lilt B CATHER KERN PRODUCTION Temperatures fligte Yesterday ............ 58 Agriculture ............... $301*712,366 Yew Today ...... _ .................. 47 Assessed Value .... $1,040,174,350 Experted High Today................ fin Bank Deposits ......... $415,249,000 Experted Low Tomorrow 43 Building Permits ... $47,863-951 Expected High Tomorrow fi3 Petroleum ...... — $266,272,000 Sunrise 6:28 a.m. Sonnet 5:49 p.m. Population ............ ....... 346,600 Rainfall Telephones ................... 170,773 Reason Total 7.02 Season Normal 4.10 IKern County Board of Trade Figures) East Year ................... 3.46 Second Class Postage paid in Bakers* Isabella Dam Reservoir: 351.946 acre-feet Ie ftokei$fieU! Californianfield, California. Kern River Flow : In 3.491 cfs: Out 918 Published daily except Sunday by The Forecast ^ _______ Bakersfield Californian at 1707 E ye Increasing cloudiness with rain late ........ Street. Send Form 3579 Change of Ad- Thursday. VOL 82 * * * 10 CENTS PER COPY $2.00 MONTHLY DELIVERED BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA, WEDNESDAY, FEB. 26,1969 SIX SECTIONS 60 PAGES No. 180 <»» top o . box rn Bakersfield, calif. .. - . - . _ " ___________________________________________ STORM RAVAGES KERN ROADS $1 Million in Damages Estimated Weary state and county road crews have been working around the clock since Monday pumping water from roads and sumps and making repairs for emergency traffic throughout Kern County. Damage to county roads and bridges has been estimated at nearly $1 million by County Road Commissioner Vernon Smith. Two county bridges already have been washed out, roads have been sliced up by rampaging flood waters—and more rain is on the way, according to the weatherman at Meadows Field. Malaga Road disappeared under flowing waters which inundated large areas southeast of Bakersfield. This is at Panama Road. Freeway 99. main artery through the Central Valley, has been closed to traffic north of Bakersfield at Highway 65. Northbound traffic has been rerouted on 65 to Highway 190 and then west back to the freeway in the vicinity of Tipton. Southbound 99 is open, with one detour listed in the Castaic area at the Santa Clarita Bridge. The two bridges lost by the county include the one across Friant-Kem Canal on County Line Road and the other across israeli Premier Poso Creek at Famoso. A detour has been established to route traffic to the Famoso Drag Strip, site of the Bakers­ field Fuel and Gas Championships scheduled for this week­ end, but the detour was under water this morning. Mike Ansolabehere, spokesman for the county road com­ missioner’s office, said every effort will be made to clear Levi Eshkol Dies up the detour by Friday — barring further precipitation. Highway and road advisory issued by the California High­ By ELIAV SIMON way Patrol at 8 a.m. today included the following roads: —Highway 58 east is open, but some snow is reported at JERUSALEM (UPI) - Damascus said Eshkol had coming here in 1921, and Eban Broome Road. No chains were required, but motorists are Premier Levi Eshkol, who been seriously injured in the as the most likely candidates. advised to carry them. The same highway is closed to pas­ guided Israel through its shelling and brought to Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir senger vehicles west of Barstow7. gravest political and military Jerusalem. was another possibility. —Westbound Highway 58 is closed west of McKittrick. crises of the decade, died Political sources said Mrs. Eshkol, who entered politics —Highway 14 north of Mojave is open, but south of Mojave today at the height of a new- Golda Meir, a former foreign when malaria forced him to there are several detours. Arab-Israeli confrontation. He minister, or Abba Eban, the abandon his lifelong love of was 73. current foreign minister, were farming, was a political —Highway 33 is closed south to Ojai and north at High­ Al Fatah Arab commandoes the most likely candidates tomanipulator who came to way 41. claimed responsibility for his succeed Eshkol. They ex­power June 26, 1963, by solving —Highway 46 west is open to Paso Robles; 126 west is death but the premier’s pressed doubt that the choice a political crisis that had closed at Castaic; 155 is closed east of Highway 65 and attending physician attributed would be Defense Minister forced the resignation of his Highway 166 is closed at Cuyama. it to a heart attack, Eshkol’s Moshe Dayan, the hero of the old ally and Israel’s first The Kern Canyon Road (178) is dosed, ML Cerro third in three years. 1967 war whom the Arabs fear prime minister, David Ben- Noroeste Road is closed, Poso Flat Road is closed and The cabinet met three hours as a hawk. Gurion. Eshkol formed the Famoso-Porterville Road is closed. and 15 minutes after his death coalition of parties around his —Frazier Park Road has been opened to one-w'ay traf­ and named Deputy Premier Eshkol was recovering from Maipai party that still governs fic, although a few residents in the area are still isolated. Yigal Adon as interim premier influenza at his official Israel. pending recommendations residence when stricken with The county crews ask that traffic be limited to local and emergency vehicles. Roging waters from Walker Basin Creek washed out the earth fill and left the tracks on by Eshkol’s Maipai Party on chest pains that precipitated a permanent successor. the heart attack. H i s —Breckenridge Road is open to emergency traffic only the rail spur at the AFC Bena fertilizer plant on old Caliente Road hanging in midair. HELICOPTER physician, Prof. Moshe east of Comanche Road. Comanche is closed between Panama Flood waters in this section some 20 miles east of Bakersfield were receding today. The Al Fatah claim, Rahmilet Rahmilevitz, was RESCUES 2 Road and ML View Road. Panama Road is closed between reported from Damascus, summoned to his bedside and Weed Patch Highway and Comanche. Vineland is closed be­ referred to the Arabs’ Monday at first reported his prospects NAVY PILOTS tween DiGiorgio Road and Buena Vista Road. good. But Eshkol’s condition —The Caliente-Bodfish Road is closed but Ansolabehere night shelling of Eshkol’s rural LEMOORE NAVAL AIR deteriorated and the old reported county crew's hoped to have this open to emergency home at Deganiah, near the STATION (.Pi — Two stranded fighter for a free and and local traffic by late today. Sirhan, Wild in Court, Sea of Galilee in the Jordan Navy pilots were picked off a independent Jewish state died —Highway 43 is closed between Garces Avenue and Ave­ Valley. 12,000-foot plateau in rugged, at 8:15 a.m. nue 56. The Arabs said they shelled snow covered Sierra country Jerusalem Radio reported In his report to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, Smith the home because of today by a hovering Air Force his death one hour and 45 stated that more than 40 roads were closed to traffic at one intelligence reports that helicopter. Both were re­ Seeks to Plead Guilty minutes later, and a crowd point Tuesday. Caliente W’ash, which is running water from Eshkol was there at the time. ported in good condition. The Israeli government said gathered almost immediately Tehachapi, Walker Basin and Caliente Creek is expected By J ACK V. FOX The rescue mission began he had been in Jerusalem to stand in silence outside the to give trouble most of today. Tuesday afternoon after LL Kennedy must be assassi­ Mrs. M an’ Sirhan, dabbed at during the shelling. high w’all that surrounds his LOS ANGELES (UPI) - Cmdr. Gary Lubbers of Le­ Bakersfield urban subdivision sumps were overflowing, “ His death came today toresidence in the Erehavia Sirhan B. Sirhan is willing to nated—RFK must be assassi­ her eyes with a handkerchief moore and Lt. John McDaniel Smith said, but crews have worked double shifts to bring nated, assassinated, assassi­and said. “ They are even try­confirm the truth of our section of Jerusalem. plead guilty to the murder of of Hanford crash landed their the level of these down in preparation for another storm information,” said a Defense Minister Moshe Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nated. ing to use the trash against A13 Skyraider propeller plane which is on the way. him.” She referred to an en­spokesman for the .Al Fatah Dayan, to w7hom Eshkol had die in the gas chamber rather “ Robert F. Kennedy must on the plateau 72 miles east Smith estimated damage from the first storm at $350,000, velope found in a garbage can group in Damascus. entrusted Israel’s armed than proceed with his present be assassinated before 5 June of Lemoore. while the Monday-Tuesday rain and snow7 caused immediate in which Sirhan had written “Al Fatah boasting,*’ replied forces just prior to the six-day trial. 1968.” A paramedic parachuted damage estimated at up to $500,000. Add to this the long- that Kennedy must die like his a spokesman for the Israeli war of 1967, flew from Tel The 24-year-old Arab ex­ Kennedy was cut down by into the area Tuesday night range damage to weakened roadbeds, and losses could brother. foreign ministry. “It is the Aviv to join other cabinet ploded in anger in the gunfire in the pantry of the and said the two suffered range up to $1 million. Said Cooper: most ridiculous and infantile members who rushed to courtroom Tuesday at Ambassador Hotel early last only minor bruises. Normally, Smith explained, flood cleanup can be executed “He doesn't know what he’s of the Fatah’s one thousand Eshkol’s home. presentation of notes in which June 5. An Air Force helicopter at­ in 24-48 hours, but the storms of the last two w7eeks leave doing.