Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2017)
4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017 Cascadia: Responders from east side might help west Chelan ine lt l 90 Wenatchee 90 Tacoma Olympia Severe Yakima Strong Moderate * Based on Modified Mercalli Intensity scale 82 Longview Astoria Vancouver lumbia Riv e r Co Portland The Dalles 84 Richland Pasco Lewiston Walla Walla Kennewick Umatilla Hermiston Boardman Pendleton Enterprise La Grande 5 101 Salem 84 Corvallis Redmond Bend Eugene Scenario epicenter, magnitude 9.0 earthquake Burns 5 Coos Bay Council John Day OREGON Ontario Boise Caldwell Nampa 84 Roseburg 101 Sources: Cascadia Rising exercise scenario document; U.S. Geological Survey, Earthquake Hazards Program Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group munications director for Good Shepherd Health Care System, said immediately after Casca- dia they would implement their emergency operations plan. “We would call in all nurses and physicians within driving distance that could make it in,” he said, calling it an “all hands on deck” situation. Bejarano said as many as 60,000 injured and hospital- ized people from the west side the state will need to be tri- aged and evacuated to hospi- tals still in operation. The hospi- tal in Hermiston is only licensed for 25 beds, and many Eastern Oregon hospitals have simi- larly small numbers, so he said patients being fl own out of the west will be sent as far away as Utah. However, Good Shepherd would take in as many people as it could handle, including those with less serious injuries who could be stitched up and released. The Red Cross and FEMA, meanwhile, would be working to set up shelter. In Oregon the state estimates 520,000 people will need shelter in the after- math of Cascadia, while about 500,000 more will stay in their own makeshift shelters but still Grants Pass N Medford Klamath Falls 40 miles Ashland 5 CALIFORNIA NEVADA EO Media Group/File Photo Friends and family watch as four Oregon Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopters with the 1st Battalion, 168th Aviation Regiment, fly in formation over the runway at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton. The airport would become a critical resource if the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake strikes the Pacific Northwest. need support with food and water. Monique Dugaw, commu- nications director for the Cas- cades region of the Red Cross, said the nonprofi t works closely with the government during disasters and participated in the Cascadia Rising drill. After an earthquake the Red Cross would start by providing shelter. “We would be focused on meeting immediate needs, a cot, a blanket, a place to stay that’s safe and warm, three meals a day,” she said. Sending out supplies The government plans to use Robert’s Field in Redmond as the Federal Incident Sup- port Base on the assumption it remains mostly undamaged during Cascadia. Steve Chrisman, manager of the Pendleton Airport, said he Ralph Werner of Hermis- ton, inspired by the book “When All Plans Fail” by Paul Williams, is laying the groundwork for those efforts now by creating a neighborhood disaster plan with the 18 houses surrounding his. “If no one knows what to do, we have chaos,” he said. Riv er Very strong IDAHO r Snake R i v e 5 Weak Spokane Sn ak e Ground shaking intensity* Coulee Dam WASHINGTON Seattle EO Media Group PENDLETON — In the days following a major natural disaster when government and nonprofit resources are still over- whelmed, one of the best ways to help can be taking care of others. R i ver mb Colu ia 101 fau on Umatilla County emergency manager Tom Roberts said he could see Umatilla County quickly becoming sandwiched between refugees from the west and volunteers and journalists pouring in from the east. Many of the people coming from the west side of the state will likely have injuries sus- tained as buildings and bridges collapsed. Nick Bejarano, com- 5 ub du cti Infl ux of people Ca sc ad ia s A large earthquake on the Cascadia subduction fault line in the Pacific Ocean would shake the entire Pacific Northwest. B.C., CANADA Vancouver Ocean Mutual aid In 2015 Umatilla County signed a “sister county” agree- ment with Tillamook County, agreeing to send its public works director and other staff to the coast to help in the event of a major natural disaster. Public works director Tom Fellows said he and his Tilla- mook County counterpart have both taken multiple trips to their sister county to tour infra- structure, meet employees and get familiar with the available resources. “The initial thought is that if something happens down there, there’s not only going to be chaos, but leadership down there is going to be focused on their own families — as they should be — so we could bring in some leadership,” he said. Fellows said both coun- ties have expressed an inter- est in expanding the agreement to other departments such as health and law enforcement. Umatilla County’s ongo- ing partnerships with Morrow County would also come into play. Morrow County emer- gency manager John Bowles said his county doesn’t have the resources of some of the larger counties in the state, but they would contribute what they could, which might include things like caring for livestock rescued from the west side of the state. “We have the land that we could take a chunk and throw some sheep or cattle or horses on it in the event of an emer- gency,” he said. Bowles said in the coming months the Morrow County Sheriff’s Department plans to use its Facebook page and other venues to provide educational materials about emergency preparedness. According to the state’s Cas- cadia Subduction Zone plan, fi refi ghters, law enforcement, engineers, building inspectors, medical personnel and others from the east side of the state will also be requested to help on the west side. Cascadia Rising Pacific Continued from Page 1A MAKE A NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN recently sent a pitch to the state arguing that Pendleton should be the backup or secondary location for sending supplies and volunteers west. “Pendleton for a lot of rea- sons seems like a pretty logical backup,” he said. He pointed out that the Pendleton Airport has a “mas- sive” concrete apron for stag- ing surrounded by more than a thousand acres of fl at land to set up camps. The airport includes an Oregon National Guard han- gar and armory, two runways large enough to land a Boe- ing 737 and a 34,000-square- foot hangar for staging. Nearby resources like the Pendleton Convention Center, Round-Up Grounds, farms and 1,400 hotel rooms could also be utilized. “We have a lot of food pro- cessing in the area, whereas they would have to ship a lot of that to central Oregon,” Chris- man said. The locations would also be more conveniently located to ports along the Columbia River, where supplies could be sent by boat if bridge collapses were not blocking the river too far east. Coming Wednesday: Casca- dia: Day 30. Werner started by going door to door and asking his neighbors to fill out a questionnaire that will be compiled and redistributed to the neighborhood. The survey asks for contact information, the names and ages of people living in the house, the location of utility shut-offs (most fires after earthquakes start with natural gas leaks) and a list of useful skills such as medical training or plumb- ing repair. Werner has also created a nine-step plan for everyone to follow. Once they have checked off the personal items — such as turning off utilities and dressing in protective clothing — Wer- ner asks everyone to place a special card in the front window indicating whether they are OK or need help. “If no card is visible, we will check on them in case they are injured and can’t reach the window,” he said. Next, the plan asks every- one to report to the “neigh- borhood care center” — in this case, Werner’s house. There, the neighbors will break into teams, with some checking on “special needs” houses (those with children or elderly/disabled residents) while others will take first aid kits out in search of the injured or stay at the center to listen for updates on the NOAA weather radio. Werner said he would en- courage all neighborhoods to implement similar plans of their own, which will allow people to organize and find those who need help as quickly as possi- ble. Businesses, church congregations, extended families and other groups should also consider who might need checking on or how to communicate in the event of an emergency. Wetlands: ‘Still a lot of work to be done’ Protests: Group faced off with Portland police Continued from Page 1A Expecting a negative retort, Kidd was surprised by the man’s next question. “Why aren’t there any more wapato?” he said. For more than a decade, numerous organizations, including the National Park Service, have worked to restore wetlands in the Youngs Bay w atershed. Kidd, an environmental science and resources Ph.D candidate at Portland State University, recently submitted her disser- tation for review. The disserta- tion details the progress of the restoration effort based on her study. Watershed development Settlers near the turn of the 20th century cleared much of the watershed for develop- ment, building dams for irri- gation and allowing cows to graze. The result: 97 percent of tidal wetlands in the water- shed disappeared from 1880 to the early 1990s, Kidd said. Native wildlife and plant species, like the wapato plant noted in explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s journals, were completely decimated. “It lost any sense of nat- ural diversity that would have been there,” said Made- line Ishikawa, a habitat resto- ration program manager with the Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce. “It was very fl at.” Lewis and Clark National Historical Park’s expansion in 2005 included roughly 100 acres of wetlands near the Lewis and Clark River. Since the expansion, the park has worked with numerous organizations, including the Columbia River Estuary Task- force, to restore the wetlands. Kidd’s surveyed the results of these projects as part of her study. Projects involved re veg- etation, removing tide gates and some levees, modifying tidal channels, removing fi ll material, building a bridge to allow fi sh passage, placing wood debris and creating and enhancing side channels. Return of the wapato While wapato plants have not returned to the wetlands naturally as a result of the restoration, the Park Service planted roughly 20,000 bulbs near Colewort Creek in late 2012 and early 2013, parks service Chief of Resource Management Chris Clatter- buck said. The park is also growing the plants at its nursery. The projects cost almost $1.5 million. Lewis and Clark National Historical Park con- tributed 20 percent of the funds along with numerous other governmental and non- profi t groups. Topographical diver- sity was a key to the proj- ects, Ishikawa said. Methods such as creating hummocks out of wood debris allowed for a wider array of plant life, avoid creating muddy fl ats and account for future rises in sea levels, she said. While they expected the land to eventually reclaim characteristics of wetlands, project leaders were surprised by the speed of the restoration, Clatterbuck said. What remains One thing that remains despite the progress, how- ever, are non-native species in upper marshes. There, plants such as reed canary grass and common rush have edged out native plants like bulrush and wapato, Kidd said. At the beginning of her study, Clatterbuck asked Kidd to determine whether one of two things was to blame: a lack of exposure to tidal water or lack of salinity. For the most part, lack of salinity was the larger issue, Kidd’s study concludes. Protecting and restor- ing seed banks in the higher marshes would be the most effective way to combat this issue, Kidd said. “As we move forward, we need to take a more active role in restoring these high marsh zones,” she said. Kidd’s study has informed the park service’s future design plans and has high- lighted areas the park should emphasize in future resto- ration efforts, Clatterbuck said. “You should really try to maximize that low marsh even if you sacrifi ce some res- toration in the high marsh,” he said. One certainty is that the ever-changing biological and land use changes in wetlands owned by the park service and throughout the Youngs Bay w atershed will lead to more projects and studies. “I don’t think we’re near the end of fi nding areas out there that need to be restored,” Ishikawa said. “I think there’s still a lot of work to be done out there.” Continued from Page 1A A rally in downtown Los Angeles also drew thousands. Demonstrators there called attention to Trump’s crack- down on immigration and his party’s response to climate change and the environment. Organizers said they chose to rally on the holiday as a way to honor past presidents by exer- cising their constitutional right to assemble and peacefully pro- test. They chanted: “Love not hate makes America great.” In Chicago, several hundred rallied across the river from the Trump Tower, shouting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go.” Rebecca Wolfram of Chi- cago, who’s in her 60s, said concerns about climate change and immigrant rights under Trump prompted her to start attending rallies. “I’m trying to demonstrate as much as possible until I fi g- ure out what else to do,” said Wolfram, who held a sign that said “Old white ladies are really displeased.” Several hundred demon- strated in Washington, D.C. Dozens gathered around the fountain in Dupont Circle chanting “Dump Trump” and “Love, not hate: That’s what makes America great.” Dozens marched through midtown Atlanta for a rally named with a Georgia fl avor: “ImPEACH NOW! (Not My) President’s Day March.” Hundreds of protesters chanting “This is what democ- racy looks like” marched through Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the crowd marched to push back against Trump and Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian About 50 people gathered at the intersection of Commercial and Eighth streets as part of Not My President’s Day protests nationwide Monday. “Our message is positive,” said Laurie Caplan, an organizer of the protest through Indivisible North Coast Oregon. “We want to keep our democracy strong.” his administration’s stance on such issues as the environment, immigration, free speech and Russia. Some people raised signs that said “Not My President,” while others held up a large American fl ag. Protester Reg Brookings warned the crowd that Trump is trying to divide the country by making such groups as immigrants the enemy. Portland protest A small but unruly group of protesters faced off with police in downtown Portland, Oregon. The Oregonian reports the police confronted the crowd in front of the Edith Green-Wen- dell Wyatt Federal Building. Police took some people into custody. Hundreds of Trump oppo- nents and supporters turned out in Rapid City, South Dakota. A larger anti-Trump faction stood on a street corner as part of a “Not My President” pro- test, similar to other demon- strations being held across the country. A group supporting the president lined up on a differ- ent corner at the same intersec- tion. Police were on hand and the groups remained peaceful. The Rapid City Journal reported the anti-Trump pro- testers held up posters including some reading, “Make Amer- ica Think Again” and “Build bridges, not walls.” Supporters of the president waved Amer- ican fl ags and held signs say- ing “God Bless our Presidents; Go Trump” and “Veterans for Trump.” W A NTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
