Published: December 28, 2008 10:00 pm         

2008 sees explosions, floods and layoffs

Editor’s note: The News & Eagle staff continues its countdown review of the Top 10 news stories of 2008.





No. 4: CSC Applied Technologies announces layoff of 30 workers at Vance AFB



By Jeff Mullin, Senior Writer



In June the lead contractor at Vance Air Force Base announced plans to lay off 30 workers.

CSC Applied Technologies LLC, which at the time employed approximately 900 people at Vance, announced a layoff of 30 workers.

Jerry McCune, president and directing business representative for International Association of Machinists and Aero-space Workers District Lodge 171, the union representing CSC employees at Vance, called the move “devastating.”

At the time the company announced it planned another series of layoffs in October, but in July CSC announced another round of layoffs to take effect in early August, this time affecting 42 workers.

CSC officials said the layoffs brought CSC to staffing numbers in accordance with the $482 million contract awarded the company in February by the Department of Defense.

“Our intention is to continue doing the mission as we have,” said then-CSC Program Man-ager Danny Ohnesorge. “I do not anticipate mission degradation out of this.”

Ohnesorge has since left CSC and now serves as director of Enid Woodring Regional Airport.

McCune said he did not share Ohnesorge’s optimism on that point.

“CSC has put us in the position that we can’t get the work done,” McCune said. “We’re not to blame. They’re not going to reverse it, they don’t care. In my opinion they bought the contract at any cost, underbid it at any cost, then sacrificed the work force to make it happen.”







No. 3: Storms dump heavy rain, cause widespread flooding



By Cass Rains, Staff Writer



Storms in northwest Ok-lahoma Sept. 12 dumped heavy rain in Garfield, Alfalfa, Major, Woods and Woodward counties, flooding homes and business, closings portions of highways and roads and washing out county roads and bridges.

Fairview received more than 9 inches of rain during the storms, which also flooded Orienta, Ringwood, Burling-ton, Lahoma and around Medford.

Fairview also had been battered by storms in June that knocked out power and uprooted trees.

Northwest Oklahoma re-ceived some federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts from the September flooding after President Bush declared a major disaster existed in northern Oklahoma. Federal aid had been initially denied.

Aid to state and local government was approved for Alfalfa, Grant, Kay, Major, Woods, Cimarron, Dewey, Ellis, Harper and Woodward counties to supplement state and local recovery efforts and to repair or replace public facilities damaged in 10 counties.

At the time, Gov. Brad Henry said the federal assistance would help municipal and county governments pay for an estimated $8.8 million in infrastructure repairs and response costs related to flooding. He also said U.S. Small Business Administration assistance would be made available for individuals and businesses in Kay County and the surrounding areas of Garfield, Grant, Noble and Osage counties.







No. 2: 3 killed after freight train hits propane tanker truck



By Kasey Fowler, Staff Writer



MEDFORD — Three people were killed after a freight train hit a propane tanker truck south of Medford, triggering a massive explosion Aug. 29.

The truck driver, Dennis Wayne Etherton, 52, of Tahlequah, was airlifted to Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, Kan., with third-degree burns over at least 50 percent of his body and died two days later. The crew on the Union Pacific train, conductor Larry Benny Williams, of Oklahoma City, and engineer Richard D. Pardarvis, of Anadarko, died at the scene.

The accident happened on the tracks on U.S. 81 about three miles south of Medford. Etherton had just filled his tanker at a ConocoPhillips LP underground storage site before the accident. The truck was on the train tracks when the locomotive slammed into it. The two-person crew sounded the horn and began trying to stop the train 140 feet before impact while going about 37 mph. All that was left of the lead locomotive was a burned-out shell. The explosion blackened the first three cars and left a large crater in the ground at the site where it hit the propane truck.

After the accident, U.S. 81 was blocked from Medford to Pond Creek and electricity was knocked out to much of Medford.

The 76-car train was southbound from Wichita, Kan., to Fort Worth, Texas, with a load of flour, wheat, possible metals and some flammable substances. None of the flammable substances leaked.

The ConocoPhillips LP facility is approximately 100 yards from the location of the collision and sustained minor damage, including broken windows caused by debris from the accident.