Leopard Tales (Temple, Tex.), Vol. 35, No. [1], Ed. 1 Friday, August 29, 1980 Page: 1 of 4
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August 29, 1980
Temple, Texas
Improvements proceeding
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[By Walter Mathias]
Students returning to Temple are in for
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By Tim Doss
Leopard Tales Staff
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ILenparn eales
Vol.
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The 1980 Templar, TJC’s year-
book is available in the Student
Union Building mezzanine now.
Students who were enrolled full
time during the 1979-80 school
year have already paid for a copy
with their student activity fees. To
others, cost of the Templar is $6.
a hot time in the old town, as the
-cord-breaking heat wave runs into
another month.
The spoils of a summer-long war with
the sun are scorched crops, dead
livestock, and, probably worst of all, 140
people dead in Texas.
The source of this misery is easy to
.pinpoint. An extra ordinarily strong
high-pressure system over the South-
Central United States, together wil
similar highs over the North Pacific and
Mid-Atlantic Oceans, has dominated the
weather over a quarter of the globe for
more than a month.
As air descends from the upper
atmosphere, it gets warmer and thus can
retain moisture without forming rain percent. Pastures are parched,
clouds. What is most remarkable and
unexplained, however, is the strength
and persistance of this system now.
After more than 40 days of hundred-
degree-plus, weather, which is a record,
the forecast in Texas is still “fair and
hot”.
The last substantial rain was before
Grain production is down by 60
percent, wheat is down by about 50
percent, cotton by 70 percent, pasture
and rangeland by 65 percent, and com
and hay by 75 percent.
Therefore, many farmers are fretting
over their economic survial. Not even the
prospect of higher prices of beef and the
crops because of the drought could dispel
their gloom when they survey fields of
brown, shriveled crops, scorched paster-
land.
Governor Bill Clements says it has
been estimated that Texas alone has over
$1 billion in physical and economic loss.
Total agricultural loss in Bell County is
predicted at $7 million, 4 million in grain
sorghum only.
For most farmers in Texas there will be
a loss of 40-50 percent of yield. A farmer
can barely live on 60 percent of his
normal yield.
Most of the 140 human deaths were
poor, old and helpless.
One victim was a two-year-old boy,
whose 17-year-old mother, left him in the
car while whe sent to work for $3.50 an
hour as a hospital aide in Fort Worth.
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this high-pressure system on May 15,
when about an ince fell over various areas
in Central Texas.
The effects of the heat wave have been
disastrous both economically and phys-
ically. With no clouds to drop precious
rain or block the unrelenting sun, every
crop in Texas, from peanuts to milo, is
struggling to survive the oven-like
conditions created by this summer’s
record-breaking heat wave. Livestock is
dying and has even quit breeding
because of the heat.
“We’re hurting real bad in Texas,”
» tate Agriculture Commissioner Reagan
-town told Time Magazine.
Texas so far has lost more than
1,000,000 broilers and 50,000 breeder
hens. Egg production has dropped five
so some
farmers are torching cacti to burn off the
needles and allow their herds to feed on
the desert plants.
Most cattle and hogs are not fattening
quickly enough. Some farmers are
slaughtering their stock early. Others
don’t have to; the animals are dropping
dead of the heat itself.
■*
Speed bumps
were installed on the through street
to discourage people from using the
street as a thoroughway between
extreme mid-day heat. New signs
directing traffic and parking were
installed, also. (Photo by Karl
Kunkel)
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Improvements on campus totaling
an estimated $53,000 were made
during the summer vacarion.
The old west gym is being turned
into six offices and two drafting
laboratories, according to TJC
Business Manager Percy Francis.
Expansion in the Electronic Data
Processing program necessitated that
the west gym be cannibalized.
The Electronic Data Processing
classes will move into the old drafting
rooms in the Watson Technical
Center.
Remodeling for both Drafting and
E.D.P. Departments should be
completed in time for the first day of
classes.
In other campus improvements, the
east parking lot was expanded, with
new pavement and striping added.
Cost for the parking lot expansion
was $21,000. The gym remodeling wil
cost about $32,000.
'■ ' Bs ’ SJstSifep’v
South First and South Fifth Streets.
The sweaty job of laying asphalt was
made even more suffocating by the
Within three hours, the temperature in
the auto had reached 130 degrees and the
boy died.
For the elderly and poor, air
conditioned relief stations have been set
up at hospitals, nursing homes and
community halls. There is also help for
those unable to pay the high cost of
electric bills.
Federal Officials in Dallas have
decided that 80 percent of Texas
croplands are in disaster ares.
In Central Texas, counties designated
disaster areas include McLennan, Bell,
Hill, Leon, Falls, Freestone, and Com-
manche.
When a -ounty is declared a distaster
area, the Small Business Administration
offers low-interest loans to farmers and
ranchers who have lost crops or
rangeland to the disaster.
Sales of air conditioners, electric fans,
and swimming pools are booming. Also
cold drinks and beer are selling above
normal. One bartender told the Texas
Observer that people that who have never
drunk beer before are coming into the
cool bars to have one, just to get out of
the heat.
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TJC returns to hot time
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Leopard Tales (Temple, Tex.), Vol. 35, No. [1], Ed. 1 Friday, August 29, 1980, newspaper, August 29, 1980; Temple, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1380166/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Temple College.