Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 12, 1993 TAG: 9307120006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Roanoke Valley may best remember Agnes, Camille and Juan, but there's a whole new crop of Atlantic hurricanes coming up this season. The National Hurricane Center has named the 1993 storms - which can occur from June through November.
Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Dennis, Emily, Floyd, Gert, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katrina, Lenny, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rita, Stan, Tammy, Vince, Wilma
\ Undue worry
The drowning of a scuba diver last month in an abandoned Rockbridge County quarry has alarmed other scuba divers and diving students, says Gary Joyce, an instructor and manager at Diving Enterprises Ltd. in Roanoke.
Doris Wheat, 29, a first-grade teacher at Lincoln Terrace elementary school in Roanoke, drowned while diving with three friends. It was reported that she lost a fin, apparently started to struggle and drowned before her friends could pull her from the water.
Since the accident, Joyce said other divers and students have been calling, concerned that losing a fin could lead to drowning. He's been trying to tell them otherwise.
He explained that losing a fin, combined with other factors such as a sudden shift in buoyancy or panic by the diver, can lead to trouble. "But losing a fin by itself is not life-threatening," he said.
\ Missing hero
The attention continues for Herby Fitzgerald III, following his heroics in saving a 5-year-old boy from drowning last month in the James River near Big Island.
Steve Pike, a state game warden in Bedford County, has sent a letter of commendation to Fitzgerald's commanding officer in Norfolk. Fitzgerald is a Navy aviation electrician.
The Bedford County Board of Supervisors also is drafting a resolution of appreciation to present to Fitzgerald, and the Bedford chapter of the American Red Cross plans to honor him, too.
In addition, Fitzgerald, 22, may be considered for a national lifesaving award from the American Red Cross - and a trip to the White House, where the honor is presented annually.
But what about E.C. Bondurant?
Bondurant is the one who fished the drowning boy, Travis Bryant, out of the river.
Pike said he has been unable to locate Bondurant since the incident. He also said the Red Cross awards are specifically given to people who use CPR techniques to save a life; it was Fitzgerald who performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and revived Bryant.
Pike stressed that nobody was trying to ignore or diminish Bondurant's rescue. "To me, what he did is just as important as what Mr. Fitzgerald did."
\ Bus boosters
Don't discount public support for Valley Metro buses, even if they seem almost empty on some trips - and even if some Roanoke City Council members occasionally bemoan the low ridership and necessity for the city to subsidize bus service.
Sixty-one percent of Roanoke residents say transit service is important, according to a recent survey.
The support is even higher in some age groups. Three out of every four of those age 18 to 24 think the service is important. So do nearly as many of those age 55 to 64.
Busses are more important for less educated and less wealthy people, the survey found. But a majority of those who have attended college or gotten a college degree also said the service is important.
The questions were included in the recent survey of 640 Roanokers by Virginia Tech's Center for Survey Research. The survey, which focused on the residents' attitudes about city services and the future, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
\ Biker baby
Nine-month-old Tripp Connor of South Boston got more than a distorted geography lesson as he rolled backward through Southwestern Virginia recently, pulled in a trailer behind his father's bicycle during Bike Virginia's June cycling odyssey.
His infant's brain - still struggling to make sense of the English language - was bombarded with vocabulary of the most unfamiliar sort as fellow cyclists shouted warnings of oncoming vehicles and other road hazards.
David Connor, his father, noted that not much was lost on his son, who learned to throw his food on the floor after watching the family cats.
"We think his first full thought is going to be `car up,' " he said.
by CNB