vernonia’s
voice community
march
2008
23
FEMA Temporary Disasters in our Vicinity
Housing
By Kris Richards
I spoke with Denise Everhart, a FEMA Public In-
formation Officer, about the siting of Manufactured
Homes in Vernonia. “Because there were almost no
apartments or motels available in Vernonia, FEMA
began looking for a site on which to place Manu-
factured Homes as temporary housing.” Everhart
made it clear that FEMA would be siting manufac-
tured homes not travel trailers; because of problems
with trailers used after Hurricane Katrina, FEMA
will only place manufactured homes in Vernonia.
FEMA has been in negotiations with Nickerson
Ridge property owner. The development has water,
sewer and electric infrastructure in place. “By law
that site needs to be out of the flood plain, which
the Knott Street site is,” said Everhart.
Residents who were concerned about infrastructure
on Knott Street and the effects of temporary hous-
ing, created and circulated a petition against place-
ment in their neighborhood. The same residents
also attended a recent Planning Commission hear-
ing where they brought up concerns about water
run off that will be caused by placing homes on
the Nickerson Ridge site, and poor drainage in the
area. They were told by city officials that the deci-
sion of where to place FEMA housing is a negotia-
tion between FEMA and the property owner, and
that the city had hired an engineer to study drainage
and storm water issues for the city which is to be
completed as soon as possible.
Dan Brown, Chair of the Vernonia Planning Com-
mission, in an interview, stated “The Nickerson
Ridge development was approved by the City over
ten years ago. We have already discussed these in-
frastructure issues. Nothing would be happening
on Knott Street [placement of temporary homes],
that hasn’t already been approved.”
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FEMA has identified an initial location for the first
set of temporary housing on the abandoned rail-
road grade behind city hall on Weed Avenue. That
site was being readied for residents at press time.
Because of the large need for temporary housing,
FEMA is in the process of finding additional loca-
tions for temporary housing for displaced residents.
FEMA is still considering a site on Knott Street
called Nickerson Ridge, a site that has caused some
conflict within the community.
It’s odd how disasters lend a sense of relativity regarding distance. I remember when the tsunami hit in SE Asia in
December of 2004. Seeing pictures on the news and in the paper prompted me to do something. The something turned
out to be a grassroots fundraiser with kids to get money into the hands of our friends in the Philippines. They run a mid-
wife clinic and needed funds to go to Indonesia to help the refugees birth babies. When Hurricane Katrina hit, I was on
the phone with Vancouver mercy/relief group Forward Edge International, brainstorming how to set up teams ASAP from
Portland to Mississippi. I kept saying, “This is the tsunami in our country!” When Vernonia, Tillamook, and Centralia
were hit with massive flooding last month, I kept repeating, “This is Katrina in our back yard. We have to do something!”
And in January of this year we have a tornado almost literally in our backyard.
We live in Vancouver, Washington, where I teach 6th grade. After the sudden tornado struck January 11, the news
reports all talked about the thing hitting Hazel Dell. When I got word this was coming, I was told it was on 78th street
heading northeast. I was sitting in my classroom northeast of Hazel Dell looking at my eager 6th graders. What were we
reading at that moment? The newspaper from Vernonia, trying to get a feel for the devastation that town felt so we could
write letters to the editor.
See, I believe American kids should know about suffering and need. I believe this as a globally-minded Christian and
as a former international traveler who returned from a year in Europe realizing how ethnocentric our American upbringing
is. I feel we should endeavor to have our eyes open to
those hurting and be praying (as a start) for them. When the Northwest flooding struck, the news reports and pictures
were staggering. As I drove through Chehalis en route to Seattle within twenty-four hours of the freeway opening, I was
sobered. Fences along the roadway had become giant screens, catching grass and river sludge that had flowed by. Gar-
bage and debris hung from the lower tree branches. Someone’s deck off of a porch was perched too close alongside the
north-bound lanes. I began saving the newspaper headlines for my students at our little Christian school to pore over, take
note of, and pray.
We familiarized ourselves with the places hardest hit. I added the following words to our spelling list: “Tillamook.
Vernonia. Chehalis. Centralia.” Kids read with shock about dairy farmers an hour and a half north of us who lost all but
twelve of their two hundred cows in the flooding. During our prayer time we remembered a woman in the hospital who
had spent the night inches from her ceiling, floating on an overturned bookshelf. We prayed for families who lost it all
and for wisdom for mayors. When the opportunity presented itself, we drove one hour out to “our backyard” and helped
families in Vernonia clean up after the flood. A week later we returned for more.
So there we were, January 11, coming in early from recess, excited due to having just experienced twenty minutes of
extra-loud thunder, lightning bolts that we could see reach the ground a mile or so from our school, and then a huge, fast
hail storm. I found out the PE teacher called the school, saying a tornado had hit in Hazel Dell. Then, our science teacher
came in and quietly told me she heard on the web there was a tornado and that it was headed our direction. I casually
closed the blinds on the three large windows in our room, my mind racing. Looking around, I decided the hallway would
probably be the best place to seek refuge should this thing hit. I switched our CD player to “tuner” and immediately found
a station announcing news the tornado was traveling away from us, but I realized it would be blocks from my student
Jacob Ike’s home. I decided to tell the students that this thing was happening. A minute later, the radio announced that
the tornado warning was being lifted. Before we could go on with any more learning, we stopped and prayed. If you can
believe this, our PE time consisted of playing outside in warm, balmy weather! Students played football and ran around,
burning off nervous energy. When the Channel 2 News helicopter flew overhead they jumped and waved. I quietly won-
dered what kind of devastation they were viewing. Somehow, the words I had just given on our spelling test took on new
meaning: “emergency” and “vicinity.”
An hour later school was out. Parents who usually stay in their cars and swing by the front door got out to swap stories.
One woman had been on the cell phone with her friend who was driving on 78th street in Hazel Dell. The friend began yelling
that the back side of the car had just been lifted up in the wind! One woman’s husband had heard of a car that flipped.
When I picked up my boys, I told them what had happened. The only thing these little ones had noticed was lights
flickering. Thank God! We decided to take the five to ten minute drive to Hazel Dell along 78th Street to survey the
damage. The going was slow, and we noticed signs down, many merchants on roofs trying to put tarps over bare wood
where shingles had been, and several fire and utility trucks. I flipped on the radio. “An army of utility workers is headed
to Vancouver to help the folks who have lost power and have trees down…”
The 5:00 p.m. news showed a two-story office building that had lost all the bricks off its side—mortar and all. Neigh-
bors had found the bricks strewn around the block and returned them in a neat pile. The Vancouver Lake footage looked
like a bomb had gone off: the boat house was obliterated with every nice crew boat completely ruined. The director of that
youth rowing club recounted how the boat shed had been full of teens around ten that morning, just two or so hours before
disaster struck. He said if they’d been there they would have done what they usually do during a storm—gone into the two
trailers. “One [trailer] is 300 feet that direction, and the other is 100 feet the other direction. Those kids would have been
dead.” Whole neighborhoods had paths of destruction—missing roof parts and fences and trees down like toothpicks—
revealing the twister’s path.
So what are we doing now with this in our neighborhood? We call up a student’s family whose cousins’ house was hit—and
who found themselves switching from a household of five to a crowded home of ten. We offer dinner, anything to ease the strain
of those suffering from disasters increasingly close. We breathe a prayer of thanks for no injuries or deaths and for the distances
between neighbors becoming nearer, just like Vernonia and Centralia, as—alongside neighbors--they patch things up again.
DM
The Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) is working on plans to place manufactured
homes as temporary housing for displaced Vernon-
ia residents. The intention is to provide residents,
unable to reoccupy their homes after the flooding,
the opportunity to return to Vernonia; their children
would be able to attend Vernonia schools, and the
residents would be able to live in the vicinity while
working to repair their homes.
ML# 7120570--$219,900
3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, great floor plan,
finished 2 car garage, hardisiding, covered
patio, fenced back yard, front landscaped
and great view of the city.
Karen Golson, Broker
karebares@earthlink.net
www.KarenGolson.mywindermere.com
Dr
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622 Bridge Street Vernonia, OR 97064
phone (503) 429-0880 -- fax (503) 429-0881