A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2020
IN BRIEF
Seaside man seeking
$1.1 million for negligence
A Seaside man is seeking more than $1.1 million
for negligence after being seriously injured in a crash
in December.
Justin Powell was walking across 12th Avenue and
N. Holladay Drive in Seaside when he was allegedly
struck by a vehicle driven by Erik Yetzael Mendez
Lopez.
Powell was struck at a high rate of speed, which
threw his body over the hood of the vehicle, accord-
ing to a court fi ling. He suffered numerous fractures,
a laceration, a concussion and other injuries that have
required surgeries.
Mendez Lopez, 23, of Seaside, was arrested and
later charged with assault in the second degree, fail-
ure to perform the duties of a driver to injured per-
sons, driving under the infl uence of intoxicants, failure
to perform the duties of a driver with property dam-
age, recklessly endangering another person and reck-
less driving.
The lawsuit also accuses Naked Wines of negli-
gence for allegedly serving Mendez Lopez alcohol
prior to the crash while he was visibly intoxicated.
Powell’s attorney declined to comment.
Mendez Lopez’s attorney and Naked Wines could
not be reached for comment.
Circuit Court restrictions extended
The Clatsop County Circuit Court is extending
coronavirus restrictions until September.
Most hearings will continue to be held remotely
and most nonessential hearings will be set out until
after Sept. 1.
The customer service window will be open for
business except during the lunch hour and will close
at 4 p.m. People are required to wear face masks while
in the courthouse. Court payments can be made online,
but people on monthly payment plans are not required
to make a payment before September.
In anticipation of state budget cuts, all circuit courts
in Oregon will be closed on Friday, June 26 and July
17 and staff will take unpaid furloughs.
Several court staff will be placed on unpaid fur-
lough for the months of June and July, which may also
cause some delay in response times.
— The Astorian
Pacifi c County unemployment
soars amid coronavirus pandemic
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Pacifi c County has largely
been spared from a public health crisis that has devas-
tated so many other areas across the country and world
so far, but a new state report shines light on the crip-
pling blow the coronavirus pandemic has delivered to
the county’s workers.
In a monthly report from the Washington State
Employment Security Department released on Tues-
day, the county’s unemployment rate ballooned from
6.9% in March to 17% in April, higher than the state-
wide unemployment rate of 15.4%.
— Chinook Observer
DEATHS
May 27, 2020
In MATTILA,
Brief
Gary, 62, of
Seaview, Washington, died
in Astoria. Hughes-Ran-
Deaths
som Mortuary is in charge
of the arrangements.
May 26, 2020
MAIZELS, Gayne, 69,
of Warrenton, died in War-
renton. Hughes-Ransom
Mortuary is in charge of
the arrangements.
Feb. 27, 2020
HOLMGREN, Frans
Gustav, 87, of Clacka-
mas, formerly of Svensen,
died in Clackamas. Crown
Memorial Center in Mil-
waukie is in charge of the
arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Theft
DUII
On
the
Record
•
Mitchell
Dean
• Justin Royce Har-
Simonsen, 35, of Ham-
mond, was arrested
Thursday at Home Depot
in Warrenton for theft in
the second degree.
ris, 42, of Portland, was
arrested Thursday on
U.S. Highway 101 for
driving under the infl u-
ence of intoxicants.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Astoria City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
TUESDAY
Seaside Community Center Commission, 10 a.m., Bob
Chisholm Community Center, 1225 Avenue A.
Seaside Library Board, 4:30 p.m., Seaside Public Library,
1131 Broadway.
Clatsop Care Health District Board, 5 p.m., (electronic
meeting).
Miles Crossing Sanitary Sewer District Board, 6 p.m.,
34583 U.S. Highway 101 Business.
Seaside Planning Commission, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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PURPLE
AND GOLD
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Astoria High School sophomores Nevaeh Miehe and Lexi Reibold paint graduates’ names on the windows of Street 14 Café in
downtown Astoria on Wednesday afternoon. The windows of businesses up and down Commercial Street feature purple-and-
gold decorations and the names of 2020 graduates prior to their drive-thru graduation on June 6.
Oregon prepares to combat virus, fi re season
By GARY WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon has to prepare for
a possible second spike of
COVID-19 in the fall, fi ght
wildfi res while not spreading
the infection to crews and do
it with budgets slashed by the
state’s dire fi nances, lawmak-
ers were told Wednesday.
The hearing by the House
Interim Committee on Vet-
erans and Emergency Pre-
paredness was cast as a tim-
eout for state agencies to tell
legislators how they have
dealt with the pandemic and
what they plan to do going
forward.
What specifi c equipment,
training and planning do state
agencies need as “we fi nd the
time to put Humpty Dumpty
back together again?” said
state Rep. Paul Evans,
D-Monmouth, the chairman
of the committee.
The committee can-
not work on bills during the
interim between sessions, but
it can take testimony to help
shape future legislation.
Though the 2021 session
doesn’t start until January,
Gov. Kate Brown is expected
to call a special session
within the next few months
to deal with a projected short-
fall of nearly $3 billion due to
cratering state revenues. The
defi cit is caused by closed
businesses and mass layoffs
that resulted from shutting
the state down to try and sup-
press the spread of the deadly
virus that has killed more
than 100,000 people in the
United States since February.
Brown has asked state
agencies to come up with a
plan to cut 17% of their cur-
rent budgets. It’s a baseline
for discussions with the Leg-
islature on how to save some
areas from the chopping
block while deepening cuts
in other areas or increasing
revenue. The result would be
hammered out when Brown
calls on lawmakers to return
to Salem.
Evans said he has no time-
table for when that might be.
“I don’t know when and
if there will be a special ses-
sion,” Evans said.
Expensive disaster
Andrew Phelps, d irector
of the Oregon Offi ce of Emer-
gency Management, said
the coronavirus was the lon-
gest, biggest and most expen-
sive disaster in state history.
Because the pandemic hit
every state and almost every
nation, the usual network of
shared resources between
governments collapsed under
the unprecedented demand.
Phelps said that even if a
vaccine is found within the
Oregon National Guard soldiers learn the basics of wildland
fi refi ghting in 2015 at the Oregon Department of Public
Safety Standards and Training center in Salem.
next year, the recovery from
the damage wrought on the
health and economy of the
state will likely last through
the end of the decade.
“Hopefully this is a once-
in-a-lifetime event,” he said.
“This will be the largest natu-
ral disaster to hit Oregon by a
factor of 10.”
The virus will still be cir-
culating through the state
population as the summer fi re
season starts.
Doug Grafe, fi re pro-
tection chief of the Ore-
gon Department of Forestry,
said COVID-19 was shaping
the way the state will fi ght
blazes. The key will be early
fi re suppression to hold down
the number of crews that
have to be deployed.
“We have to be aggressive
on the initial attack,” Grafe
said. “We have to keep large
fi res off the landscape.”
Grafe said that likely
won’t be easy with about
90% of the state in drought
condition and a hot summer
forecast.
Smoky conditions as in
past summers would aggra-
vate the breathing problems
of those who are struggling
with COVID-19’s attack on
their lungs.
Rep. Kim Wallen, R-Med-
ford, asked Grafe about any
disconnect between the state
and the U.S. Forest Service,
which in the past has allowed
fi res deep in the wilderness to
burn unchallenged.
Grafe said federal offi cials
agreed that there would be
no watch-and-wait approach
this year.
“That is not a policy
choice they are willing to
make because of the COVID
situation,” he said.
While offi cials will try
to limit the infection from
spreading by changing the
way fi refi ghters set up camp
and keeping a tighter limit on
who can come into a com-
mand center, the bottom line
is that crews will not be held
back if they are needed.
“We’re ready to respond,”
said Jim Walker, Oregon
state fi re marshal. “I’m not
sure we will know the fi nish
line until we get a vaccine.”
The Oregon National
Guard will supply fi refi ght-
ing teams, but won’t be able
to send in its CH-47 Chinook
helicopters, which can dump
up to 1,500 pounds of fi re
retardant at a time. They have
been deployed overseas with
1,600 guard members mobi-
lized to serve in U.S. Army
anti-terrorism operations in
10 different countries around
the horn of Africa. So have
Chinooks based in Washing-
ton state.
Oregon National Guard
offi cials have made inquiries
about obtaining the twin-ro-
tor heavy helicopters from
the East Coast if necessary.
While the fi rst units will start
returning to the state next
month, the helicopters are
not scheduled to return until
next year.
“They will be back in time
for the 2021 fi re season,” said
Dave Stuckey, deputy direc-
tor of the Oregon Military
Department.
This year, the state will
have to depend on HH-60M
Blackhawk
helicopters,
which can carry 520 pounds
of retardant per trip. For-
est Service and civilian con-
tracted fi refi ghting aircraft
are also going to be involved
in stopping any major fi re.
Stuckey said troops
returning from deploy-
ment overseas will spend
two weeks in quarantine at a
training facility in the U.S. as
a precaution against spread-
ing COVID-19 before they
are allowed to come back to
their hometowns.
Local response
Brian Young, the presi-
dent of the Oregon Emer-
gency Management Associ-
ation, which represents local
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response forces around the
state, said the possibility of a
pandemic has always existed,
but most of the regional
emergency management sce-
narios were geared toward
fl oods, fi res and at the top of
the list, earthquakes.
“A year ago we were
talking about Cascadia and
about what that would do to
the region,” he said.
Young called for a better
integration between federal,
state and local emergency
responses. Not for a future
disaster, but for the one ongo-
ing right now.
“This is more like a pause
in the middle of the game,”
Young said. “Take a high
overview of the lessons
learned.”
Young said that a big-
ger and better cache of items
needed by fi rst responders
and medical providers for
the pandemic was a top pri-
ority. The breakdown of sup-
ply chains early in this year’s
crisis led to shortages of face
masks and other personal
protective equipment, with
panic buying of what little
equipment became available.
Evans agreed that the
scramble of sometimes com-
peting agencies made a cohe-
sive effort diffi cult to build
and maintain.
“Emergency management
can be like herding cats,” he
said. “Disasters are won or
lost on a local level.”
Rep. Jack Zika, R-Red-
mond, a committee member,
said that any solution to the
PPE shortage had to include
how to ensure that local doc-
tors, dentists and others aren’t
forgotten. Many contributed
their masks and other equip-
ment to emergency medical
personnel caught in the short-
age. They need their supplies
to be replenished to survive.
“If hospitals are having
a hard time, how do any of
these other businesses even
have a chance?” Zika said.
Akiko Saito, director of
emergency operations at the
Oregon Health Authority,
said the agency was simul-
taneously trying to fi gure
out the short-term response
to the pandemic and what
a mid-term, non emergency
response will look like before
a vaccine is found.
“We have to watch and
make sure we can guard
against a rebound of the
virus,” she said. “We’re pre-
paring for a possible second
wave in the fall.”
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