OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
East Oregonian
A9
The Oregonian, File
A dam now helps protect Heppner from flooding.
Heat:
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Paradegoers line up along Southeast Court Avenue in Pendleton to take in the Fourth of July parade Sunday, July 4, 2021.
Parade: ‘It’s almost like the last year didn’t happen’
Continued from Page A1
Paradegoers stood once again
in recognition of the flag as
several attendees raised their
hand to salute.
For Judith Burger, the
parade’s grand marshal and
former commander of VFW
Post 922, it felt weirdly famil-
iar to be celebrating again.
“It’s almost like the last
year didn’t happen,” she said.
“But yet it did.”
Riding in a yellow 1928
Model A pickup truck,
Burger smiled wide as she
waved to people in the crowd.
While she was selected to
be the grand marshal of the
2020 parade, COVID-19
restrictions led to the event’s
cancellation and the delay of
her role until this year.
“It was really great to see
people smile again and be
able to smile at people,” she
said.
Burger said she loved
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Grand Marshall Judith Burger rides in a 1928 Model A pickup on Sunday, July 4, 2021, during
the Pendleton Fourth of July Parade.
being able to see people
talking to one another as she
passed by them in the parade
— something she said she
felt had fallen away during
the height of the pandemic.
usually not much water
in the creek, which winds
through the town. It trick-
les and meanders. Typically,
notes The Oregon Encyclo-
pedia, it “runs only ankle-
deep by mid-June.”
Spring had been partic-
ularly warm and dry in the
region that year. So while
“cloudbursts” were known
to occur in the semi-arid
area during the summer,
no one on Sunday, June 14,
1903, expected the skies to
suddenly darken and then
open up with rain and —
despite 90-degree weather
— hail over an area “of at
least 40 square miles and
continuing with the utmost
intensity for more than an
hour.”
Water and debris roared
down dry, overgrazed
rangeland and poured into
Willow Creek, speeding it
toward Heppner. The result,
the Heppner Gazette later
reported, was a “foaming
wall of water” hitting the
prosperous county seat at 5
o’clock in the afternoon.
The town’s location,
author Joann Green Byrd
pointed out in her book
“Calamity: The Heppner
Flood of 1903,” turned out
to be “a natural bull’s-eye
for flash floods.” (A dam
to head off flooding was
finally completed in 1983.)
Devastation from the
f lood on that broiling
Sunday was apocalyptic.
Trees and telegraph lines
fell. Houses crumpled and
floated away. All escape
routes, survivors said, had
disappeared in an instant.
The roar of the water and
debris blotted out towns-
people’s cries for help.
The death toll from the
disaster ranges in accounts
between 238 and 251 — in a
town of about 1,400 people.
Three of the victims were
former Morrow County
sheriffs.
The day af ter the
Heppner flood, a corre-
spondent for The Oregonian
arrived to survey the scene.
The resulting account called
Heppner “a city of the dead”
and described rotting
corpses strewn about the
town and washed miles
away.
“ M e a n t i m e ,” t h e
reporter added, “Willow
Creek, as if to mock the
dead, has returned to a purl-
ing brooklet.”
“It was so exciting to see
people without masks and out
and about again,” she said.
Stanfield:
Continued from Page A1
the distance from a nearby
building.
Whelan instructed a group
of firefighters on the proper
setup of the launchers and
remarked on how the fire-
works show had changed over
the course of his time, most
noticeably the rules and regu-
lations.
“We used to not have any
rules,” he said. “It’d be by the
grace of God that someone
didn’t get hurt.”
After 40 years of running
the show, Whelan said this
year’s show would be his
last at the helm before pass-
ing control to fellow pyro-
technician Tom Ramsey.
Ramsey and Whelan have
worked closely on the display
for several years, and while
Whelan said he would prob-
ably still be helping out,
Ramsey is the future.
“Tom and electronics
are the future of the show,”
Whelan said.
The modernization of
fireworks has brought about
the use of electronic firing.
Electronic firing uses an
“e-match” to ignite the fire-
work rather than the more
conventional hand-lit fuses,
according to Ramsey.
“Last year was the first
time I used it at the Stanfield
show,” he said.
As Ramsey carefully
wired up the electronic fire-
works, Whelan led a crew of
firefighters gently and care-
fully distributing a collection
of 3- and 4-inch mortars into
their launchers. After each
launcher was loaded, Whelan
took a stick and pressed down
on each one.
“You have to ensure
Bryce Dole/East Oregonian
Alex Garcia, 15, left, Violet Mitchell, 18, and Bethany Stew-
art, 18, work maskless around lunchtime Saturday, July 3,
2021, at Veg Out in Hermiston. Each said they were excited
to see customers return to having meals in the establish-
ment now that Oregon lifted its masking and distancing
mandates.
Rebound:
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Tom Ramsey wires up a box of fireworks Sunday, July 4, 2021, in preparation for the Stanfield
Fourth of July fireworks display.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Mark Pursel ties wire around pieces of rebar Sunday, July 4,
2021, to support the fireworks launchers in preparation for
the annual Stanfield Fourth of July fireworks show.
they’re well seated so that you
get the maximum height out
of the fireworks,” he said.
After the fireworks were
loaded, the group ran a piece
of tape over the top of each
launcher so one can easily
see which fireworks have
properly fired.
With an hour or so to go
until the show, Whelan gath-
ered the crew of roughly 15
firefighters and began giving
directions on where fire trucks
should be stationed to respond
to any potential spot fires.
“My favorite show is one
that goes off with no one
getting hurt,” Whelan said.
The fire trucks dispersed
throughout the area, and
Whelan gathered a folding
chair, hard hat and earplugs
from his truck and set up to
watch the display. Whelan
counted down the minutes
until 10 p.m. before Ramsey
hit the button to start the
show’s introduction electron-
ically.
As the initial volley of
shots came to a close, fire-
fighter Eldon Marcum began
lighting the next volley of
fireworks by hand. Whelan
craned his neck to look at the
fireworks directly overhead.
Roughly 23 minutes later
the display came to a close,
the final firework igniting a
small brush fire on the hill-
side above the field. Fire crews
quickly doused the flames as
Whelan and Ramsey cele-
brated.
“It was a success,” said
Whelan. “No major fires, and
no one got hurt.”
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and makeup while coun-
try songs such as “Wagon
Wheel” played from the
overhead speakers. The
shop had closed for seven
months, Dilley said, until
she and the other owners
reached out to the commu-
nity through Facebook and
received overwhelming
support to reopen.
“I was surprised,” said
Dilley, who, along with
her husband, is a disabled
veteran. “I was really
surprised that people would
face their fears and come out
and see what we have for
products. But they did, so
we survived. And actually,
we’ve done OK. They were
hungry to get back out there
and live life, and they’re
hungry to bring Main Street
back.”
The hardest part of the
pandemic, Dilley said,
has seen people living in a
constant state of terror. But
now that she and others have
been vaccinated, allow-
ing for restrictions to be
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