Oregon State University - Beaver Yearbook (Corvallis, OR)

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 Heidi K. Dnxbsier • O r E N I N C 9

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Tunis Jensen Erik Rasmussen 8 O P E N I N G

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It was the biggest, wettest story of the summer of 1993. The floods that washed across the Midwest may have been the worst in American history, and they captured the concern of people across the nation. The great flood was the story that most interested Americans in the summer of 1993, with nearly two of three telling pollsters that they followed the story “very closely — on a par with attention paid in years past to the Persian Gulf War. The stage for disaster was set during the winter, when unusually heavy snow fell. There were no midwinter thaws, so the snow melted rapidly as spring arrived, enough to cause scattered record flooding. And then came the rains. Des Moines, for example logged more than 32 inches by the end of July, compared with 18.7 in a normal year. The casualties ranged from the thousands left homeless to investors and consumers in ever ' corner of the United States. Some farm produce prices rose and insurers had to pay out millions in compensation. And Archer Daniels Midland Co., a big publicly traded grain processor, reported a drop in profits. APWid World Pkoun Handshake of peace On a sunny Monday, September 13. 1993, three American presidents gawked in awe, just like everyone else, at a sudden turn toward peace. All eyes were on two old enemies in their new roles as peacemakers, men who say peace salaam in Arabic or shalom in Hebrew. Their handshake — the grasp by Arab Yasser Arafat of the hand of Jew Yitzhak Rabin — brought a gasp, a shout, and finally applause from several thousand people on the White House lawn. A few minutes earlier Rabin s Israel and Arafat’s Palestine Ulceration Organization had signed a peace treaty that once seemed unimaginable. The lM.O recognized the right of Israel to live in peace; Israel, in turn, recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinians. President Clinton, who guided Arafat and Rabin toward their historic handshake, called it a great occasion of history and hope. AT WorU Phocoi HISTORY IN THE MAKING by: Associated Press 10 WORLD N E W S