STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
An Imperial housewife walked out of rough, mountainous country northeast of San Diego after she was struck by a high-powered deer rifle which tore her upper left arm, grazed her chest and smashed her right wrist.
Mrs. Richard (Mary) Porter, is in good condition today at Palomar Hospital, San Diego. Doctors will be able to save her right hand, nearly severed in the accident, according to Mrs. I.F. Porter of Brawley, mother-in-law of the injured woman.
The younger Mrs. Porter, with her husband, and two brothers-in-law, Robert and Danny Porter, and a friend, Steve Moore, hiked into the rugged country early Saturday morning for a weekend of deer hunting.
The group split. Richard Porter, at the top of the draw told his mother that his wife disappeared below a small ridge just before she screamed, “I’m shot.”
40 years ago
No gunshots were reported by mid-morning today in Brawley after a Sunday punctuated by the sound of gunfire, according to police Lt. Bernard Homme.
The indiscriminate shots were being fired near the site of two shootings Friday night and early Saturday morning which sent three men to Pioneers Memorial Hospital for treatment. They were treated in the emergency room and released, hospital authorities said today.
Two of the victims, received their injuries at a party reportedly held in the 300 block of South 10th Street.
Police received two additional reports of gunfire on Saturday and activity “accelerate” Sunday with six reports, Homme said. The reports were confined to East J and K streets, with one report on Main Street, according to police records.
30 years ago
Students at Meadows Union School east of El Centro drank bottled water from paper cups Monday after a weekend fertilizer spill contaminated the school’s water supply with traces of phosphoric acid.
Officials of the county Health Department had notified the school and other domestic water users downstream from the spill that they did not think the small amount of acid spilled into the Acacia Canal posed any health hazard, but school officials decided to drain the water system anyway.