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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager Water under the bridge Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers SOUTHERN EXPOSURE 10 years ago this week — 2007 Oregon Business Magazine has picked Astoria as the first stop in a “Business is Good!” tour of cities across the state. This fall, magazine editors and state leaders will visit the Duncan Law Seafood Consumer Center, Lektro, Englund Marine and Bornstein Sea- foods, the Astoria Riverfront Trolley and the Columbia River Maritime Museum, according to Paulette McCoy, event manager for the Astoria-War- renton Area Chamber of Commerce. McCoy worked with Astoria City Manager Paul Benoit to assemble a proposal for the magazine. Warrenton’s building boom along U.S. Highway 101 just keeps on going. With the long-awaited traffic light approved for Dolphin Lane, Home Depot is set to begin site preparation shortly on their 26-acre property on the west side of the highway, Warrenton City Planner Carol Parker said Wednesday. Three downtown buildings eventually may be sacrificed to improve traffic flow through downtown Astoria. The idea is to reroute traffic that now turns off Marine Drive onto Eighth Street, then makes a sharp left turn onto Commercial Street. It would be routed onto Ninth Street instead, Larry McKinley, area manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation, told the Astoria City Council Tuesday. The buildings that could be affected are the Eagles Lodge on Commer- cial Street at Ninth Street, an empty building owned by the Flavel family on the east side of Ninth and Papa Murphy’s pizza take-out restaurant on Marine Drive at Ninth Street. 50 years ago — 1967 R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian First Job Corpswomen assigned to Tongue Point Center will arrive Wednes- day, March 15, according to the latest word received by center officials from Job Corps authorities. Previ- ously the first women had been expected the first week in March. The first group will include 50 women, all of them from other centers where they will have spent less than 60 days. Groups of 100 will arrive Daily Astorian/File Photo each two weeks after March Mrs. Chris Rose has a handful of 15 until there is a total of 650 that white stuff that always seems by the end of June. to mean “Spring Is Here!” in Astoria. A study which may lead to a radical change in the whole educational program in Grades 7 through 12 in Clatsop and Tillamook counties is in progress, conducted under auspices of district boards and administrators of the two counties. The purpose of the study is to attempt to do a better job for the major- ity of students in the two counties who will not attend college or, if they do, will probably not finish their college courses. This study could lead to some of the most far–reaching changes in edu- cational program in history of the state, some educators predict. It had been in the planning stage for many months, and now is official — the historic Point Adams Coast Guard station at Hammond no longer exists. All personnel and boats have been transferred to the recently enlarged Cape Disappointment station at the base of the Colum- bia River north jetty near Ilwaco. 75 years ago — 1942 The Army today declared the western half of Washington, Oregon and California and the southern half of Arizona a military area from which enemy aliens and American born Japanese will be ousted progressively to rid the Pacific Coast of a potential fifth column threat. Created in the most drastic step yet taken toward alien control, the area was designed by Lt. Gen. John L. Dewitt, chief of the eastern defense com- mand under authority granted by President Roosevelt and the war depart- ment. It affected 140,000 enemy aliens and 70,000 American-born Jap- anese. California alone has 93,000 alien and American-born Japanese, Oregon and Washington have 27,000. Dewitt emphasized the proclamation merely sets up prohibited and restricted areas on the coast and does not represent an order for aliens and Japanese Americans to move out. Evacuation will be ordered later. The City Commission acted Monday night to protect Asto- ria’s extensive waterfront against sabotage by passing unan- imously an emergency ordinance prohibiting unauthorized persons from going upon such properties lying north of and including the Spokane, Portland and Seattle railroad right-of- way between the hours of sundown and sunrise. Pete Riedel brought two RescuePods to Seaside. Could they hold the answer for tsunami survival? In case of tsunami, enter the pod By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian Y ou can run but you can’t hide. But maybe you can float your way away. By some strange synchronicity, this is the year of the tsunami pod. A basic two-person 300-pound spherical pod built by former Boeing engineer Julian Sharpe, similar to the size and interior of the Gemini space capsule, costs $13,500; the four-person model sells for $17,500. The Survival Capsule can be tethered via a 100-foot steel cable connected to a concrete plug in the ground, essentially turning passengers inside into a buoy. On the same day the local and national news profiled the Survival Capsule, Pete Riedel of Reliable Emergency Shelters LLC came to Seaside with his two-seat RescuePod in tow to see “who’s interested and who’s not.” Like Sharpe, Riedel said he hopes to provide a way out for residents and visitors of coastal communi- ties threatened by the quake and subsequent tsunami expected in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. “I’m sticking my toe in the water seeing who could be our strategic partners, who wants us in town and who doesn’t.” The RescuePod sells for half of what you’ll pay for a Survival Pod, listing at $6,500. It can fit two adults weighing up to 300 pounds each. “In a pinch you could put small children or animals in there, too,” he added. RescuePod Inventor Randy Harper of Camas, Washington, was inspired by a request from a Seattle billionaire with a Pacific Island home, Riedel said, to develop the best apparatus to survive a tsunami. Not airtight Walter Underwood, Astoria chamber secretary, asked the congressional committee investigating the coastwide alien situation Thursday to remove alien Japanese from Astoria to meet the expressed demand of most of the town. Definite word may be expected this weekend on whether nationwide gasoline rationing will be ordered to alleviate grow- ing oil shortages on both coasts, Petroleum Coordinator Harold L. Ickes said today. If the industry recommends rationing, it is “very likely” that such action will be ordered, Ickes told a press conference. The pod is not airtight. Rather, it has closable vents on the top and a ballast at the bottom so the vents are always up and the hatch toward the sky. “It will act like a weeble-wob- ble,” Riedel said. “It will always land upright.” With 10 cubic feet of flotation foam and high-density polyethylene, the RescuePod can fill up entirely with water and won’t sink. The pod, in day-glo orange, has Lexan win- Submitted Photo Yes, Pete Riedel is in this tsunami pod after it goes over Husum Falls in Klickitat, Washington. dows with holes in them. Spin the glass and the vents open; spin them again and they close airtight. Riedel, a former officer with the Oregon National Guard, has a handshake that could crush limestone. He told me of his test ride as a passenger cascading off Husum Falls in Klickitat County, Washington, which drops 12 feet along the Salmon River. “It was pretty scary, but it wasn’t that bad,” he said. “You’re in a five- point harness racing seat. You don’t feel the shock as hard. The round base on the bottom absorbs quite a bit of the shock.” The pod, Riedel said, is intended for homeowners or people in the tsunami zone. I asked him if he could envision selling it on a larger scale, to cities or municipalities in the tsunami zone. After all, for example, if the Seaside School District had bought tsunami pods at $6,500 for each of their 1,000 or so students, they could have provided safety for $6.5 million rather than the $99.7 million required to move schools out of the tsunami zone. Economies of scale Jon Rahl, the assistant general manager of Seaside’s visitors bureau, said this week there are about 1,350 hotel rooms in Seaside. If every hotel came with a pod to match the number of rooms, the lives of many visitors could be saved for about $9 million. That’s a lot less than estimates for bridge replacement, which run to $35 million or more for the city’s most vulnerable crossings. “Once we get more economies of scale, we offer discounts for people who want two of them,” Riedel said. “I would love to see it come down another $2,000 if that’s doable.” Is the pod worthy of serious consideration? “Why not?” geologist and Seaside City Councilor Tom Horning said. “Work the numbers and see.” Those seeking shelter could ride out the wave, which, Horning said, would subside in between two to four hours near the epicenter. But, he added: “I’d rather see a bridge. The thing is, you’re trusting luck with these things. You give up all control when you get in it. If we had an east wind down, it would blow you out to sea, and then …” His voice drifted. Nevertheless Horning invited Riedel to come back to Seaside for a public demonstration. “Let the seller test it. Have him throw it in the Cove and see what happens. I’d be open to the idea.” So is Riedel. I told him of Horning’s interest and he’s willing to make a go of it. Test run “I figured we would get someone with a jet ski and tow us out the channel to the south and out to the break, have it go through the big waves and end on the rocks on shore and have it worked a bit on the rocks from the waves,” Riedel said this week. “I will need to put together a safety crew, someone willing to help tow us out into the surf and have the proper conditions.” So if you see something bright orange floating along the Cove, it’s not the latest exotic marine mammal swept up from the tropics. Maybe it’s something we’ll all be buying one day. Just in case. R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori- an’s South County reporter and edi- tor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.
