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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 10, 2020)
PUERTO RICO STRUGGLING IN EARTHQUAKE AFTERMATH PENDLETON NATIVE EARNS HONORABLE MENTION IN SWIMSWAM MAGAZINE COACH’S HONORS NATION/WORLD, A6 SPORTS, A8 E O AST 144th year, no. 60 REGONIAN Friday, January 10, 2020 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Your Weekend NORTHEAST OREGON • Dancing With the Herm- iston Stars, Hermiston High School • Rock Painting/Open House for Cason’s Place, Hermiston and Pendleton • Can You Break A World Record?, Pendleton Public Library FOR TIMES AND LOCATIONS CHECK COMING EVENTS, A5 Weekend Weather FRI SAT SUN 44/40 45/37 45/31 Wallowa Avalanche Center Photo EOTEC planning complicated by possible sale of community center By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian HErMiSTOn — a planning commission meeting about a park- ing variance for the Eastern Ore- gon Trade and Event Center was briefly sidetracked over a discus- sion about the possible sale of the Hermiston Community Cen- ter, where the commission met on Wednesday night due to the clo- sure of city hall. Several commission members expressed opposition to the idea of the city selling the center — some- thing that City Manager Byron Smith confirmed to the East Ore- gonian on Tuesday the city is still willing to consider once the poten- tial buyer, who hasn’t been named by the city, finalizes and submits a proposal. Commissioners wondered how getting rid of the venue would affect EOTEC in light of EOTEC See EOTEC, Page A7 For the last 10 years, the Wallowa Avalanche Center has been winter enthusiasts’ best resource for avalanche danger and snow conditions. Safety in snow country Wallowa Avalanche Center provides training and online information for winter backcountry recreation By KATY NESBITT For the East Oregonian ADVISORIES ON AVALANCHE CENTER’S WEBSITE OSEPH — Every winter the remote mountains of northeast Oregon draw backcountry skiers and snowmobilers from around the West. For the last 10 years the Wallowa avalanche Center has been winter enthusiasts’ best resource for avalanche danger and snow conditions. Through the center’s website, advi- sories are posted once or twice a week. Victor McNeil, the center’s director, is also one of three avalanche forecasters in the region. “We are going out as much as we can to as many areas as we can,” Mcneil said, While the center has been around J Victor McNeil, the Wallowa Ava- lanche Center director, said an advisory a week is posted each Thursday on the center’s website — www.wallowaava- lanchecenter.org — during the months of November and December. In January and February, advisories are posted Thursdays and Sundays. Due to funding, advisories are only posted once a week again in March and April. Clicking on the “advisories” tab on the center’s website gives the viewer four separate forecasts for the Elkhorns, northern and southern Wallowas and the Blue Mountains between La Grande and Milton-Freewater. A short weather fore- cast is posted followed by diagrams and descriptions of the particular “avalanche problems” the specific region faces. The “advisories” tab has two tuto- rial options. “How to read a forecast” discusses how to read the avalanche advisories and includes a link to a page that diagrams the different types of ava- lanches. “Avalanche Problem Definitions” links to a video produced by the National Avalanche Center. The website’s “observations” tab allows skiers and forecasters to quick- ly upload a report from that day’s ski adventure. These observations are posted by forecasters, “pro observers” and members of the general public. For historic reference, all of the observations are archived and available at the bottom of the page. See Snow, Page A7 Region braces for back-to-back Pacific storms Combination of snow and cold weather could grip region for a week to 10 days By KATY NESBITT For the East Oregonian PEndLETOn — a cou- ple of storms rolling in Fri- day through Sunday from the Pacific Ocean could bring as much as 10 to 20 inches of snow to the Wallowa and Blue Mountains. Travel advisories will be in affect by mid-Friday morning. “The biggest impacts we get from winter storms are back-to-back systems,” Mary Wister, forecaster for the national Weather Service in Staff photo by Ben Lonergan See Storms, Page A7 Snowplows work in tandem to clear the westbound lanes of Interstate 84 on Wednesday morning near Exit 243 between Pendleton and La Grande.
