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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2017
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Lights illuminate cars from an Amtrak train that derailed above Interstate 5 Monday in DuPont, Wash.
DeSart: ‘It felt like an eternity’ Train: 10 seriously injured
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DeSart was pinned under a luggage
rack as the car was upside down in the
dirt. The passenger behind him was dead.
Emergency crews eventually pried him
free and took him to a local hospital to be
treated for internal injuries.
DeSart, 38, of Astoria, was one of more
than 100 people injured Monday morning
when the train careened off a track over
Interstate 5 near Tacoma, killing 3 people
so far. Still in the hospital in stable condi-
tion, DeSart was able to speak to his wife,
Meagan, about his story.
Del, Meagan and their young chil-
dren moved to Astoria a couple of years
ago from Seattle, where he grew up. Del
is a buyer at Columbia Memorial Hospi-
tal, and Meagan — who is from Astoria
— runs a wine business from home.
A 20-year Seattle Seahawks season
ticket holder, Del made the regular trip
north to watch his favorite team play. He
typically drives to the games but recently
decided on an alternative.
“He said, ‘I think the train is the way
to go,’” Meagan said. “‘It’s cheap. It’s
stress-free.’”
Del was staying with his brother out-
side Seattle and planned to take the train
to Longview, Washington, get in his car
and drive back to Astoria. He texted Mea-
gan about 6 a.m. to alert her that he had
made the train and would be back in a few
hours.
After driving her kids to school, Mea-
gan returned home and began her typical
morning workout before receiving a curi-
ous phone call from her father-in-law. “He
never calls me,” she said with a laugh.
He asked her about the derailment and
whether Del was on the train. Confused,
Meagan turned on the television before
investigators looked at whether the engi-
neer was distracted or disoriented.
The engineer, whose name was not
released, was bleeding from the head after
the wreck, and both eyes were swollen
shut, according to dispatch audio.
The train, with 85 passengers and
crew members, was making the inaugu-
ral run along a fast new bypass route that
was created by refurbishing freight tracks
alongside Interstate 5. The $180.7 million
project was aimed at speeding up service
by bypassing a route that had a number
of curves, single-track tunnels and freight
traffic.
Positive train control — technol-
ogy that can automatically slow or stop
a speeding train — wasn’t in use on this
stretch of track, according to Amtrak
President Richard Anderson.
Regulators have pressing railroads for
years to install such technology, but the
deadline has been extended repeatedly at
the industry’s request and is now the end
of 2018.
The 7:34 a.m. accident left mangled
train cars up on top of each other, with
one hanging precariously over the free-
way. The screech and clang of metal were
followed by silence, then screams, as the
injured cried out to rescuers and motorists
pulled over and rushed to help.
More than 70 people were injured, 10
of them seriously. A U.S. official said ear-
lier that six people were killed, but author-
ities said Monday night that three people
died.
Train passenger Emma Shafer found
herself at a 45-degree angle, staring at the
seats in front of her that had come loose
and swung around.
“It felt oddly silent after the actual
Meagan DeSart
Meagan and Del DeSart of Astoria.
spending about 45 minutes trying to call
Del and area hospitals.
“It felt like an eternity,” Meagan said.
She checked Del’s email and con-
firmed he was on board the train.
“My heart sank,” she said. “We have
young children and I was just not ready to
be a widow yet.”
She was able to find out which hospital
her husband was located. A nurse handed
a cellphone over to Del so Meagan could
speak to him before hopping in her car
and heading north about 9:30 a.m.
Del is still at the hospital. A lawyer
advised her not to disclose his exact med-
ical condition.
“We’re not sure the extent of it all
because they’re still doing tests,” Mea-
gan said.
Meanwhile, people have been reach-
ing out to Meagan and Del via Facebook
to offer their support, a testament to Del’s
generosity and kindness, Meagan said.
She posted a hopeful message last night.
“He’s alive,” she wrote. “Anything
else we will overcome.”
crashing,” she said. “Then there was
people screaming because their leg was
messed up. … I don’t know if I actually
heard the sirens, but they were there. A
guy was like, ‘Hey, I’m Robert. We’ll get
you out of here.’”
In 2015, an Amtrak train traveling at
twice the 50 mph speed limit ran off the
rails along a sharp curve in Philadelphia,
killing eight people. Investigators con-
cluded the engineer was distracted by
reports over the radio of another train get-
ting hit by a rock.
In September, a judge threw out
charges of involuntary manslaughter and
reckless endangerment against the engi-
neer, saying the wreck did not appear to
rise to a crime. Prosecutors are trying to
get the case reinstated.
In the Washington state wreck, speed
signs were posted 2 miles before the speed
zone changed, according to Kimberly
Reason of Sound Transit, the Seattle-area
transit agency that owns the tracks.
Eric Corp, a councilman for the small
city of DuPont near the derailment site,
said he rode the train with about 30 or so
dignitaries and others on a special trip Fri-
day before the service opened to the pub-
lic Monday.
“Once we were coming up on that
curve, the train slowed down consider-
ably,” he said.
After the Philadelphia wreck, Amtrak
agreed to pay $265 million to settle claims
filed by victims and their families. It has
also installed positive train control on all
its track between Boston and Washington.
Flaccus reported from Portland and
Sisak reported from Philadelphia. Asso-
ciated Press staffers Manuel Valdes in
Dupont, Sally Ho and Phuong Le in Seat-
tle and Michael Balsamo in Los Angeles
contributed to this report.
Parks: Small parks can be a challenge to maintain Council: Price was
The artists’ hopes include
a massive cleanup and a tem-
porary mixed-media art instal-
lation that will draw inspira-
tion from natural and historic
sources and in which com-
munity collaboration will be
key. Their plans jump-started
a discussion on how the city
endorses art and what it should
and shouldn’t allow. The coun-
cil will weigh an agreement at a
future meeting.
Continued from Page 1A
Even a site this small can
be a challenge for the bare-
bones staff of the Astoria Parks
and Recreation Department,
said Angela Cosby, the depart-
ment’s director. The agreement
with the Armstrongs was one of
several park adoptions the City
Council considered at a meeting
Monday night, and represents a
groundswell of interest in parks
that encourages Cosby.
Parks like Astor Park at the
Astoria Column or McClure
Park have “friends of” groups
attached to them that advocate
for the sites and help maintain
the grounds. The parks depart-
ment also has an agreement
with Holiday Inn for mainte-
nance of the Maritime Memo-
rial Park under the Astoria
Bridge.
“Those have slowly evolved
over the past 10 years or so,”
Cosby said. Park adoptions are
not a frequent occurrence, “so
having four (park adoptions)
come forward all at once is
wonderful.”
Changing parks
Each of the adoptions is
slightly different. The one for
Post Office Park or another
still under discussion for the
long-neglected Tidal Rock Park
down the hill are more typical,
Cosby said. Others have been in
the works for years.
The creation of a Scandina-
vian Heritage Park at the site
of the Peoples Park off Marine
Drive, for instance, had long
been discussed and dissected.
Like a park adoption in Alder-
brook by the Clatsop County
Ownership
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Artists Agnes Field and Jessica Schlief hope to restore
Tidal Rock Park.
Master Gardeners, the Scan-
dinavian Heritage Park is
not a straightforward agree-
ment focused around mainte-
nance. Instead, these are more
complex, long-term agree-
ments between entities that will
change the appearance and use
of the sites in the coming years.
The Clatsop County Master
Gardeners hope to expand their
educational offerings by creat-
ing a garden in Alderbrook Park
at 45th Street and Lief Erik-
son Drive where members can
learn how to grow a variety of
plants for food. The group has
outgrown a garden space at the
Clatsop County fairgrounds.
Alderbook Park would provide
important visibility and accessi-
bility, said Debbie Haugsten, the
group’s president. Food grown
in the garden will be donated to
food banks. The garden itself
will be open to the public as a
demonstration garden.
“Our mission is outreach to
the community and we didn’t
really have a space to do any
outreach or education about
growing produce in our area,”
said Linda Jones, assistant to
the master gardeners program,
adding, “The possibilities are
endless when you have a space
like that.”
While the Armstrongs plan
to maintain Post Office Park and
make it more attractive, North
Coast artists Jessica Schleif,
Agnes Field and Brenda Harper
have even bigger plans for Tidal
Rock Park.
Located below street level
off Marine Drive and 15th
Street, Tidal Rock is a park hid-
ing in plain sight. Trash clings
to blackberry brambles like
ornaments. The rock that gives
the park its name is barely visi-
ble in the northwest corner. His-
torians believe mariners used
the rock to judge the depth of
the water when the Columbia
River still flowed in the area
that became downtown.
“I would love to be able to
put artists’ hands in this park,”
Schleif said.
There are downsides to park
adoptions. Putting together
agreements and working with
groups interested in park adop-
tion can eat up staff time, Cosby
said. If the park adoptions don’t
end up working out, the city
will have to redirect and pick up
the pieces.
“That’s a risk you take with
any project,” Cosby said. In her
opinion, the pros far outweigh
the cons.
Even small parks can be a
challenge to maintain. To have
volunteers step up and take over
maintenance needs frees up
park staff for other tasks.
“It lightens the burden on
our department,” Cosby said.
“It allows us to focus energies
on other parks as well.”
Park adoptions also allow
city residents to get their hands
dirty in a park for a year and
really take ownership of an
area.
“Just that sense of com-
munity and people rallying
together to achieve something,”
Cosby said.
She hopes to set a goal in the
future of several park adoptions
each year.
the sole ‘no’ vote
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Commission and the City
Council. The park, off
Marine Drive between 15th
and 16th streets, will be
renamed Scandinavian Heri-
tage Park.
“I say give the Scandina-
vians the park,” City Coun-
cilor Zetty Nemlowill said to
cheers from Scandinavians
who filled City Hall.
Many in the audience
wore traditional sweaters and
garb — a few sported viking
helmets — and waved small
flags from Norway, Finland,
Sweden and Denmark.
Scandinavians had ini-
tially wanted to make prog-
ress on the monument by the
50th anniversary of the Asto-
ria Scandinavian Midsum-
mer Festival last June. Some
were disappointed, given
their rich history in Astoria,
that the project was held up
over maintenance.
The heritage association
will be responsible for design
and construction, as well as
maintenance.
“I’m glad we got this
far,” said Loran Mathews,
the president of the heritage
association.
The City Council voted
4-1 for the agreement with
the heritage association. City
Councilor Cindy Price was
the sole “no” vote, citing
persistent complaints from
the public about the lack of
maintenance at city parks and
the city-owned Ocean View
Cemetery in Warrenton.
“Until we have full fund-
ing for the parks department,
it’s just not something that in
good conscience I can vote
for,” Price said.
Hotel: Partners looking for
another structure to restore
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Hotel Building, the Shark
Rock Building where the
Astoria Co-Op Grocery is
located and the Norblad
Building.
The partners are look-
ing for another structure
to restore and are fine if
the building doesn’t sell,
Caruana said.
“It’s usually a love affair,”
he said in 2014 about why
he and his business part-
ners enter a building. “It
would probably be smarter
to do them all based on the
return on investment, but
most of the buildings, a large
amount of it is an emotional
appeal.”