Ants, El NiNo Sting Felt in ’98

In Orange County, houses collapsed, records were broken and the political landscape shook, but a decade from now, how will 1998 be remembered?

As the Year of the Ant?

South American fire ants, quarter-inch insects with bright-red heads and midsections, a mean disposition and a meaner bite, were discovered in South Orange County.

Living in dome-like anthills, they swarm if disturbed and inflict painful bites that can cause welts and dangerous allergic reactions.

For a fleeting moment, it was thought they could be contained and wiped out. But within weeks they were found to have spread as far north as Buena Park, making eradication unlikely.

How will these new neighbors change life in Orange County? Experts could only point to other areas where fire ants have become well established: Children never go barefoot outdoors, and campers lay down insecticide before pitching their tents.

It was also the year of weather extremes.

El Nino sent a seemingly unending series of winter storms rolling in, causing flooding and mudslides, killing two people and destroying several houses.

Then sizzling temperatures and wilting humidity descended in the summer, making residents yearn for winter again.

But be careful what you wish for. When winter arrived, it brought overnight temperatures in the 20s.

New landmarks appeared: Anaheim Stadium remade into Edison Field and the Discovery Science Center, made to kindle kids’ curiosity.

But some landmarks--human and otherwise--passed on.

Gene Autry died only 10 days after watching his beloved Angels for the last time.

Thomas F. Riley, county supervisor for 20 years, died five years after stepping down from the board.

Florence Griffith Joyner, the sprinter who won four medals in the 1988 Olympics, died suddenly at 38 after suffering an epileptic seizure in her sleep.

The helicopters and jets disappeared from the Tustin and El Toro Marine bases, which are to be formally abandoned next year. County supervisors, meanwhile, decided to build an international airport on the El Toro base. Opponents’ effort to overturn the decision failed.

One landmark refused to disappear. Former Republican Congressman Robert Dornan, defeated for a second time by his Democratic rival, Loretta Sanchez, began seeking another local district to represent.

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TIMELINE

JANUARY

* Ford Motor Co. announces plans to move its Lincoln Mercury headquarters to Irvine in a bid to reinvigorate the brand. Analysts say the move, carried out six months later, signals the growing importance of Southern California as an automotive trendsetter.

FEBRUARY

* A series of fierce storms sweeps though California, causing mudslides in Orange County that destroy homes, kill two people, injure at least nine others and carry away a 9-month-old baby, who miraculously survives. Damage in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties is estimated at $20 million.

* Thomas F. Riley, who represented South Orange County on the Board of Supervisors for 20 years, dies at 85. A former inspector general of the Marine Corps, Riley was first appointed to the board, drew strong support from developers, championed an expanded county airport and the state’s first toll roads and stepped down just before county government went bankrupt.

MARCH

* Engineers say 27-year-old Aliso Pier in South Laguna suffered so much damage from winter storms that it is dangerous, beyond repair and must be demolished. County supervisors eventually concur. A replacement is expected to cost $5 million.

* Chad MacDonald, a Yorba Linda teen who acted as a drug informant for the Brea Police Department was tortured and strangled to death in a South Los Angeles alley March 3. His 16-year-old girlfriend was found raped and shot in the jaw in the Angeles National Forest the same day. The death of MacDonald, 17, provoked public outcry about the use of teenagers as informants in drug cases. Gov. Pete Wilson singed into law a measure restricting the use of youths as police informants. MacDonald’s mother filed a $10-million lawsuit in August against the cities of Brea and Yorba Linda.

APRIL

* County supervisors by a 3-2 vote adopt a scaled-down international airport plan for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station--24 million passengers a year by 2020. Opponents campaign against pro-airport Supervisor Jim Silva’s reelection in hopes of forging a new board majority. But Silva wins in November and the pro-airport majority holds.

* After a $117-million remodeling, Edison Field, formerly Anaheim Stadium, sells out its first official American League game. Disney touches are everywhere: a waterfall and fountains behind center field, Disney cartoons on the scoreboard, more and costlier food and a 27% increase in ticket prices.

MAY

* A judge sentences 24-year-old Jeen “Gina” Han to 26 years to life in prison for plotting to kill her identical twin sister. Dubbed the “evil twin” by police, Han and two teenage boys were convicted in November 1997 after a trial watched around the world. Three days later, Han is hospitalized after attempting suicide by swallowing pain pills.

JUNE

* Seventy-one percent of Orange County voters approve Prop. 227, which passes statewide and mandates an end to bilingual education in public schools. The law allows waivers when parents request them, and in some districts the requests pour in. Santa Ana schools receive more than 2,000. But in Anaheim, where 61% of students lack fluency in English, only 10 requests are filed. “Some of our principals were very surprised,” said a school spokesman.

* A revived Orange County housing market peaks, with the median selling price of all houses reaching an all-time high: $236,000.

* Merrill Lynch & Co. agrees to pay Orange County $437 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from the county’s bankruptcy in 1994. The county had accused Merrill Lynch of reaping huge commissions by duping the county treasurer into making risky investments that led to the bankruptcy.

JULY

* Reyes Serrano, whose ancestors had governed 18th-century Los Angeles and received Mexican land grants, and who had herded cattle and hunted bobcats when there was little else in Orange County, dies at age 97.

AUGUST

* A federal grand jury indicts Santa Ana City Councilman Ted R. Moreno on charges of masterminding a scheme of political extortion and money-laundering. Also indicted: Councilman Tony Espinoza and two Moreno-backed council candidates, Hector Olivares and Roman Palacios. Prosecutors called the scheme “a time-honored tradition of corrupt politicians.” Palacios pleads guilty to a plea bargain and turns state’s evidence. The others plead not guilty.

SEPTEMBER

* Florence Griffith Joyner, the record-setting sprinter who dazzled the 1988 Olympics by winning four medals, dies in her bed in Mission Viejo at age 38. Though rumors abound that performance-enhancing drugs may have been the cause, an autopsy shows that she suffocated lying face down in her bed after an epileptic seizure.

* A 30-year-old concrete water tank bursts and sends a six-foot wall of water into a Westminster condominium complex, injuring six people. Investigators say vital steel reinforcement parts were not installed when the tank was built.

OCTOBER

* Orvon Gene Autry--the original singin’ cowboy, TV and radio star, broadcasting and hotel tycoon, owner of five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and popular but frustrated owner of the California Angels baseball team--dies at age 91. He had attended his last Angels game only 10 days earlier.

* Stretching 17 miles between Yorba Linda and Irvine, the Eastern Toll Road opens through Orange County’s scenic back country. The road proves a boon to commuters but a curse to wildlife, which jump fences, wander into the lanes and are killed.

NOVEMBER

* After two years of complaining that he had narrowly lost his House of Representatives seat because of election fraud, Robert K. Dornan gives voters a chance to set things right. This time they reject the Garden Grove Republican by a 17% margin, again electing his Democratic rival, Rep. Loretta Sanchez. Dornan immediately begins shopping for a new district. “I think Congress is a lesser place without me,” he said.

* Small but aggressive South American fire ants, feared for their potent and poisonous bites, are discovered in a few areas of South Orange County. Within a month, more are found across Orange County, from Buena Park to San Juan Capistrano. While state officials try to contain the ants, residents are advised to steer clear of their dome-shaped ant hills. The ants are one-quarter inch or shorter, and are distinguished by bright-red heads and midsections.

* Michael P. Generakos of Lakewood storms into the County Board of Education offices in Costa Mesa and at gunpoint takes two administrators hostage. “I came here today to get myself killed, because I don’t have the guts to kill myself,” he tells them. Three hours later he leads one administrator outside the building but stays an arm’s length from him, and a police marksman shoots Generakos once in the head. Generakos, who had been battling with school authorities over his disabled son’s education, had lost a court custody battle. “I lost my children,” he told the hostages. “I have nothing left.”

* A state appeals court overturns a ruling by an Orange County judge that O.J. Simpson is entitled to full custody of his two children by his murdered former wife Nicole Brown Simpson. Justices, ordering a new custody trial, say the judge should have admitted evidence that a civil jury determined Simpson responsible for Nicole Simpson’s murder.

* The Angels shed their penny-pinching reputation and sign Mo Vaughn, the Red Sox slugger, to a six-year, $80-million contract. He is the highest-paid player for almost three weeks until the Dodgers sign pitcher Kevin Brown for $105 million over seven years.

* The last helicopter departs from the Marine base at Tustin, leaving the base virtually abandoned, a victim of federal budget cutbacks. The city plans to preserve one of the base’s immense, landmark blimp hangars, but demolish the other and use the land for homes and businesses.

DECEMBER

* Republican Rep. Jay C. Kim of Diamond Bar closes his offices in Yorba Linda, Ontario and Washington a month before his term ends, thus concluding a string of firsts in Congressional history. In 1992, he was the first Korean American elected to Congress. In 1998, he was the first congressman to wear an electronic surveillance device after pleading guilty to accepting illegal campaign donations.

* Sheriff Brad Gates, retiring after 24 years in office, appears before the Board of Supervisors to complain that his successor wants him to retire too soon. Sheriff-elect Michael S. Carona who defeated the Gates-backed candidate, went to county supervisors asking they change some departmental expenditures and hiring policies.

* The Discovery Science Center, a collection of playful, hands-on science demonstrations, opens beside the Santa Ana Freeway in Santa Ana. Aimed at turning on children’s interest in science, it was bankrolled by $24 million in corporate, governmental and private contributions.

* The federal Food and Drug Administration confirms it has launched a criminal investigation of a former UC Irvine cancer researcher who reportedly sent an unauthorized, experimental cancer treatment to a Florida hospital to treat an 8-year-old girl. The researcher, John C. Hiserodt, had left the university after the investigation began.

* A metal cleat on the tall ship Columbia, one of Disneyland’s oldest attractions, snaps loose as the ship is docking and strikes two tourists, killing one of them and leaving the other in critical condition. A park employee was also injured.

* To round out a weird weather year, overnight temperatures plunge into the 20s in the Saddleback Valley on nights when New York City reports lows in the high 50s.