VALDEZ People throughout Alaska, so heavily dependent on oiland fishing, agreed to silence their anger for five minutes Sunday toremember the way things were before a tanker spilled 10.1 milliongallons of oil in an area rich in wildlife.
Some hung their heads while others stared straight ahead as iflost in thought in Cordova, a small fishing community.
Beforehand, a folk singer played on the emotions of the 200people at Cordova High School's gymnasium when he sang, "I betcha ifthis had happened off of Kennebunkport, it'd have been cleaned up thevery same day."
Kennebunkport is the Maine community where President Bush keepsa seaside home. Some here have accused the Bush administration ofbeing unresponsive to the Alaska spill, the worst in the nation'shistory.
Schoolchildren presented a mural of how Prince William Soundlooked before the spill and a book on how they would remove it.
One child wrote she would ask her dad to clean it up. Anothersaid he would let tanker captains drink only water - a reference tothe sobriety test that Capt. Joseph Hazelwood failed after his vesselrammed a reef, causing the spill.
The period of silence was requested by Gov. Steve Cowper to markthe 30 days since the spill occurred.
"This disaster has almost turned us into people who aren'thuman. We've been running on adrenalin just to get thingsaccomplished," said Belle Mickelson, who teaches commercial fishingat Cordova High School. "We need a quiet time to reflect on why we'rehere doing this and to get set for the long haul. A Band-Aid isn'tgoing to fix this."
A storm with winds up to 30 m.p.h. and 9-foot seas, meanwhile,pushed oil to unstained shores over the weekend and forced a cleanupcrew to take shelter.
"We expect to have some pretty severe weather for a few days,"said Bill Lamoreaux, an Alaska Environmental Conservation Departmentsupervisor. "It will definitely have an impact on skimmingoperations."
The crude oil from Alaska's North Slope poured from the ExxonValdez on March 24 after the tanker hit a reef in Prince WilliamSound, an important fishing area at the southern end of the Alaskanpipeline.
Inadequate equipment and a slow response complicated recovery ofthe oil, which has been driven by currents to Kodiak Island, thenation's No. 1 fishing port.
Thousands of birds and marine mammals have been killed by theoil, and biologists fear many more will die.
Fishermen frustrated by the pace of the cleanup have taken tosea in a makeshift flotilla, using scoops and buckets to gather theoil that threatens their livelihood.
Angry letters to the editor occupied five pages of Sunday'sAnchorage Daily News. Comments included a suggestion that Exxonexecutives be tossed into pools of oil and a proposal that residentsdonate to the recovery effort the dividend checks of several hundreddollars that they get annually from oil profits.
"We thought we could have our cake and eat it too," saidMickelson. "We're going to have to look within ourselves and ask,`How much oil are we using?' "
Skimmers, including the 425-foot Vaidogubsky pledged to thecleanup effort by the Soviet government, have run into mechanicalproblems trying to gather the heavy, wind-whipped crude. The Sovietsadjusted their equipment and hoped to resume sucking up oil gatheredat Gore Point, a spectacular rock outcropping in the Gulf of Alaska.
Dennis Kelso, state environmental conservation commissioner saidhis agency believes oil still may be leaking from the Exxon Valdez,which is being repaired in Prince William Sound. Exxon and the CoastGuard said no oil is leaking.
Kelso's agency has asked the Coast Guard for permission toanchor a vessel next to the tanker to test the water and determinethe source of an oily sheen.
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