GREAT COASTAL GALE OF 2007
Page 2 // December 2017
STORM
FACTS
FROM
2007
rompting a first-ever National Weather Service hurricane warn-
ing in the Pacific Northwest, the storm of Dec. 1, 2 and 3, 2007
(Saturday through Monday) wreaked damage reminiscent of
a Japanese monster movie. Sometimes now called the Great
Coastal Gale of 2007, the storm’s top reported gust was 147 mph at
Radar Ridge, an ocean-facing mountaintop in Washington.
Besides intensity, most locals shudder to recall the storm’s dura-
tion. It was a one-two-three punch. A fairly typical storm on Dec. 1 led
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DailyAstorian.com
almost without intermission into a wild combination of continuous wind
and tropical rain fueled by remnants of Typhoon Mitag and Typhoon
Hagibis. Destruction of Bonneville Power Administration high-voltage
transmission towers cut off electricity to nearly everyone around the
Columbia River estuary for up to two days. Thousands of fallen trees
pulled down neighborhood power poles and lines, leaving some homes
without power for a week or more. For a time, all highways out of the
area were blocked by debris and flooding.
Military rescued hundreds of
people during 2007 storm
Flooding concentrated
in Vernonia in Oregon
and along Chehalis River
in Washington
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
S
AIR FORCE
Some of the streets in Vernonia were under several feet of water Dec. 4, 2007.
ers stranded in high winds on Long Island
in Washington’s Willapa Bay when he
received a message about flooding along
the Chehalis.
“People were requesting assistance
with evacuation,” he said. “Essentially,
the river going through there had over-
loaded its banks, washing out homes.”
The Chehalis originates in southwest
Washington, hooking through the west
side of Lewis County before heading
toward Grays Harbor. The river reached
nearly 75 feet during the 2007 storm, 10
feet above flood level, and caused mas-
sive flooding, stranding hundreds and
shutting down a 20-mile stretch of Inter-
state 5 for several days.
The Coast Guard sent two Jayhawks
from Air Station Astoria on Dec. 3, along
with an MH-65 Dolphin from Port Ange-
les, Washington.
Bartram’s was the first helicopter to
arrive. Chief Michael Spencer, a former
rescue swimmer with the Coast Guard,
was in the second helicopter from Astoria.
“It was probably the worst flying I’ve
ever done, heading from Astoria,” Spen-
cer said of the winds, reaching 70 mph
sustained with gusts over 100 mph. “Once
we hit the (Interstate 5) corridor, it was
just torrential rain.”
“We turned the corner in the Che-
halis River, and that whole valley was
just one big river,” Spencer said of the
Chehalis Valley.
Spencer remembers being hoisted
from house to house, pulling stranded
people off roofs and out of windows.
“Most people were either on the roof,
or they were in a place where I could gain
entry through a window,” he said.
Spencer credits his flight mechanic
for expertly directing his hoist and at one
point helping he and a survivor avoid
floating into a barbed wire fence.
Bartram said the Coast Guard would
rescue nearly 40 people, along with more
than 10 pets, over a stretch of about eight
hours, before flying back to Astoria with
the entire region out of power.
“It was total dark,” he said. “Back then
we had basic radar and a screen. We were
using the buoy lights in the Columbia to
get back.”
Peter Troedsson, then commander of
Group Astoria and now city manager in
Albany, remembers the agency evacu-
ating about 140 flood victims in Lewis
County and another 30 around Tillamook,
where crew from Station Tillamook Bay
evacuated people using a skiff.
“By and large, the rescues were from
flooding, and Clatsop County is more
mountainous,” he said.
Troedsson remembered closing the
entrance to the Columbia, the supermar-
ket shelves getting bare and a week with-
out power.
“But everyone came together,” he
said. “A lot of citizens came together,
helped each other, helped older folks get
supplies.”
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Flooding in Chehalis
Cmdr. Dave Bartram, executive officer
at the Coast Guard’s Air Station Astoria,
was piloting an MH-60 Jayhawk helicop-
ter whose crew was rescuing two hunt-
OREGON AIR NATIONAL GUARD
Technical Sgt. Stefano Guadagnuolo, right, gets directions to help find the sibling of a local girl in Vernonia.
© 2017 Pacifi c Power
tefano Guadagnuolo vividly
remembers approaching the out-
skirts of Vernonia the morning of
Dec. 4, 2007, as part of a military
rescue team.
More than 11 inches of rain over a cou-
ple of days had caused the Nehalem River
and Rock Creek running through the mid-
dle of town to swell by more than a foot,
flooding streets and stranding hundreds.
“We got to Vernonia at daybreak, and
we immediately started to search through
the houses,” he said. “We used the 5-ton
trucks to go through the water, which was
chest-high.”
High winds battered the coast, causing
massive property damage. But most res-
cues were because of flooding, punctu-
ated by mass evacuations of hundreds in
Vernonia by the National Guard, and by
the Coast Guard and other agencies along
the Chehalis River in Lewis County,
Washington.
Guadagnuolo is a member of the 125th
Special Tactics Squadron, a unit operated
by the Oregon Air National Guard and the
Air Force. Its ranks include combat oper-
ators trained in establishing communica-
tions and pararescue jumpers equivalent
to paramedics.
Over the years, the unit has responded
to several major storms in the U.S. Ver-
nonia was one of the first, after Hurricane
Katrina.
“We kept going from house to house
to house, grabbing everybody we could
and putting them in the back of the truck,”
he said. “We were transporting people to
the fire station, where they had shelters
and a kitchen. We did that all day until
nightfall.”
Floodwaters wrecked much of the city,
including local schools. By nightfall, the
Red Cross was reporting more than 550
people in shelters. Several hundred peo-
ple were rescued from around Vernonia,
Mist and surrounding areas, according to
former Columbia County Commissioner
Tony Hyde.
Then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski vis-
ited Vernonia after the floods, vowing to
marshal state resources to help the town
recover. By 2012, the city had opened a
new $40 million K-12 school high above
the city’s flood plain, paid for by local
bonds, the Federal Emergency Manage-
ment Agency, state contributions, founda-
tions and donations.