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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2017
Tsunami zones: Clatsop County maintains
a robust Emergency Management Division
Continued from Page 1A
AP Photo/Gerry Broome
Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl leaves the Fort Bragg court-
room facility as the judge deliberates during a sentenc-
ing hearing at Fort Bragg, N.C., Friday.
Bergdahl spared
any prison time,
gets dishonorable
discharge
By JONATHAN DREW
Associated Press
FORT BRAGG, N.C. —
Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier
who walked off his post in
Afghanistan and triggered a
search that left several com-
rades severely wounded,
will serve no prison time, a
military judge ruled Friday
at the end of the politically
divisive case that stirred
debate during the president
campaign.
President Donald Trump,
whose campaign-trail criti-
cism loomed over the case,
quickly called the sentence a
“disgrace.”
The charges centered on
a decision by one soldier that
affected many other lives.
Bergdahl, a 31-year-old from
Hailey, Idaho, was captured
by the Taliban and held for
fi ve years, until President
Barack Obama traded Tal-
iban prisoners to bring him
back. As a presidential candi-
date, Trump called for Berg-
dahl to face stiff punishment.
He could have received up to
life in prison.
The judge also gave
Bergdahl a dishonorable dis-
charge, reduced his Army
rank from sergeant to pri-
vate and ordered him to for-
feit pay equal to $1,000 per
month for 10 months.
The judge gave no expla-
nation of how he arrived at
his decision, but he reviewed
evidence including Berg-
dahl’s time spent in captivity
and the wounds suffered by
Army searchers.
In Astoria, the city is updat-
ing its emergency response
plans, researching resources
and equipment. The Oregon
State Police opted to move
from their Astoria offi ce, out
of the inundation zone, and
into a new building when the
opportunity arose. But then a
child care center moved in.
Warrenton updated its
evacuation maps, but the
city’s Planning Commission
approved developments in
areas that will be underwater
when the tsunami hits.
Meanwhile, in Hammond
and Warrenton’s neighbor-
hoods, Community Emer-
gency Response Team volun-
teer Sylvia Stephens passes
out blue plastic bags fi lled
with pamphlets and maps to
help people prepare for emer-
gency situations. Much of the
information is specifi c to tsu-
namis and earthquakes.
For many years, Can-
non Beach has committed
resources to planning for a
Cascadia event and is looking
at its sand dunes, asking how
these natural features could
protect the community but
also create a space to use in
the meantime.
Clatsop County maintains
a robust Emergency Manage-
ment Division.
Still, large grocery stores
are already established in
the inundation zone, as are
schools, neighborhoods new
and old, fi re stations, police
stations, all of Astoria and
Warrenton’s pharmacies —
with the exception of the phar-
macy at Costco. All the liquor
stores.
Cities can’t just press a
pause button, and they can’t
hit rewind.
At a work session in Octo-
ber, Astoria City Councilor
Bruce Jones said even looking
into routine strategic planning
or community visioning ques-
tions in Astoria right now is
like “changing a tire on a mov-
ing car.”
“The (North Coast) com-
munity knows the tsunami
and earthquake are a big
hazard and a part of living
here,” said Hannah Dank-
bar, a coastal planner with the
Columbia River Estuary Study
Taskforce.
But, she said, the tension
is this: “The town is devel-
oped, so where are we going
to move things?”
‘Where we live’
Astoria Fire Chief Ted
Ames has suggested estab-
lishing a secondary fi re sta-
tion at the top of the hill. The
two existing fi re stations are
located downtown, in the
inundation zone.
Not only would a hilltop
location shorten the depart-
ment’s response time — vol-
unteers who live on Astoria’s
South Slope have to come
downtown to board an engine
and then drive back over the
hill to fi ght a fi re in their own
neighborhood — it would
move important resources
onto stable ground.
“Police, Fire, 911 Dispatch
and Public Works are the city’s
premier emergency response
agencies,” a memo to Astoria
city councilors in September
stated.
All of these facilities are
located in the inundation zone,
a situation that is “not condu-
cive to building disaster resil-
ience for the city of Astoria.”
When the Shooting Stars
Child Development Center
announced it was moving to
the building on Gateway Ave-
nue, the same building Oregon
State Police had left behind,
some parents were concerned,
said Denise Giliga, the cen-
ter’s director.
When the president of the
local longshore union chap-
ter appealed the Astoria Plan-
ning Commission’s decision
to let the center operate out of
the building, he referenced the
tsunami hazards.
Giliga had also considered
them.
“It was one of the points
that was steering me away
(from the Gateway building)
at the beginning,” she said.
But of the few options in
front of her, the Gateway build-
ing remained the best. And the
parents who were concerned
about the new location? “They
realize this is where we live,
and this is almost every area,”
Giliga said.
She and her staff have
established several evacu-
ation plans and evacuation
sites for the Gateway build-
ing. They have emergency
cribs equipped with monster
wheels. Every month, they
hold fi re and other emergency
drills. They can quickly com-
municate with parents through
FlashAlerts for events as
benign as snow days and as
serious as an earthquake or
tsunami evacuation.
They have teamed up with
neighboring businesses to pro-
vide nearby evacuation sites in
the case of a large fi re. Another
evacuation site is at a park
on Alameda Avenue, in the
shadow of the Astoria Bridge.
“But I hate that idea in an
earthquake,” Giliga said.
They are actively looking
for another site.
Small changes
The next Cascadia event
will affect every community
differently. In Seaside, tsu-
nami waves carry real men-
ace, and they will destroy parts
of Warrenton. In Astoria, the
earthquake will do the most
damage.
To Corcoran and others
involved in tsunami prepara-
tions, there are small changes
that could be made now.
“The choices are not: Shut-
ting down development in the
tsunami inundation zones. Or:
Doing whatever we want,”
Corcoran said. “The question
the experience is begging is
to ask what kind of additional
thinking can we do about
development in the tsunami
inundation zones now, espe-
cially the worst of the inunda-
tion zones, those areas that we
know will get inundated ver-
sus those that might.”
He suggests an inventory
of buildings in downtown
Astoria so people renting a
space know the structure, what
is likely to hold up and what
might be problematic. There
are small fi xes like replac-
ing glass skylights with plas-
tic bubble windows so falling
glass doesn’t injure someone
below.
“We will learn to thrive
here in Cascadia, I am confi -
dent,” Corcoran said. “But the
next Big One is going to be
our big learning curve.”
Thai: Food cart focuses on what’s popular, including pad thai, fried rice
Continued from Page 1A
Sopa Burns wanted a
restaurant, but the couple found
fewer barriers to entry with a
food cart. Getting the custom
trailer built and running still
took several months, but Mai
Tong opened last week to more
than 50 customers on the fi rst
day.
The food cart focuses on
what’s popular, with Thai stand-
bys including pad thai, fried
rice, pad see ew and drunken
noodles, while adding special-
ties like lemongrass chicken
wings. Her dishes are made
with gluten-free ingredients.
Looking for a spot, the two
approached local real estate
agent Peter Tadei, who con-
nected them with Astoria Sta-
tion’s Claudine Gregory, who
My Hope for
Your Journey.
has been trying to surround
Reach Break Brewing and
Reveille Ciderworks with food
carts. Next to Mai Tong is Hot
Box BBQ. Sasquatch Sausage
recently left.
“You couldn’t ask for a bet-
ter spot,” Robert Burns said,
adding most of the customers
seem to be locals who had been
waiting for them to open.
Mai Tong operates from
11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday
through Monday, mirroring the
hours of Reach Break.
Join us for a
Celebration
of Life
Kyle Gallagher, PhD
Medical Physicist
Quality
Each diagnosis of cancer is personal, and when it comes to
treatment, one size does not fit all. What every patient does
have in common is the need to receive high-quality care.
As a medical physicist in the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer
Collaborative, I oversee the quality of our radiation treatment
program and work to ensure the safety of our patients every
step of their journey.
Medical Excellence without the Miles.
1905 Exchange Street | Astoria, OR 97103 | 503-338-4085
columbiamemorial.org/cancer-care
MaryJo Gruhlkey
November 11
3-6 pm
Pier 39 Banquet Room
(Pot Luck)
Please join us to honor
MaryJo who gave so much
to better this community