OFF PAGE ONE
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
East Oregonian
A7
Graduation: Quilt pieces together
memories of basketball career
Continued from Page A1
the most fun she ever had
with a quilt.
“I loved this project from
start to finish,” she said.
The two women joked
that they loved the quilt so
much they weren’t sure if
they were actually going to
let Smith have it.
Lockwood doesn’t do the
stitching for other peoples’
quilts anymore, other than
for the Quilts of Valor proj-
ects for veterans. But she
relented on helping her good
friend, and was glad she did
it.
“I told Erin, even if he
didn’t appreciate it now, as
an adult he will look back
and cherish it, and he will
know what love his grandma
put into it,” she said.
In the center of the quilt
is a square of jersey with
Smith’s high school number
— 21 — in purple and gold.
It’s the inverse of his dad
Shane Smith’s, who wore the
number 12 when he played
for the Hermiston Bulldogs.
The squares tell the story
of Smith’s basketball career,
but they also tell the story of
a close-knit team. The six
graduating seniors on Herm-
iston High School’s roster
grew up playing together,
most of them since third
grade. The team finished
their senior season with a
15-8 record.
Contributed photo by Craig Lockwood
Shawn Lockwood, left, and Erin Chowning work on the
quilt that they created for Chowning’s grandson Cole
Smith.
Now, Smith said, they
will go their separate ways
after graduation on June 6.
Smith is still weighing his
options — he got accepted
to Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity, but is also considering
an electrician apprenticeship
with his dad.
Wherever he goes next,
he’ll have his quilt to remem-
ber his basketball days, and
the friends he made there.
“I enjoyed spending time
with my teammates, how
close we got,” he said.
Water: Neighborhood group trying to
stop another McKay flood
Staff photo by Kathy Aney, File
A man walks his dog at Community Park next to a swollen McKay Creek on April 13.
Continued from Page A1
McKay Creek residents
are now banding together to
demand preventative mea-
sures against future floods
and a seat at the table among
the vast network of govern-
ment bureaucracies that gov-
ern the creek.
On a bright Tuesday after-
noon, Mulvihill, who works
as the superintendent of the
InterMountain Education Ser-
vice District, invited Umatilla
County Commissioner John
Shafer, Kirk Avenue neigh-
bor Bill Wohlford, and Todd
Armstrong, a friend of Wohl-
ford’s and a concerned citizen
with creek restoration experi-
ence, to his home.
Without the threat of
encroaching waters, Mul-
vihill’s green backyard
soundtracked by the creek
below looked and sounded
idyllic.
But Mulvihill beckoned
his guests to the back of his
property, which extends
across the creek toward Com-
munity Park.
Mulvihill gathered the
group on an elevated gravel
bar that didn’t used to exist.
The force of the flood eroded
the banks, creating gravel
bars up and down the creek
and sheer cliffs along Com-
munity Park.
The concrete walls that
used to help channel the creek
now sit helplessly in the newly
formed creek bed.
Unlike the flood in 1991,
no one was forced from
their homes in a mandatory
evacuation.
But Mulvihill and Wohl-
ford say the damage may be
longer lasting because of how
long the flooding remained.
Further erosion along the
banks of McKay Creek could
further threaten Community
Park and the residents who
call the neighborhood home.
Mulvihill said McKay
Creek homeowners have long
been excluded from the con-
versations over McKay Creek
and the dam and reservoir
that feed it.
But he was encouraged by
a recent meeting he attended,
which featured representa-
tives from the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation, the Umatilla
County Board of Commis-
sioners, the city of Pendleton,
and the offices of Sens. Ron
Wyden and Jeff Merkley and
Rep. Greg Walden.
Out of that meeting, Mul-
vihill said the group is work-
ing toward four goals: update
the instruments that mea-
sure intake at McKay Reser-
voir, restore the banks along
McKay Creek, establish new
diversions for reservoir over-
flow, and perform a new
capacity study at the dam.
The dam is supposed to
hold more than 65,000 acre
feet, mostly for irrigation
and steelhead habitat, but the
McKay residential group sus-
pects sediment build-up has
reduced how much it can hold.
Even before 1991, McKay
Creek has a long history of
flooding. In 1958, the East
Oregonian reported that the
governor was calling in the
National Guard to “tame the
rampaging waters.”
In 1906, 23 years before
the McKay Dam finished
construction, one resident
reported that the waters in
McKay Creek were the high-
est she had ever seen as the
waterways across the area
flooded town.
Mulvihill said he’s heard
the argument that flooding is
to be expected when he and
his neighbors live in the flood-
plain, and it makes his blood
boil.
Unlike the Umatilla River,
Mulvihill said McKay Creek
has an element of human con-
trol because of the dam.
And Mulvihill and his
cohort argue that McKay
Creek serves a wider commu-
nity purpose.
Although he would advise
against it this year because of
the sharp debris that washed
through the creek, Arm-
strong, the concerned citi-
zen, said the creek is usually a
hot tubing spot for local
children.
And Community Park is
already a popular gathering
and recreational spot where
Pendleton Parks and Recre-
ation holds its annual Movies
in the Park series.
“It’s like a water
Round-Up,” he said.
With the continuing onset
of climate change increasing
the likelihood of future flood-
ing, Mulvihill said the only
way they’ll be able to prevent
future flooding is through
community support.
“Water is unforgiving,” he
said.
The neighborhood’s effort
has already found allies
among local government
officials.
Pendleton Mayor John
Turner was at the stakeholder
meeting, and he said it’s
within the city’s best interest
to continue to participate in
the group.
Shafer, the county com-
missioner, said he viewed the
county as a facilitator between
residents and the several
layers of government bureau-
cracy the community will
need to navigate to reach its
goals.
It won’t be a quick task.
Mulvihill bemoaned the
“acronym soup” of govern-
ment agencies that have a
stake in the creek, and Wohl-
ford said he’s already been
in contact with five agencies
to get a permit to work on a
gravel bar near his property
— and he still hasn’t gotten
a clear answer as to who will
issue it.
Mulvihill said the prob-
lems facing McKay Creek
likely won’t be solved in 2019
or 2020.
But he already feels like
there’s more momentum to
fix them than the last flood 18
years ago.
Colin E. Braley
Joe Armison looks over damage to his home after a tornado struck the outskirts of
Eudora, Kan., Tuesday.
Tornadoes rip through Kansas
City outskirts, warnings in NYC
By JULIE WRIGHT,
ANGIE WANG AND
JOHN MINCHILLO
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mis-
souri — A vicious storm
tore through the western
outskirts of Kansas City
on Tuesday, spawning one
or more tornadoes that
downed trees and power
lines, damaged homes and
injured at least 11 people in
the latest barrage of severe
weather that saw tornado
warnings as far north as
New York City.
Parts of Pennsylva-
nia and New Jersey also
were under tornado warn-
ings hours after a swarm
of tightly packed twisters
swept through Indiana and
Ohio overnight, smash-
ing homes, blowing out
windows and ending the
school year early for some
students because of dam-
age to buildings. One per-
son was killed and at least
130 were injured.
Those storms were
among 55 twisters that
forecasters said may have
touched down Monday
across eight states stretch-
ing eastward from Idaho
and Colorado.
The past couple of
weeks have seen unusually
high tornado activity in the
U.S., with no immediate
end to the pattern in sight.
Tuesday offered no
respite, as a large and dan-
gerous tornado touched
down on the western edge
of Kansas City, Kansas,
late in the day, the National
Weather Service office
reported. Kansas City
International Airport tem-
porarily suspended flights
and forced travelers and
employees to take shel-
ter in parking garage tun-
nels. A powerful twister
also touched down in the
nearby township of Pleas-
ant Grove, Kansas, seri-
ously damaging homes.
But the severe weather
wasn’t limited to the Mid-
west. Tornadoes were con-
firmed in eastern Penn-
sylvania and the National
Weather Service issued a
tornado warning for parts
of New York City and
northern New Jersey.
The winds peeled away
roofs — leaving homes
looking like giant doll-
houses — knocked houses
off their foundations, top-
pled trees, brought down
power lines and churned
up so much debris that
it was visible on radar.
Highway crews had to
use snowplows to clear an
Ohio interstate.
Some of the heaviest
damage was reported just
outside Dayton, Ohio.
“I just got down on all
fours and covered my head
with my hands,” said Fran-
cis Dutmers, who with his
wife headed for the base-
ment of their home in Van-
dalia, about 10 miles out-
side Dayton, when the
storm hit with a “very loud
roar” Monday night. The
winds blew out windows
around his house, filled
rooms with debris and took
down most of his trees.
In
Celina,
Ohio,
82-year-old Melvin Dale
Hanna was killed when a
parked car was blown into
his house, Mayor Jeffrey
Hazel said Tuesday.
“There’s areas that truly
look like a war zone,” he
said.
Of the injured, more
than two dozen were
admitted to hospitals.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeW-
ine declared a state of
emergency in three hard-
hit counties, allowing the
state to suspend normal
purchasing procedures and
quickly provide supplies
like water and generators.
The National Weather
Service’s Storm Prediction
Center showed that sus-
pected tornadoes touched
down in several states
including Indiana, Colo-
rado, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska
and Illinois.
Monday marked the
record-tying 11th straight
day with at least eight tor-
nadoes in the U.S., said
Patrick Marsh, a Storm
Prediction Center mete-
orologist. The last such
stretch was in 1980.
A tornado with winds
up to 140 mph struck Mon-
day near Trotwood, Ohio,
a community of about
24,500 people 8 miles
outside Dayton. Several
apartment buildings were
damaged or destroyed,
including one complex
where the entire roof was
torn away, and at least
three dozen people were
treated for cuts, bumps and
bruises.
“If I didn’t move quick
enough, what could have
happened?” said Erica
Bohannon of Trotwood,
who hid in a closet with
her son and their dog. She
emerged to find herself
looking at the sky. The
roof was gone.
Just before midnight,
about 40 minutes after that
tornado cut through, the
National Weather Service
tweeted that another one
was crossing its path.
Only a few minor inju-
ries were reported in Day-
ton. Fire Chief Jeffrey
Payne called that “pretty
miraculous,” attributing
it to people heeding early
warnings. Sirens went off
ahead of the storm.
Some of the people
treated at the area’s Ketter-
ing Health Network hospi-
tals were hurt during storm
clean-up itself, while oth-
ers may have waited before
seeking treatment from
storm injuries, said spokes-
woman Elizabeth Long.
A boil-water advi-
sory was issued after
the city’s pumping sta-
tions lost power. Dayton
Power & Light said more
than 50,000 customers
remained without electric-
ity and restoration efforts
could take days.
A high school gym in
Dayton was designated
an emergency shelter
until authorities realized
it was unusable. Vanda-
lia’s school system tweeted
that it is ending the year
two days early because of
building damage. In nearby
hard-hit Brookville, where
the storm tore off the
school’s roof, classes were
canceled.
In Indiana, a twister
touched
down
Mon-
day evening in Pendle-
ton, about 35 miles from
Indianapolis. At least 75
homes were damaged
there and in nearby Hunts-
ville, said Madison County
Emergency Management
spokesman Todd Harme-
son. No serious injuries
were reported.
Pendleton
residents
were urged to stay in their
homes Tuesday morning
because of downed power
lines and other dangers.
“People are getting
antsy. I know they want to
get outdoors, and I know
they want to see what’s
going on in the neighbor-
hood,” Harmeson said. But
he added: “We still have
hazards out there.”
Outbreaks of 50 or more
tornadoes are not uncom-
mon, having happened 63
times in U.S. history, with
three instances of more
than 100 twisters, Marsh
said. But Monday’s swarm
was unusual because it
happened over a particu-
larly wide geographic area
and came amid an espe-
cially active stretch, he
said.
As for why it’s happen-
ing, Marsh said high pres-
sure over the Southeast and
an unusually cold trough
over the Rockies are forc-
ing warm, moist air into
the central U.S., trigger-
ing repeated severe thun-
derstorms and tornadoes.
And neither system is
showing signs of moving,
he said.
Scientists say climate
change is responsible for
more intense and more
frequent extreme weather
such as storms, droughts,
floods and fires, but with-
out extensive study they
cannot directly link a sin-
gle weather event to the
changing climate.