A7
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2019
Gunman gave no hint of bloodshed to come
By BEN FINLEY and
ALAN SUDERMAN
Associated Press
VIRGINIA
BEACH,
Va. — The Virginia Beach
employee who shot and
killed 12 people at a munic-
ipal building gave no hint of
the bloodbath to come when
he emailed his resignation
letter earlier in the day, saying
that he was leaving for “per-
sonal reasons” but that “it has
been a pleasure to serve.”
The two-sentence email
from DeWayne Craddock, an
engineer with the city utili-
ties department, was released
Monday.
Craddock, 40, opened fi re
on his co-workers on Friday,
then was killed in a gunbat-
tle with police, leaving no
immediate clues to what set
him off.
The email read: “I want
to offi cially put in my (2)
weeks’ notice to vacant my
position of Engineer III with
the City of Virginia Beach. It
has been a pleasure to serve
the City, but due to personal
reasons I must relieve my
position.”
An unidentifi ed person
responded to the email by
saying he or she hoped that
Craddock would be able to
resolve his personal issues
and that Craddock’s last day
AP Photo/Sarah Holm
Community members stand by the 12 crosses at the memorial located by the Virginia Beach Municipal Center.
would be Friday, June 14.
Craddock responded: “Thank
you. Yes, that is correct.”
Authorities shed no imme-
diate light on what led him to
resign.
Craddock
was
an
employee “in good standing”
and showed “satisfactory”
job performance, City Man-
ager Dave Hansen said.
That has left survivors,
offi cials and community
members wondering what set
off the violence.
“Right now we do not
have anything glaring,” said
Police Chief James Cervera.
“There’s nothing that hits you
right between the eyes. But
we are working on it.”
On Monday, a make-
shift memorial made of bou-
quets, fl ags, teddy bears and
crosses bearing the names of
the shooting victims stood at
one entrance to the municipal
center. A small group of city
employees wept and hugged
each other as they left fl owers
by one of the crosses. Volun-
teers with comfort dogs were
on hand.
Crystal Pangelinan came
to pay her respects after her
children, ages 5 and 7, went
to school.
“Explaining what hap-
pened to them was hard,” she
said.
The building is part of a
sprawling compound of gov-
ernment buildings. While
other buildings appeared to
be open for business Monday
morning, signs of the shoot-
ing remained. A section of the
compound remained blocked
off by law enforcement vehi-
cles, and FBI personnel could
be seen walking around.
There was no indication
Craddock targeted anyone
specifi cally.
The police chief said
investigators are retracing the
gunman’s activities on the
day of the attack, using his
electronic keycard to track his
movements through secure
areas of the building. They
are also reviewing his per-
sonal and professional lives.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Patricia Olds, a coworker of LaQuita Brown, a victim of a mass
shooting at a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Va., is
comforted before carrying a cross bearing Brown’s name to a
nearby makeshift memorial.
Recent Mississippi River fl ooding approaches records set in 1993
By HEATHER
HOLLINGSWORTH
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo.
— The swollen Mississippi
River is straining levees,
snarling traffi c and forc-
ing people from their homes
as the water level in some
places approaches record
levels set during devastating
fl ooding in 1993.
Missouri Gov. Mike Par-
son was touring fl ooded areas
Monday in the northeast part
of the state, where there have
been around a dozen water
rescues. Statewide, nearly
400 roads are closed, includ-
ing part of U.S. 136.
Locks and dams upstream
of St. Louis are shut down as
the Mississippi River crests
at the second-highest level
on record in some communi-
ties. Midwestern rivers have
fl ooded periodically since
March, causing billions of
dollars of damage to farm-
land, homes and businesses
from Oklahoma and Arkan-
sas and up to Michigan.
Residents,
emergency
responders and volunteers
helping in recovery efforts
are facing another challenge
from swarms of mosquitoes
drawn to standing water.
“Nuisance mosquitoes are
usually the fi rst populations
to take advantage of fl ooded
conditions,” said Howard
Pue, of the Missouri Depart-
ment of Health and Senior
Services. “They can be big,
really numerous and infl ict
painful bites.”
Gary Stubblefi eld, a vol-
unteer coordinator for recov-
ery and cleanup efforts in
the Joplin area, said the vol-
unteers cleaning up after an
AP Photo/David Carson
Emily Kientzel empties the water out of her grandmother
Joan FitzGerald’s boot that fi lled with fl oodwater from the
Mississippi River, as they check on the home of a friend
outside of Portage des Sioux, Mo. They are standing on the
second story balcony of the home.
EF-3 tornado struck parts
of Carl Junction May 22 are
asking for bug repellent con-
tributions. Organizers have
handed out hundreds of cans,
and more is needed, Stubble-
fi eld said.
Near the 1,400-person
town of Winfi eld, Missouri,
a Mississippi River levee
breached Sunday, forcing
evacuations in a rural area,
said Sue Casseau, a spokes-
woman for the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. On Sat-
urday, sandbags were inten-
tionally removed from a farm
levee along the Mississippi
River near Ste. Genevieve,
Missouri, to allow water
through and remove pres-
sure downstream. The Illi-
SEVENDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TODAY
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
harvest season.”
Parson’s offi ce said Mon-
day 28 levee breaches have
been reported across the
state.
Floodgates also have
been closed in St. Louis in
advance of the Mississippi
River cresting there Thurs-
day. The high water already
is causing problems. The St.
Louis Post-Dispatch reports
that several hotels that were
crowded with visitors for the
Stanley Cup Final and Car-
dinals-Cubs baseball games
were left without hot water
Sunday after too much water
overwhelmed a pump station.
Missouri State Highway
Patrol Sgt. Eric Brown said
there also has been sand-
bagging in several towns
and added that “one of the
most impressive things is to
see these communities come
together.”
In Lewis County, Mis-
souri, the focus of much of
the sandbagging, fl oodwaters
from the Mississippi River
surround the Mark Twain
casino on three sides in the
town of LaGrange, which
isn’t protected by a levee,
said Sheriff David Parrish.
People also are sandbagging
around homes and the city
hall there, as well as several
other areas of the county. He
said that one levee that pro-
tects the towns of Taylor and
West Quincy is being shored
up with 3,500 tons of rock.
“It is the second highest
level by inches since ‘93,” he
said of the river.
The 1993 fl ood covered
nine states and rivers reached
record heights across the
region. It lasted nearly 200
days in some areas and was
APPLIANCE
nois River also overtopped
levees that protect a com-
bined 1,500 acres in western
Illinois, she said.
“If water is over the fi eld,
no one is planting,” Casseau
said. “The full economic
impact won’t be known until
the end of this planting and
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MONDAY
Partly sunny
60 49
58 49
A shower in the
A stray shower
area
58 51
60 50
64 52
A couple of
showers
Chance of a
shower
Chance of a
shower
74 55
Sunny
REGIONAL FORECAST
Aberdeen
Olympia
63/50
72/53
Wenatchee
Tacoma
Moses
Lake
UNDER THE SKY
TODAY'S TIDES
Astoria through Sunday
Tonight’s Sky: New moon (3:02
a.m.)
Astoria / Port Docks
Temperatures
High/low ................................ 61/51
Normal high/low .................. 62/48
Record high .................. 79 in 1970
Record low .................... 39 in 1987
Precipitation
Sunday ..................................... 0.00”
Month to date ........................ 0.00”
Normal month to date ......... 0.21”
Year to date .......................... 22.01”
Normal year to date ........... 33.57”
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Time
High (ft.) Time Low (ft.)
1:52 a.m.
3:35 p.m.
8.9 9:11 a.m. -1.2
7.0 8:58 p.m. 2.8
Cape Disappointment
1:33 a.m.
3:06 p.m.
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
Hammond
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today .................. 5:26 a.m.
Sunset tonight ............... 9:02 p.m.
Moonrise today .............. 6:42 a.m.
Moonset today ............ 10:37 p.m.
New
First
Full
Last
1:42 a.m.
3:20 p.m.
Warrenton
1:47 a.m.
3:30 p.m.
Knappa
2:29 a.m.
4:12 p.m.
Depoe Bay
June 3 June 9 June 17 June 25
8.7 8:12 a.m. -1.7
6.7 8:00 p.m. 2.8
9.2 8:34 a.m. -1.7
7.2 8:24 p.m. 2.7
9.3 8:55 a.m. -1.1
7.4 8:42 p.m. 2.9
9.1 10:12 a.m. -1.0
7.3 9:59 p.m. 2.4
12:42 a.m. 8.9 7:43 a.m. -2.0
2:22 p.m. 6.9 7:30 p.m. 2.8
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Honolulu
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Phoenix
San Francisco
Wash., DC
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
88/70/pc
68/57/pc
76/67/pc
91/71/pc
79/54/t
87/76/pc
91/75/pc
75/61/pc
91/79/t
71/60/s
98/75/s
74/54/s
78/67/s
92/74/pc
74/63/c
80/57/pc
82/70/t
72/54/t
87/74/pc
86/76/t
77/62/pc
89/79/pc
80/66/t
100/74/s
73/53/s
83/69/t
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy,
c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms,
r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice.
75/50
Kennewick Walla Walla
82/59 Lewiston
87/55
84/55
Hermiston
The Dalles 87/57
Enterprise
Pendleton 75/45
81/53
81/56
La Grande
81/48
76/51
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Hi/Lo/W
Pullman
84/53
73/51
Salem
76/52
Yakima 85/51
Longview
63/51 Portland
77/55
Spokane
81/57
71/49
72/48
Astoria
ALMANAC
HOURS OPEN: MON-FRI 8-6 * SATURDAY * SUNDAY 10-4
We Service What We Sell
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
63 51
responsible for about 50
deaths.
In
Michigan,
Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer declared
a state of emergency Mon-
day for Tuscola County after
heavy rainfall last week
caused widespread fl ooding.
Whitmer earlier announced a
state of emergency in Wayne
County, which includes
Detroit. Areas along Lake St.
Clair and western Lake Erie
also have been hit by fl ood-
ing in recent weeks.
Vice President Mike
Pence announced plans for a
trip to Oklahoma on Tuesday
to visit fl ood damage from
the Arkansas River. Damage
has extended from the Tulsa
area downstream into Arkan-
sas. The river is slowly crest-
ing, with major fl ooding is
expected to subside within a
few weeks.
Corvallis
77/50
Albany
76/48
John Day
Eugene
Bend
77/49
79/47
80/51
Ontario
87/56
Caldwell
Burns
85/55
81/47
Medford
88/55
Klamath Falls
81/44
City
Baker City
Brookings
Ilwaco
Newberg
Newport
Today
Hi/Lo/W
82/42/s
68/50/pc
61/52/pc
75/52/pc
60/50/pc
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
83/48/pc
60/49/pc
60/50/c
67/47/pc
58/48/c
City
North Bend
Roseburg
Seaside
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Today
Hi/Lo/W
64/51/pc
84/54/pc
63/51/pc
78/49/pc
75/53/pc
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
60/49/c
72/50/pc
62/49/c
69/47/pc
67/48/pc