Umatilla Museum preparing to reopen | REGION, A3
E O
AST
145th Year, No. 82
REGONIAN
TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2021
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WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Demand for COVID-19 vaccine drops locally
Umatilla County
administers less than
500 doses last week
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — As Umatilla
County is likely headed back
into the “high risk” category for
COVID-19, the county is turning
away vaccine allocations from the
state because supply has outpaced
demand.
MAKING AN APPOINTMENT
For information on vaccine clinics or to register for an appointment
somewhere in Umatilla County, visit ucohealth.net/covid-events-new.
Umatilla County Public Health
Director Joe Fiumara said the
county told the state it could send
last week’s allocation for Umatilla
County to a county with higher
demand, and will likely do so again
this week.
“Our demand level is dropping
dramatically,” he said.
Fiumara said Umatilla County
Public Health currently has about
6,000 vaccine doses on hand, but is
hearing from partners in the county
that they don’t need more doses yet.
Last week, the county itself admin-
istered less than 500 doses total, and
most of those were second doses.
At some points during their most
recent free clinic, Fiumara said,
staff were just sitting and waiting
around for anyone to arrive — a
stark diff erence from the long lines
a few weeks ago.
According to Oregon Health
Authority’s vaccine dashboard,
Umatilla County is the least vacci-
nated county in the state, with
just 23% of its population at least
partially vaccinated, compared
with 41% statewide.
The dashboard shows an incom-
plete picture, however. Some
Umatilla County residents have
been vaccinated through federal
vaccine allocations directly to the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation, and informa-
tion about those doses goes to the
federal government before making
its way to the state. Others have
received the vaccine from the VA
hospital in Walla Walla, Washing-
ton, which also takes longer to show
up in the OHA database.
See Demand, Page A9
Walk
in their
shoes
Domestic Violence
Services holds ‘In Her
Shoes’ walk to raise
awareness of domestic
violence, sexual abuse
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — She was a
32-year-old accountant with a
daughter. She was married, though
he was not the father of her child.
Slowly over time, their relationship
soured.
It began with emotional abuse
and escalated to physical abuse.
Friends and family encouraged her
to give him another chance. They
said he was sorry. The decision
loomed — stay or leave. She chose
the latter.
She reported the abuse to the
police. In court, she lost custody of
her daughter because she worked
full time. Then, she went to Child
Protective Services. They didn’t
fi nd credible danger to the child and
declined to help. She just wanted to
be with her daughter. So, she took
him back.
This was one of many scenarios
that participants engaged with at
the seventh annual “In Her Shoes”
experiential walk outside of Good
Shepherd Hospital in Hermiston on
a blustery and gray Saturday, April
24.
The event, organized by Domes-
tic Violence Services, a nonprofi t
that has served Umatilla and
Morrow counties for more than 40
years, was intended to raise aware-
ness about domestic violence and
sexual abuse by having partici-
pants walk step-by-step through the
obstacles victims commonly face
when they seek help.
“It’s discouraging knowing that’s
what people have to go through,”
said Jessica Reker, the director of
community health and outreach at
See Shoes, Page A9
East Oregonian, File
Bracing for fi res
A fi refi ghting air tanker drops a load of fi re retardant into a draw in Harrington Canyon, southwest of Pilot Rock, as a large wildfi re burned
out of control in 2018.
Dry conditions in
Northeast Oregon have
fi re offi cials preparing
for a busy fi re season
By KATY NESBITT
For the East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — Despite rain
showers over the weekend in
much of Northeast Oregon, fi re
offi cials say the region is still ripe
for wildfi res.
“It’s dry,” said Joe Hessel, a forester for the
Oregon Department of Forestry’s Northeast
Oregon. “I think, statewide, Oregon Depart-
ment of Forestry protected lands have had
four times the average number of fi res.”
Not only are the number of fi res higher for
this time of year but, Hessel said, the number
of acres burned is three times higher than
normal.
So far, the Pendleton area has been fairly
quiet as far as human-caused fi re starts go,
but the district has had eight fi res this spring
and, according to Matt Howard, ODF’s
Wallowa Unit forester, his jurisdiction has
had 16 fi re calls since April 1.
Besides dry conditions, the Pendleton
National Weather Service predicts high wind
storms as being the new normal for the region
as the climate continues to warm.
“If we’re looking ahead, temperatures are
gradually warming, which gives the possibil-
ity for thermal gradients across the Cascades
to set up, creating greater westerly winds,”
said Brandon Lawhorn, a meteorologist at
Pendleton’s NWS offi ce. “If they set up more
often, we will see more of these high wind
events or wind advisories, but how impactful
they will be is in question. However, it doesn’t
take much of a breeze and dry conditions to
create that greater fi re weather concern.”
The extended forecast for later in May,
June and July across the Blue Mountains calls
for above normal temperatures and below
normal precipitation.
“In June and July, across the Columbia
Basin and into Central Oregon, there is an
above normal signifi cant wildfi re potential,”
Lawhorn said.
Closer in, Lawhorn said, severe weather
See Fires, Page A9
Oregon to get sixth U.S. Congressional House seat
By SARA CLINE
Associated Press/Report for
America
PORTLAND — Steady popu-
lation growth, driven by newcom-
ers streaming in from other states,
is giving Oregon greater national
political clout.
U.S. Census Bureau figures
released on Monday, April 26, show
the state’s population increased by
Murdock
Southwell
10% over the past decade to more
than 4.2 million, enough to give it
an additional congressional district
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for the fi rst time in 40 years.
Expanding its U.S. House seats
from fi ve to six won’t necessarily
be a win for Democrats, who control
the state politically and hold all but
one of the current seats.
“The real quandary for Demo-
crats is that Oregon is much more of
a competitive state than you would
think,” said Priscilla Southwell, a
political science professor at the
University of Oregon.
In last year’s presidential elec-
tion, she said 42% of Oregon voters
cast their ballot for a Republican
House candidate. Democrats are
concentrated in Portland, its suburbs
and Eugene, home to the Univer-
sity of Oregon. Rural and Eastern
Oregon is heavily Republican.
“I think (Democrats) are going
to come under a lot of pressure,
See Seat, Page A9
Contribute to the Beacon of the Sentinels, an
exciting new tribute to Pendleton’s military, past
and present, developed by the VFW Let’er Buck
Post and the Pendleton Arts Commission.
Get all the details. Visit the website:
www.pendletontribute.com