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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2022)
A2 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022 IN BRIEF Steadfast departs on patrol after virus delay The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Steadfast, which home- ports in Astoria, is underway again after a recent COVID- 19 outbreak among the crew delayed the cutter’s patrol. The unit departed after infected crew members spent time quarantining in Astoria. “Keeping the cutter in homeport a few extra days allowed the crew to quickly contain and minimize transmission, enabling them to return to full service Friday and continue on with their mission as planned,” Lt. Cmdr. Scott Carr, a Coast Guard public aff airs offi - cer, said in an email. Columbia River commerce halts for annual maintenance Commerce moving along the Columbia River will stop for up to fi ve weeks starting in February as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers works on annual main- tenance and repairs. The closure will start Feb. 13 and end on March 19. The period of closure was extended three extra weeks this year in order to repair the downstream miter gate at The Dalles. Technicians found damage at The Dallas navigation lock during last year’s closure, forcing an emergency extended outage. Engineers will also perform maintenance on the navigation locks at the Bonneville and John Day dams during the closure. Refl ection Seaside cemetery plots see purchase price hike SEASIDE — Even with a $250 price hike, the city’s Evergreen Cemetery remains a bargain, Public Works Director Dale McDowell told the City Council last week. Councilors approved the hike from $500 to $750 per plot. Nearby cemeteries average almost $1,750 per plot, while the state average exceeds $4,000. “That is a real bargain at that price,” Mayor Jay Barber said. The cemetery is overseen by the city’s Public Works Department. The earliest marked grave was placed in 1909. The city obtained the property in 1981. The cem- etery has two sections across 21 acres with a popula- tion of 1,331. — The Astorian DEATHS Trees are refl ected in a puddle along the Astoria Riverwalk on Friday. Lydia Ely/The Astorian Advisory: No injuries or damage reported Continued from Page A1 Jan. 16, 2022 In MARTIN, Brief Michael A., 76, of Seaside, died in Seaside. Ocean Deaths View Funeral & Cre- mation Service of Asto- ria is in charge of the arrangements. Jan. 15, 2022 QUADE, Rosa- lyn M., 85, of Astoria, died in Seaside. Ocean View Funeral & Cre- mation Service of Asto- ria is in charge of the arrangements. Jan. 14, 2022 DeWAIDE, Michael George, 78, of Astoria, died in Astoria. Ocean View Funeral & Cre- mation Service of Asto- ria is in charge of the arrangements. ON THE RECORD Burglary On the Record • Damien James Arrin Ruiz, 26, of Seaside, was indicted last week for burglary in the second degree, criminal mischief in the fi rst degree, two counts of theft in the fi rst degree, theft in the second degree and two counts of theft in the third degree. The crimes are alleged to have occurred in November. PUBLIC MEETINGS TUESDAY Port of Astoria Commission, 4 p.m., workshop session, (electronic meeting). Warrenton City Commission and Planning Commission, 5:30 p.m., joint meeting, City Hall, 225 S. Main Ave. Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., work session, City Hall, 989 Broadway. Seaside School District Board, 6 p.m., (electronic meet- ing). Astoria City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St. Shoreline Sanitary District Board, 7 p.m., Hertig Station, 33496 West Lake Lane, Warrenton. WEDNESDAY Clatsop County Board of Commissioners and Planning Commission, 10 a.m., joint meeting, (electronic meeting). Astoria City Council, 1 p.m., work session, City Hall, 1095 Duane St. Seaside Tree Board, 4 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway. Cannon Beach City Council, 5:30 p.m., special meeting, (electronic meeting). Knappa School District Board, 6:30 p.m., Knappa High School Library, 41535 Old U.S. Highway 30. Astoria School District Board, 7 p.m., (electronic meet- ing). THURSDAY Seaside Transportation Advisory Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway. PUBLIC MEETINGS Established July 1, 1873 (USPS 035-000) Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday by EO Media Group, 949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 Telephone 503-325-3211, 800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325-6573. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103-0210 DailyAstorian.com Circulation phone number: 800-781-3214 Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR ADVERTISING OWNERSHIP All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by The Astorian become the property of The Astorian and may not be reproduced for any use without explicit prior approval. COPYRIGHT © Entire contents © Copyright, 2022 by The Astorian. MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MEMBER CERTIFIED AUDIT OF CIRCULATIONS, INC. Printed on recycled paper during that time is that the earthquake warning cen- ter in Alaska is analyzing buoy and other data to antic- ipate whether a tsunami is expected.” More often than not, the advisory is canceled within two to four hours of being issued, Brown said. But with confi rma- tion from the warning sys- tem at 5:20 a.m., Oregon, along with Hawaii, Califor- nia, Washington state and Alaska, asked that people move out of the water, off the beach and away from harbors. In hours to come, local, county and state resources were involved in the response. “For my part, we began early with the public mes- saging on our department Facebook page to make sure everyone was getting the same message,” Brown said. Both Cannon Beach and Seaside activated emergency operations centers and state, city and county agencies coordinated beach closures from the Seaside operations center, Brown said. Seaside Seaside Public Works Director Dale McDowell said he received an initial call from Seaside d ispatch at 6:29 a.m. “When the call was com- pleted, I telephoned our wastewater foreman, water foreman and street depart- ment,” McDowell said. “The calls were completed by 6:36 a.m.” McDowell telephoned employees that the coast- line might be impacted by high water and asked them to reach out to their surfer friends to let them know, as a good-sized group meets at the Cove every morning. Seaside p olice fi rst sent notice of a tsunami advisory in eff ect for Seaside beach at 7:39 a.m., with public safety monitoring the event. Mayor Jay Barber said he was notifi ed by the city man- ager shortly after 8 a.m. The emergency man- agement team was already assembled, including all of the emergency management agencies in the county. “It was determined from the information coming in from the reporting agen- cies that Seaside was likely to see about a 3-foot wave at about 8:55 a.m.,” Bar- ber said. “I agreed that, with that information, it would be best not to sound the tsu- nami warning sirens, rather to warn residents to get off the beach and as a precau- tion, close Sunset Boulevard in the Cove. Fire (personnel) and law enforcement actu- ally went on to the beach to inform people to leave the beach. People were mostly very cooperative.” It was hard to distinguish a potential tsunami of small size from a typical surge of a sneaker wave, Seaside City Councilor Tom Horning, a geologist, said. “I stationed myself at the south tip of Gearhart above the mouth of the Necanicum River,” Horning said. Two minutes of surge, followed by four minutes of ebb, were typical from 8:30 to 9 a.m. “At 9:01 a.m., a surge of 10 minutes followed by a two-minute ebb followed by another surge of six minutes took place,” Horning said. “Later surges were from three to fi ve minutes with fi ve minutes of ebb until around 9:40 a.m, when we left. Possibly the 9:01 a.m. surge could have been a sneaker wave with some tsu- nami momentum. One part tsunami, 10 parts sneaker wave.” High tide was around 8 feet at 10:30 a.m., and from the old high school parking lot, it looked like it should have under normal conditions. “The tsunami, if it arrived, was swamped by sneaker waves, and the sneaker waves were insig- nifi cant,” Horning said. At 11:45 a.m., the Sea- side emergency o perations c enter stood down. The tsunami advisory was canceled around 5 p.m. There were no injuries or damage reported. “The event provided an excellent rehearsal in prepa- ration for the potential of a Subscription rates Eff ective January 12, 2021 MAIL EZpay (per month) ...............................................................................................................$10.75 13 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$37.00 26 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$71.00 52 weeks in advance ........................................................................................................ $135.00 DIGITAL EZpay (per month) .................................................................................................................$8.25 WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 much more serious event,” Barber said. Gearhart Gearhart Fire Chief Josh Como said he was notifi ed of the advisory by both Sea- side’s fi re chief and the dis- patch center . The Gearhart Fire Depart- ment responded to the emer- gency operations center at Seaside d ispatch. “At our station, our fi refi ghters set up local emergency opera- tions to organize and deploy resources throughout our city and fi re district, focus- ing on low-lying areas that would have the best chances for impact from surges of water, ” he said. Como called on-duty O ffi cer Josh Lair, Lt. James Hutchinson and City Admin- istrator Chad Sweet . After the necessary personnel had been notifi ed, Como con- tacted Mayor Paulina Cock- rum so she could commu- nicate with the Gearhart Community Emergency Response Team. The Clatsop County Sheriff ’s Offi ce blocked the Sunset and Del Ray beach accesses. Police Chief Jeff Bow- man monitored the 10th Street access, Como said, and helped Gearhart fi re per- sonnel patrol the beach and low-lying areas. “From what I saw, the waves did not breach the fi rst base of the dune line,” Como said. “The waves did push up similar to a sneaker wave on a high tide. I was not made aware of any damage to our community.” Cockrum said she stayed at the overlook near the Lit- tle Beach parking lot and took pictures of waves, three of which she said were abnormal. “One of the unusual things I noticed was a large amount of trees that came out of the base of Neacoxie Creek and were starting to fl oat into the estuary,” Cockrum said. Como said he was proud of the response from all of the agencies involved . “All parties acted together to pro- tect our citizens and visitors from harm, ” he said. Cannon Beach Cannon Beach p olice received an advisory just after 6:20 a.m. via Sea- side d ispatch. City M anager Bruce St. Denis and depart- ment heads were notifi ed, including police, fi re and public works. “We organized at C ity H all, opened up the emer- gency operation center and had a quick briefi ng and started to deploy resources,” Rick Hudson, the city’s emergency manager, said. Responders patrolled all of the beach accesses, posted warning signs and had a con- tinuous patrol presence, Hud- son said. Wave heights were high- est close to 9 a.m., Hudson said. “We did not measure the waves, but they represented close to a low king tide level. The tidal fl ow from this tsu- nami was not far enough out of the king/high tide level to cause any new damage to the city.” The city’s emergency sirens were put to the test and led to an apology late Satur- day from the Cannon Beach Rural Fire Protection District. “There were a few chal- lenges with the system since it has not been used as a city- wide PA system in over 10 years,” Hudson said. T he siren system inadver- tently activated an automatic alarm while Hudson and his crew were trying to use the public address system to give an audio address, Cannon Beach City Councilor Nancy McCarthy said. “It wasn’t the COWS (Community Warning Sys- tem) message, it was an alarm that, frankly, I hadn’t heard before,” she said. “The last time, someone delivered a message asking people to stay away from the beach until noon. But the public did respond to the alarm.” According to a statement from the fi re district, the emergency operations center as a group decided to use the siren system as a loudspeaker to help clear people from the beaches. “During that attempt to use the loudspeaker function, the sirens were set off . This was not the intention, and unfortunately created confu- sion,” the fi re district stated . “Cannon Beach fi re dis- trict would like to apologize for this, and everyone know that we are looking into why this happened. “There has been a dis- cussion lately with the city of Cannon Beach, regarding upgrading the siren technol- ogy and changing who man- ages the sirens, as they are currently managed by Can- non Beach fi re d istrict,” they wrote. “This event further stresses the need for upgrades to the system.”
