Surfers, Marines in a tussle over Trestles

A disagreement over a well-known slice of the Southern California coast is threatening to drive a wedge between Marines and surfers, groups that had recently set aside differences and become political allies.

At issue is the 2.25-mile stretch of surf and sand known as Trestles, between the San Onofre nuclear plant and the San Diego County-Orange County line. The name comes from two train trestles that parallel the ocean.

To wave riders, Trestles represents seven of the primo surf breaks in the world. To Marines, the middle section of the 2.25 miles is an ideal location to teach grunts how to fight their away from ship to shore and inland.

With the San Clemente-based Surfrider Foundation in the lead, surfers petitioned to have Trestles listed on the National Register of Historic Places, for its role in the rise of "surf culture." Surfers hope the listing will ensure that nothing will disrupt the site's isolation and lack of "commercial growth."

The Marine Corps, which owns the beach and the paths leading to it, opposes having Trestles listed, out of concern that the designation might lead to civilian oversight that crimps training.

The skirmish is not over, but so far the surfers appear to be winning.

Despite opposition from the Marine Corps and the Navy, the State Historical Resources Commission voted unanimously Feb. 8 to forward a recommendation to Washington that Trestles be listed.

The decision now rests with the civilians who run the National Register, which is part of the National Park Service.

The recommendation "does not and will not impose any additional requirements for consultation for military training and operational use," according to documents supporting the Trestles nomination.

"This is a historic designation, it does not change the use of the property," said Amy Crain, a state historian.

But military brass and two state senators aren't buying the assurances that nothing will keep the Marines from using what is called Green Beach for mock assaults, or for other exercises involving heavy vehicles traveling between the beach and the open spaces of Camp Pendleton.

Military officials "believe these assurances to be unenforceable," Brig. Gen. Vincent Coglianese, commanding general of Camp Pendleton, wrote to the state historic preservation officer before the commission vote.

State Sens. Mimi Walters (R-Irvine) and Mark Wyland (R-Escondido), in a joint statement, warned that listing Trestles will "put state bureaucrats and surfers in control of Marine Corps training near Trestles."

From World War II to 1971, the Marine Corps was in control of the entire 2.25 miles. But after prodding from then-President Nixon, a part-time resident of San Clemente, the military leased the property to the state to establish San Onofre State Beach.

Of course, even before the Trestles breaks — Uppers, Lowers, Middles, Church, the Point, Old Man's and Dog Patch — were open to the public, intrepid surfers were attracted by the near-perfect waves.

"For well over 25 years, surfers carried on guerrilla warfare with U.S. Marines," according to a California Department of Parks and Recreation history of the area. "Trespassing surfers were chased, arrested and fined."

One of those who fondly remember those days is Bruce Johnston, later a member of the Beach Boys singing group.

"We even had to outrun 18-year-old Marines from Oklahoma trying to chase us away," Johnston wrote in support of listing Trestles as a historic place. "… It was a great experience!"

In 1963, Trestles was mentioned in "Surfin' USA," the Beach Boys song that became an anthem for a suddenly surf-obsessed generation. Beach Boy Mike Love has joined Johnston in supporting Trestles as a historic site.

Trestles would be the first surf spot to be listed as such, state officials said. Before its vote, the state commission received more than 1,300 letters about Trestles — 1,235 in support, 112 in opposition, a record for any proposed historic designation.

With the opening of San Onofre beach, relations between surfers and Marines have mellowed. Surfers have enjoyed the breaks and, for the most part, have stayed away from Green Beach, which is posted with "keep out" signs.

The two sides had united in opposition to extending the 241 Toll Road south through Camp Pendleton to Interstate 5. The California Coastal Commission has nixed the extension, but the proposal remains alive for possible reconsideration.

Much of the dispute over Trestles involves whether it can be considered Southern California's preeminent surf spot — or whether that distinction belongs to Huntington Beach, Santa Cruz or perhaps Blacks Beach in La Jolla.

Trestles "appears to be just one of hundreds of such relative nondescript good surfing beaches around the U.S." and thus does not qualify for historic status, wrote Donald Schregardus, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy and a federal preservation officer.

The surfers disagree, on grounds that are more aesthetic than legalistic.

"Trestles still rocks in 2013," Johnston wrote.

tony.perry@latimes.com

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In Russia, Property Ruined and Spared by Meteor Share Space

CHELYABINSK, Russia — The shock wave from a meteor that exploded above Siberia last week somehow sheared the roof off a brick and steel factory building while leaving a nearby glass facade unscathed.

In some high-rises in this city, the first modern urban community to have felt the breath of a cosmic close encounter, every window blew out on the top floor; elsewhere, the ground floors suffered.

More ominously, reports came in to local news media over the weekend of stranger phenomena: behind unshattered apartment windows, glass jugs were said to explode into shards, dishes to crack, electronics to die. Balconies rattled. One man said a bottle broke right in his hand.

Anna V. Popova was at home with her daughter when she saw the flash, then heard explosions, then found the windows of her enclosed balcony blown in; her neighbor, with identical windows, escaped without property damage.

“A lot of people suffered, not us alone,” Ms. Popova said, but added that there seemed to be randomness in whose property was damaged. “Who are we supposed to blame for all this? Nobody of course.”

Scientists believe the space rock that tore through the atmosphere on Friday morning and blew apart here was the largest to have entered the atmosphere since 1908 and that it was unusual as well for the scale of its effects: more than 1,200 people injured and broad property damage.

Indeed, the event is providing a first indication of the type of structural and infrastructural costs meteors can exact from a highly industrialized society. NASA scientists say a meteor of this size strikes the Earth about once every hundred years.

Shattered glass caused most of the damage and injuries here in Chelyabinsk, a sprawling industrial city of about a million people.

What shattered the glass, scientists say, was both the explosion as the meteor fragmented and the waves of pressure created as it decelerated. Such low-frequency waves — called infrasound — are sometimes detected by cold-war era nuclear blast sensors in remote parts of the Pacific Ocean or Alaska, according to meteor experts.

The waves can bounce off buildings and be stronger in some places than others; they can also resonate with glass, explaining why bottles and dishes might have shattered inside undamaged kitchens, as if crushed by the airy hand of the meteor itself.

“A shock wave is like a ball,” Aleksandr Y. Dudorov, director of the theoretical physics department at Chelyabinsk State University, said in an interview. “Throw a ball into a room and it will bounce from one wall to another.”

Russia has mobilized 24,000 emergency officials to inspect roads, railroads, hospitals, factories and military facilities. Most are undamaged, including 122 sites identified as particularly critical, including nuclear power plants, dams and chemical factories, and a space launching site called Strela.

Also Sunday, Russia’s consumer safety inspection agency, Rospotrebnadzor, released a statement saying the water in Lake Chebarkul, where a hole in the ice appeared on Friday, was not radioactive.

It was unclear why the agency released this finding only Sunday, or whether the tests were conducted to assuage popular concerns or out of any real official uncertainty over what happened on Friday. In any case, the agency said a mobile laboratory quietly dispatched to the lake tested for but did not discover cesium 137 and strontium 90, isotopes created in nuclear explosions.

Infrasound waves have not previously been studied in a cityscape, Richard P. Binzel, a professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an author of a textbook on asteroids and meteorites, said in a telephone interview. But he noted that the apparent randomness of the damage was consistent with the way such waves function.

“A shock wave can be coming from a particular direction, and if you face that direction you are more susceptible,” Dr. Binzel said.

“One building might shadow another, or you may have a street that is optimally aligned to channel the wave, either in a fortunate or unfortunate way.”

Peter Brown, a professor of physics at the University of Western Ontario, wrote in an e-mail that an infrasound wave “is very efficient at traveling long distances,” and that “windows, structures or even glass jars susceptible to resonate at this frequency could be a factor to seemingly random damage at widely disparate locations.”

Dr. Brown studied a similar, though smaller, explosion of a meteor over the Pacific Ocean on Oct. 8, 2009, which also sent out low-frequency waves, though too remote to affect homes or industry.

They were, though, registered by a network of infrasound sensors established to monitor compliance with the international ban on nuclear tests, according to Dr. Brown.

Alekdander V. Anusiyev, the spokesman for the governor of Chelyabinsk region, characterized the damage here as without a discernible pattern. “It is impossible to say more glass broke in one part of the city or another,” he said. “Glass broke everywhere.”

The roof of the zinc factory that collapsed was reinforced with a lattice of steel beams and supported by concrete joists that are now broken, jutting upward with mangled re-bar protruding. Windows on a neighboring house blew in with such force that the frames went with them.

Yet a few yards away on Sverdlovsky Street, the cosmos spared a seemingly vulnerable Hundai dealership, a three-story cube sheathed in glass, with glistening display models inside. Not a window broke.

“People can consider Feb. 15 their second birthday,” the governor of Chelyabinsk, Mikhail Yurevich, told reporters, referring to the day of the meteor strike. “God directed danger away.”

Ellen Barry contributed reporting from Moscow.

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See The Dress Only Jennifer Lopez Could Wear

Stylewatch
Style News Now

02/15/2013 at 06:00 PM ET

Dave Allocca/Startraks; Amanda Edwards/WireImage; Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Judging by the red carpet looks seen at the Grammys and the creations sent down the runways at New York Fashion Week, we have a sneaking suspicion we’ll be spotting a lot more navy and a lot more menswear-inspired getups in the coming weeks. But there’s one style you can pretty much write off (and don’t expect to see much of it at the Oscars): Studio 54-esque dresses.

Up: Navy Instead of Black. The LBD and LWD better watch out: There’s another shade gunning for the spotlight. This week everyone from Emmy Rossum and Anne Hathaway to Oprah Winfrey and Miranda Lambert slipped into midnight blue. And we totally understand the appeal of the color. It’s a bit more interesting and unexpected than black, but equally flattering on all shapes and sizes.

Up: Menswear-Inspired Looks. Beyoncé wore a pantsuit to the Grammys and a number of other stars (including Jessica Alba, Julianne Hough and Solange Knowles) quickly followed, well, suit. We doubt that tons of actresses will forgo gowns for dude duds at the Oscars, but our money is on at least one woman in menswear on that red carpet.

Down: Disco Ball Dresses. They had their moment, but that moment seems to have passed. So, take a long look at Jennifer Lopez in her printed sequin Preen dress (sparkly enough to be hung from the ceiling over any dance floor) because as amazing as it is, the creation is probably the last you’ll see of its kind for some time.

For more on which trends to follow check out our thoughts on platforms, polka dots, and furry accents.

Tell us: Which trend do you hope to see more of? Vote in our poll below! 

PHOTOS: SEE OUR FAVORITE DRESSES OF AWARDS SEASON — SO FAR!

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UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.

U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.

Edwards said Friday that the camps have been hit by 6,017 cases of hepatitis E, which is spread through contaminated food and water.

He says the largest number of cases and suspected cases is in the Yusuf Batil camp in Upper Nile state, which houses 37,229 refugees fleeing fighting between rebels and the Sudanese government.

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Former O.C. attorney suspected of killing ex-wife on cruise

A former Orange County attorney has been arrested on suspicion of killing his ex-wife for financial gain in 2006 by strangling her and throwing her overboard while on a cruise along the Italian coast, authorities said.

Lonnie Kocontes, 55, a former Mission Viejo resident, was arrested Friday at his home in Safety Harbor, Fla., in connection with the death of Micki Kanesaki, 52, of Ladera Ranch, authorities said. He is charged with one felony count of special circumstances for financial gain.

If convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole and would be eligible for the death penalty, authorities said. Kocontes, who is being held without bail, faces extradition proceedings at a date to be determined.

He is accused of financially benefiting from Kanesaki's death because he was the beneficiary of several of their bank accounts and was receiving the proceeds from the sale of their home, authorities said.

The couple divorced in 2001 and were in the midst of a court battle when they decided to put aside their rancor and take a Mediterranean vacation together.

Kocontes is suspected of killing his wife on the night of May 25, 2006, or the morning of May 26, by strangling her and throwing her body overboard, authorities said.

At the time, Kocontes reported his wife missing. He told authorities that the couple had been in bed when about 1 a.m. Kanesaki stepped out to get a cup of tea to help her relax and never returned.

Her body was found on the morning of May 27 by the Italian coast guard, floating in the sea near Reggio di Calabria.

"I wish I knew what happened," Kocontes was quoted as saying at the time. He told authorities that his former wife had previously talked of suicide.

But an autopsy revealed Kanesaki had been strangled, authorities said.

Kocontes is accused of attempting to transfer $1 million between various banks accounts with his new wife, Katherine, in 2008, authorities said. The FBI began investigating the money transfers for possible illegal activity and the U.S. attorney's office ultimately seized the money from Kocontes' bank account. A civil asset forfeiture case was subsequently filed in U.S. District Court in California.

The Orange County district attorney's office was contacted about the case and subsequently the county Sheriff's Department relaunched its criminal investigation, authorities said.

On Wednesday, the district attorney's office filed its murder case against Kocontes.

The FBI and the Sheriff's Department are continuing the investigation.

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com

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Supreme Leader Says Iran Not Seeking Nuclear Arms

TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme leader said Saturday that his country was not seeking nuclear weapons but added that if Iran ever decided to build them, no “global power” could stop it.

The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose 2005 edict banning nuclear weapons is regarded as binding in Iran, told a group of visitors to his home in Tehran, the capital, that his country favored the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.

“We believe that nuclear weapons must be eliminated,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “We don’t want to build atomic weapons. But if we didn’t believe so and intended to possess nuclear weapons, no power could stop us.” His comments were posted on his Web site, Khamenei.ir.

American officials say they believe that Ayatollah Khamenei exercises full control over Iran’s nuclear program. On Thursday, he rejected direct talks with the United States while it was “pointing a gun at Iran”; on Saturday he elaborated on the issue.

He called on the United States to show “logic” while talking to Iran, without further elaborating. He and other Iranian leaders have often emphasized that before any talks can take place, Western sanctions must be lifted and the West must respect what they say is Iran’s right to a nuclear program monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“This is the only way to interact with the Islamic republic of Iran, and in that case the U.S. administration would receive a proper response” from Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said.

He pointed to American-devised sanctions, to which a new set of measures was added this month, as the prime example of why negotiations between Iran and the United States would fail.

“They seek the surrender of the Iranian nation,” Ayatollah Khamenei said of the United States. If negotiations are a sign of good will, he asked how talks could occur in the face of the current sanctions.

“You impose — in your own words — crippling sanctions to paralyze the nation,” he said. “Does this show good or ill intention?”

Iranian oil sales have been reduced by half as a result of the international pressure on Iran, and restrictions on financial transactions and transportation have created many difficulties for Iran’s leaders. Consumer prices have increased, and the national currency has fallen sharply. Still, shops are fully stocked, restaurants are serving customers, and the construction of buildings and roads continues.

“They naïvely think that the nation has been exhausted by the sanctions and will therefore yearn for negotiations with the U.S.,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

In a separate part of his speech, he sharply criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Ali Larijani, who recently traded accusations during a public session of Parliament. Mr. Ahmadinejad caused an uproar by releasing a video of what he said were secret business dealings involving Mr. Larijani’s brother Fazel. During the same session, Mr. Larijani led the parliamentary effort to impeach one of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s ministers.

“People want psychological and moral peace, and I explicitly say that the event was not fitting to Islamic republic’s code of conduct,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, condemning both the release of the video and the impeachment effort.

“This event made me feel sad,” said the ayatollah, who has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989.

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Beasts of the Southern Wild-Inspired Louisiana Grub for the Oscars

By Alison Schwartz

02/16/2013 at 08:30 PM EST

Nitehawk's Oscar dish, with Quvenzhané Wallis (inset)

Courtesy Nitehawk; Inset: FOX Searchlight

With Feb. 24's 2013 Academy Awards drawing closer, there's no better time to whet your appetite for all things movies – literally.

Embrace your inner film buff one bite at a time starting with one of this year's Best Picture nominees: Beasts of the Southern Wild. You'll take a trip to the bayous of Louisiana courtesy of Brooklyn's Nitehawk Cinema, which is serving up Oscar contender-inspired dishes to moviegoers in celebration of the film industry's biggest night.

Pair your po' boy and hush puppies with an adults-only beverage. (Yup, that means the movie's 9-year-old star (and youngest Best Actress nominee ever), Quvenzhané Wallis, couldn't quite indulge in this gin-based treat.)

Fried Oyster Po' Boy with Hush Puppies and a Spicy Remoulade

Servings: 4

• 20 shucked oysters, cleaned
• 2 cups buttermilk
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp. Old Bay seasoning
• 6 cups canola oil
Marinate oysters in buttermilk, salt and pepper for at least an hour. Mix flour with Old Bay. Heat canola oil in a pot large enough that the oil only fills it half way to 350ºF over medium heat. Use a candy thermometer to keep track of temperature. Remove oysters from buttermilk, dredge in seasoned flour, and fry in canola oil until crispy and golden brown. Season with salt when oysters are removed from the oil. Let oysters drain on paper towels. Serve on a toasted baguette. Cut into four pieces with hush puppies and remoulade. (See recipes below.)

Remoulade• 4 oz. Dijon mustard
• 2 oz. ketchup
• ½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. prepared horseradish
• 1 clove garlic
• ½ tsp. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. black pepper
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 stalk of celery, chopped
• 2 tbsp. parsley, cleaned and chopped
• ¼ Spanish onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp. paprika
• 2 dashes of Tabasco sauce
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• Pinch of chili flake
• Salt and pepper
Puree all items in a food processor until smooth. Season to taste.

Hush Puppies• 2 scallions, chopped
• ¼ Spanish onion, diced
• 2 eggs
• 6 oz. buttermilk
• 4 oz. bacon fat
• 2 tbsp. baking soda
• 4 tbsp. baking powder
• 2 cups cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 oz. sugar
• 1 tbsp. Old Bay seasoning
• Salt and pepper
• 6 cups canola oil
Mix scallions, onion, baking soda, baking powder, cornmeal, flour, sugar, Old Bay, and salt and pepper well. In a small pot, melt bacon fat and set aside. Add the buttermilk and eggs into dry ingredients until incorporated, making sure not to over-mix. Slowly add in melted bacon fat. Let batter rest for 20 minutes. Over medium heat, pour the canola oil in a pot large enough that the oil only fills it halfway to 350ºF, using a candy thermometer to monitor temperature. Using a small cookie scoop, spoon batter into oil, making sure not to overcrowd the oil. Fry until golden and cooked through, about three to four minutes.

Wink’s Bathtub Gin

Makes one cocktail

• 1.5 oz gin (recipe recommends Bulldog Gin)
• ¾ oz. Lillet Blanc
• ½ oz. crème de cacao liqueur
• ½ oz. fresh lemon juice
Add all ingredients to an ice-filled pint glass. Shake well and strain over fresh ice into a rocks glass.

The 85th annual Academy Awards will air live on Sunday, Feb. 24, on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

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UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.

U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.

Edwards said Friday that the camps have been hit by 6,017 cases of hepatitis E, which is spread through contaminated food and water.

He says the largest number of cases and suspected cases is in the Yusuf Batil camp in Upper Nile state, which houses 37,229 refugees fleeing fighting between rebels and the Sudanese government.

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Soledad re-brands itself as the 'Gateway to the Pinnacles'

SOLEDAD, Calif. — For decades the slogans have sought to entice motorists who pull off Highway 101 in this Salinas Valley farm town — usually for gas or a cup of coffee — to stay and visit a while.

"It's Happening in Soledad," declares a billboard that looms over the asphalt artery.

"Soledad: Feel the Momentum" urge the stone markers planted at the town's highway exits.

Now city officials think they have seized on an idea to provide the economic boost the community desperately needs: "Gateway to the Pinnacles."

"This is our chance," Mayor Fred Ledesma said recently, "and it's never going to pass this way again."

The Pinnacles' volcanic spires and talus caves are located five miles east of here, in the Gabilan Mountains. A release site for endangered California condors and a haven for rock climbers, the landscape also hosts a stunning wildflower season, 400 species of bees and more than a dozen types of bats.

A national monument since 1908, the area last month was elevated to national park status thanks to lobbying by federal, state, county and local officials throughout the region.

The change likely will benefit many communities, because national parks bring tourism. And tourism brings dollars.

Hollister, for example, sits 30 miles north of the park's eastern entrance — and Pinnacle's only campground.

But Soledad, whose only association for many people is the state prison here, perhaps has the most to gain.

At the urging of Ledesma and Adela Gonzalez, Soledad's city manager, the City Council in December hired a San Jose public relations firm to help re-brand the town. They set aside $150,000 for new river rock monuments touting Soledad's gateway status (it sits outside the park's west entrance). And officials snapped up nine Web domain names, among them: gatewaytopinnacles.com, gatewaytopinnaclesnationalpark.com and so on.

"It's been a month since the bill was signed, and we have not stopped jumping up and down," Gonzalez said. "We've been screaming it off the rooftops."

Incorporated in 1921, the town of 17,000 residents (prisoners not included) is named for the 18th century Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad. It served as a backdrop for John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." Ledesma readily recites the opening line: "A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green."

While life here has been driven largely by agriculture — Ledesma and Gonzalez both are children of farmworkers — the economic boom of the late 1990s took the town by storm. Housing development soared; Soledad got its first and only shopping center. By the mid-2000s, this was among the fastest growing California communities of its size.

Then everything came to a halt. "Clearly we need a more thriving sales tax base," Gonzalez said.

The "gateway" designation may help provide it.

For example, a dozen well-regarded Monterey County wineries happen to sit within five miles of Soledad. Ledesma said that Carmel's mayor recently told him that the town would point tourists Soledad's way for winery tours and park visits.

Still, Gonzalez said, Soledad's success will turn on the foresight of its entrepreneurs — who could seize the chance to rent out bikes or rock climbing gear to park-goers, launch van tours, improve lodging opportunities or expand dining options.

It won't be easy.

Andrea Nield, director of Cal State Monterey Bay's small business development center, said the farming community is "used to things being the way they've been forever." The center still serves businesses there, but its small Soledad office recently was shuttered for lack of walk-ins.

Most retailers near downtown, a stretch of Front Street that parallels the highway, cater to farmworkers and their families: There are bakeries, discount stores and small Mexican restaurants that offer authentic seafood dishes as well as caldo de res and costillas. Sunday and Monday store closures, Gonzalez said, will need to be a thing of the past for tourism to thrive.

Some merchants are enthusiastic about the opportunity.

Sergio Gastelum, 44, opened El Camaron Mexican Grill with his brother seven months ago. The Mazatlan native, who has been in Soledad 14 years, recently leased an adjoining banquet room that would be perfect for tour groups. If the park designation "brings new people, new tourists, new customers to Soledad," said Gastelum, "it will benefit everyone."

At the official unveiling of the national park sign, held Monday on the east side, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said Pinnacles was now on par with the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone as being among the "iconic places of the United States of America."

"There will be a whole lot more people coming to this area," he told the crowd gathered in winter afternoon light.

Sitting in his office shortly before the event, Ledesma was philosophical, sharing a John F. Kennedy quote he'd come across that morning.

"There are risks and costs to a program of action," he recounted, "but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."

Then he paused. "That's us right now."

lee.romney@latimes.com

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Meteor Fragments Rain Down on Siberia; Hundreds of Injuries Reported

MOSCOW — Gym class came to a halt inside the Chelyabinsk Railway Institute, and students gathered around the window, gazing at the fat white contrail that arced its way across the morning sky. A missile? A comet? A few quiet moments passed. And then, with incredible force, the windows blew in.

The scenes from Chelyabinsk, rocked by an intense shock wave when a meteor hit the Earth’s atmosphere Friday morning, offer a glimpse of an apocalyptic scenario that many have walked through mentally, and Hollywood has popularized, but scientists say has never before injured so many people.

Students at the institute crammed through a staircase thickly blanketed with glass out to the street, where hundreds stood in awe, looking at the sky. The flash came in blinding white, so bright that the vivid shadows of buildings slid swiftly and sickeningly across the ground. It burst yellow, then orange. And then there was the sound of frightened, confused people.

Around 1,200 people, 200 of them children, were injured, mostly by glass that exploded into schools and workplaces, according to Russia’s Interior Ministry. Others suffered skull trauma and broken bones. No deaths were reported. A city administrator in Chelyabinsk said that more than a million square feet of glass shattered, leaving many buildings exposed to icy cold.

And as scientists tried to piece together the chain of events that led to Friday’s disaster — on the very day a small asteroid passed close to Earth — residents of Chelyabinsk were left to grapple with memories that seemed to belong in science fiction.

“I opened the window from surprise — there was such heat coming in, as if it were summer in the yard, and then I watched as the flash flew by and turned into a dot somewhere over the forest,” wrote Darya Frenn, a blogger. “And in several seconds there was an explosion of such force that the window flew in along with its frame, the monitor fell, and everything that was on the desk.”

“God forbid you should ever have to experience anything like this,” she wrote.

At 9 a.m., the sun had just risen on the Ural Mountains, which form a ridge between European Russia and the vast stretch of Siberia to the east. The area around Chelyabinsk is a constellation of defense-manufacturing cities, including some devoted to developing and producing nuclear weapons. The factory towns are separated by great expanses of uninhabited forest.

As residents of Chelyabinsk began their day on Friday, a 10-ton meteor around 10 feet in diameter was hurtling toward the earth at a speed of about 10 to 12 miles per second, experts from the Russian Academy of Sciences reported in a statement released Friday. Scientists believe the meteor exploded upon hitting the lower atmosphere and disintegrated at an altitude of about 20 to 30 miles above the Earth’s surface — not an especially unusual event, the statement said.

This meteor was unusual because its material was so hard — it may have been made of iron, the statement said — which allowed some small fragments, or meteorites, perhaps 5 percent of the meteor’s mass, to reach the Earth’s surface. Nothing similar has been recorded in Russian territory since 2002, the statement said.

Estimates of the meteor’s size varied considerably. Peter G. Brown, a physics professor and director of the Center for Planetary Science and Exploration at the University of Western Ontario, said it was closer to 50 feet in diameter and probably weighed around 7,000 tons. He said the energy released by the explosion was equivalent to 300 kilotons of TNT, making it the largest recorded since the 1908 Tunguska explosion in Siberia, which is believed to have been caused by an asteroid.

Meteors typically cause sonic booms when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, and the one that occurred over Chelyabinsk was forceful enough to shatter dishes and televisions in people’s homes. Car alarms were triggered for miles around, and the roof of a zinc factory partially collapsed. Video clips, uploaded by the hundreds starting early Friday morning, showed ordinary mornings interrupted by a blinding flash and the sound of shattering glass.

Maria Polyakova, 25, head of reception at the Park-City Hotel in Chelyabinsk, said it was the light that caught her eye.

“I saw a flash in the window, turned toward it and saw a burning cloud, which was surrounded by smoke and was going downward — it reminded me of what you see after an explosion,” she said. The blast that followed was forceful enough to shatter the heavy automatic glass doors on the hotel’s first floor, as well as many windows on the floor above, she said.

Valentina Nikolayeva, a teacher in Chelyabinsk, described it as “an unreal light” that filled all the classrooms on one side of School No. 15.

“It was a light which never happens in life, it happens probably only in the end of the world,” she said in a clip posted on a news portal, LifeNews.ru. She said she saw a vapor trail, like one that appears after an airplane, only dozens of times bigger. “The light was coming from there. Then the light went out and the trail began to change. The changes were taking place within it, like in the clouds, because of the wind. It began to shrink and then, a minute later, an explosion.”

“A shock wave,” she said. “It was not clear what it was but we were deafened at that moment. The window glass flew.”

The strange light had drawn many to the windows, the single most dangerous place to be. Tyoma Chebalkin, a student at Southern Urals State University, said that the shock wave traveled from the western side the city, and that anyone standing close to windows — security guards at their posts, for instance — was caught in a hail of broken glass.

He spoke to Vozhd.info, an online news portal, four hours after the explosion, when cellphones, which had been knocked out, were still out of order. He said that traffic was at a standstill in the city center, and that everyone he could see was trying to place calls. He said he saw no signs of panic.

In those strange hours, Ms. Frenn, the blogger, wrote down the thoughts that had raced through her mind — radiation, a plane crash, the beginning of a war — and noted that her extremities went numb while she was waiting to hear that the members of her family were unhurt.

When emergency officials announced that what had occurred was a meteor, what occurred to her was: It could happen again.

“I am at home, whole and alive,” she wrote. “I have gathered together my documents and clothes. And a carrier for the cats. Just in case.”

Viktor Klimenko contributed reporting from Moscow, Alan Cowell from London and Rick Gladstone from New York.

Viktor Klimenko contributed reporting from Moscow, Alan Cowell from London and Rick Gladstone from New York.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 15, 2013

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the name of the university at which Peter Brown is the director of the Center for Planetary Science and Exploration. It is Canada’s University of Western Ontario, not Western University.

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