10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2016
Coast Guard: Majority of disabled Housing: Urling
calls received come from Buoy 10 suggested relaxing
carport, garage rule
Continued from Page 1A
Several operations special-
ists, trained to be the eyes, ears
and voices of the Coast Guard,
immediately keyed in, hyperfo-
cused on inding more informa-
tion and dispatching rescuers.
Eyes
The command center, the
Coast Guard’s version of a
911 dispatch center, is illed
to the brim with radio, satel-
lite and other communications
equipment.
Manning the command cen-
ter at all times on 12-hour shifts
are teams of operations special-
ists overseen by command duty
oficers. During their shifts, they
are in charge of handling search
and rescue, pollution, security
and other cases along the coast
from Paciic City to Queets,
Washington, and the Columbia
upriver to Lewiston, Idaho.
“Our role here is to roll out
any type of response efforts,”
said Petty Oficer 1st Class Dar-
lene Harrison, an operations
unit controller who oversees
the planning search and rescue
missions.
“That’s a pretty big weight
to have on your shoulders,”
she said, adding sometimes
she has to track tens of cases
concurrently.
Next to Harrison on Friday
sat Lt. j.g. Issac Yates, a unit sit-
uation controller providing situ-
ational awareness of the Coast
Guard’s assets and weather con-
ditions. Backing them up were
Petty Oficer 2nd Class Kasey
Tarbox, breaking in Yates, a
recent transfer from Maryland.
Overseeing all of them Fri-
day was Lt. Kristen Caldwell,
a command duty oficer who
stays in the secure command
center 24 hours at a time.
Ears
Harrison said cases often
start in the command center’s
two radio rooms. One person
monitors radio trafic along the
coastline. The other tracks com-
munications from the mouth of
the Columbia upriver. Both send
out broadcasts to mariners about
weather conditions, restrictions
and obstructions in the water,
such as logs loating down the
river.
Siems said he listens for
excited voices and key terms
like “mayday,” “help,” “taking
“Unless people are hon-
est and ask to get a business
resist the idea of placing license and pay the transient
residential and commercial (room) tax, we really have
structures side by side. But no way of knowing about it
“we’re in a different envi- until the neighbors start com-
ronment now,” he said, “with plaining — if there’s a rea-
much of the emphasis on son to complain,” he told the
trying to create affordable commission.
housing.”
Kujala said, “It sounds like
Urling also suggested the people want a mechanism in
city allow him to relax a rule order to have this as an option
requiring duplexes and multi- rather than not have anything,
ple-family dwellings to have but it needs to be licensed and
either a carport or a garage.
regulated, or have some type
And, he said, if the com- of permit.”
mission wanted to
• During pub-
be really aggres-
lic comment on the
sive on the issue,
hiring criteria for
they could stop
a new city man-
allowing
sin-
ager, Ken Yuill,
gle-family dwell-
who serves on the
ings in high-den-
Planning
Com-
sity
residential
mission,
urged
zones.
the City Commis-
“I don’t know
sion to hire City
how palatable you
Recorder Linda
Mark
may ind it, but
Engbretson, the
Kujala
it would, I think,
city manager pro
have a really good
tem, for the perma-
effect in terms of providing nent position.
opportunities for more mul-
“I’m a very strong sup-
tiple-family dwellings,” Url- porter of taking care of peo-
ing said.
ple who take care of us,” Yuill
said. “In this situation, I’m
In other business:
totally in line that you picked
• The commission directed the correct person for the pro
Urling to come up with con- tem, and I would like to see
cepts for regulating homes that person become the new
used as vacation rentals.
city manager.”
City staff has received an
Engbretson
was
increasing number of inqui- appointed pro tem when
ries about where and how former City Manager Kurt
such rentals can be operated Fritsch resigned in late June.
in Warrenton, Urling wrote in Engbretson’s interim role
a staff report.
lasts four months, per the city
However, “the develop- charter; however, that time-
ment code is silent on the line can be adjusted, City
issue,” neither prescribing a Attorney Hal Snow said.
zoning district where vacation
The commission adopted
rentals would be permitted a resolution laying out direc-
outright or by commercial use, tives for inding Fritsch’s
nor laying out operating stan- replacement, but Kujala said
dards and criteria, he wrote.
the commission doesn’t nec-
The city believes that essarily need to go further
“some unquantiied number in the hiring process at this
of property owners” are using point.
their structures as short-term
“I don’t think we’re in
rentals, though the city hasn’t any hurry, myself,” Kujala
received any complaints so said. “I think we’re doing
far, he wrote.
very well.”
Continued from Page 1A
Photos courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard
The U.S. Coast Guard’s command center at Air Station Astoria includes rooms to moni-
tor radio traffic along the coastline from Queets, Washington, to Pacific City, and up the
Columbia River to Lewiston, Idaho.
a positioning beacon and life
jackets.
“Our chances of inding you
with a life jacket on is 99 per-
cent,” Harrison said, adding the
odds are drastically lower for
those trying to tread water in
the on average 54 degree water.
Always Ready
An unofficial illustration made from the U.S. national
animal incorporates the multiple skillsets of operations
specialists with the U.S. Coast Guard, who oversee the
agency’s response to emergencies using advanced com-
munications, information-gathering and cartography.
on water” and “I see a lare” to
assess whether someone is in an
emergency. “You can hear the
excitement level,” he said.
Helping the command cen-
ter are tools such as Rescue 21,
a network of radio towers span-
ning the coast and Columbia and
allowing operators to communi-
cate with and ping the position
of people in distress. Special-
ized software helps the opera-
tors guess the position and sur-
vivability of people in the water.
Buoy 10
Over the last three years,
Sector Columbia River’s com-
mand center has handled more
than 1,800 calls, more than 40
percent of those are disabled
vessels.
“I would say the major-
ity of our disabled calls come
from Buoy 10,” Caldwell said.
“They run out of gas. They’re
out there ishing and not paying
attention.”
Activity spikes during the
Buoy 10 summer salmon ish-
ery in August, which lures
thousands of isherman out on
the water from Tongue Point to
the mouth of the Columbia.
Much of the Coast Guard’s
work during Buoy 10 is preven-
tion. As part of Operation Make
Way, radio operators in the
radio room send out broadcasts
telling boaters to move for large
vessels navigating the Colum-
bia’s thin commercial channel.
Hundreds of auxiliarists pro-
vide free boat inspections and
patrol as part of a community
watch.
Caldwell said the Coast
Guard continually cautions
boaters to be prepared when
they go out on the water by
getting their boats checked
and carrying a powerful radio,
The command center ulti-
mately handled 12 cases Fri-
day. The person in the water
near Ocean Park turned out to
be crab pots. The Coast Guard
sent its helicopter back shortly
after takeoff, when the disabled
vessel on Grays Harbor bar
was towed to safety by a good
Samaritan.
Each case the command cen-
ter handles is followed by at least
an hour of paperwork, Caldwell
said, “but that’s our job.”
What especially angers the
operators in the command cen-
ter are hoax callers, which cost
the Coast Guard thousands of
dollars to respond to and divert
attention away from real emer-
gencies. Sector Columbia River
has a continuing issue with
a person placing hoax calls
from near Megler Mountain in
Paciic County.
“We pretty much know
when it’s him,” Caldwell said.
“People could die because of it.
We don’t like it.”
Hospice Volunteers Needed
In the absence of a cure, care makes all the difference
Seal: Ribbon seals ‘are known
to be exceptional travelers’
Continued from Page 1A
white lines wrapping around
their bodies, could only be the
same species as the one seen
on the peninsula. But ribbon
seals are usually found high up
in the North Paciic Ocean, in
the Bering and Okhotsk Seas
and even in the Arctic Ocean.
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
conirmed this identiication
later in the day. Now there’s
another data point charting the
varied journeys of ribbon seals
outside of their usual hunting
grounds. It’s a connect-the-
dots with very few dots.
The last time anyone
reported a sighting in Wash-
ington was four years ago,
near Seattle. Before that, in
the 1960s, a ribbon seal was
reported down in California.
“They are known to be
exceptional travelers,” said
NOAA wildlife biologist
Michael Cameron, who works
with the agency’s Marine
Mammal Lab and the Alaska
Fisheries Science Center in the
Polar Ecosystems Program.
But these longer trav-
els usually take place when
the animals are younger, and
the seal in Surfside looked
like a healthy adult male to
Cameron.
“It’s not uncommon for
sub-adult animals, marine
mammals, to make long migra-
tions until they’re old enough
to breed,” Cameron said. An
adult ribbon seal this far south,
however, “is more unusual.”
Ribbon seals normally stick
to the far north seas, mov-
ing with the ice. They are rel-
atively solitary, according to
NOAA biologists, spending
much of their time in the open
ocean and hauling out on ice
loes.
Not a sign of the times
The sighting of a rib-
bon seal in Surfside proba-
bly doesn’t point to anything
larger, like shifting climate
change patterns or troubles
with ribbon seal populations
in the Bering Sea, Cameron
said.
“It’s interesting from a nat-
ural life history perspective,”
he said. But it’s not something
wildlife biologists are going to
rush out and research. NOAA
has radio-tagged a number of
ribbon seals in the Bering Sea;
none of those have made the
journey down here, yet.
The worldwide population
of ribbon seals is believed
to be between 200,000 and
240,000 — an estimate based
on surveys conducted in the
1970s. According to NOAA,
Siberia and Alaska Natives
have hunted the seals for many
generations and currently take
less than an estimated 200
seals each year. Soviet seal-
ers hunted for ribbon seals
as well. During this time,
from the 1960s to the 1980s,
the Bering Sea population is
thought to have declined from
80,000 or 90,000 animals, to
60,000.
The
program
Cam-
eron is involved with — the
Polar Ecosystems Program
— is, according to NOAA,
“actively studying and moni-
toring ribbon seals to support
a more reliable assessment of
their status” and to discover
more about their life cycles
and health and any threats
they face.
Safe zones: Committee spent years
working on signs, developing routes
Continued from Page 1A
Inspired by blue lines indi-
cating tsunami safe zones in
areas of New Zealand, the
markings are accompanied by
signs notifying pedestrians and
vehicles that they are leaving
the tsunami hazard zone.
Wierson said the blue lines
raise daily awareness, reduce
the number of signs needed
and allow people to plan their
own evacuation route.
“If people don’t have a
map, they will see it with signs
and by the mark in the pave-
ment,” he said.
The emergency prepared-
ness committee has worked
on the blue line project for
about a year and a half, chair-
woman and founder Karo-
lyn Adamson said. The com-
mittee has spent many years
working on signs and devel-
oping routes.
“We’ve made a lot of prog-
ress, but we still have a long
way to go,” she said.
Make a Difference
Volunteers hold a special place in the hearts of our patients
and their families. Volunteers serve hospice patients in a variety
of ways including respite care, companionship, listening to
concerns and other loving acts.
Apply by Sept. 23 to be a hospice volunteer. Participation in a
20-hour training program (Oct. 3-7, 2016) is required.
Call our Volunteer Coordinator at 503-325-4321 for more
information and an application.
Lower Columbia Hospice serves patients and families in
Clatsop County.
2111 Exchange St., Astoria, Oregon • 503-325-4321
www.columbiamemorial.org • A Planetree-Designated Hospital