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East Oregonian
Fireﬁ ghters
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close friends or my family or
anything, I’ve just always had
a heart for that so I decided to
look into ﬁ reﬁ ghting.”
He asked his cousin,
Jason Donahue, a ﬁ reﬁ ghter
in Spokane, for advice. His
cousin showed him the station
and took him on a few ride-
alongs.
“And that’s when I really
fell in love with it,” Donahue
said.
The program consists of
structural and wildland ﬁ re-
fighting along with emer-
gency medical services and
CPR. One day the interns may
be learning how ﬁ res behave
in the wild, while other days
they’ll be throwing ladders
and hooking up ﬁ re hydrants.
The interns all noted
how many of these lessons
and activities have become
competitive, which in turn
has pushed them to be better
ﬁ reﬁ ghters. Couch, of Rigby,
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Umatilla County Fire District 1 Battalion Chief Corey Gor-
ham, second from left, talks to a group of interns Tuesday,
Aug. 10, 2021, at the ﬁ re district’s Hermiston training facility.
Idaho, said one of his favor-
ite activities was competing
with the other interns to see
how fast they could put on
their gear.
“It’s turned into kind of
like a friendly competition
between everyone,” he said,
“and that’s probably the thing
that I like the most.”
One training opportunity,
in particular, turned espe-
Census
that if we could run ZIP-code level
numbers yet and include growth
outside of city limits, the percentage
attributed to the entire “west side” is
probably well over 80%.”
Pendleton had a more modest
growth rate of 3%, but Pendleton
Mayor John Turner said that was the
right amount of growth based on the
city’s current infrastructure.
“We don’t want to grow too fast,”
he said.
Around Umatilla County, many
small cities saw solid growth.
While the city of Umatilla’s
growth slowed from the previous
decade, it still grew at a 6.6% clip,
while Stanﬁ eld also posted a grow-
ing population. Both Athena and
Weston rebounded to post positive
growth after the ﬁ rst decade of the
21st century had them losing people,
while Milton-Freewater’s growth
slowed considerably to 1.4%. Just
north of Pendleton, Helix and Adams
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across Region 9, an area
that encompasses Morrow,
Umatilla, Union, Wallowa,
Baker and Malheur coun-
ties, according to the state.
The ﬂ ood of COVID-19
patients comes as the state
breaks its all-time COVID-
19 hospitalization record for
four consecutive days this
week, topping out at 733 on
Friday, Aug. 13.
Those soaring infection
rates prompted Gov. Kate
Brown to reinstate mask
requirements in public
indoor spaces this week,
a measure that took eﬀ ect
Aug. 13. That same day,
Brown announced she’ll
send 500 Oregon National
Guard members next week
to assist 20 struggling hospi-
tals statewide
“I cannot emphasize
enough the seriousness of
this crisis for all Orego-
nians, especially those who
might need emergency or
intensive care,” Brown said
in a video.
Stare down with delta
Over the past week, 17
people have been hospi-
talized with COVID-19 at
Good Shepherd, a sharp
uptick from the five who
were hospitalized earlier
this month. Every day, the
hospital is using a month’s
worth of oxygen due to the
latest surge and will “care-
fully monitor our usage
while working closely with
our (oxygen) supplier to
keep up with the demand,”
Cozad said.
As of Thursday, Aug. 12,
40% of Good Shepherd’s 30
patients had COVID-19.
CHI St. Anthony, Pend-
leton, is facing similar chal-
lenges. Nearly one in three
patients in the hospital’s
emergency department have
COVID-19, Emily Smith, a
hospital spokesperson, said
in an email.
At times, the hospital
has “been unable to trans-
fer patients completely, and
other times we are having to
call (more than 20) hospitals
before we ﬁ nd an open bed,”
Smith said.
As hospitals across
Maple Valley, Washington,
they all struggled with driv-
ing the ambulance in the
beginning. They couldn’t
figure out what they were
doing wrong until one person
did it right, she said.
“We had to go through
our cone course three times
without knocking over any
cones or touching any cones,”
Geddes said. “So every time
somebody did it right, it was
like the biggest celebration.
They’d jump out of the truck
just ﬂ ailing their arms.”
These moments accumu-
lated, cementing the links
each intern has with the other
and with ﬁ reﬁ ghting.
“That bond we have
together makes it a lot more
fun and it deﬁ nitely balances
out the hard work and makes
the hard work fun,” Donahue
said.
He mentioned that while
it’s nice to have three days
oﬀ every week, they already
miss the program by Sunday
and are excited to go back
on Monday because they
2020 CENSUS BY THE NUMBERS
Continued from Page A1
Hospitals
cially competitive and lasted
seven-and-a-half hours,
according to Dillon Tucker,
who was born and raised in
Sisters. To become certiﬁ ed
to drive an ambulance, each
intern had to pass a driving
course with cones.
“It was a long, grueling
day,” Tucker said.
According to Geddes, who
moved to Hermiston from
• Hermiston’s population is 19,354, 15.6% more than in 2010.
• Pendleton’s population is 17,107, 3.3% more than in 2010.
• Umatilla County’s population is 80,075, 5.5% more than in 2010.
• Morrow County’s population is 12,186, 9.1% more than in 2010.
• Morrow and Umatilla counties have the highest share of residents
under 18 in Oregon. But like the rest of the state, the share of children fell
from 2010 to 2020.
• More than 1 in 4 residents is Latino in Umatilla County.
• 41% of Morrow County’s population is Latino, the highest in the state.
posted successive decades of growth.
Most of Umatilla County’s popu-
lation struggles lay south of Interstate
84. Echo, Ukiah and Pilot Rock all
lost people compared to 2010 and,
for the latter two, it represented the
second decade in a row that they
shrunk.
George Murdock, the chair of the
Umatilla County Board of Commis-
sioners, said Umatilla County’s
80,075 population was less than he
expected.
“I would have to attribute it to the
housing problem,” he said, adding he
would expect Umatilla County to post
the Northwest fill with
COVID-19 patients, hospi-
tals in Umatilla and Morrow
counties are sending some
patients to facilities further
and further away for higher
levels of care, including
Bend, Boise, Reno or San
Francisco.
“The strain is tremen-
dous on hospitals in our
region due to this surge,”
Cozad said.
All this is taking a toll on
health care workers, oﬃ cials
say.
“This pandemic has
waged on far longer than
many of us thought it
would,” Smith said, “and at
the point when we felt like it
was starting to get better, it
has only gotten worse.”
Fiumara said public
health employees are simi-
larly exhausted and was
sympathetic for what hospi-
tal workers are experienc-
ing.
“It h a s got t o be
extremely frustrating to see
people coming in for what
is a preventable situation,”
Fiumara said. “Because they
chose not to take the steps
needed to avoid it. This is a
preventable disease now.”
If the surge continues,
area hospitals could resort to
suspending elective surger-
ies. Smith said St. Anthony
is evaluating surgeries on
a “day-to-day and case-by-
case basis” and hopes to
avoid suspending surger-
ies, “but we will do what is
needed to ensure care for all
who require it.”
The dire conditions at
hospitals come as the coun-
ties report some of the high-
est COVID-19 infection
rates statewide. Umatilla
County has reported more
than 400 cases for three
straight weeks — totals that
are far higher than any of the
county’s previous surges,
according to state data.
Mor row County this
week is expected to report
its highest weekly COVID-
19 case count since the
pandemic started, with more
than 100 cases, according to
Russell. The two ZIP codes
encompassing Irrigon and
Boardman reported the
most new COVID-19 cases
per capita in Oregon over the
past week, The Oregonian/
similar numbers to the Willamette
Valley once it adds more homes.
The north-south divide is even
more stark in Morrow County, which
now has a population of 12,186.
Boardman and Irrigon recorded
strong growth from 2010, while
Heppner, the county seat, lost popu-
lation for the second consecutive
decade. Lexington’s population
stayed ﬂ at at 238, while Ione gained
eight people.
But south county losses weren’t
enough to overcome the gains in the
north, with Morrow County’s growth
percentage representing the highest
OregonLive reported.
Cases rise among
youth as vaccinations
increase
Fiumara said young
people are increasingly
making up the majority of
cases, and many are fall-
ing seriously ill, a national
trend that bucks previous
understandings of how the
pandemic affects youths.
Regional hospitals, he
added, are reporting that
more young people are fall-
ing seriously ill than ever
before during the pandemic.
This week, the state
repor ted a 35-year-old
Morrow County woman
with COVID-19 died in her
home. In Union County, a
19-year-old woman became
Saturday, August 14, 2021
have so much fun.
For Tucker, becoming a
ﬁ reﬁ ghter was a decision to
follow in his father’s foot-
steps. He had known Richard
Cearns, Umatilla County Fire
District 1’s division chief of
EMS and training, through
his dad, who is a member of
the ﬁ re service. After visiting
and sitting down to talk about
it, Tucker said that he realized
UCFD probably would be the
best place for him.
Tucker said he loved the
family aspect of the fire
service and the commu-
nity they’ve built. The bond
with the community, he said,
makes him excited to be there.
“Everybody’s excited to
go ﬁ ght ﬁ re and help people,”
Tucker said.
Geddes, meanwhile,
fell into the program after
moving to the area to attend
Blue Mountain Community
College for its rodeo team.
Before moving into the
station full time, Geddes
brought a dog and two horses
to the area and lived out of
growth in Eastern Oregon.
Given all the activity in Board-
man and the Port of Morrow, Morrow
County Board of Commissioners
Chair Don Russell said he wasn’t
surprised by the census’ ﬁ gures.
Census shows continued
demographic shifts
Charles Rynerson, the coordina-
tor at the Oregon State Data Center
at Portland State University, also
didn’t ﬁ nd the growth in Umatilla and
Morrow counties surprising.
He attributed their growth to
existing trends, mainly their status
as a commercial and transportation
hub in the region, in addition to its
growing Latino populations.
When studying 2020 census data,
age demographics stood out to Ryner-
son. Morrow and Umatilla counties
have the highest share of residents
under 18 in Oregon. But, like the rest
of the state, the share of children fell
from 2010 to 2020. Across the state
and across demographics, birth rates
are down.
“In a world where people are
Oregon’s fourth resident
younger than 20 to die
with COVID-19 since the
pandemic began.
“It is spreading differ-
ently and aﬀ ecting people
differently,” Fiumara said
of the delta variant, which
is estimated to be at least
twice as transmissible as the
original coronavirus strain.
“Every day, we get more
evidence that supports that
it’s a more severe illness
than the original variant.
And it’s still largely prevent-
able.”
The Umatilla County
Public Health Department
has not recently combed
through data to determine
how case rates compare
among vaccinated and
unvaccinated people.
her horse trailer since 2019.
She spent last winter help-
ing a family ranch in north-
ern Idaho, living in sub-zero
temperatures in her trailer,
“which was absolutely terri-
ble,” she said.
After ﬁ nding out about the
EMS program at Blue Moun-
tain, Geddes was told about
the ﬁ re internship program by
one of the career ﬁ reﬁ ghters at
Umatilla County Fire District.
“I had a long talk with my
instructor in the back of the
ambulance talking about this
program,” Geddes said, “and
it was like the next day I put in
my application for it.”
On top of being a resi-
dent intern, Geddes works at
Dutch Bros. Coﬀ ee in Herm-
iston and goes to school full
time. She spends the rest of
her spare time with her (now
three) horses and attending
rodeos. She said she’ll fall
asleep for two to three hours
then wake up to repeat the
process.
“Deﬁ nitely,” she said, “the
exciting life that I needed.”
getting sick, and the forests are burn-
ing and ﬂ oods are destroying things,
I got to believe that it has some impact
on young people’s decision about
bringing a child into the world,” he
said.
Umatilla and Morrow counties
also are continuing to see their Latino
populations rise. More than 1 in 4
residents now is Latino in Umatilla
County, while 41% of Morrow Coun-
ty’s population now is Latino, the
highest in the state.
Four out of the ﬁ ve top Oregon
counties with the highest share of
Latino residents are outside metro-
politan areas, and most of the rest of
the top 10 are in suburban counties
rather than urban.
No county in Eastern Oregon
matched the state’s 10% growth rate,
and Grant County lost population.
But by mostly staving oﬀ popula-
tion decline in 2020, the region and
the rest of Oregon deﬁ ed the national
trend. According to the census,
hundreds of rural counties nation-
wide lost population, including states
like Alabama, Indiana and Kansas.
Recent data from the
Oregon Health Authority
shows the percentage of
vaccinated people contract-
ing COVID-19 is increasing
as the delta variant spreads,
but the vaccines still are
highly effective against
preventing severe illness
and death, health oﬃ cials
say.
In July, 50 out of Oregon’s
55 COVID-19 deaths were
among people who were
either unvaccinated or
partially vaccinated, accord-
ing to the state. The state
also reports more than 90%
of Oregonians hospitalized
within two weeks of their
positive tests weren’t fully
vaccinated.
But amid the latest surge
comes a glimmer of hope,
Fiumara said. For four
straight weeks, Umatilla
County reported increased
COVID-19 vaccinations.
In mid-July, the county
saw less than 600 people
vaccinated in a single week.
This week, that number
jumped to nearly 1,000
people, according to county
health data.
“They’re seeing the writ-
ing on the wall,” Fiumara
said. “There are more places
and more businesses putting
mandates in place. … And
we’re seeing (case counts) go
up and they’re seeing things
happen and I think that’s
triggering that decision. It
is unfortunate, in my mind,
that it takes hospitalizations
going up for people to make
these decisions.”
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