Page 10A
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
OFF PAGE ONE
CASCADIA: A family plan is part of
psychologically preparing for the event
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
Halftime hop
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The Rhythmic Mode dance team per-
forms a lift move in their performance
during halftime of the boy’s basketball
game Tuesday at Pendleton High School.
NUCLEAR: Agency dependent on nuclear
plant when water is low at electric dams
Kieran Connolly, Bonne-
ville’s vice president for
generation and asset manage-
ment, told the newspaper
that the agency is dependent
on the nuclear plant when
water conditions are low at
energy-producing dams.
He said some of the
nuclear plants slated to close
early, such as Diablo Canyon
in California, were facing
Continued from 1A
Most experts note that the
Northwest wholesale markets
are awash in energy, but
could soon go into a capacity
deficit. Such a shortage could
be exacerbated by the slated
closure of three coal-fired
plants in Oregon, Wash-
ington and Montana in 2020
and 2021.
major new capital invest-
ments. That’s not the case
for the Columbia Generating
Station, he said.
“Our customers’ focus is
on safely, reliably and cost
effectiveness” in meeting
electricity needs, he said.
“They’re not seeing it as a
resource they are questioning.
They just want to make sure
it’s well managed.”
EAGLES: Received weeks of supportive care
Continued from 1A
last summer, including an
adult male and immature
female. The female was
discovered in July by hikers
around Jubilee Lake, which
they wrapped in a coat and
placed in a cooler until it
could be collected by wild-
life officials.
Tompkins said the bird
had a dislocated hip and
shoulder, and was unable to
fly. She figures there had to
be a collision of some kind
to sustain those injuries.
The male, however, was
more of a mystery. Tompkins
said they received the eagle
from around Ellensburg,
Washington, and though
the bird was emaciated and
dehydrated, they could not
figure out why.
“He was really thin, and
he wasn’t eating,” Tompkins
said.
Both eagles received
weeks of supportive care,
including fluids and Tomp-
kins’ famous “mouse slurry,”
which
doesn’t
contain
any actual mice but rather
contains the same ratio of fat,
carbohydrates and protein as
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Samantha Castoldi, with Blue Mountain Wildlife,
releases a female juvenile bald eagle as Lynn Tomp-
kins records video on her phone Tuesday at McKay
Reservoir in Pendleton.
a mouse.
Tompkins
initially
planned to release the eagles
at the McNary National
Wildlife Refuge across the
Columbia River, but weather
kept interrupting those plans.
Instead, arrangements were
made to bring the birds to
the nearby McKay Creek
Refuge, where Tompkins
said they should have plenty
of food.
“The winter has been
especially hard on our deer
and elk,” she said. “Bald
eagles are essentially scav-
engers.”
As Castoldi opened
the doors to each carrier,
the eagles burst out with a
whoosh and quickly maneu-
vered out of sight.
“They flew very well,”
Tompkins said. “They’d
been ready to go for a while.”
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
“If you look at what
happened with (Hurricane)
Katrina, where they landed
is where they tended to
stay,” he said of people
fleeing the disaster. “I don’t
know if we can house that
many.”
At the same time, some
people in Eastern Oregon
would join one of the 50
nonprofits on the National
Voluntary
Organizations
Active in Disasters registry
and head west to assist
in cleanup efforts. Those
with medical training can
get pre-credentialed now
with the State Emergency
Registry of Volunteers to
provide medical services.
Commerce
The earthquake could
prove crippling to some
businesses, especially those
that depend on shipping
commodities to the west side
of the state. But Umatilla
County emergency manager
Tom Roberts said other local
businesses could see a boon
from refugees, volunteers,
media and government
workers who would likely
spend weeks in the county
or at least pass through.
“With that increased
population
expectancy,
the potential is if business
owners are prepared, and
if they’ve encouraged their
employees to be prepared,
there is a potential for them
to see a windfall,” he said.
The Oregon Office of
Emergency Management
HAS
an
emergency
preparedness scorecard that
helps businesses assess how
resilient they would be in
a natural disaster and asks
the “tough questions” about
whether they should reopen.
Roberts said that if
owners and employees are
personally prepared for a
disaster, they will be able
to return to work more
quickly. The business also
needs to have plans in place
for communication and the
possibility they may need to
function for a while without
electricity or internet (see
sidebar).
Customers also need to
be prepared for the fact that
THE
businesses may not immedi-
ately reopen, or may operate
on a cash-only basis for a
while after the disaster.
Mental Health
A month after the quake
there would likely be more
stability in meeting physical
needs, but mental and
emotional needs will also be
present.
After Hurricane Katrina
flooded New Orleans, the
city’s residents experienced
increased rates of PTSD,
depression and anxiety.
Cascadia, with its destruc-
tive powers and aftershocks
that will likely run for
weeks, could produce
similar effects.
Monique
Dugaw,
communications director for
the Cascades region of the
Red Cross, said the nonprofit
has volunteer mental health
professionals that it would
call upon to help victims of
Cascadia.
Steve
Eberline,
a
preparedness presenter for
Red Cross, said people will
be in a better place mentally
after a big disaster if they
have discussed it, thought
about it and prepared for it
ahead of time.
“A family plan is part of
psychologically preparing
for the event,” he said. “A lot
of people don’t want to talk
about it, because thinking of
your child trapped at school
across the river, it’s a tough
conversation to have.”
He said his family keeps
card games and books in
their 72-hour kit, to provide
a “sense of normalcy and
comfort” if they had to
live in a tent or emergency
shelter for a while. The Red
Cross also keeps toys for
children in its emergency
shelters.
Services
As life begins to stabilize
in eastern Oregon, organi-
zations like school districts
will have to figure out how
to carry on in the face of a
“new normal.”
Mike Kay, operations
manager for Hermiston
School District, participates
in meetings for Umatilla
County’s local emergency
preparedness
committee.
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He said the school district
has relocation plans in place
to evacuate students in the
event of an emergency. It
also plans to offer its build-
ings and staff as resources
to the Red Cross, National
Guard and other responders.
“We anticipate we, and
any facilities we have,
becoming readily available
staging areas,” he said.
Kay said so far the district
has been mostly focused on
what would happen in the
first month after Cascadia
and hasn’t spent much time
discussing how it would
accommodate a large influx
of children from the west
side.
As the district has built
new schools, it has built
them to seismic standards.
If Eastern Oregon only
sees light shaking during
Cascadia and its aftershocks,
the damage to school build-
ings in Hermiston could be
minimal. However, with
variables such as time of
year unknown, Kay said
how soon school would start
back up again is “the million
dollar question.”
Other organizations have
similar questions. Roberts
said many of them have
been invited to an all-day
Cascadia
Earthquake
Preparedness Summit on
May 12 to discuss “areas
to work on” as the region
continues to prepare for
Cascadia.
“We don’t have all the
answers yet, but we intend
to start working on them this
spring,” he said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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“A lot of people
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thinking of your
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Meeting Locations: Eight eastern Oregon sites listed below
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Attend at one of these eight meeting sites Feb. 27, 6-8 p.m.
Burns - Harney County Courthouse
La Grande - Eastern - Oregon University
Basement Mtg. Room, 450 N. Buena Vista
Inlow Hall, Room 013, One University Blvd.
John Day – Oregon Telephone Conf. Room,
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Or, connect remotely to the Feb. 27 meeting via computer, tablet or smart phone.
If you can’t make it to one of the above meeting sites, you can connect to the meeting on-line at Zoom.com.
Type https://zoom.us/join in your internet browser, enter Meeting ID: 175-119-566 and password: odotstip
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call ODOT Public Information Officer Tom Strandberg at 541-963-1330
(email: thomas.m.strandberg@odot.state.or.us). This meeting is open to the public
and accommodations will be provided to persons with disabilities. To request an
accessibility accommodation, please call 541-963-1330 or statewide relay 711
at least 48 hours in advance. Meetings sites are accessible to persons with
disabilities per ADA requirements.
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