Living-Today: Issues of modern living

THE LEGACY OF HURRICANE ANDREW

A study under way at Florida International University shows the impact of Hurricane Andrew continues to be felt nearly 10 years after the monster storm savaged south Florida.

Some of the changes wrought were positive, but terror still lives in the minds of some survivors.

"Still to this day, people are very emotional when they talk about it," said Lila Cunningham, a researcher who went door-to-door, speaking to 110 families as part of the study. She said one woman told her that her 7-year-old boy "changed completely" after Andrew hit Aug. 24, 1992. "He's 17 now, and he's completely unable to go more than five blocks from his house," Cunningham said during a presentation at this week's National Hurricane Conference in Orlando.

The study, which is half complete, is intended to better prepare for the next disastrous hurricane. With funding by a $240,000 National Science Foundation grant, it concentrates on the social, political and demographic impact of the storm.

One incomplete section of the study shows about one-third of the people in the area would evacuate rather than ride out another storm.

Other positives that came out of the disaster was better construction and inspection practices. "There's no question a lot of homes were rebuilt better than before," said Betty Hearn Morrow, director of social and behavioral research at Florida International. "You still hear people say, 'That's the bathroom that Andrew built.'"

Some residents were victimized by insurance companies and contractors. "Some people had their roofs repaired five times. I recently talked to one lady who said her roof still leaks," Cunningham said.

But the study also found city and county services were improved, and business areas were rejuvenated.

Andrew's winds of 134 mph raged through the southern portions of Miami-Dade County, damaging nine out of 10 homes and leaving 49,000 of them uninhabitable. About 180,000 people were left homeless for days, weeks and months. About 100,000 people, 28 percent of the area's population, left permanently.

Morrow said non-Hispanic whites fled to the north in such great numbers it increased racial and ethnic segregation in the area. Redevelopment agencies threw up so much low-cost housing it drew other low-income families into the area. Property values fell so low, that the tax-base in the area is only now returning to where it was before the storm.

SCHOOL DESEGREGATION

A report by the Connecticut Department of Education says magnet schools, charter schools and other programs have reduced racial segregation in the state's schools.

The report will be used at a court hearing April 16 on whether the state is complying with a 1996 desegregation order by the state Supreme Court for the predominantly minority student body in Hartford.

"What it demonstrates is small progress," Education Commissioner Theodore S. Sergi said.

The report said more than 12,000 children -- about two percent of the state's public school enrollment -- are involved in magnet schools, charter schools and an urban-suburban choice program, known as Open Choice. The schools and programs are centered primarily in populous urban areas.

"These schools offer students the opportunity to meet and learn with students from different communities and from diverse racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds," the report said.

Plaintiffs in the school desegregation case have petitioned the court, saying the state has moved too slowly in its compliance with the 1996 order. The report will provide substance behind the state's insistence that it is moving forward.

Magnet schools provide education in specialty areas such as the arts, specific sciences and other disciplines to draw students from throughout an area without regard to districts. Charter schools provide an alternative to public schools and the urban-suburban program allows a way for minorities to attend schools in non-minority neighborhoods.

Almost three-quarters of a billion dollars have been authorized for the construction of inter-district magnet schools and most of them have been built. The state board this week offered extensions to two experimental charter schools that draw from the minority communities and whites.

SPAM

A California candidate's use of e-mail spam has political experts wondering when the trend will begin to clog inboxes nationwide, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

Bill Jones, California's secretary of state, sent out about 1 million e-mail messages as part of his failed bid to win the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Sean Walsh, a Jones campaign consultant, told the newspaper: "I think, quite frankly, this is the beginning of a very large and very active way that politicians in the future will be communicating to the electorate."

Some academics, activists and consultants wonder if it's such a healthy thing, though. Shabbir J. Safdar, a co-founder of Mindshare Internet Campaigns in Washington, told the Mercury News: "It's a bad way to campaign. You annoy the very people you are trying to woo."

Spokesmen for Gov. Gray Davis, who is running for re-election, and Republican nominee Bill Simon said neither candidate would be following Jones' example in the rest of the race.

(Thanks to UPI's Joe Warminsky in Washington)

ALL IN THE FAMILY

New research suggests that first cousins can marry and have children with only slightly higher risk of birth defects or genetic disease than unrelated partners, according to a report in the Journal of Genetic Counseling.

The researchers say there is no biological reason to discourage first cousins from marrying. The chances of a child being born with a serious problem like cystic fibrosis is 3 to 4 percent, and that goes up by 1.7 to 2.8 percent if cousins are involved.

"As genetic advisers, we give people all the various possibilities and risks and leave it up to them to make a decision. Some might decide a doubling of the risk is not something they want to face," Arno Motulsky, a professor emeritus of medicine and genome sciences at the University of Washington, told the New York Times.

(Thanks to Jim Kling, UPI Science News)

ARTIFICIAL HEART

The maker of the world's first self-contained artificial heart is scaling back the pace of implants to evaluate the performance of the ground-breaking device in the first six patients.

"Given the extraordinarily fragile and compromised condition of the patients enrolled so far in this initial clinical trial, the clinical results have exceeded our expectations," John Thero, Abiomed's chief financial officer, told a healthcare conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday. "Our challenge is now to apply what we have already learned with the first patients so that we can do even better with the additional patients that will be enrolled to complete the trial."

Abiomed vice president Ed Berger said while the company no longer plans to complete 15 implants by June 30, it still plans to seek Food and Drug Administration approval for the artificial heart by the end of 2003.

Unlike earlier artificial hearts, the Abiomed is fully self-contained and does not require any tubes or wires to pass through the skin. Power is transmitted across the skin to the internal unit and a rechargeable internal battery powers the pumping device.

Tom Christersen -- the longest surviving of the six patients -- was released from Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky., on March 20. Christersen, 71, received his Abiocor artificial heart on Sept. 13 and could resume living at home with his wife in Central City after an interim stay at the Inn at Jewish Hospital.

Hospital officials said Christersen is doing so well that he spent last weekend at home and on Wednesday ate lunch at a local steakhouse and oyster bar with his doctors and Gov. Paul Patton.

Dr. Larman Gray, a member of the surgical team that implanted the titanium-and-plastic device, said if Christersen continues to make progress he could be back at home in a week to 10 days.

"I thought I'd be up here another six or eight weeks," Christersen told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "That week sounds awfully good, though. I sure am homesick."

However, breathing problems forced James Quinn -- the only other surviving implant patient -- to return to Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia in February after he had moved to a Hawthorn Suites hotel three blocks from the hospital.

Three of the Abiocor patients -- including Robert Tools, the first to receive the heart on July 2, 2001 -- suffered strokes. Tools died of internal bleeding and organ failure Nov. 30.