143RD YEAR, NO. 242
WEEKEND EDITION
ONE DOLLAR
FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2016
CRABBING
BONANZA
CONGRATS
SEASIDE GRADS
COAST RIVER BUSINESS JOURNAL • INSIDE
PAGES 10A-12A
CASCADIA RISING
Megaquake
minded
Disaster exercises reveal
strengths and gaps in
county preparation
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Astoria High School students Ben Williams, left, and Halie Korff walk through the halls of John Jacob Astor Elementary School
as students congratulate them during a graduation walk Thursday . The graduating class visited multiple schools in the district
before walking down Commercial Street to the Liberty Theater.
A walk to remember
Astoria High School seniors march across the city
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
A
s Astoria High School’s C lass
of 2016 walked into the bot-
tom-fl oor hallway of John Jacob
Astor Elementary School in full purple-
and-gold regalia, they were greeted like
celebrities by lines of adoring elementa-
ry-schoolers on a proverbial red carpet.
The graduating seniors spent Thurs-
day morning snaking their way through
Astor, Lewis and Clark Elementary
School, Astoria Middle School and
through the high school.
Their fi rst audience was dressed up in
their dream jobs as police offi cers, prin-
cesses, cowgirls and A ir F orce pilots —
and one as a character from the video
game “Mortal K ombat.” Graduates kept
a brisk pace, spending 15 minutes hand-
ing out high-fi ves and hugs to students,
teachers and staff before a fi nal walk
down Commercial Street past residents
and business owners.
Clatsop County isn’t as far along in prep-
ping for a Cascadia earthquake and tsunami
as Tiffany Brown, the county’s emergency
manager, would prefer . But that’s noth-
ing to be ashamed of, given that the region
only realized the full magnitude of the threat
within the last decade.
“We’ve known about it for 20 years or so,
but it’s really that additional study that has
occurred since 2011 that has left us with a
greater understanding of how big the threat
is, and that’s why everybody is really pay-
ing attention to: What are we doing, and how
ready are we?” she said. “Relative to how
long we’ve understood the enormity of this
hazard in our community, we are where I
would expect us to be.”
Brown took stock of the county’s disas-
ter readiness this week during Cascadia Ris-
ing, a Tuesday-through-Friday focus on
preparing agencies in Oregon and Washing-
ton state for the Cascadia Subduction Zone
megaquake, a rare but cataclysmic event
that could cause a humanitarian crisis in the
Pacifi c Northwest.
See MEGAQUAKE, Page 9A
Different
paths lead
top students
to college
One had a drug
problem, the other
was a home-schooler
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
ABOVE: The graduating
class walks down Com-
mercial Street Thursday .
LEFT: Tru Baca-Valero, k in-
dergartner at John Jacob
Astor Elementary School,
high-fives Astoria High
School students as they
walk through the halls of
the elementary school .
Jesse Miller wanted to turn his life around
after three years in prison. Alex Autio was
getting his fi rst introduction to public
education.
Both hit their stride at Clatsop Commu-
nity College, where they have been awarded
the Student of the Year Award, voted on by
their peers.
“It’s just a big deal for me, considering
where I’ve been in my past,” Miller said, still
somewhat in disbelief about the award.
Miller, 30, dropped out of Sam Barlow
High School in Gresham his junior year, left
for Sunriver and spent the next several years
working construction. In 2008, after earning
his diploma from Clackamas Community
College, Miller said he felt as if the world
was in his hands.
See WALK, Page 12A
See STUDENTS, Page 9A
America’s beauty hasn’t faded. Has its greatness?
The dream is
alive, if distant
Part of an occasional series
By JAY REEVES
Associated Press
A
mericans agree on this
much: They are dis-
gusted with politics.
They look toward Wash-
ington, D.C., and see a bro-
ken federal government, a
place where politicians seem
more interested in self-pres-
ervation than We the People.
Things don’t seem much bet-
ter in state capitals, and, who
knows? Lead-tainted water
may be pouring out of their
kitchen faucet next.
Yet Americans say they still
believe in America, the exper-
iment in democracy that the
founders described as a place
where the government should
protect the rights of ordinary
people to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. There’s
something at the core of Amer-
ica they long for, even if it’s
hard to defi ne and seems dis-
tant in 2016.
Donald Trump proclaims
See AMERICA, Page 8A
This combination of 2016
photos shows, top row from
left, Dana Craig, 15, of River
Falls, Wis.; Kimberly Jung, 29,
of Chicago and Rodney Kim-
ball, 74, of West Bethel, Maine;
middle row from left, Allene
Swanson, 22, of Chicago; Craig
House, 32, of St. Louis and Mike
Poling of Delphos, Ohio; bottom
row from left, Amal Kassir, 20,
of Colorado; John Moore, 74, of
New Orleans and Russ Madson,
45, of Birmingham, Ala. The
Associated Press interviewed
a wide range of Americans to
get a sense of what they think
about the nation’s greatness in
the twilight of President Barack
Obama’s eight years in office.
AP Photo