The daily Astorian., December 01, 2017, WEEKEND EDITION, Image 21

GREAT COASTAL GALE OF 2007
TEN-YEAR ANNIVERSARY // DECEMBER 2017
STORM BROUGHT NEIGHBORS, COMMUNITIES
TOGETHER
Water from Plympton
Creek rushes under a
railroad trestle Dec. 3,
2007 near the Westport
Fire Department.
THE DAILY ASTORIAN
Coast cut off from rest of
world for nearly a week
R
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
osemary Johnson felt strange admitting it,
but she was having fun.
She had never seen Astoria from the air,
and, now on a December day in 2007, the
city planner was up in a Coast Guard helicopter seeing
the city as she had never seen it before.
But she was only in the helicopter because hurri-
cane-force winds had just pummeled coastal Oregon
and Washington, knocking out power for days, felling
trees, shutting down highways and inflicting severe
damage on many homes and buildings.
Johnson had worked nonstop for days with other
city employees and an army of volunteers to document
the damage from the ground, creating a record to back
insurance claims and secure emergency funding. Now
she needed to get a bird’s eye view of the challenge
ahead of her.
From the ground, she knew the damage was bad.
From the air, she saw exactly how the wind had carved
up the city. It looked like a giant had raised its hand
and raked its fingers across Astoria.
See CUT Off, Page D7
Guarding against another gale
Improvements ready
county for next storm
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A
s wind howled and rain pounded the pavement
in December 2007, Clatsop County’s entire
emergency management department huddled
inside a parked car to catch some sleep.
The task wasn’t too difficult — the department con-
sisted of just one part-time employee.
Gene Strong, a retired Wahkiakum County sheriff,
was the county’s emergency services coordinator. For
five days, he and other North Coast residents were cut
off from the rest of the world. He stayed at the sheriff’s
office in Astoria to coordinate response efforts and try —
often in vain — to request help from the state.
Trees littered the roadways. Communication channels
went down. Two people died and thousands lacked vital
resources for days. County staff scrambled to react.
Things slowly began to normalize after about a week.
But as the skies became clearer, so too did the need for
emergency officials to learn from the experience and
make some fundamental changes.
In the decade since the Great Coastal Gale, hazardous
trees have been removed, communications systems hard-
ened and emergency management operations reformed
and expanded. Residents also appear to have better pre-
pared themselves for another major weather disruption.
While some concerns persist and others are impossi-
ble to fully plan for, officials are more confident about
their readiness.
“I think we’re better prepared,” said Strong, who is
now retired. “It doesn’t happen by accident. Their suc-
cess is because they plan and they’re prepared.”
Highways impassable
Life was miserable for many during the gale. Stranded
and displaced residents had to deal with shortages of crit-
ical resources such as food, fuel and medical supplies.
Both Strong and County Emergency Manager Tif-
fany Brown narrow the many issues down to two fac-
tors: communication and transportation. In fact, out of
the 18 emergency support functions outlined in the coun-
ty’s emergency operations plan, transportation and com-
munication appear first and second.
See READY, Page 6D