CRAB FESTIVAL GOES VIRTUAL OVER VIRUS
» PAGE A3
WEEKLY
RTAINMENT
ARTS & ENTE
THURSDAY
FEB. 25
2021
»INSIDE
FISHERPOETS
GATHERING
RETURNS,
VIRTUALLY
SCHEDULE AND
POET PROFILE
S
148TH YEAR, NO. 103
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021
$1.50
INSIDE
10AM DAILY
CASINO OPEN AT
CORONAVIRUS
County
moves to
lower risk
for virus
Local case count
continues to improve
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Clatsop County will move to lower
risk for the coronavirus beginning Fri-
day, allowing gathering sizes and indoor
capacity at restaurants and bars to
increase.
The county has
gone
back-and-
MORE
forth between high
INSIDE
risk and extreme
• County
risk since Novem-
reports new
ber, when Gov.
virus cases
Kate Brown intro-
• A6
duced the data-
• Interim
driven framework
public health
designed to contain
director
the spread of the
named • A3
virus through the
winter. The lower
risk category is the
state’s least restrictive on businesses and
social activities.
See Risk, Page A6
Photos by Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
A landslide occurred Monday off Old U.S. Highway 30.
Landslide hits Tongue Point
‘I just care that somebody comes in and cleans up this mess,’ homeowner says
New study
highlights
challenges
for salmon
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
K
en Matson lives with his wife,
Cheryl, in one of the few houses
along Old U.S. Highway 30
beneath the former Blue Ridge military
housing development at Tongue Point .
Matson was hanging out in his
garage Monday when he heard what
sounded like a street sweeper outside.
W hen the Matsons came outside, a
large chunk of the steep ridge above had
crashed down and buried the road just
north of their house, destroying a shed
and pushing a truck, a boat and a trailer
down a hill.
The Matson s have been scram-
bling to fortify the property and deter-
mine responsibility for the damage.
City crews helped sandbag and trench
around the house to divert water and
mud.
The road outside their house is con-
trolled by the U.S. Department of
Labor, which oversees the Tongue
Point Job Corps Center down the road.
Local offi cials have reached out to the
federal agency and U.S. Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici for assistance.
“Tongue Point is responsible for
maintaining the roadway and remov-
ing the debris,” the Oregon Democrat
said in a statement. “Leaders at Tongue
Point have already secured emergency
A bleak outlook in ocean
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
The outlook is bleak for wild Chinook
salmon in a changing ocean.
A new study predicts Snake River
spring and summer Chinook that migrate
through the Columbia River could be
nearly extinct by the 2060s without seri-
ous interventions as human-caused cli-
mate change continues to alter ocean
conditions.
The study, led by researchers with
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, modeled the survival of
eight wild populations of threatened Chi-
nook salmon at all life stages under global
climate model projections and found the
fi sh faced especially dire circumstances
as sea surface temperatures rise.
ABOVE:
Ken Matson
attempts to
spray some
of the mud
from the
landslide off
his driveway.
RIGHT: Cheryl
Matson
points to the
landslide that
took out a
section of her
property.
See Landslide, Page A6
See Salmon, Page A6
Crash survivor remembers ‘love they left behind’
Friends, co-workers
rally to support mother
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — Friends of Esper-
anza Martin-Ramirez are issuing a
plea for help as she recovers from
a crash at Ecola State Park that left
her 3 1/2-month-old baby daughter,
Kenia , dead.
“Life can change in a blink of
an eye,” wrote Seaside’s Joanna
Ramos on a GoFundMe page . “Yes-
terday one of my closest friends got
in a bad car accident where her baby
girl of three months lost her life.
“Money should be the last thing a
mother should have to worry about
after losing a child. I ask our com-
Kenia Esmeralda Martin-Ramirez was killed in a car crash on Feb. 15.
munity to come together and help
this young woman with her terrible
loss. Nothing we say or do will bring
that precious angel back but we as a
community can come together and
support Esperanza in these diffi cult
times.”
More than a week after the Feb.
15 crash , Martin-Ramirez, 20,
shared her thoughts on the tragedy.
Ramos served as her translator.
“She is doing better both physi-
cally and mentally,” Ramos said in a
phone interview .
Martin-Ramirez joined family in
the United States from Guatemala
looking for better opportunities .
“Over there, they don’t have much
support fi nancially, so she came to
the United States looking for a bet-
ter future for herself, ” Ramos said.
When her mother died, Mar-
tin-Ramirez left school and moved
in with a family member to support
her siblings.
Martin-Ramirez and Ramos met
as co-workers at a Seaside hotel.
“From the fi rst day I met her, I
knew that she was a sweet girl,”
Ramos said. “She was so tiny I
didn’t even realize she was preg-
nant until she told me she was
going to give birth.”
Kenia’s birth wasn’t planned,
but her goal for Kenia was to put
her in a good school, teach her right
from wrong and always support
her.
When she needed a place to
stay, Martin-Ramirez moved in
with Ramos and other roommates
in Seaside.
Kenia was a calm baby, Mar-
tin-Ramirez shared. “The only time
she would cry was when she was
hungry or had a poopy diaper,” she
said. “She was a super good baby.”
See Survivor, Page A3