Word: alaskas
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...chill, choppy waters of Prince William Sound show little evidence of the disaster that struck on Good Friday 1989. Nearly 11 million gal. of crude oil poured from a gash in the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez that day, forming a slick that eventually reached into the Gulf of Alaska and nearly to the Shumagin Islands, about 965 km (600 miles) away. More than 1,930 km (1,200 miles) of coastline was fouled; commercial and subsistence fishing were halted; populations of bald eagles, seabirds, otters and other animals plummeted; and at least 35 archaeological sites were sullied. Now, after four...
...assess remaining problems and mollify resentful citizens. Instead, the deal has touched off a chorus of outrage from residents and environmentalists, who wanted a minimum of $2 billion, and has ignited a fierce debate over how best to spend the sum. Says biologist Rick Steiner of the University of Alaska: "The last thing we want to see out of this is a stack of studies, symposia and who knows what else...
Unfortunately for Alaska, the windfall is far less than it seems. After deducting the sums owed to federal and state governments for past cleanup, litigation expenses and damage assessment, Alaska can expect just $635 million. How to spend it is the official business of the six-member oil spill trustee council, which includes the Alaska attorney general along with representatives from two state and three federal departments. The body has already come under fire. Alaskans claim that Washington's representatives are watching out for the Bush Administration's interests and that the council is unreceptive to the views...
HURRICANE ANDREW MAY HAVE BEEN THE MOST costly natural disaster in U.S. history, but it has triggered a modern American gold rush. Carpenters and contractors from as far away as Alaska are heading south to Florida to mine a $20 billion bonanza in reconstruction and cleanup work. "I traded in my high heels for steel toes ((construction shoes)) and headed down here a few days after the storm," said Roberta Heiberg, an estimator for an Arlington, Virginia, contracting firm. She got a Florida contractor's license in one day, advertised with a sign in her Holiday Inn window and made...
...same day in mid-August, a volcano erupted in Alaska, an earthquake hit near Alaska's Andreanof Islands and another rocked Kyrgyzstan in the . former Soviet Union. Two weeks ago, Hurricane Andrew hit the Bahamas, then ripped through Florida and Louisiana. Last week the chain of disasters continued. Tropical Storm Polly drenched eastern China and killed at least 150 people. Typhoon Omar, which had earlier raked Guam, headed for the Philippines. In Afghanistan flash floods swept through the valleys of the Hindu Kush, leaving hundreds dead or missing...