september20 2018
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VERNONIA’S
volume12 issue18
reflecting the spirit of our community
Flood Season Starts October 15
Don’t get caught off guard
By Ben Fousek
Flood season is upon us, Verno-
nia. And as such, it’s time for a friendly
reminder to be prepared from the City
of Vernonia Floodplain Management. I
know many of you recall one or more
of the three major floods we’ve experi-
enced over the last 32 years, but Verno-
nia also has gained a lot of new residents
in the last few years, so I’ll start with a
brief history.
In February of 1996, Verno-
nia experienced the “flood to end all
floods.” It was considered at the time to
be a once in several generations event.
But just under 12 years later, in Decem-
ber 2007, Vernonia experienced an even
larger flood, causing extensive damage
to hundreds of homes and businesses.
In one of those rare instances we actu-
ally get the government we pay for, the
State of Oregon and FEMA decided to
invest tens of millions of dollars in flood
recovery and mitigation to reduce flood
risk for the community, as well as reduce
the long term financial risk to federal
and state agencies. All but a handful of
effected homes were elevated. Substan-
tially damaged properties were bought
out and demolished. The school, health
center, West Oregon Electric and our
primary electric substation were moved
out of the floodplain. The City’s sewer
lagoons where upgraded to avoid flood
damage. Local authorities established
better emergency preparedness and re-
sponse. The City adopted, and enforces,
a robust Flood Hazard Reduction Ordi-
nance.
And it worked. In November of
2015, Vernonia experienced yet another
major flood, however flood mitigation
and community preparedness resulted
in less than ten structures being flooded,
and with minimal damage and loss rela-
tive to previous floods. Let’s keep it up
and be ready for the next one.
Be flood aware. Vernonia has flooded
inside
7
the good ol’ days
and will flood again. Reminding family
and friends, or letting your new neigh-
bor know about flooding in Vernonia, is
an easy way to be prepared as a commu-
nity. Know how high the water reached
in 2007, Vernonia’s highest flood of re-
cord. If you don’t know how high the
water reached in 2007, you can calculate
it by looking at the Elevation Certificate
for your home. The key information on
an Elevation Certificate is the elevation
of adjacent grade, base flood elevation,
and flood of record elevation. Subtract-
ing adjacent grade from the flood of re-
cord will give you the height of water in
2007. Subtracting adjacent grade from
the base flood elevation will give you
the 1% probability of water inundation
depth in any given flood season. This
was historically referred to as a 100 Year
Flood, but that nomenclature is no lon-
ger used as it helped perpetuate the idea
a flood of such magnitude occurs every
100 years, more or less.
Protect your life. Take flood adviso-
ries and warnings seriously. Sign up for
emergency phone alerts with the Colum-
bia 911 Alert Network at www.colum-
bia911.com. Don’t enter flood waters
on foot, in a vehicle, or boat. Floodwa-
Patterson Hood: What Does it Mean?
The frontman for the Drive-
By Truckers is now an
Oregon resident. For a rock
and roll musician, he has a
lot to say about the current
state of our country.
By Scott Laird
9
12
kendra’s new heart
vhs fall
sports report
ters move and rise quickly and errati-
cally. Floodwaters can be polluted with
biological and chemical contaminants.
Minimize contact with floodwaters and
sediments left after a flood.
Protect your personal property. Do
not store items below the 2007 flood
level at your location. It’s easy to uti-
lize the floors of crawl spaces, garages,
shops, and sheds outside of flood season.
Crawl spaces and garages under elevated
homes are there for a reason and it isn’t
for storage. Install high shelving or better
yet, don’t store items under your home.
Items found in shops and sheds, such as
power tools, gas powered equipment, or
anything which could be damaged by
water, should be stored as high as pos-
sible. Lawn furniture and other outdoor
items which aren’t subject to water dam-
age and easily washed off can be stored
under homes to prevent them from be-
ing washed away. The contents portion
of your flood insurance policy does not
cover items which are stored below the
first habitable floor of an elevated home
or a new home built to our current flood
regulations. So, as a rule of thumb, don’t
store any item, which you can’t bear to
lose, lower than the first habitable floor
of your home. Unfortunately, a few Ver-
nonia residents who were unaware or
not prepared for flooding learned this the
hard way in 2015, when crawl spaces
and garages where used to store a large
portion of their personal property.
Protect the environment. It is illegal
to store petroleum products, paints, pes-
ticides, herbicides, or any other toxic
material below the 2007 flood level on
a residential property within City Limits
between October 15 and March 15. Just
like personal property above, get those
products moved up.
Protect your business. Most business
owners in the floodplain have endured
a flood in the past, and fully understand
being prepared to take action when a
flood is imminent. Have an action plan,
and take the time to review it with your
employees this year and every year.
Be prepared. This goes for the whole
community and not just those in the
floodplain. Have emergency food and
water, as well as general emergency
supplies. Power loss and the City’s in-
ability to produce water and/or water re-
strictions should be expected during and
right after a flood. Vernonia can also be
isolated due to bridges and roads on ei-
ther side of town being washed out, and
most of the retail stores are subject to
flooding and being closed.
I’m going to wrap up with a per-
sonal flood story, and my best bit of flood
preparedness advice. I lost a vehicle to
the 2007 flood. I wasn’t informed or pre-
pared. I told myself the water wasn’t go-
ing to get much higher and by the time
I realized what was happening it was
too late. That decision haunts me to this
day. If you live in the floodplain, have a
plan to move vehicles, boats, and camp-
ers to higher ground. Move vehicles to
higher ground as soon as there is even a
chance of flooding. Make sure family or
friends have access to keys, know where
to move vehicles, and remind them when
you’re leaving town. It’s regret you can
easily avoid.
I recently had the wonderful
opportunity to attend a very small and
intimate concert in Portland, featuring
one of my favorite songwriters and mu-
sicians, Patterson Hood, the co-front-
man for the band, the Drive-By Truck-
ers (DBT). The solo, acoustic perfor-
mance was held in the living room of
the McCormick Mansion, a private
residence in Southeast Portland where
the owners have recently been hosting
small concerts. The event, as
you might imagine, was an
amazing and magical night –
it’s not that often that you get
to spend an evening with only
100 other fans, listening to one
of your musical heroes play
their songs and tell stories for
over two hours, while sitting
just a few feet away. He even
mentioned author (Lean on
Pete, Motel Life) and musician
(Richmond Fontaine, The De-
lines) Willy Vaultin, who lives
in Scappoose and has twice ap-
peared at the Vernonia Library for book
readings – apparently Hood is a big
Willy Vlautin fan.
Even better yet, Patterson very
graciously agreed to do a short inter-
view with Vernonia’s Voice following
his solo show in Portland, answering
questions by email about his new home
in Oregon, his songwriting, and the mu-
sic industry. It was a real honor to have
the opportunity to ask him some ques-
tions and hear his points of view on a
variety of subjects.
While most people may not be
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