DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JUNE 11, 2018
145TH YEAR, NO. 245
ONE DOLLAR
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
Corey Heikkila of Portland works on the
finishing touches of his sandcastle for his
team Tie Dye in the Masters Division.
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
‘THE
SAND
TRAP’
The Broadway Street bridge in Seaside has been identified as particularly vulnerable in case of an earthquake.
BROADWAY BOUND
New tsunami model ranks risk of bridges, roads in Seaside
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
S
EASIDE — A new computer sim-
ulation by Oregon State Univer-
sity identifies bridges and roads in
Seaside that would have higher mortality
rates in an earthquake and tsunami.
The bridge on Broadway Street over
Neawanna Creek would result in the
most fatalities and should be prioritized
for improvement, researchers found.
Other critical locations at the two bridges
on 12th Street, the bridge on Sundquist
Road and Ocean Vista Drive in the Cove
were also flagged.
“The real issue with Broadway is there
is really nowhere else to go, but by the
time you get to that bridge you have very
little time to do anything else,” said Dan
Cox, an Oregon State civil engineer who
created the model with Haizhong Wang.
“It’s a combination of what options you
have and how much time you have to do
it.”
The bridges and roads are high prior-
ities to retrofit not because of structural
integrity issues or age — metrics most
often considered when replacing city
infrastructure. The mortality rate spikes
because of relative proximity to areas
where people live and gather, making
them some of the most populated evac-
uation routes. They also fall in the path
of where tsunami inundation will most
likely occur.
Thousands of scenarios were run
through the model based on the starting
points of 4,500 imaginary people, dis-
tributed to resemble where most people
would be on a busy, summer day: on the
beach and shopping downtown.
“As engineers, we’re interested in
Multiple bridges and roads in Seaside have been deemed problematic during
a recent study of the effects of an earthquake and tsunami in the area.
One of the bridges over 12th Street
in Seaside is an example of infra-
structure in the area that could fail in
an earthquake.
infrastructure and what can be done to
have more lives saved,” Cox said.
The goal was to provide Seaside
a simulation that would support evi-
dence-driven decision-making when it
comes to addressing the city’s infrastruc-
ture needs, Wong said. Without assign-
ing specific dollar amounts, research-
ers also simulated how the mortality rate
might change depending on how many
resources were allocated to what struc-
ture to make it more likely to withstand
an earthquake.
They found that the bridge on Broad-
way should have the highest priority
for retrofitting due to the fact it was the
most traversed bridge in their simulation.
The study also recommended investing
resources in building highly resistant ver-
tical structures inside the inundation zone
as a more economical choice than spend-
ing greater amounts of resources on ret-
rofitting multiple bridges.
Sandcastle Contest
keeps family connected
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
C
ANNON BEACH — Thousands came
out on Saturday to watch people of all
ages transform piles of sand into intricate-
ly-sculpted flying saucers, Egyptian pyramids
and, of course, the humble but classic sandcastle.
The Sandcastle Contest, now closing the
chapter on its 54th year, began in 1964 as a way
to boost spirits after a tsunami hit the Oregon
Coast. The contest was sandwiched in between
the annual Sandcastle Parade on Friday and a 5K
fun run on Sunday.
About 32 teams from across the country com-
peted — a number consistent with last year but
lower than the average of 50 the contest expects.
Debbie Nelson, the chief organizer, attributes
the low number to the fact the contest fell on the
same weekend as many school graduations and
the Grand Floral Parade in Portland.
As the day unfolded, crowds ebbed and
flowed on and off the beach as the weather alter-
nated from bright sun to epic rain. Despite the
chaotic weather, builders remained steadfast,
peeling and putting on layers of rain gear as they
crafted.
One of those teams was the Jessop family, a
Masters Division team who in their ninth year
is considered to be one of the Sandcastle Con-
test’s longest-running competitors. The team out
of Monmouth placed third this year with a full-on
miniature golf course replica called “The Sand
Trap,” with windmill structures stacking up past
6 feet tall.
See CONTEST, Page 5A
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
Isaac Linville of Lacey, Wash., catches a
clump of sand that a teammate shovels at
him during the Cannon Beach Sandcastle
Contest on Saturday.
See MODEL, Page 5A
‘THE REAL ISSUE WITH BROADWAY IS THERE
IS REALLY NOWHERE ELSE TO GO, BUT BY THE TIME
YOU GET TO THAT BRIDGE YOU HAVE VERY LITTLE
TIME TO DO ANYTHING ELSE.’
Dan Cox | an Oregon State civil engineer who created a new computer simulation
Knappa graduate enjoyed
freedom of online school
Rethati likes
to play softball,
photo concerts
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
K
NAPPA — As a kinder-
gartner at Hilda Lahti
Elementary School in Knappa,
Mikayla Rethati said, she was
academically in second grade,
having fun at school then
going home to an advanced
curriculum with her mother.
After learning she couldn’t
skip grades, her mother asked
her whether she wanted to stay
in kindergarten or try to learn
from home. The deciding fac-
tor in choosing to stay at home,
Rethati said, was being able to
hang out with her pets.
Now 16, Rethati gradu-
ated Saturday in Salem from
the Oregon Connections Acad-
emy, part of about 400 students
who finished high school this
year through the online char-
ter school.
“It’s a really easy school
to be in, because you can do
whatever class you want,” she
said. “I don’t think I’d do as
well in an environment where I
wasn’t allowed to control what
I was learning.”
See RETHATI, Page 5A
Andrea Weaver
Mikayla Rethati, who
graduated this year at
16 from Oregon Con-
nections Academy, has
played for Knappa High
School’s varsity softball
team since 13.