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.