RECORDS
Saturday, December 21, 2019
MEETINGS
MONDAY, DEC. 23
UMATILLA BASIN WATERSHED COUNCIL, 6 p.m., Eastern
Oregon Higher Education Center room 134, 975 S.E. Columbia
Drive, Hermiston. (Michael T. Ward 541-276-2190)
IRRIGON COMMUNITY PARKS & RECREATION DIS-
TRICT, 7 p.m., Irrigon Fire Station, 705 N. Main St., Irrigon.
(541-922-3047)
MORROW COUNTY HEALTH DISTRICT, 7 p.m., Pioneer
Memorial Clinic conference room, 130 Thompson St., Heppner.
Provider dinner at 6 p.m., board meeting at 6:30 p.m. (Tonia
Adams 541-676-2942)
HERMISTON CITY COUNCIL, 7 p.m., Hermiston City Hall coun-
cil chambers, 180 N.E. Second St., Hermiston. (541-567-5521)
MILTON-FREEWATER CITY COUNCIL, 7 p.m., Milton-Freewa-
ter Public Library Albee Room, 8 S.W. EIghth Ave., Milton-Free-
water. (541-938-5531)
TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY, DEC. 24-25
No meetings scheduled
THURSDAY, DEC. 26
SALVATION ARMY ADVISORY BOARD, 12 p.m., Salvation
McPHERSON,
Kan.
— McPherson College, a
four-year private college
located in central Kansas,
recognizes its highest aca-
demic achievers in its fall
2019 Honor Roll and Hon-
orable Mention.
Zachary Bredfield, of
Heppner, has been named
to the school’s honor roll for
the fall semester.
To qualify for the honor
roll, students must be a
full-time student and earn a
grade point average of 3.55
or higher during the previ-
ous term. Students earn-
A5
DEATH NOTICE
Army, 150 S.E. Emigrant Ave., Pendleton. (541-276-3369)
MILTON-FREEWATER LIBRARY BOARD, 4 p.m., Milton-Free-
water Public Library, 8 S.W. Eighth Ave., Milton-Freewater.
(541-938-5531)
PENDLETON ARTS COMMISSION, 4-5 p.m., Pendleton Cen-
ter for the Arts, 214 N. Main St., Pendleton. (Charles Denight
541-966-0233)
UMATILLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION, 6:30 p.m.,
Umatilla County Justice Center, 4700 N.W. Pioneer Place, Pend-
leton. (541-278-6252)
PENDLETON PLANNING COMMISSION, 7 p.m., Pendleton
City Hall, 501 S.W. Emigrant Ave., Pendleton. (Jutta Haliewicz
541-966-0240)
FRIDAY-MONDAY, DEC. 27-30
No meetings scheduled
TUESDAY, DEC. 31
MORROW COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION, 7 p.m., Port of
Morrow Riverfront Center, 2 Marine Drive, Boardman. (Stepha-
nie Loving 541-922-4624)
Heppner grad earns McPherson College honors
East Oregonian
East Oregonian
ing a grade point average
of 3.25 to 3.54 are named to
the honorable mention.
McPherson
College
offers more than 20 bach-
elor’s and pre-professional
programs with curriculum
that emphasizes entrepre-
neurship and career-fo-
cused education. It was
ranked this year by U.S.
News & World Report on
its “Best Colleges” list and
recognized for the fifth year
in a row as a “Great College
to Work For” in the Chroni-
cle of Higher Education.
Visit www.mcpherson.
edu to learn more about
McPherson College.
Early PG&E blackouts forewarned later problems
Charlotte L. Dack
Hermiston
March 1, 1923 — Dec. 19, 2019
Charlotte L. Dack, 96, of Hermiston, died Thursday,
Dec. 19, 2019, in Hermiston. She was born March 1, 1923,
in Hereford, South Dakota. Burns Mortuary of Hermiston is
in care of arrangements.
UPCOMING SERVICES
SATURDAY, DEC. 21
LUISI, DON — Graveside services at 10 a.m. at Moun-
tain View Cemetery, 2120 S. Second Ave., Walla Walla.
PETERSON, ERIC — Celebration of life service with
military honors at 12 noon at Maxwell Event Pavilion, 255
S. First Place, Hermiston.
ROCK, MARTY — Funeral service at 10 a.m. in the
chapel at Burns Mortuary, 685 W. Hermiston Ave., Herm-
iston. Burial will follow at Desert Lawn Cemetery, Irrigon.
SUNDAY, DEC. 22 — TUESDAY, DEC. 24
No services scheduled
OBITUARY POLICY
The East Oregonian publishes paid obituaries. The obituary can
include small photos and, for veterans, a flag symbol at no charge.
Obituaries may be edited for spelling, proper punctuation and
style.
Obituaries and notices can be submitted online at EastOregonian.
com/obituaryform, by email to obits@eastoregonian.com, by fax
to 541-276-8314, placed via the funeral home or in person at the
East Oregonian office. For more information, call 541-966-0818 or
1-800-522-0255, ext. 221.
COMING EVENTS
SATURDAY, DEC. 21
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD
AND MICHAEL
LIEDTKE
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO —
The state senators grilling
the CEO of Pacific Gas &
Electric Corp. were upset —
like millions of other Cali-
fornians, some spent days in
the dark when the nation’s
largest utility shut off power
during windstorms this fall.
The
lawmakers
demanded that the execu-
tive explain why blackouts
intended to prevent downed
power lines from sparking
deadly wildfires caused so
much trouble of their own.
The explanation CEO
Bill Johnson offered the
Capitol hearing room: Sev-
eral smaller outages that
PG&E triggered in the year
before its debacle began in
mid-October went well, giv-
ing his company misplaced
confidence.
“I think we got a little
complacent that we had fig-
ured it out,” Johnson testified
last month.
PG&E had not figured it
out.
An Associated Press
review shows widespread
problems with the four “pub-
lic safety power shutoffs” the
utility started rolling out in
2018, a year before massive
blackouts paralyzed much of
California in recent months.
Interviews and documents
obtained
under
public
records requests reveal per-
sistent failures and broken
promises that in some cases
compromised public safety.
Even as PG&E assured
regulators it was fixing the
problems, the utility kept
making many of the same
mistakes, further undermin-
ing trust after its outdated
equipment and negligence
has been blamed for fires
that killed nearly 130 people
during 2017 and 2018.
Communication, a foun-
dation of emergency man-
agement, was poor. PG&E’s
notifications of impending
outages were haphazard at
times, with some sent after
the power was already out.
Telecommunications com-
panies, water providers and
emergency managers did
not always receive the early
word they needed.
“We were surprised
that PG&E provided no
advanced warning to us,” an
official with the city of Oro-
ville’s drinking water pro-
vider wrote state regulators
about a June outage.
PG&E made important
information hard to get. It
was slow to distribute elec-
tronic maps showing who
would lose power, mak-
ing it harder for emergency
responders to know exactly
where to send resources. The
utility also balked at provid-
ing the addresses of med-
ically needy customers to
local officials who planned
to check on them in person.
Breakdowns
afflicted
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File
In this Oct. 9, 2017, file photo, a firefighter walks near a
flaming house in Santa Rosa, Calif.
even basic technology. In a
region that’s home to Silicon
Valley and its thousands of
computer programmers and
engineers, PG&E had not
prepared the website where
it posted outage updates for
a crush of customers, so it
crashed. Tech experts from
the state had to intervene.
The sound quality of
some calls PG&E hosted
during shutoffs was so poor
that emergency responders
and legislators had a hard
time understanding updates.
Even then, not everyone was
invited.
“In the future, AT&T
requests that it and other
communications
provid-
ers be included on any con-
ference calls providing real
time information,” the tele-
communications giant pro-
tested to regulators after the
June shutoff.
These and other early
failures weren’t widely rec-
ognized as harbingers of the
issues that would overwhelm
PG&E come mid-October,
partly because the outages
affected rural areas with less
political and economic clout.
While the headline-mak-
ing shutoffs affected more
than 2 million people
across much of PG&E’s
70,000-square-mile
ser-
vice territory, the four ini-
tial blackouts affected tens
of thousands in Northern
California’s Sierra Nevada
foothills and famed wine
valleys. They hit in October
2018, and then in June, Sep-
tember and early October of
this year.
Among those who saw
trouble building were regu-
lators at the California Pub-
lic Utilities Commission.
The first shutoff was cha-
otic and the next three were
not going according to the
guidelines regulators had
passed. Commission staff
met more frequently with
PG&E starting in the spring,
using advice and persua-
sion rather than mandating
changes.
“We, as the state, never
got to the point where we
had complete confidence in
PG&E’s ability to execute,”
said Elizaveta Malashenko,
the top California regulator
overseeing blackouts.
Malashenko,
deputy
executive director of safety
and enforcement policy, told
the AP that the commission
didn’t act more aggressively
because it has to balance
punitive intervention with
giving utilities a chance to
self-correct.
“There needs to be some
basic operational assumption
that you can set up a confer-
ence call,” Malashenko said.
Some critics faulted regu-
lators for not doing enough.
The utilities commission,
a sprawling bureaucracy
with a complex rule-making
process, was “not aggres-
sive enough early in setting
clear requirements and stan-
dards,” said Melissa Kasnitz,
legal director for the Center
for Accessible Technology,
which advocates for people
with disabilities.
PG&E promised to fix a
range of problems promptly,
and an executive said it
worked hard to deliver.
In many ways, that didn’t
happen. Not only did the
problems continue through-
out the smaller shutoffs, but
they were replicated on a
huge scale starting with the
mid-October shutoffs.
The problems galled local
officials, who vented deep
frustration that a utility they
often work closely with kept
failing them.
After all, they are the ones
dealing with a shutoff’s con-
sequences. They must dis-
patch ambulances, run jails
and water plants, direct traf-
fic through darkened inter-
sections, set up community
shelters and much more.
“It’s almost as if it’s inten-
tional disregard of all the
warnings we gave them,”
said Napa County Supervi-
sor Diane Dillon, whose dis-
trict north of San Francisco
has experienced nearly every
shutoff.
Sixteen million people
— more than the popula-
tion of nearly any U.S. state
— depend on PG&E for
power. The shutoffs were an
inconvenience for some and
extremely costly for others.
For society’s most frail, they
brought questions of life and
death.
Those who rely on med-
ical devices in their homes
were particularly vulnerable.
“PG&E did nothing to
help us who depend on elec-
tricity to run our life sup-
port,” recounted Grace Lin,
a polio survivor who needs
a ventilator to breathe and
uses an electric wheelchair.
“It’s not like we could sim-
ply grind our teeth and tough
it out by holding our breath.”
Lin said she was con-
fused by the notifications
PG&E sent ahead of the first
shutoff that affected her San
Francisco Bay Area home on
Oct. 9. The company website
they referred to for updates
was frozen. Lin considered
herself lucky that she had
the means to evacuate 20
miles away, to a quadriple-
gic friend’s house that had
electricity.
PG&E could identify
“medical baseline” custom-
ers, such as Lin, based on
billing records. Local offi-
cials working to identify
everyone who might need
help repeatedly asked PG&E
to share its list, so no one was
overlooked.
Regulators said PG&E
promised it would release
medical baseline addresses
during a shutoff. Yet, when
each of the first four hit,
PG&E insisted that locals
sign a legal agreement not to
disclose the addresses, caus-
ing delay and uncertainty
that regulators said could
risk lives.
On the eve of the first
massive power outage,
Malashenko was urgently
emailing company officials
in frustration.
“This issue has been dis-
cussed many times over the
last several months” yet “has
once again become an issue
with PG&E,” she wrote on
Oct. 8.
Malashenko said state
officials also pushed PG&E
to improve in other areas.
Starting in April, they
met at least weekly with
PG&E, pointing out needed
improvements and stressing
that aspects of the utility’s
preparation was inadequate.
PG&E argued that the
commission’s own pri-
vacy rules meant it couldn’t
share the addresses with-
out a nondisclosure agree-
ment, spokesman Jeff Smith
explained. Resolving the
problem took an order that
the commission’s execu-
tive director sent three hours
before the first massive
blackouts began.
Other groups of vulner-
able Californians endured
shutoffs without the help
they needed.
“A lot of them don’t have
support, a lot of them don’t
have family,” Betty Briggs,
84, said of her elderly neigh-
bors in the well-touristed
Napa Valley town of Calis-
toga. “It makes it very dif-
ficult, and it puts them in
danger.”
Briggs can get around
without help, but her husband
requires 24-hour care due to
dementia. He lives nearby at
Cedars Care Home, where
seven residents in their 80s
and 90s experienced three
shutoffs before mid-October.
The outages created anx-
iety for people reliant on
routine, as well as practical
problems.
SATURDAY CRAFTS, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Hermiston Public Library, 235
E. Gladys Ave., Hermiston. Drop-in craft activities for kids of all
ages. Free. (Janet Torres 541-567-2882)
STRAIGHT TALK WITH BECKY MARKS, 2-4 p.m., The Saddle
Restaurant, 2220 S.E. Court Ave., Pendleton. Share thoughts with
Ward I councilwoman. (541-276-9147)
CALE MOON AND THE (F)UGLY SWEATER PARTY, 6-11:59 p.m.,
The Pheasant Blue Collar Bar & Grill, 149 E. Main St., Hermiston.
Cale Moon will play from 6-9 p.m. (no cover), followed by the (F)
ugly Sweater Party until closing. DJ Diego will spin tunes, food
and drink specials, Jell-O shots and an ugly sweater contest (tro-
phy and prizes). Free admission. (Deanne Jensen 541-567-3022)
IMPERIAL TWANG HOLIDAY CONCERT, 8-11:59 p.m., Rainbow
Cafe, 209 S. Main St., Pendleton. Local alt-country and rock band
hosts its 14th annual holiday event. No cover.
SUNDAY, DEC. 22
SPECIAL NEEDS OPEN GYM, 12:30-1 p.m., Pendleton Recreation
Center, 510 S.W. Dorion Ave., Pendleton. Free for special needs
children and families. (Casey Brown 541-276-8100)
GP CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA HOSTED BY JD KINDLE
AND THE EASTERN OREGON PLAYBOYS, 4-9 p.m., Great Pacific
Wine & Coffee Co., 403 S. Main St., Pendleton. Live music in a
variety of genres, featuring music of the holiday season. Free.
(541-276-1350)
MONDAY, DEC. 23
HERMISTON SENIOR MEAL SERVICE, 12 p.m., Harkenrider Cen-
ter, 255 N.E. Second St., Hermiston. Cost is $4 for adults, free for
children 10 and under, $4 for Meals on Wheels. Extra 50 cents for
utensils/dishes. Bus service available by donation. (541-567-3582)
PENDLETON SENIOR MEAL SERVICE, 12-1 p.m., Pendleton
Senior Center, 510 S.W. 10th St., Pendleton. Costs $3.50 or $6 for
those under 60. Pool, puzzles, crafts, snacks, Second Time Around
thrift store 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. For Meals On Wheels, call 541-276-
1926. (Tori Bowman 541-276-5073)
DROP-IN CRAFTS, 1-3 p.m., Hermiston Public Library, 235 E.
Gladys Ave., Hermiston. Free craft activity for all ages. (Janet Tor-
res 541-567-2882)
TUESDAY, DEC. 24
PRESCHOOL STORY TIME, 10:30-11 a.m., Stanfield Public Library,
180 W. Coe Ave., Stanfield. (541-449-1254)
BOARDMAN SENIOR MEAL SERVICE, 12 p.m., Boardman Senior
Center, 100 Tatone St., Boardman. Cost is $4 for seniors 55 and
over or $5 for adults. (541-481-3257)
HERMISTON SENIOR MEAL SERVICE, 12 p.m., Harkenrider Cen-
ter, 255 N.E. Second St., Hermiston. Cost is $4 for adults, free for
children 10 and under, $4 for Meals on Wheels. Extra 50 cents for
utensils/dishes. Bus service available by donation. (541-567-3582)
PENDLETON SENIOR MEAL SERVICE, 12-1 p.m., Pendleton
Senior Center, 510 S.W. 10th St., Pendleton. Costs $3.50 or $6 for
those under 60. Pool, puzzles, crafts, snacks, Second Time Around
thrift store 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. For Meals On Wheels, call 541-276-
1926. (Tori Bowman 541-276-5073)
SKILLS FOR LIFE, 3 p.m., Pendleton Recreation Center, 510 S.W.
Dorion Ave., Pendleton. Gym activities at 3 p.m., life skills at 4 p.m.
for middle and high school students. Registration requested.
(Suzanne Moore 541-276-3987)
CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS EVE PAGEANT, 4-5 p.m., Episcopal
Church of the Redeemer, 241 S.E. Second St., Pendleton. Audi-
ence participation Children’s Christmas Pageant includes roles
for any child that wants to participate — there is no script. Holy
Communion included. Free. Everyone welcome. (Charlotte Wells
541-276-3809)
CRAFTERNOONS, 4:15 p.m., Pendleton Public Library, 502 S.W.
Dorion Ave., Pendleton. Drop in for a group or individual craft
project. All ages. (541-966-0380)
THE ARC ACTIVITY NIGHT, 5:30-6:30 p.m., The ARC Uma-
tilla County, 215 W. Orchard Ave., Hermiston. Games, crafts and
refreshments. (541-567-7615)
PENDLETON EAGLES TACOS AND BINGO, 6 p.m., Pendleton
Eagles Lodge, 428 S. Main St., Pendleton. Regular packet $10, spe-
cial packet $5. Proceeds donated to local charities. Public wel-
come. (541-278-2828)
INSIDE OUTSIDE THE LINES ADULT COLORING, 6-7:30 p.m., Irri-
gon Public Library, 490 N.E. Main St., Irrigon. Materials provided.
Bring snacks to share. (541-922-0138)
PENDLETON KNITTING GROUP, 6 p.m., Prodigal Son Brewery &
Pub, 230 S.E. Court Ave., Pendleton. (541-966-0380)
DIY @ THE LIBRARY, 6-8 p.m., Pendleton Public Library, 502
S.W. Dorion Ave., Pendleton. For teens and adults. Registration
required, limited to 10. (Heather Culley 541-966-0380)
CHRISTMAS EVE CANDLELIGHT SERVICE, 6 p.m., First Christian
Church, 518 S. Main St., Milton-Freewater. Celebrate Christ’s birth
with an evening of worship, music and fellowship. Free and open
to all faiths. (Janet Collins 541-938-3854)
STORY AND CRAFT TIME, 6:30 p.m., Milton-Freewater Pub-
lic Library, 8 S.W. Eighth Ave., Milton-Freewater. For elementary
school-age children. (541-938-8247)
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 25
No events scheduled
THURSDAY, DEC. 26
PRESCHOOL STORY TIME, 10:15-11 a.m., Pendleton Public
Library, 502 S.W. Dorion Ave., Pendleton. Stories and activities for
young children. (541-966-0380)