GREAT COASTAL GALE OF 2007
Page 6 // December 2017
DailyAstorian.com
READY: ‘He has spent the last 10 years
getting us into the 23rd century …’
Continued from Page 1
Every local highway was impassible
in some areas due to flooding, debris or
downed trees. With weather making heli-
copter flights impossible and high surf
blocking ships and boats, the county
fended for itself.
Resources dwindled, along with any
immediate prospects of relief.
“We were basically here, at the north-
west corner of the state, completely shut
off from everything,” Clatsop County
Sheriff Tom Bergin said. “Everything was
just a mess.”
Following the storm, Bergin advo-
cated for a state law that allowed poten-
tially hazardous trees to be removed from
roadways. Since the law passed five years
ago, many of the trees that likely would
have created obstacles in a future storm
have been cut.
Baptism by fire
Emergency officials and first respond-
ers struggled to communicate with each
other — much less the outside world.
Landslides breached both of the coun-
ty’s fiber optic rings on U.S. Highway 30
and in Tillamook, halting telephone and
internet usage in the entire county.
“Nobody ever thought it would be
possible to breach both rings,” said Asto-
ria Emergency Communications Manager
Jeff Rusiecki, who had started work at
his position just a few months before the
storm. “It was kind of a baptism by fire.”
Power outages squashed any chances
of normal communication. Even radio
sites, such as Astoria 911 Dispatch’s radio
repeater at Coxcomb Hill, were compro-
mised. With no way of relaying informa-
tion to the outside world, state agencies
could not adequately address the county’s
mounting problems.
“You can’t get the message out that
we’re having problems, and it’s really
hard to explain the problem to them,”
Strong said. “They think, ‘Oh, they’re
doing OK because they’re not crying for
help,’ when really it was hard to do that.
You couldn’t do that.”
The outages also affected police, fire
and medical emergency services. Offi-
cials who managed the storm response
stressed that, while communications
were shut down, amateur radio operators
became a saving grace.
Dozens of operators spread out to dif-
ferent dispatch centers in the county,
offering a medium for communica-
tion between dispatchers and emergency
responders.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Pacific Power
workers — and some who came from out-
side the state — worked to repair power
poles and more than 60 miles of transmis-
sion lines.
Since the storm, Rusiecki has led
efforts to harden communication systems
— creating more radio sites, establish-
ing more common radio communication
channels between first responders, and
expanding satellite phone capabilities. He
also lessened the dispatch center’s reliance
on fiber-optic cables by creating other
communication paths such as microwave
frequencies.
“He has
STORM FACTS:
spent the last
Astoria’s top official
10 years getting
gust was 94 mph,
us into the 23rd
compared to 96 mph
century as far as
in the Columbus Day
I’m concerned,”
Storm of 1962
Bergin said of
Rusiecki.
Pacific Power
also solidified its system by braiding
wires with cable, strengthening poles and
using more resilient types of metal. Tom
Gauntt, a Pacific Power spokesman, lik-
ened the damage sustained in the storm to
a totaled car.
“Essentially you had an entire system
that needed to be replaced,” Gauntt said.
But as time progresses, those capabil-
ities will need to be regularly updated,
Brown said. “Communications are an
ongoing project.”
One potential project could be adding
DAMIAN MULINIX
Residents waited two hours or more to buy a limited amount of gas at the Short Stop Shell station in Seaview. It was the only
station on the Peninsula selling gas to consumers — the Pioneer market Chevron sold only to emergency vehicles.
ALEX PAJUNAS
Storm victims pick out military MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) at Camp Rilea, which
offered warm meals and shelter from the storm.
John
Hellingson
with Custom
Excavating
of Astoria
examines
the damage
from a fallen
tree, which
landed above
the children’s
bedroom.
MARK ROZIN
more radio sites in South County, which
still relies on one site at Tillamook Head,
Rusiecki said. The topography of the area
presents a challenge.
But if all else fails again, some old
tricks from the 2007 storm may come in
handy. When planning the county’s emer-
gency operations center, Brown started
by allowing local amateur radio operators
to set up everything they would need in a
disaster.
“We have the most robust amateur
radio communications system in the state
of Oregon,” she said.
More tools
In 2007, the emergency services coor-
dinator worked in the sheriff’s office —
then located on Duane Street. When the
storms hit in early December, Strong was
responsible for coordinating with police,
fire, emergency medical services, trans-
portation and public works agencies.
Training county employees to per-
form specific duties during an emergency
proved difficult, as they typically would
prioritize other aspects of their daily
workload.
“We all sat down and said, ‘The emer-
gency management situation has out-
grown the sheriff’s office,’” Bergin said.
“It’s a bigger deal than the sheriff can take
and do correctly. It needs to have its own
office and its own people working for it.”
Strong became a full-time employee
shortly after the storm, and other part-
time employees were hired to help him.
Eventually, the department fell under the
purview of the county manager’s office. It
now consists of two full-time employees
— Brown and Emergency Management
Coordinator Vincent Aarts.
The two employees also have more
tools to work with than Strong did.
The county revamped its emergency
operations plan by 2011. The plan, which
will be revised again by next year, is hun-
dreds of pages long, 138 of which are
posted on the county website.
“The plan itself was inspired by the
2007 storm,” Brown said. “There hadn’t
been a whole lot of guidance about emer-
gency operations. We learned that we’re
really good at what we do until things get
to a certain size or scale, and then we need
to do something different.”
The county lacked a natural hazards
mitigation plan, which prompted con-
cerns following the storm. A plan created
since then ensures that the county will be
eligible for emergency funding from out-
side government agencies.
The county built a new 1,200-square-
foot emergency operations center at
Camp Rilea in 2013. Pacific County also
built an operations center in South Bend,
Washington.
Staff at the centers coordinate disaster
management efforts, relay information to
residents and ask for resources from the
states and disseminate them.
“We have sunk an incredible amount of
resources into the public safety infrastruc-
ture,” Brown said. “The storm really got
people to sit up and pay more attention.”
Residents must plan, too
Emergency management officials con-
sistently preach that residents prepare
themselves and their families for a disas-
ter — have a kit, have a plan.
During the 2007 storm, residents who
were not prepared to support themselves
made the county’s efforts more difficult,
officials say.
For instance, even people in rural
areas of the county who owned genera-
tors didn’t necessarily stock enough fuel.
Those hoping to purchase supplies at a
store in the days before the storm were
often unsuccessful.
“Things do, during a disaster, fly off
the shelves,” Strong said. “There’s not
enough emergency responders to go res-
cue everybody. You have to prioritize,
and that’s a tough thing. Where do you go
first? Who do you rescue first? When you
have every citizen somehow impacted,
you can’t be everywhere.”
The scale of the 2007 gale can be hard
to envision in Clatsop County, an area not
typically prone to storms of that severity.
“We live in a really great area,” Strong
said, “but we do need to remember there
are hazards around us.”
More residents appear to have
embraced the message.
Generator sales soared in the year after
the storm. Roughly 500 people earned an
amateur radio license.
“I think the mindset is starting to
change,” Brown said. “I think everyone
has moved the ball down the field in terms
of their own personal preparedness.”
2007 // TIMELINE OF EVENTS
THURSDAY, NOV. 29
SATURDAY, DEC. 1
MONDAY, DEC. 3
TUESDAY, DEC. 4
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 5
THURSDAY, DEC. 6
FRIDAY, DEC. 7
National Weather
Service issues a
warning for a storm
heading toward the
Oregon Coast.
It rains like crazy up
and down the North
Coast and inland
with intermittent
sleet plus snowfall on
higher elevations.
The 911 emergency
phone system
throughout Clatsop
County went down.
Forty-two amateur
radio operators come
to the rescue. Clatsop
County loses all
long-distance phone
service.
U.S. Highway 30
reopens with a pilot
car guiding traffic
through the flood-
damaged section
of road between
Westport and
Clatskanie. UPS and
U.S. Postal Service
deliveries resume.
Fifty-three 45-foot
power poles arrive in
Astoria.
By mid-morning,
Pacific Power says the
central Astoria area
may have power back
by later afternoon. At
noon, the company
reports only 1,000
of the county’s
23,000 customers
have power. Power
is restored to Lincoln
and Coos counties,
allowing more
workers to help get
Clatsop back up.
With 370 employees
working in the field,
Pacific Power cuts the
number of Clatsop
County customer
outages down to
7,500 at 4:30 p.m.
Most Astoria and
Warrenton residents
have power; Seaside
and Cannon Beach
are largely still
without.
State Sen. Betsy
Johnson, Rep.
Brad Witt and
Congressman David
Wu visit. After flying
over the storm-
ravaged region, Wu
reports the area
is “way over” the
thresholds for federal
disaster assistance.
FRIDAY, NOV. 30
Coast Guard
announces possibility
of multiple bar
closures beginning
Sunday because of
potential for extreme
winds and heavy
seas.
SUNDAY, DEC. 2
Winds start to pick up
as the day progresses.
A gust of 105 mph
is recorded to Cape
Mears in Tillamook
County.