HOUSTON, MAY 15 -- A smoky haze from forest fires in Mexico and Central America is blanketing a swath of the South from Florida to Texas, prompting authorities to declare health alerts, call off sporting events and keep students indoors.
Residents of this Texas city, the nation's fourth-largest, woke up today to a fourth straight day of thick gray smog that officials said was likely to linger through the weekend. At its worst on Thursday, the potentially dangerous mixture of particulates and airborne chemicals shrouded the skyline. Office towers were barely visible a mile or so away.
With no relief in sight, officials on both sides of the border had little recourse but to pray for rain -- and curse the weather phenomenon known as El Nin~o for the widespread drought that has turned much of Mexico and Central America into a tinderbox.
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Texas issued this week an unusual public health alert, the first of its kind in about 30 years, for 56 counties within about 100 miles of the Gulf Coast. About four-fifths of the state was put under a less severe health "watch." The smog was felt as far east as Miami and appeared to be spreading north and west, officials said.
The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission warned people with heart disease, respiratory ailments and asthma to stay indoors and avoid physical exertion until at least noon Monday. Houston schools were keeping their roughly half-million students inside, and playgrounds across the city were empty. Field trips and a number of sporting events, including Little League and high school baseball games, were postponed. Beaches on the Gulf Coast had few sunbathers, much less a glimpse of the sun.
"It feels real ashy out there," golfer Tiger Woods said in Dallas, where he was playing in the GTE Byron Nelson Classic, the Associated Press reported. "It was like sandpaper in the air. The gallery was hacking it up."
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In a letter to President Clinton on Thursday, 14 members of Congress from Texas urged the federal government to help Mexico fight the forest and brush fires that have incinerated hundreds of thousands of acres. Texas Gov. George W. Bush (R) offered to send state forestry experts and National Guard helicopters to help fight the fires if the state could be reimbursed for the costs.
A spokesman at the Mexican Embassy in Washington confirmed that the United States had offered to help fight the fires.
The smoke has also wafted over parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Mississippi.
Mexican officials attributed the blazes to drought brought on by El Nin~o, but environmentalists also blamed the destructive agricultural practice of clearing land by deliberately burning it. In Mexico, more than 9,600 forest fires have been recorded this year, burning nearly 600,000 acres. About 250 major fires were reported to be still burning in the country this week.
The fires have killed nearly 50 people in Mexico so far this year. The toll includes 19 villagers who died trying to battle a blaze last week in the state of Puebla.
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