HIKATAGANAI: JAPAN-
SE for “it can’t be helped”
as heard often by a North
‘ancouver man who lived
hrough the major earthquake
hat rocked Kobe on Jan. 17.

y Anna Marie D'Angelo
lews Reporter

‘Jason LaTorre stayed on in the
levastated city for seven days after
ehe quake,

S'“The Japanese people were so
trong- -willed through the whole
ing, They realized they had to do
hat-they could, LaTorre said on
ednesday shortly - after arriving

ome from the airport.

j .-The ‘22-year-old University of
ictoria exchange student was in a
fth : floor’.apartment of :a. five-
torey ° building when the earth-
. “measuring 7.2 ‘on - the
tichter scale, struck at 5:45 a.m.

“I awoke to incredible shaking,”
id LaTorre, who was in Kobe ona
month : jork term as’ part of
tudies : in international busi-

oT didn’ ry know, ‘what it was. The
sk I had was sliding all the away.
cross the room and back.”
He: could hear crashing noises
utside: the swaying apartment
uilding,, which he later ‘realized
Amust: have ‘been ‘houses crashing —

"! Besides: being. frightening. the
0-second earthquake was loud.
“There , .Was-’ a huge rum ne

a | approved by

‘By ‘Anna ‘Marie D'Angelo
News Reporter

Nevin . Sample, 22, of
Pender Harbor, killed himself
about ’.1% hours after. he had. §
yxobbed the Dollarton branch of *
the North Stiore Credit Union.
Pebaiiienh to’.the:, North’:

across.a field at the Takaya Golf
Centre before the man jumped -
er a stump and shot himself.
Sample did not have a crim-

Pender. ‘Harbor resident |
loward “White said the entire
ommunity :- was © mourning
ample’ s death on n Friday,”

“ phones were unbelievable,”

|S Sinton

Business student recounts city’s devastation

LaTorre said.

After the . shaking stopped,
LaTorre said he heard his host
father yell out to see if everyone
was OK.

Everyone was fine, but shaking
on their own.

LaTorre’s host father, a director
at Red Cross Japan, left the house
five minutes later.

“T never saw him again the rest
of the trip because he was work-
ing,” said LaTorre.

Unaware of the devastation,
LaTorre said he got dressed to go to
work at Matsushita (Panasonic). He
headed towards the train station,
but no trains were moving.

“There was just so much dam-
age. Some rvads you couldn’t
pass,” said LaTorte.

He estimated that.one in five
‘ houses in the area were damaged.
About one in 10 were completely
destroyed.

LaTorre saw one of three people

‘who died on his street during the

earthquake being removed from the

rumble in a body bag.

A week after the quake the
death toll was over 5,000; more

than 26,000 had been injured.
Inside his host family’s. apart-
ment, LaTorre estimated the

kitchen floor was covered in two to
three inches of broken plates and
glass from cupboards.
_, Nine hours after the quake,
LaTorre called his mother in North
Van who was “very relieved” at that
point.

“The lineups for the (public)
said
LaTorre. ; ;

construction

- FUNDING FOR a section of
-what is planned to.be a four-

dane link between the North
 Shore’s two main bridges was
the . Canada-
British: Columbia
Infrastructure: Works program
Thursday.

}. By Ian Noble

News Reporter:

I, _North: Vancouver-Lonsdale MLA David
Schreck said he hopes, another section will

receive government funding soon,

The approved $5.5-million project will result
in a four-lane road between the Capilano Indian
- Reserve ‘and Lloyd Avenue in, the District of

Nosth Vancouver.

- District traffic manager Gavin Joyce’ said the
upgrade will take muck and car traffic away from
congested Marine Drive and residential commu-.

- nities such as Norgate.

» Design work on the eight- to 12-month project :
will likely start in May, after the district approves

its capital budget, said Joyce.

“It’s been.a high priority of the District of

North Vancouver,” he added.

The district will have to pick up a third of the
building . tab, while the federal and provincial

LaTorre said people were in
shock, but concerned about neigh-
bors. He said people walking along
the street would yell into homes
they passed asking the residents
inside if they were OK.

“There was no looting as you
may have found in other cities.
People were lined up nicely in gro-
cery stores and things like that. It
was amazing,” said LaTorre.

Water, electrical and private
phone services had all been
knocked out of action by the quake.

He said electricity was restored
by the time he left, but the restora-
tion process seemed to be going
slowly.

_He said the five UVic students
tried to volunteer to help, but
Japanese officials wanted . people
who could speak better Japanese.

LaTorre said that cash was vita!

_ for buying essentials after the earth-

quake because’ banks were closed.

‘* He also advises people locally to

know how to turn off their homes’
natural gas Supplies in the event of
an earthquake.

“After the earthquake there was
just the smell of gas everywhere.

Fm. sure it caused some of the.
- fires,” he said.

LaTorre said water became so
valuable that flushing toilets was
almost prohibited at first.

' “Ie seems like a dream now, or
maybe a nightmare,” said LaTorre.

“I’m, upset because J wanted to

_ Stay the rest of the trip.

“And because I had to leave

Japan when it was in a horrible |

state. The last thing I saw was all
this destruction.”.

WELCH ST. __

=
ty
c=}

communities such as Norgate, says District traffic manager

governments will also kick j in athird.
Meanwhile, Schreck said a $2.4-million North
Vancouver City application fora project to
’ extend the ‘four-lane Jink through the city has
it requires a 100% provin-
cially funded bridge in addition to the infrastruc

been delayed because
ture grant.’

; application. ~

“What we got ' Was great, but I hope we can get

even more,” he said.

The

«Schreck added he is fighting for the city’s

Don ‘Bridgman; the city’s deputy’ ‘engineer,
said he iz happy the district received the funding -
. because an improved First Szreet in the district
_will increase pressure to approve improvements
to remaining segments of the east-west link along
the North Shore, including the city’s portion.
; North | Vancouver
Commerce's transportation committee chairman
gleefully greeted confirmation of the upgrade.
“This is beautiful news,’

Political will to
cut needed — MP

From page 7

Grubel said the
Reform arty has
drawn up a three-year
plan that would bal-
ance the $40-billion
budget deficit using
cuts and revenue
increases from an
expanding economy.

“All you need is
the political will,’ he
said. “You've got to
say no to a few
things.” ;

Statistics supplied
by the Fraser Institute,
a right-witig economic
think-tank, show’ aver-
age British Columbian ©
families —- with two
or more people —
earning $60,000 a year
fork over 26% of it to
the federal govern-
ment, 22% to the
provincia) govern-
ment, and 1.6% to
municipal ~ govern-
ments,

Gmbel said fami-
lies iri this income range have
mortgages and other financial million. ;
commitments: “They are just hard Canada’s debt stands at $508 .
up.” billion, or 71% of gross domestic

Although the average British ‘product. Canada’s deficit repre- .
Columbian is paying nearly 50 _ sents 5.9% of GDP.
cents on the dollar in taxes, that The Fraser Institute put B:C.’s .
still isn’t. enough to balance the Tax Freedom Day — the day resi-
budgets of governments, which are dents. begin keeping the money -
piting up debilitating debts. they carn — at July 1.

’. According. to the New The B.C. Federation of Labor
Democratic Party’s 1994 B.C. bud-’ says Corporate Tax Freedom Day
get, estimates show B.C. will sport. —- the day corporations have fin-
a debt of $27.422 billion by the. ished paying their income taxes for
end of the 1994-95 budget year the year —arrived Jan. 26.

NEWS photo Terry Peters :

FOR. EACH dollar earned: 26° cents
(hand on left) goes to the feds, 22

cents (center) to Harcourt’s. gang,
nearly 2 cents to local governments
and 50 cents to the taxpayer (bottom).

and be running a deficit of $898

, ‘NEWS. graphic Linda cae 7
’ THE UPGRADE will take truck and car traffic away from con ested Marine Drive and’ jresidential.

avin Joyce.

the chairman for the past 15 years. He said he has
been advocating the construction of a lower level
route ever since his chairmanship began.

He said the. widening will. keep trucks off.”
Marine Drive and on the mainly industrial lower.”
level route, “where they belong.”

- Joyce called a four-lane lower level road tying =

‘into the Lions Gate Bridge and the Second:
Narrows bridge the ultimate: goal: of: current
improvements.

For now the road will end at the Capilano
Indian Reserve, so a connection to Welch Street

_ will be required in the near.term, he'said. In. the :

-long term, an extension into West Vancouver off
the newly improved link (Stewart Street) is |
expected, Joyce added. ‘That's the plan anyway,” .

‘he said. District. Mayor Murray. Dykeman also

welcomed news of the upgrade. “Local neighbor-

* hood groups ‘had complained about high noise -

and air Pollution levels along’ Marine Drive,”
: Dykeman said. .

Chamber - of

" said Zoltan Kuun,