OREGON
A8 — THE OBSERVER
THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 2021
Snowy summer skyline
fades to brown peaks
Central Oregon
glaciers, snowpack
feeling the heat of
climate change
By MICHAEL KOHN
The Bulletin
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Fans stroll into the Round-Up Grounds on Saturday, July 10, 2021, at the Pendleton Whisky Music Fest.
The Oregon Health Authority is investigating a link between an outbreak of COVID-19 cases and the con-
cert, which drew 12,000 fans.
COVID-19 numbers shooting up
Most counties
would be at
‘extreme’ risk level
By GARY A. WARNER
and BRYCE DOLE
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — The faster,
stronger delta variant of the
virus that causes COVID-19
is setting record numbers
of infections and sickness
across Oregon, state statis-
tics for the most recent two
weeks show.
In Wallowa County, 1
out of 4 people tested for
COVID-19 was positive.
Umatilla County had
915 cases per 100,000
people, by far the most
in the state, while Union
County has 622 cases per
100,000.
Multnomah County,
the state’s most popu-
lous, reported 1,013 new
cases over the two-week
time frame, its shallower
rise still driving big total
numbers.
Lake County was the
only one of Oregon’s 36
counties to record a drop
in reported cases.
The numbers were
contained in the weekly
County COVID-19 Com-
munity Spread Report, the
document whose arrival
each Monday once meant
Gov. Kate Brown would
reassign new risk levels
based on the prevalence of
COVID-19 within county
boundaries.
Where a county fell on
the risk chart determined
what businesses could be
open, how many customers
could be in a store, how
late a bar could stay open
and whether a diner could
sit down for a meal or had
to buy takeout.
The measures of total
cases, cases per 100,000
population and percentage
of tests that were positive,
controlled Oregon resi-
dents’ lives for much of
the past fall, winter and
spring.
With the steep drop
in the infection rate as a
majority of Oregonians
started getting vacci-
nated, Brown unshackled
the fate of local lives
and economies from the
weekly report’s ups and
downs. On June 30, Brown
handed over control of
public health decisions to
counties.
The weekly reports
continue to come out,
though the Oregon Health
Authority delayed delivery
of the numbers this week
by a day. If the list still
carried its restrictions, 22
and likely more of Ore-
gon’s 36 counties would be
under the “extreme” risk
level, which carried the
highest restrictions.
In early July, Oregon
showed a seven-day
average of 110 new cases
in the whole state. It had
not been so low since early
June 2020 when the pan-
demic was still in its early
days.
There would be four
waves of infection by the
beginning of this summer.
But the arrival of vaccines
seemed to guarantee the
dark days of winter, when
the seven-day average
topped out at 1,515 new
cases, were gone forever.
Now, Oregon is back
to wintery numbers of
infections, and hospitals
are again stretched to the
limit. A saving grace is
that most of the most vul-
nerable — the very elderly
and those with serious
medical conditions — have
had access to vaccinations.
That has made the wave of
deaths that once followed
after reported infections
and hospitalizations shal-
lower and shorter.
Brown’s decision to lift
restrictions on June 30
when the state closed in
on vaccinating 70% of eli-
gible adult residents came
as new infections were at
their lowest levels in more
than a year. But just as the
state opened up, the delta
variant arrived in force.
In areas of the state with
large numbers of unvacci-
nated people , it wreaked
immediate havoc.
OHA is investigating
the role of the Whisky Fest
country music concert in
Pendleton last month that
drew 12,000 and has led
to dozens of reported pos-
itive cases of COVID-
19, primarily in Uma-
tilla County. The specter
of a superspreader event
now shadows plans for the
Umatilla County Fair Aug.
11-14. That’s dwarfed by
the Pendleton Round-Up,
beginning Sept. 11, which
in the past has drawn up to
50,000 people from across
the United States.
The OHA investigation
also underlines a structural
problem with the state’s
plan to have local author-
ities enforce the rules.
Public health offi cials are
hired by local govern-
ment offi cials. The offi -
cials are elected by local
voters. In areas where
vaccination rates are low,
including much of Eastern
and Southwestern Oregon,
there is still doubt —
and sometimes outright
hostility — toward any
restrictions such as manda-
tory masks.
Umatilla County Public
Health Director Joe Fiu-
mara told the East Ore-
gonian this week that he
expects COVID-19 cases
to rise because of the
county fair.
“If you’re trying to
reduce cases, I think can-
celing the fair would be a
way to do that,” Fiumara
said. “And I think it would
be an eff ective way to pre-
vent additional spread.”
But Fiumara said he
would not formally recom-
mend cutbacks or closing
the event because of the
backlash that would ensue.
“I’m not sure all the
Blazing Fast
Internet!
fallout from canceling it
would be worthwhile. I
think there would be a lot
of pushback,” he said.
For her part, Brown
and her administration
have put the focus back
on counties, many of
which had clamored for
18 months for more local
control.
While other states and
cities are pushing for man-
datory rules, Oregon’s
mask-wearing warning is
voluntary. The state has
issued a requirement that
workers and visitors to
state buildings must wear
masks.
After a second man-
date following CDC guid-
ance to require masks in
schools, Brown got a taste
of blowback over the past
few days as schools boards
and parents pushed back.
Instead of waiting for
the state to impose new
sanctions, Brown has said
localities should step up,
“follow the science” and
take action themselves.
“While we have learned
not to rule anything out,
we also know that local-
ly-driven response eff orts
are most eff ective at this
stage in the pandemic to
reach unvaccinated Orego-
nians,” said Brown spokes-
person Charles Boyle on
Tuesday, Aug. 3.
Boyle said nothing is
stopping locals from acting
— and the state is ready to
help with materials such as
vaccines and public health
workers — to make any
action a success.
“Counties, cities and
employers also have the
ability to institute their
own safety measures and
requirements, and we
expect local leaders in
areas most impacted by
COVID-19 to take action,”
Boyle said.
BEND — Winter
brought above-average
snow to the Central Cas-
cades. Then a summertime
heat wave melted most of
it away.
Now Central Oregon’s
glaciers could experience
signifi cant melt as the
snow that normally pro-
tects them in the warmer
months disappears.
The rapid snowmelt
that occurred in spring
and early summer has
left midsummer snow-
melt at historic lows, said
Larry O’Neill, an asso-
ciate professor at the Col-
lege of Earth, Ocean and
Atmospheric Sciences at
Oregon State University.
What’s more, this snow
season — with its unusu-
ally rapid melt-off — is
going to become the new
normal, he said.
When snowpack
melts early in the year, it
can have negative con-
sequences on water
resources and the health
of the glaciers. Reser-
voirs struggle to fi ll,
river levels remain lower
than normal and range-
land can deteriorate. For
those who enjoy scaling
Ryan Brennecke/Bend Bulletin
A small amount of snow remains on South Sister as a vehicle trav-
els Friday, July 30, 2021, along the Cascade Lakes Highway.
Mount Jeff erson, North
Sister and other Cen-
tral Oregon peaks, it can
mean an early end to the
climbing season on sev-
eral mountains.
“The slightly warmer
than normal spring and
the June heat wave melted
nearly all the snowpack,”
said O’Neill. “We entered
spring with near-normal
snowpack in the Cen-
tral Oregon Cascades, but
unfortunately it melted out
about three to four weeks
earlier than normal.”
The impact of this is
less snow in late summer
to melt into streams,
causing streams to fl ow at
lower levels than normal.
That can impair habitat
for fi sh and wildlife. The
weak snowpack in late
summer also dries out for-
ests, creating conditions
for wildfi re.
“This snow season is a
perfect example of what
the future will look like,”
said O’Neill.
Glaciers melt off more
rapidly when the protective
snowpack that covers them
disappears, said Anders
Carlson, president of the
Oregon Glaciers Institute,
a nonprofi t that works to
preserve glaciers through
science and education.
“This will be a very
bad year for them,” said
Carlson. “With the snow
retreating and disap-
pearing so quickly, this
exposes the underlying
glacier to melting sooner
than in more normal
years.”
The melt-off comes
amid historically hot
weather in Central
Oregon. Temperatures
recorded in Bend reached
all-time highs in late
June, culminating in 107-
degree weather on June
30. At Warm Springs on
June 27, the temperature
soared to 119 degrees,
tying a state record.
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