BeaknEye_ISSUU_7_10
4/21/2011
2:08 PM
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Beak ‘n’ Eye
BUILDING WALLS
Volume 51 Issue 7
West High School
3505 W. Locust St. Davenport, Iowa 52804
Friday, April 15, 2011
West builds sandbags for flood effort By Brandon Rostenbach
The scrapes of shovels scooping up the sand could be heard from the West parking lot on March 23 and 24 as hundreds of West students volunteered to help the city build flood walls for the rising Mississippi. The goal was to produce 10,000 sandbags in two days. West reached and exceeded the goal by putting together 17,000 sandbags. The first day there was over 120,000 pounds of sand used. Central followed suit but, could not keep up with West. iJAG teacher Scott Moore came up with the idea to start helping Davenport sandbag. He brought the iJag class to the davenport public works building and about 20 kids started working. He introduced the idea to Steve Verdon who came up with the idea to bring it to West High so the entire student body could help. West set up the sandbagging in the parking lot along the track. There shovels, ladders, and huge piles of sand that the students went to work on. They lined up like an assembly line and put about 50 pounds of sand into each bag and stacked them up. “It was an awesome experience to
share with the students,” said Deb Hall, a business academy instructor. “They worked hard and felt so proud of their effort. Many of my former as well as current students wanted me to notice that they were there. It was very cool!” The wave started when Mark Bigler brought his students out to help the other two classes. Next, all of the gym and bfs classes came out to help. Soon after that, all of the teachers caught wind of this idea and it spread like wildfire. “At one time there were almost 800 kids out there bagging at one time. It was crazy,” said Verdon. A thousand bottles of water were donated by Sandy Elscamp of WalMart. She also donated snacks for the kids who were out bagging. This showed that the community was proud that students were out doing something good. “It’s been great seeing people out there sandbagging to help out and it is going to help so much,” said junior Shawn Simmons. Even though the student body is putting all this effort into helping the city of Davenport and the other towns affected by the flood, the city council has waited until this week to
Photo by Erin Pershall
BAG ‘EM UP - George Caldera shovels sand into one of the 17,000 sandbags that the student body put together on March 23-24 in the West High parking lot. City trucks delivered supplies to West and other local schools for sandbagging.
build floodwall along River Drive. The Mississippi has swelled to 18 feet–3 feet above flood stage–and
may crest to 20 feet this week, so they are contructing 21 foot walls. “I personally was on the phone
Earthquake in Japan scares U.S. By Brandon Rostenbach
Photo by Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times/MCT. Used with permission
A WALK ON THE BEACH - A couple strolls by the potentially dangerous nuclear power plant located in along an earthquake fault line in California.
Japan’s most devastated areas
Beak ‘n’ Eye graphic
Quake Magnitude: 8.9 Photo by Yomiuri Shumbun/MCT
DAMAGE - Australian rescue workers clean up in Japan to look for missing people.
Total deaths: 11,578
Total missing: 16,451
with city council members explaining to them our situation in Buffalo, If another flash flood comes, it is going to do a lot of damage.” said junior Mercedes Mendez. The people down there on Front Street in Buffalo are going to be affected the most and they need to sandbags as soon as possible. The rising river is very scary for people who live close to the river. The water has not yet raised over the railroad tracks in Buffalo which is a good thing. The water is coming over the bike path and covering parts of River Drive now. South Concord is also closed due to the flood. It runs right along the river and it is underwater almost completely. Credit Island has been blocked off and cars are not allowed down the road. As the water continues to rise people are starting to get intimidated. City officials are waiting until they feel that the flood is becoming dangerous and can do damage to start putting up the sandbags. The river was at first expected to break our past record of 23.6 feet, but now it is a waiting game to see what the weather and the water is going to do.
After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Americans are reconsidering their view on nuclear power plants here in America. On March 11 in Japan an earthquake that held a magnitude of 8.9 triggered a ten meter high tsunami. It swept up everything in its path and destroyed thousands of houses, cars, and buildings. The biggest scare was to the nuclear power plant, Fukushima Daiichi, which is leaking radiation into the Pacific Ocean, forcing citizens to evacuate the 12 mile radius around the reactor. “The radiation won’t reach us here,” said Kathy Jacobsen, the AP government teacher. It makes Americans question the structure of our nuclear power plants. People aren’t as worried about the radiation from Japan but, they are worried that the five plants in the U.S. located in California, Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina, which are on fault lines, could cause problems if they were damaged. In America we have had a nuclear plant damaged before and radiation has leaked. Three Mile Island happened March 28, 1979, in Pennsylvania. A pilot relief valve was stuck open which was caused by human interference and this radiation to leak in to the United States, but it was not enough to cause any damage to the people living here and it was kept under control. This year marked the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl, the worst nuclear power plant damage in history. In Russia, Feb. 3, 1986, the Russians were doing safety tests and lost control of the leaking radiation. Here in the Quad Cities, there is a nuclear power plant, called Exelon, less than 40 miles from here. The plant in Cordova, Ill., was built to withstand tornados and other natural disasters. Some people have questioned the fault line that it is near, but an earthquake there could not cause a tsunami like it did in Japan. Exelon has been standing since 1973 and
has never had a leak of radiation. If something were to happen they have an emergency plan of evacuation that includes surrounding countries that is approved by the National Regulatory Commission and the state of Illinois. Also it has to alert school districts and other businesses within the ten mile radius of the plant. “If a tornado or a blizzard was to damage the plant, it would be hectic around here even
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If a tornado was to damage the plant, it would be hectic around here.”
if it didn’t cause any huge damage,” said junior Justin Stites. In Japan there they are slowly releasing information on how bad the radiation really is. Information have been released saying that the disaster in Japan is now as bad as Chernobyl. There has been over 11,000 deaths and still, over 16,000 are missing. Cleanup has started and people are trying to adapt to the situation, which is the only thing they can do. They have tried to stop the leak into the Pacific Ocean and workers have been there non stop doing everything they can. Japan exports such as cars are all being tested for radiation before they are sent over here to be sold. Japan is cooperating with not only the U.S. to make sure the radiation stays contained and does not do more damage than it already has. “The people of Japan did not look back far enough into the records to see that where the plant was built could have waves that high,” said social studies teacher Jeff Hermiston. “If they would have looked back far enough they would have found that the spot they built on was not a good spot.”