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
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Printed on
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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
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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.”