WEEKEND EDITION
THE
WEEK IN
PHOTOS
COUNTY ANNOUNCES VACCINE
CLINIC SCHEDULE THROUGH APRIL
REGION, A3
TIMBERWOLVES READY FOR
SEASONS TO GET STARTED
THE BACK PAGE, A10
SPORTS, B1
FEBRUARY 20-21, 2021
145th Year, No. 54
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
UMATILLA RIVER FLOODING: ONE YEAR LATER
WINTER STORMS
Flooding not
in sight after
recent storms
Snowpack levels in the
Blues nearing normal
for this time of the year
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
PENDLETON — After last week’s
winter storms covered Umatilla County in
snow, followed by sunshine and warmer
temperatures early in the week, many resi-
dents rightfully grew wary wondering if
fl oods could once again be on the horizon.
So far, however, conditions look sturdy,
safe and residents can rest assured, accord-
ing to Umatilla County offi cials.
“We’ll see small rises in the rivers and the
streams,” Marilyn Lohman, a hydrologist
for the National Weather Service in Pend-
leton, said of the upcoming snowmelt. “But
they aren’t expected to be anywhere near any
fl ood stages at this time.”
Floodwater inundates the Riverview Mobile Home Estates in the Riverside neighborhood in Pendleton on the evening of Feb. 7, 2020.
See Storms, Page A9
VACCINATIONS
Communities are using
experiences from 2020
flood to improve flood
prevention procedures
By ANTONIO SIERRA, JADE
MCDOWELL and BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — Helicopters
buzzed overhead as Pendle-
ton City Manager Robb Corbett
helped the sandbagging effort at
Riverview Mobile Home Estates
on Feb. 6, 2020.
Corbett later realized that the helicopters,
which were en route to rescue efforts further
up the Umatilla River, were an indication
that the situation was about to be much
worse than the river runoff city staff were
preparing for.
Overall, Corbett said he was pleased by
the way the city responded to the fl oods. But
a year after Pendleton’s Riverside neighbor-
hood was briefl y subsumed into the swell-
ing waters of the Umatilla, Corbett said his
staff continue to meet on how the city can
improve its fl ood prevention procedures.
One of the key talking points is the city’s
changing climate. Corbett said people
could call it what they want, but the region’s
weather patterns are changing. 2020 marked
the second year in a row that Pendleton had
weathered a signifi cant fl ood, following the
McKay Creek fl oods of 2019. Two years
later, Corbett said the city was still working
on mitigation efforts for McKay.
“We are planning for the worst — there
are new weather patterns that we are now
dealing with — and hoping for the best,”
he said.
Corbett said these events used to be
considered anomalous, but Umatilla’s water
level was 30% higher than any levels in the
city’s recorded history. Should they get too
much higher, Corbett said the water risked
fl owing over the Pendleton River Parkway,
threatening the thousands of people who live
in the fl ats.
City offi cials may not have been able
to prevent the fl ood, but they would have
been able to react to it earlier if they had
checked water gauges upstream from Pend-
leton. Corbett said the city is now tracking
a wider variety of sources to anticipate any
future fl ooding.
The city is also encouraging more resi-
dents to sign up for AlertSense, the city’s
electronic notifi cation service that sends out
texts and emails during emergencies.
The fl ood not only destroyed homes and
displaced dozens of Pendletonians, it also
breached one levee and seeped through
another, eroded roads and exposed sewer
lines.
Public Works Director Bob Patterson
said most of infrastructure damage has been
repaired, but it will likely take years to fi nish
updating their mitigation efforts.
One of those long processes is updating
the fl oodplain map. Corbett said both fl oods
revealed areas that were outside the fl ood-
plain that ended up underwater.
Watching the snow as it fell on the after-
noon of Thursday, Feb. 11, Corbett said he
now looks at precipitation with a sense of
wariness.
“I can’t think of a rainstorm or snow-
storm again and not be nervous,” he said.
Umatilla County
faces delays as
vaccine rates fall
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
While fl ooding was less severe on the
west side of Umatilla County, it highlighted
needs that some communities are trying to
fi x.
In Echo, the city and property owners
abutting the Umatilla River have been work-
ing to identify opportunities for physical
mitigation, such as berms, in an effort to
redirect high water away from homes and
farms that got hit in February 2020. They
have formed the Mid Umatilla River Coali-
tion to work together in lobbying state and
federal agencies for permission to complete
projects, and are searching for funding
opportunities.
Umatilla School District Superintendent
Heidi Sipe said the damage to the school
PENDLETON — Vaccine efforts in
Umatilla County are on standby after a
shipment of doses was canceled earlier this
week due to inclement weather. The delays
forced health offi cials to postpone a drive-
thru clinic in Pendleton as the county fell to
the second lowest in Oregon for COVID-19
vaccinations per capita.
Now, as eligibility expands to Oregon
seniors over the age of 75 on Monday, Feb.
22, making thousands of additional county
residents able to receive the vaccine, health
offi cials are eagerly anticipating further
shipments.
However, the state has yet to provide a
concrete timeline for when the next prom-
ised shipments should arrive, raising
concerns that further delays and a bottle-
neck effect could be possible, according
to Joe Fiumara, the county’s public health
director.
“I’m telling people that it’s a tenta-
tive date,” Fiumara said of the upcoming
See Lessons, Page A9
See Vaccines, Page A9
West Umatilla County rebuilds
more carefully
Easterday Dairy moving forward despite company’s trouble
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
BOARDMAN — Plans to revive
Oregon’s second-largest dairy remain
unchanged, despite the new owners
— a prominent farm family based in
Southeast Washington — facing alle-
gations of fraud by Tyson Foods.
Easterday Farms purchased the
dairy, formerly Lost Valley Farm,
in 2019. The family registered a new
business in Oregon, called Easterday
Dairy LLC, which is now seeking state
approval to reopen the dairy in rural
Morrow County with up to 28,300 total
cattle.
But Oregon regulators say they are
proceeding with caution and watch-
ing closely amid an unfolding scandal
involving Easterday Ranches, the live-
stock arm of the family’s multi-pronged
agricultural operation.
Easterday Ranches supplies cattle
for a beef plant run by Tyson Fresh
Meats near Pasco, Washington.
In January, Tyson sued Easterday
Ranches for $225 million, accusing the
ranch of faking invoices and charging
the company for more than 200,000
cattle that, in fact, did not exist.
Both Easterday Ranches and East-
erday Farms have since fi led for Chap-
ter 11 bankruptcy protection. Easterday
Farms is the family’s farming business,
growing 22,500 acres of potatoes,
onions, corn and wheat in the Colum-
bia Basin.
In a statement to the Capital Press,
Cole Easterday, one of the owners of
Easterday Dairy, said the company
is still working to secure a Confi ned
Animal Feeding Operation, or CAFO,
permit from the Oregon Department of
Agriculture and Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality to reopen the dairy
See Dairy, Page A9
FREE Self-Administered COVID-19 testing.
No insurance or doctor’s order needed
Every Monday through March 29th
9am to Noon At the Pendleton Convention Center.
SAHPENDLETON.ORG