NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, February 14, 2019
More than 1,600 dairy cows die in Washington blizzard
plus future production loss,
but right now the bigger
impact is a huge emotional
loss to farmers,” said Dan
Wood, executive director
of Washington State Dairy
Federation.
Dairy farmers already
are struggling to sur-
vive in extremely difficult
market conditions, so the
storm losses are like a dou-
ble-whammy, he said.
“Farmers put up hay
bales for wind barriers and
tried to do what they could.
Farmers were out there in
zero degrees or less with
wind chill, risking their
lives to save cattle,” Wood
said.
No farmers or workers
were reported injured, he
said.
“Like all dairy farm-
ers we and our courageous
crews worked all night try-
ing to get these cows into
better protection, but for so
many their instincts took
over and we could not budge
them. It’s a terrible, tragic
loss,” said Jason Sheehan,
44, a Sunnyside dairyman
and head of Eastern Wash-
ington Family Farmers.
He said his family has
never shut down the milking
parlor in 40 years but that he
had to from 1 to 11 p.m. Sat-
urday because he couldn’t
get cows to move and milk
trucks could not get in. He
By DAN WHEAT
EO Media Group
SUNNYSIDE, Wash. —
A daylong blizzard killed
1,677 cows at about 10 dair-
ies in the Sunnyside area
of Washington state last
Saturday.
A snowstorm was accom-
panied by sustained winds
of 30 to 50 mph all day and
gusts up to 80 mph, farmers
said.
Because of desert climate
conditions, many farms in
the area are open lot dairies
with cows outside or under
open-sided shelters. Most of
the dairies with losses were
on an exposed ridge north of
town.
“Cows were huddled
in, pressed up against each
other in corners of pens and
refused to move. Farmers
couldn’t get them to move
into milking barns. Herd
instinct,” said Gerald Baron,
executive director of Save
Family Farming, a farm
advocacy group. “Most
cows died from injuries
from each other and some
from cold exposure. They
went down and couldn’t get
up.”
About 28 cows that were
injured are likely to be euth-
anized, farmers said.
“Each cow could be
worth $2,000, so we’re
looking at $3.2 million
Photo contributed by Jason Sheehan/Capital Press
Cows rest comfortably at Jason Sheehan’s dairy near Sunnyside, Wash., on Feb. 11. Blizzard conditions Feb. 9 caused the
deaths of more than 1,600 dairy cows in the area.
had to dump milk. He lost
cows but did not want to say
how many.
By 11 p.m., the wind died
down to 20 to 25 mph, he
said, and he was able to get
cows moving.
“I grew up in Minnesota
and I never saw anything
like this back there,” Shee-
han said. “My employees
were awesome, coming in
on days off. It was all hands
on deck.
“My wife, four kids,
employees are all safe. But
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
Periods of snow
mixing with rain
Cloudy and not
as cold
35° 29°
42° 26°
MONDAY
SUNDAY
SATURDAY
FRIDAY
Mostly cloudy and
cold
A bit of snow and
rain at times
Very cold with
partial sunshine
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
32° 22°
32° 20°
38° 25°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
33° 28°
33° 21°
35° 20°
37° 25°
41° 27°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
40/37
39/31
33/23
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
36/30
Lewiston
42/38
33/30
Astoria
43/38
Pullman
Yakima 35/27
39/35
41/33
Portland
Hermiston
42/37
The Dalles 33/28
Salem
Corvallis
44/37
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
43/33
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
46/37
40/27
47/33
Ontario
47/36
Caldwell
Burns
33°
28°
47°
29°
69° (1977) -22° (1933)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
44/38
0.22"
1.16"
0.46"
2.69"
1.24"
1.74"
WINDS (in mph)
48/34
41/25
0.21"
1.46"
0.56"
3.53"
1.85"
1.94"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 42/30
44/37
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
35/29
34/29
40°
29°
46°
29°
69° (1921) -21° (1933)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
41/32
Aberdeen
33/28
29/26
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
42/36
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
48/34
Fri.
NNE 6-12
N 6-12
SW 4-8
SW 7-14
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
42/25
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:59 a.m.
5:20 p.m.
12:07 p.m.
2:33 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
Feb 19
Feb 26
Mar 6
Mar 14
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 80° in Marathon, Fla. Low -20° in Harvey, N.D.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
we feel horrible about the
cows. Everyone put their
heart and soul into this and
Mother Nature just beat us
on this one. For us and other
dairies, we’re just physi-
cally, mentally and emotion-
ally drained.”
About 5 miles away,
Markus Rollinger, 31, did
not lose any cows, mostly
because his dairy is at lower
elevation and protected by
hills.
“It was 30 to 50 mph
wind constant all day Sat-
urday. It was relentless. A
once-in-a-lifetime event,”
Rollinger said.
“I and my brother worked
36 hours nonstop pushing
snow and clearing roads so
milk trucks could get to our
dairy and so my employ-
ees could go home and the
next shift come in and feed-
ers could get animals fed the
first thing Sunday morning.
The rest of the day we were
bedding cows and helping
neighbors dig out.”
He said he was worried
about losing cows but was
able to keep them moving.
Wood said the Dairy Fed-
eration is contacting local
and state agencies for help
with disposal of the dead
animals to make sure it is
done properly.
“It’s a huge task,” he said.
Gov. Jay Inslee declared
a state of emergency prior
to the loss of cattle being
known, Wood said.
Farmers hope that can
help with assistance, he said.
New storm brings more rain, snow to
California, Oregon and Washington
LOS ANGELES (AP) —
More rain, snow and wind
hit the West on Wednes-
day, flooding roads, top-
pling trees and cutting
power while raising threats
of debris flows from wild-
fire scars.
The tempest, aimed
at California and south-
ern Oregon and barreling
toward Nevada, was feeding
on a deep plume of moisture
stretching across the Pacific
Ocean to near Hawaii, the
National Weather Service
said.
The storm followed
more than a week of severe
weather in the Pacific North-
west and was the latest in a
series that has all but elimi-
nated drought-level dryness
in California this winter.
Winter storm warnings
were posted in the snow-
laden Sierra Nevada, where
the forecast says up to 7
feet of new snow could be
dumped at elevations above
9,000 feet.
The National Weather
Service recorded winds
gusting to 132 mph late
Tuesday and early Wednes-
day atop the Mount Rose ski
resort southwest of Reno,
Nevada.
Snow heavily impacted
stretches of vital Interstate
5 in far northern California,
causing closures and forcing
tire chain requirements.
A local state of emer-
gency was declared in
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
A woman carries an umbrella Wednesday as she crosses the
street in San Francisco. Rain, snow and wind swept into Cali-
fornia on Wednesday, flooding roadways, toppling trees and
disrupting travel while bringing renewed threats of mud and
debris flows from the state’s huge wildfire burn scars.
Shasta County due to “sig-
nificant” storm damage, a
Sheriff’s Office statement
said. Redding, the county
seat, turned its library into a
warming center.
Power outages also hit
thousands of utility custom-
ers in the region.
In Washington, about
12,000 Puget Sound Energy
customers remained with-
out power Wednesday and
Interstate 90 was closed for
a second day across Sno-
qualmie Pass in the Cascade
Mountains. The town of
North Bend declared a state
of emergency due to several
feet of snow.
In Oregon transporta-
tion officials closed about
20 miles of the westbound
lanes of Interstate 84 in the
Columbia River Gorge east
of Portland due to icy con-
ditions that caused numer-
ous wrecks and stranded
some drivers for hours. By
early Wednesday afternoon
some vehicles were mov-
ing but authorities were still
restricting new traffic.
“This is a very, very
serious situation out there
right now,” Don Hamil-
ton, an Oregon Department
of Transportation spokes-
man, told The Oregonian/
OregonLive.
Authorities
brought
stranded travelers water and
food and tried to get gas to
vehicles that needed it.
U.S. sues Lockheed Martin over fraud at Hanford
RICHLAND,
Wash.
(AP) — The U.S. Jus-
tice Department is accus-
ing Lockheed Martin Corp.
of using false records and
making false statements to
bill the Energy Department
for tens of millions of dol-
lars in unauthorized prof-
its and fees at the Hanford
Nuclear Reservation.
The federal civil lawsuit
was filed last week in U.S.
District Court in Eastern
Washington.
The Seattle Times says
the lawsuit also accuses
Lockheed Martin of using
federal money to pay mil-
lions of dollars in kickbacks.
Hanford is located near
Richland, Washington, and
for decades made pluto-
nium for nuclear weapons.
The site is now involved in
a massive cleanup effort that
costs more than $2 billion
per year.
The lawsuit covers the
period from 2010 to 2015.
Lockheed Martin denied
the allegations and said it
will defend itself vigorously.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
50s
ice
60s
cold front
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