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Tuesday, February 21, 2017
OFF PAGE ONE
CASCADIA: An estimated 520K will need shelter
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
Paris Achen/Pamplin Media Group
Raul Perez, 12, (right) and his mother, Norma, (left) lis-
ten to a hearing on a bill that would expand health
coverage to undocumented children, during a meeting
of the House Committee on Health Care Monday.
HEALTH: Bill first proposed
by former Rep. Vic Gilliam
Continued from 1A
his sister.
The lawmakers have spon-
sored legislation that would
allow the Oregon Health
Authority to give health
coverage to the more than
17,000 undocumented chil-
dren in the state, effective July
1. Children in households that
earn 300 percent of federal
poverty level are eligible for
the state health program.
The bill was first proposed
by former Rep. Vic Gilliam,
R-Silverton, who resigned
earlier this month due to his
battle with ALS. Gilliam
sought to pass the same legis-
lation in 2015, but it died in
the Senate.
Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer,
D-Portland, read testimony
by Gilliam in support of this
year’s bill during a hearing
in the House Committee on
Health Care.
“The bill offers care and
compassion to a vulnerable
Oregon population, and it
offers savings and illness
prevention for all Orego-
nians,” Gilliam wrote. “Our
communities are stronger
when all of our children are
healthy.”
Gov. Brown has included
the $55 million biennial cost
to add the coverage in her
proposed budget, released in
December. The cost can only
be paid for with state general
fund dollars.
“Oregon children should
have the opportunity to be
healthy and ready to learn, and
Oregon families should feel
confident that a medical event
will not dramatically change
the trajectory of their lives,”
the governor testified Monday.
BURIAL: Described as a
cathartic moment for the tribes
Continued from 1A
who wanted to study the
bones filed a lawsuit insisting
the Kennewick Man was not
related to the tribes, based on
the shape of the skull.
The scientists eventually
won in court, and the Army
Corps of Engineers retained
custody of the remains. It
wasn’t until 2015 when a DNA
analysis at the University
of Copenhagen in Denmark
showed the Kennewick Man
was, in fact Native American.
Congress passed legis-
lation in 2016 to return the
Kennewick Man to the tribes.
Repatriation was done Friday,
Feb. 17 at the Burke Museum
in Seattle, where the remains
were being held. It took six
hours to account for every
piece of bone and bone frag-
ment.
“The
Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation is proud to have
worked with all parties to
repatriate the Ancient One to
the Tribes,” said Gary Burke,
CTUIR board chairman. “We
jointly believe in respecting
our ancestors of our past and
have fulfilled our responsi-
bility to finally lay the Ancient
One to rest.”
Chuck Sams, CTUIR
spokesman, was present for
both the repatriation and
burial of Kennewick Man.
He described it as a cathartic
moment for the tribes, with
emotions ranging from joy
and relief to sadness that some
tribal elders did not live to see
the Ancient One’s reburial.
“It’s a little shocking it
took over 20 years to get to
where we are today,” Sams
said.
The remains were buried
in the high desert, not far from
the Columbia River. Sams
said the tribes led a Washat
ceremony, singing songs that
are thousands of years old and
may very well have been from
the Kennewick Man’s time.
Afterward, members of
the five tribes attended a
traditional dinner of salmon,
buffalo, elk, roots and berries
at the Wanapum Longhouse
in Priest Rapids, Washington.
“This is a big day, and our
people have come to witness
and honor our ancestor,” said
Armand Minthorn, CTUIR
board member and Long-
house leader. “We continue to
practice our beliefs and laws
as our Creator has given us
since time immemorial.”
With more than 100,000
sets of American Indian
remains still in public and
private collections across the
country, Sams said there is the
need to strengthen the Native
American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act. Specif-
ically, he said the law should
give proper weight to the
tribes’ oral traditions of their
history.
“We know who we are,
and where we come from,”
Sams said.
———
Contact George Plaven at
gplaven@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0825.
but leadership down there is
going to be focused on their
own families — as they
should be — so we could
bring in some leadership,”
he said.
Fellows
said
both
counties have expressed an
interest in expanding the
agreement to other depart-
ments such as health and
law enforcement.
Umatilla County’s ongoing
partnerships with Morrow
County would also come into
play. Morrow County emer-
gency manager John Bowles
said his county doesn’t have
the resources of some of the
larger counties in the state,
but they would contribute
what they could, which might
include things like caring for
livestock rescued from the
west side of the state.
“We have the land that
we could take a chunk and
throw some sheep or cattle
or horses on it in the event
of an emergency,” he said.
Bowles said in the coming
months the Morrow County
Sheriff’s Department plans
to use its Facebook page
and other venues to provide
educational materials about
emergency preparedness.
According to the state’s
Cascadia Subduction Zone
plan,
firefighters,
law
enforcement,
engineers,
building inspectors, medical
personnel and others from
the east side of the state will
also be requested to help on
the west side.
Influx of people
Umatilla County emer-
gency manager Tom Roberts
said he could see Umatilla
County quickly becoming
sandwiched
between
refugees from the west and
volunteers and journalists
pouring in from the east.
Many of the people
coming from the west side of
the state will likely have inju-
ries sustained as buildings
and bridges collapsed. Nick
Bejarano, communications
director for Good Shepherd
Make a neighborhood plan
In the days following a major natural disaster when
government and nonprofit resources are still over-
whelmed, one of the best ways to help can be taking care
of others.
Ralph Werner of Hermiston, inspired by the book
“When All Plans Fail” by Paul Williams, is laying the
groundwork for those efforts now by creating a neigh-
borhood disaster plan with the 18 houses surrounding his.
“If no one knows what to do, we have chaos,” he said.
Werner started by going door to door and asking his
neighbors to fill out a questionnaire that will be compiled
and redistributed to the neighborhood. The survey asks
for contact information, the names and ages of people
living in the house, the location of utility shutoffs (most
fires after earthquakes start with natural gas leaks) and a
list of useful skills such as medical training or plumbing
repair.
Werner has also created a nine-step plan for everyone
to follow. Once they have checked off the personal items
— such as turning off utilities and dressing in protective
clothing — Werner asks everyone to place a special card
in the front window indicating whether they are OK or
need help.
“If no card is visible, we will check on them in case
they are injured and can’t reach the window,” he said.
Next, the plan asks everyone to report to the “neigh-
borhood care center” — in this case, Werner’s house.
There, the neighbors will break into teams, with some
checking on “special needs” houses (those with children
or elderly/disabled residents) while others will take first
aid kits out in search of the injured or stay at the center to
listen for updates on the NOAA weather radio.
Werner said he would encourage all neighborhoods
to implement similar plans of their own, which will
allow people to organize and find those who need help
as quickly as possible. Businesses, church congregations,
extended families and other groups should also consider
who might need checking on or how to communicate in
the event of an emergency.
Health Care System, said
immediately after Cascadia
they would implement their
emergency operations plan.
“We would call in all
nurses and physicians within
driving distance that could
make it in,” he said, calling
it an “all hands on deck”
situation.
Bejarano said as many as
60,000 injured and hospital-
ized people from the west
side the state will need to
be triaged and evacuated to
hospitals still in operation.
The hospital in Hermiston
is only licensed for 25 beds,
and many Eastern Oregon
hospitals have similarly
small numbers, so he said
patients being flown out of
the west will be sent as far
away as Utah. However,
Good Shepherd would take
in as many people as it could
handle, including those with
less serious injuries who
could be stitched up and
released.
The Red Cross and
FEMA, meanwhile, would
be working to set up shelter.
In Oregon the state estimates
520,000 people will need
shelter in the aftermath
of Cascadia, while about
500,000 more will stay in
their own makeshift shelters
but still need support with
food and water.
Monique
Dugaw,
communications director for
the Cascades region of the
Red Cross, said the nonprofit
works closely with the
government during disasters
and participated in the
Cascadia Rising drill. After
an earthquake the Red Cross
would start by providing
shelter.
“We would be focused on
meeting immediate needs, a
cot, a blanket, a place to stay
that’s safe and warm, three
meals a day,” she said.
Sending supplies
The government plans
to use Robert’s Field in
Redmond as the Federal
Incident Support Base on the
assumption it remains mostly
undamaged during Cascadia.
Steve Chrisman, manager
of the Pendleton Airport, said
he recently sent a pitch to
the state arguing that Pend-
leton should be the backup
or secondary location for
sending supplies and volun-
teers west.
“Pendleton for a lot of
reasons seems like a pretty
logical backup,” he said.
He pointed out that the
Pendleton Airport has a
“massive” concrete apron for
staging surrounded by more
than a thousand acres of flat
land to set up camps. The
airport includes an Oregon
National Guard hangar and
armory, two runways large
enough to land a Boeing 737
and a 34,000-square-foot
hangar for staging. Nearby
resources like the Pend-
leton Convention Center,
Round-Up Grounds, farms
and 1,400 hotel rooms could
also be utilized.
“We have a lot of food
processing in the area,
whereas they would have to
ship a lot of that to central
Oregon,” Chrisman said.
The locations would also
be more conveniently located
to ports along the Columbia
River, where supplies could
be sent by boat if bridge
collapses were not blocking
the river too far east.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.