 25 new site calls an hour, the city about 125 an hour. Debris of various sizes has been found in more than 1,200 places in Nacogdoches County alone, outnumbering the individuals available to be posted as guards at the sites. Just trying to keep up with the reports is taxing local law enforcement officials as well as the hundreds of others, including members of the Texas National Guard, state Department of Public Safety, and various volunteer fire departments. Kerss has set up 12-hour shifts, but still some people had worked practically around the clock with little sleep.
''We're trying to relieve all at some period, but still some are going on two or three hours' rest,'' he said. The Army National Guard in Nacogdoches was practicing monthly maneuvers when the shuttle exploded. Guard members were quickly deployed to the sheriff's department, where they worked around the clock. Shortly after 6 a.m. yesterdy, Specialist Ralph Holcomb arrived back at the Nacogdoches County law enforcement center in time for breakfast, which was being dished up by the Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Service out of nearby Tyler. He quickly ate a plate of pancakes and sausage covered with syrup as he talked about working 16 hours straight. ''It takes time to investigate something like this. I know every piece is crucial. I don't think they will start collecting it today or tomorrow,'' he said, before heading to a nearby motel for a few hours of sleep. Staff Sergeant James Sinnard spent the night guarding a piece of debris in a cemetery. He had plenty of company as the curious sought him out. About 4 a.m., several university students stopped by. ''They just wanted to know if they could see it,'' he said. ''I wasn't really surprised when people stopped by all night.'' Much of Nacogdoches County, as well as the city, looked like a crime scene with pieces of yellow tape secured around debris. Local officials pointed out that the debris, ranging in size from less than an inch to several feet long, is federal property, and anyone keeping pieces can be prosecuted. Kerss said he had received reports of debris being offered for sale on eBay, the online auction house. With personnel limited, some debris sites were protected only by the yellow tape. Guards were assigned to debris considered potentially dangerous or of special importance, such as data recorders. Authorities urged residents not to touch debris, since it could be radioactive or contaminated with toxic materials. Officials said although more than 70 people with concerns about contamination were seen in local hospital emergency rooms, no one suffered any injuries. Fallen debris on the grounds of nine schools in Nacogdoches County threatened to force a cancellation of classes today. But workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were working to remove debris from school sites, and left it to education officials to decide whether to have classes if they do not complete the job. In Douglass, located about 20 miles west of Nacogdoches, parents, teachers, and school board members had already searched all of the 20-acre school complex. Bright orange flags attached to wire stakes pinpointed at least 25 pieces from the spacecraft. The largest piece, about an 18-inch blackened section of what looked like ducting, landed on the roof of a metal classroom. On the ground next to the building were several 1-inch chunks of what looked like foam. Around the county, a team from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches was mapping each reported item using a hand-held Global Positioning System. With the aid of a satellite, the thousands of pieces will be pinpointed to within 1 meter of their location on a computerized map. Officials will only have to click on the location to learn what kind of debris, see a photo, and gather other information. They can even search the map by category, for instance, locating where all pieces of tile landed. ''In analyzing what happened, where each piece lays is very critical,'' said professor James C. Kroll, director of the Forest Resources Institute at Stephen F. Austin. ''The pattern is very important.'' The debris field in the county is football-shaped, narrow on the ends and larger in the middle, varying from 5 to 8 miles wide and about 100 miles long, Kroll said. Kroll developed the nationwide prototype for a regional emergency mapping system. His department at Stephen F. Austin had already completed the southern region, which include Texas and Southern states to the Atlantic Ocean. Kroll, along with university staff and students, have kept busy mapping debris sites ever since. ''Everyone is really sad about the disaster,'' he said. ''But we're excited to contribute to learning what happened.''
This story ran on page A7 of the Boston Globe on 2/3/2003.
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© Copyright 2003 New York Times Company |
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ACOGDOCHES, Texas -- Reports of pieces of space shuttle debris in East Texas poured in yesterday, overwhelming a patchwork force of law enforcement officers, military personnel, and volunteers trying to locate and secure the remnants until federal authorities can collect them.
