A2
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2022
IN BRIEF
Warrenton, Moberg agree
to city manager contract
WARRENTON — The city has completed negotia-
tions to hire Esther Moberg as city manager.
Moberg, the library director in Seaside, was selected
for the role in July.
Moberg will start her new post on Sept. 19.
Grants available for
child care providers
Current and aspiring child care providers are invited
to apply for a grant through the new program to help
stabilize funding.
The program has been developed in response to
the scarcity of child care options throughout Clat-
sop County. Grant money has come from the county,
Providence Seaside Hospital and Columbia Memorial
Hospital.
The grants are available to center-based or in-home
providers looking after children from 6 weeks to 12
years old.
For more information about the pro-
gram
online,
visit
nworegon.org/
childcare-grants-program-in-clatsop-county
The deadline to submit an application is 5 p.m. on
Aug. 26.
MERRIMAC
County seeks input on geologic hazards
People are invited to take a survey to help the Clat-
sop County Community Development Department
better understand the geologic hazards in the county’s
unincorporated areas.
The survey is part of an update to the mapping and
regulations of the county’s Geologic Hazards Overlay,
the county said in a statement.
The survey will be live on the county website until
Sept. 5, the county said.
Columbia Senior Diners clarifi es
timeline for closure
Due to program revenue issues, Columbia Senior
Diners is closing at the end of the month.
The sit-down dining service at the Astoria Senior
Center will end on Aug. 19, and there will be a to-go
option through Aug. 31.
The home delivery program will continue in Sep-
tember through a partnership with NorthWest Senior
and Disability Services.
— The Astorian
DEATHS
Aug. 6, 2022
In BREWER,
Brief
Michael
Rodney, 74, of Astoria,
Oregon, died in Astoria.
Deaths
Caldwell’s Luce-Layton
Mortuary of Astoria is in
charge of the arrangements.
RAY, Harold Mark,
73, of Warrenton, died
in Warrenton. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Aug. 4, 2022
BUCHOLZ, Nathan
Wallace, 58, of Ham-
mond, died in Astoria.
Caldwell’s
Luce-Lay-
ton Mortuary of Asto-
ria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Aug. 3, 2022
SMITH,
Cheryl
Elaine, 77, of Astoria,
died in Longview, Wash-
ington. Steele Chapel
at Longview Memo-
rial Park in Longview
is in charge of the
arrangements.
MEMORIALS
Saturday, Aug. 13
Memorials
BUCKMAN, Yvonne
— Celebration of life has
been postponed until a
later date.
Sunday, Aug. 14
DUNCAN,
Duff y
— Graveside service
at 2 p.m., Old Scotch
Church Cemetery, 30685
N.W. Scotch Church
Road in Hillsboro.
Monday, Aug. 15
SCHEVE, Velvyn Joan
— Memorial celebration at
12:30 p.m., Olney Grange,
89342 Oregon Highway
202. A service and sharing
time is followed by a lun-
cheon at 2 p.m.
ON THE RECORD
Theft
lier that month.
On
• John the
William Record
Kelley,
• Anna Lee Hile, 32,
43, of Astoria, was indicted
on July 14 for fi rst-degree
theft. The crime is alleged
to have taken place at
Walmart in Warrenton ear-
of Lincoln City, was
arrested on Monday at
Walmart in Warrenton for
second-degree theft and
fi rst-degree trespass.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY
Seaside Civic and Convention Center Commission,
5 p.m., 415 First Ave.
Astoria School District Board, 5:45 p.m., special meeting,
(electronic meeting).
Gearhart Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 698
Pacifi c Way.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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Photos by Lydia Ely/The Astorian
The Merrimac, a 45-foot yacht, docked at the West Mooring Basin on Monday. The yacht, built by the Astoria Marine Construction
Co. and originally launched in 1938, is moving to a new home at the Columbia River Maritime Museum’s secured boat storage hall.
Tribe creates higher ground
by building tsunami tower
A fi rst for the region
By TOM BANSE
Northwest News Network
There is a new option to
escape a tsunami if you’re
on the southwest coast of
Washington state when the
“Big One” strikes.
The Shoalwater Bay
Indian Tribe on Friday ded-
icated a 50-foot tall evac-
uation tower in Tokeland,
Washington. Tribal lead-
ers and the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency
said the new tsunami ref-
uge platform should be an
example and inspiration
for other vulnerable coastal
communities.
When the next magnitude
9.0 rip of the off shore Cas-
cadia Subduction Zone fault
occurs, people on the Pacifi c
Northwest coast will have
about 15 to 35 minutes to
get to high ground to escape
a possible tsunami. Toke-
land is on a long, fl at pen-
insula with no high ground
within walking or running
distance for many of the
people there.
“This tower will save our
lives someday,” said Shoal-
water tribal council mem-
ber Lynn Clark at the joyful
dedication ceremony, which
was followed by a salmon
bake to thank the project’s
many partners.
The
tribe’s
emer-
gency management direc-
tor, Ken Ufkin, said he can
sleep better now that the
high ground exists in the
form of the sturdy, dou-
ble-decker tsunami refuge
tower. The tower stands
close to the midpoint of the
nearly 3 -mile long Tokeland
Peninsula.
“This allows folks even
if it’s 2:30 in the morning
in your pajamas to scoop up
your family and make it here
in a very short amount of
time – in under a 15-minute
window for nearly every-
one from Tokeland Point to
the heart of the reservation,”
Ufkin said.
The tower will be open to
all in a disaster. The tower
platforms have a capacity
of more than 400 people,
which is considerably more
than the tribal population of
the small Shoalwater Bay
reservation. So, a lot of the
tribe’s neighbors can escape
the waves there, too.
Northwest News Network
The fi rst free-standing tsunami refuge in North America is now open in Tokeland in Pacifi c County.
The Tokeland evacuation
tower resembles free-stand-
ing tsunami towers previ-
ously built in Japan, but it is
the fi rst of its type in North
America. The two other pur-
pose-built tsunami refuges
on the Northwest coast —
in Newport and in West-
port, Washington — are
reinforced platforms on the
roofs of a school or univer-
sity building.
Design engineer Cale
Ash, who worked on the
Tokeland tower for Degen-
kolb Engineers, said tsu-
nami experts modeled the
maximum wave height at
the location near the mouth
of Willapa Bay as 16.3 feet.
Ash said the design team
rounded up to 20.2 feet to
be safe. He said the fl oor of
the lower platform is 33 feet
above the ground and the
fl oor of the upper platform
is 43 feet high.
Ash told the audience at
the dedication that the tower
rests on concrete pilings that
go 55 feet deep to withstand
violent shaking of the soft,
sandy soils of the peninsula.
That means the supports go
deeper than the tower is tall.
The tribe named the
structure the Auntie Lee
Vertical Evacuation Tower
to honor retired tribal emer-
gency management director
Lee Shipman, who was the
driving force behind it. Ship-
man’s vision took more than
fi ve years to realize, includ-
ing more than a year of con-
struction delay attributed to
the coronavirus pandemic.
“The very best experts
in the USA helped with
this project,” Shipman said
proudly. “It is with the help
from all the various agencies
that we were able to build
the very, very fi rst FEMA-
funded tower in the United
States of America.”
“We need about 50
more,” followed up Maj.
Gen. Bret Daugherty, the
head of the Washington
National Guard and state
Military Department, which
houses the Emergency Man-
agement Division. As he
delivered that line, General
Daugherty looked directly
at FEMA Regional Admin-
istrator Willie Nunn, who
was sitting in the front row
at the dedication ceremony.
FEMA provided $3.8
million toward the design
and construction of the
Tokeland tower. The Shoal-
water Bay tribe contributed
an additional $1.2 million to
complete the budget.
The most likely next
place in the Northwest to
build a tsunami evacuation
tower is the town of Ocean
Shores, Washington, which
is working with Degenkolb
on a design. The city admin-
istration has secured most
of the needed construc-
tion funding from federal,
state and local sources. All
of Ocean Shores lies within
the inundation zone of a tsu-
nami spawned by a Casca-
dia megaquake.
Nearby Westport is also
discussing whether to build
an evacuation tower to serve
residents who live or work
too far away from Ocosta
Elementary School, which
has the reinforced roof over
its gym as a tsunami refuge
platform.
Some emergency plan-
ners have qualms about
relying on vertical evacu-
ation structures because it
entails leaving potentially
large clusters of people in
the midst of a disaster zone
who will need to be rescued
later. While those survivors
wait, they will be exposed
to the elements on a struc-
ture likely to be pummeled
by coursing debris and pos-
sibly exposed to hazardous
waste runoff .
Going to natural high
ground outside the tsunami
fl ood zone is therefore much
better than vertical evacu-
ation. But Ufkin and oth-
ers point out that reaching
safety quickly by driving is
unlikely to be an option if
the Big One buckles roads
and topples power poles
in low-lying places such
as Tokeland – or in Ocean
Shores and Long Beach,
Washington, and parts of
Seaside and Warrenton for
example, too.
Geologists and emer-
gency planners consider the
Cascadia Subduction Zone
fault among the most signif-
icant disaster threats in the
U.S. The off shore fault last
ruptured in January 1700,
spawning a tsunami that
reached all the way across
the Pacifi c to Japan.
Researchers digging in
coastal marshes and off shore
canyon bottoms have also
found evidence of earlier
great earthquakes and tsuna-
mis. The radiocarbon dating
of those events makes it pos-
sible to estimate the recur-
rence interval of Cascadia
megaquakes at between 250
to 800 years. That puts the
present day well within the
return window.