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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2015
Unprepared: Projections add up to a catastrophe
lyze their ability to prepare for
the event, let alone to respond
when it ¿nally happens. Na-
tive Northwesterners, who are
relatively new to this informa-
tion about their corner of the
world, are at somewhat of a
disadvantage, he said unlike
Japan and Chile, they have
no cultural stories and gener-
ational knowledge as part of
their disaster awareness.
“It’s very important that we
start developing an earthquake
culture that supports the earth-
quake landscape that we live
in,” he said. “We live in earth-
quake country, but we don’t
have earthquake culture.”
Continued from Page 1A
But locals will also see
some familiar faces, includ-
ing Doug Dougherty, the
Seaside School District su-
perintendent who sits on the
Oregon Earthquake Commis-
sion.
Although he has talked
tsunami preparedness with
CBS, The New Yorker, Na-
tional Geographic Magazine
and other prominent media
outlets, Dougherty said a part
of him is always a little sur-
prised when he’s given the
opportunity to speak on the
subject.
“Ed (Jahn) has been work-
ing on this documentary for at
least two years. It was clear
that he had done his home-
work and understood the
science behind the story,” he
said.
In
November
2013,
Dougherty and the school
district board Àoated a 128
million bond measure to relo-
cate the district’s four schools
above the tsunami inunda-
tion zone in Seaside. To the
board’s surprise, the bond
measure failed. Jahn inter-
viewed Dougherty more than
a year later, and the superin-
‘This can be addressed’
NOAA/Submitted Photo
This photo shows the aftermath of a 9.0 earthquake and
subsequent tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011.
tendent still appears at a loss
for words.
Astoria
resident
Pat
Corcoran, a coastal natural
hazards expert with the Clat-
sop County Oregon State Uni-
versity Extension Of¿ce, also
has some screen time. Both he
and Dougherty saw “Unpre-
pared” at a Portland screening
last week and said the docu-
mentary is very well done.
Corcoran said that disas-
ter-related information often
triggers people’s ¿ght-or-
Àight response it can para-
A year and a half in the
making, “Unprepared” often
plays like an unclean bill of
Oregon’s health — a look at
how majestically screwed the
state will be if it doesn’t get its
preparedness act together.
The documentary cites un-
settling facts from the 2013
Oregon Resilience Plan: tens
of thousands of buildings
destroyed and many more
severely damaged, includ-
ing hundreds of schools and
hospitals hundreds of roads
and bridges down three years
without water and sewer ser-
vice on the coast. Cell phone
service? Forget about it.
Tens of thousands of
households will be displaced,
and possibly hundreds of
thousands of disaster refugees
may pour into less-damaged
central and Eastern Oregon
towns.
“It becomes overwhelming
after a while,” Steve Amen,
Oregon Field Guide’s execu-
tive producer, said.
There’s no guarantee that
the Astoria or Youngs Bay
bridges will be standing
when the earth stops shak-
ing, Jahn said. Landslides —
which could be a huge prob-
lem for Astoria since much of
the town is built on ¿ll that
slopes toward the Colum-
bia River — could create a
panoply of related disasters,
Corcoran said: power lines
arcing, gas mains breaking,
¿res spreading, etc.
“At what point do you say,
‘We know enough, but what
are we actually going to do
about it?’” Jahn said. “It’s not
an easy discussion to have.
It makes people uncomfort-
able.”
The projections add up to
an unprecedented catastrophe,
not just for Oregon but for
the United States, according
to the resilience plan, a docu-
ment that Jahn called a “turn-
ing point” in Oregon’s aware-
ness of Cascadia.
“Unprepared,”
though
laced with stupefying footage
of the Japan disaster, also con-
tains a hopeful message: Cas-
cadia has not happened yet, so
there’s still time to prepare.
One of the lessons from Japan
is that Cascadia need not set
Oregon back 50 years, Jahn
said.
“My hope,” Amen said, “is
that this (documentary) is a
wake-up call.”
And, as “Unprepared” il-
lustrates, individuals can pre-
pare where they live by stock-
ing up on survival gear and
learning their neighborhood’s
tsunami evacuation routes. In
fact, the documentary’s con-
clusion features footage from
Cannon Beach’s 2014 Race
the Wave 5K fun run, which
taught just that.
“This can be addressed,
and it’s not the end of the
world, even if it happened
tomorrow,” he said, “but we
could do so much better.”
See more at http://bit.
ly/1QJXQNy.
Water: Only one health advisory was issued this summer
Continued from Page 1A
The Oregon Beach Moni-
toring Program tests popular
beaches in the summer and is-
sues alerts when enterococcus
levels are above the state safe-
ty threshold in marine waters.
Enterococcus is an indicator of
potential fecal matter contami-
nation. July’s spill didn’t reach
marine waters, Public Works
Director Dan Grassick said, so
no advisory was issued.
City Councilor Mike Bene-
¿eld added that the city’s re-
sponse may not have been
“satisfactory to all,” but staff
immediately took care of the
problem, removing polluted
sand and cordoning off the
area.
But Manzulli said beach
signage could be better. In Cal-
ifornia, for example, there are
signs that clearly state contam-
ination could be hazardous to
health. “The Watershed Coun-
cil would like the city to go
above the state requirements
and notify the public when the
streams and creeks have ele-
vated enterococcus readings,”
Manzulli said.
Reports to local media
would be “a good way to get
the word out,” Manzulli said,
along with email or text noti-
¿cations to those who want to
be alerted.
Portland of¿cials report
spills over 40 gallons to media
outlets and local authorities,
according to the city’s sewer
release response plan.
Manzulli said he has seen
people of all ages and their
pets play in possibly contam-
inated outfall water, especially
at Gower Street and Chisana
Creek.
Beach outfalls aren’t the
“best place to be playing,” but
Grassick said he too has seen
it. He said signs at the outfalls
provide ample warnings to the
public that untreated drainage
water may be contaminated
with animal waste. The signs
advise beach visitors to stay
out of the water and to wash
carefully should they do so.
Cannon Beach Mayor Sam
Steidel agreed that of¿cials
should work on better notify-
ing the public. He didn’t learn
about July’s spill until he en-
countered Manzulli on a beach
walk.
“I always think about it in
terms of we have thousands of
visitors every day in the sum-
mer,” Grassick said. “Making
sure they’re safe is a high pri-
ority for us. We don’t take this
lightly.”
But staff also don’t want to
unnecessarily worry the pub-
lic, he added.
High readings
The Watershed Council
and Surfrider Foundation are
concerned about more than the
spill. Surfrider recorded six
cases of high bacteria readings
over the summer, including
two over 3,000 organisms per
100 milliliters in August, way
above the 158 organisms safe-
ty threshold. The latest high
reading was recorded on Sept.
9 at 292 organisms per 100
milliliters.
The Oregon Beach Moni-
toring Program has the power
to issue public health advi-
sories through a partnership
with the state Department of
Environmental Quality, and it
didn’t test in Cannon Beach
every week.
Only one health advisory
was issued this summer, ac-
cording to of¿cials.
“Surfrider uses a similar
analysis method, but since
their sample collectors and
Biplane: FAA rules guide local patterns
equipment has not been vet-
ted by DEQ, we are unable
to issue advisories from these
data,” Tara Chetock, a coordi-
nator for the beach monitoring
program, said.
However, she added that
Surfrider’s data is “a great re-
source.”
Surfrider uses the same
testing methods with data of-
ten utilized “to inform man-
agement decisions at the
statewide level” and target the
state’s limited testing, Cruse
said.
“When situations like this
arise, OBMP will often res-
ample after a high reading or
ask the city to collect samples
and issue the appropriate mes-
saging to the public,” Chetock
added.
Cannon Beach stopped
its own water-quality testing
program in July because staff
didn’t ¿nd any Àaws in the
wastewater system. Grassick
said contaminants were de-
termined to be nonhuman in
nature, though a source was
never discovered.
Manzulli disagreed. He
said the tests staff used to in-
dicate a human presence are
inconclusive.
Grassick noted he is curi-
ous what causes high readings
in the ocean even when outfall
water doesn’t reach the surf,
indicating a source unrelated
to humans.
He added he would like to
discuss health risks to both an-
imals and pets.
Collaboration
“The most frustrating as-
pect of all this is that the city
has told the Watershed Coun-
cil and general public for years
that the infrastructure is ¿ne
and the problem is the seagulls,
the elk and the random dirty
diaper. This summer’s sew-
age spill shows the opposite,”
Manzulli said. “If the city had
said, ‘Well it’s the elk, the
seagulls and maybe our infra-
structure,’ the city would have
likely discovered that the spill
alarm and pump station run off
the same power source and the
city could have ¿xed the prob-
lem years ago. The spill would
have been avoided or greatly
reduced in size.”
He added Surfrider and the
Watershed Council are eager
to assist of¿cials in making
improvements.
By the end of the work
session, Steidel said the high
readings were a topic the Pub-
lic Works Committee should
discuss and the City Coun-
cil asked for an update in six
months.
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Continued from Page 1A
Grant, who did not attend
the meeting, has a clean,
,mile Àight record,
many of those miles on tours
over Seaside, the Necanicum
River and up to the Columbia
River and Astoria. His Sea-
side business, Jim’s Biplane
Rides, continues to operate
after 20 years at the airport.
7his year he Àew an aver-
age of three Àights per day,
with most tours taking place
on weekends, according to
his log. His season ended in
mid-September.
Federal rules
FAA rules guide local pat-
terns, Committee Chairman
Randall Henderson of War-
renton said.
Arriving airplanes must
be at the proper traf¿c pattern
altitude 1,000 feet above the
airport elevation before enter-
ing the landing pattern. Pilots
should begin descent between
one-half or 1 mile from the
runway and the plane’s base
turn should take place at 45
degrees from the end of the
runway.
Committee member and
pilot Teri Carpenter said those
standards are important so a
pilot knows “where to look to
see what people are doing,”
especially at airports without
control towers.
As for wildlife protection,
Henderson said FAA altitude
restrictions apply at specif-
ic areas along the Oregon
Coast, but only near feder-
ally protected lands. State or
local wildlife habitats, such
as those within the Seaside
airport pattern, are outside re-
stricted areas.
*4/0THNPUN:LY]PJLZH[
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Saving lives,
John Dudley/Submitted Photo
Jim Grant’s biplane flies over a neighborhood by the Ne-
canicum Estuary in Gearhart.
The last reported bird
strike in the vicinity of the
Seaside airport was 13 years
ago and there was minor dam-
age to the plane.
A change of path?
Grant tried experimenting
with alternating patterns in
response to complaints before
reverting to his original Àight
plan for safety reasons, Hen-
derson said.
Nonpilots may not under-
stand “the very intricate ways
in which we train and learn
how to Ày and what the saf-
est thing to do is,” Henderson
said. “,t is the traf¿c pattern.
Within that pattern, the safest
path may be going over some
people’s houses.”
,f a pilot is Àying in the
legal pattern and is not com-
fortable with variations, “I
would defer to another guy’s
judgment,” he added.
Henderson said he is con-
cerned a Àight path complaint
about one pilot could lead to
complaints about other pilots
or their routes.
Committee member and
airport manager Neal Wallace
said the committee could send
a letter to Grant, expressing
the issues presented. That
would spark a conversation
and produce a written record
of the discussion.
A letter would give Grant
the opportunity to respond
and give his safety concerns
over proposed take-off, land-
ing or route changes.
Since Grant’s business is
licensed by the city, not the
airport, if citizens want to
speak on the issue they would
need to address the Seaside
City Council. “Let him tell us
why he can, will or won’t, and
let him give us his reasons,”
Wallace said.
“I have no inclination
to shut his business down,”
Dudley said, adding Grant’s
biplane is a worthwhile enter-
prise. “My desire is for some
degree of conciliation.”
One person at a time.
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October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
1. Your two greatest risk factors for breast cancer are being a woman and
getting older.
2. Get screened. Finding breast cancer early and receiving treatment will
increase your chance of surviving breast cancer.
t 20-40 years old: Get a clinical breast exam every three years from
your doctor. Talk to your doctor about self exams.
t 40 years and older: Get a mammogram and a clinical breast exam
from your doctor every year.
3. Practice self care. You can reduce your risk of cancer by getting regular
exercise, maintaining a healthy weight and limiting your alcohol intake.
4. Be proactive. Through early detection and better treatment, more women
are surviving breast cancer.
5. Talk about it. Tell any woman you care about to get a mammogram. You
could save her life.
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