Disaster Victims

A 7-foot bronze sculpture of a boy gazing toward heaven was unveiled in Kansas City as a memorial to the children killed in the Oklahoma City bombing last April. About 200 people attended the dedication ceremony outside the Richard Bolling Federal Building. Melva Noakes, who owned the day-care center in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, said the sculpture brought back memories of the children who died in the explosion.

As a young nurse's aide, Gloria Muetzel had little emergency experience. But during a night shift at Olive View Hospital, Muetzel got a dramatic lesson: The 1971 Sylmar earthquake rocked the second-floor psychiatric unit where she worked, bringing it crashing to the first floor. Muetzel is still at Olive View, despite the nightmares that persisted for years.

The wheezing echoes like a foghorn, one raspy gasp after another, signaling his presence long before he comes into sight. It is an unsettling noise, guttural and frantic, a battle for air that sounds all the more tortured coming from such a tiny child. But P.J. Allen, the most critically injured toddler to survive the federal building attack here last April 19, is as delightful and bedeviling as a normal 2 1/2-year-old boy can be.

Some residents are refusing to let distance come between themselves and Daina Bradley. After the Oklahoma City woman lost two children, her mother and her right leg in last year's bombing of the federal building there, they set up a fund to buy her a prosthetic leg. When she got married a few months later, they organized the wedding, complete with gifts.

Rescue crews plan to get an early start today in the search for an Anaheim man whose car was found submerged and overturned in a Chino creek earlier this week. San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies and Chino police officers plan to use helicopters and dogs in the search for Sadi Mosaferi, 44, who may have been swept away by flood waters Tuesday when his car veered into a creek near El Prado Road and Pine Avenue.

Not long ago, LaVonne Conley's friends gave her a shower that netted her presents any newlywed would want: "his and hers" bathrobes, slippers, towels, kitchen appliances, flatware, silver candleholders and much more. Gifts to help build a new beginning. Only Conley--married for more than 20 years--wasn't a bride, and the shower wasn't brought about by a happy occasion. Still, in a way, her family was starting over. Conley's home on Red Hill Avenue was one of 10 houses destroyed on Oct.

Wearing blue shirt, tie and black slacks, George Kehrer ambles into the room to face a half-dozen frustrated homeowners. They all have tales of troubles with insurers and banks. Kehrer, 54, executive director of the nonprofit Community Assisting Recovery (CARe) group that he founded, smiles reassuringly. "What questions can I answer?" he asks, his voice breaking. He has been fighting the flu, or some illness, for three weeks and can promise only about a half-hour's worth of earthquake advice.

The death toll from a storm that hit Malaysia on Christmas Day reached 162 after more bodies were found by rescue workers, the national Bernama news agency said. Officials said rescue workers were searching for more than 100 people believed to be still missing in Sabah state, at the northern end of the island of Borneo. Private television channel TV3 said the missing included at least 10 fishermen who were at sea during the storm.

Weeklong rains have killed at least 64 people in a southern state recovering from two cyclones this year, a news agency reported. Most of the victims in Tamil Nadu state died when the mud walls of their huts fell on them, although some drowned, United News of India said. The rains were caused by a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal a week after a cyclone hit the state capital, Madras. Weather reports said the rains would continue through Monday.

Rescue teams will continue to search today for an Anaheim Hills man who disappeared six days ago when flood waters swept his car into a gushing creek. The teams spent much of Saturday searching for Sadi Saeid Mosaferi around Chino Creek in San Bernardino County but failed to locate the 44-year-old auto mechanic. Sheriff's Department officials said they doubt Mosaferi is still alive. But his family hasn't given up hope and is assisting in the search.