MASS CRASH SHUTS DOWN I-84 IN UMATILLA COUNTY | www.EastOregonian.com
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2022
146th Year, No. 52
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WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021
NORTHEASTERN OREGON
Drought
worries
linger
Dry January
aggravates regional
drought conditions
By KATY NESBITT
For EO Media Group
PENDLETON — December and
January storms set up the winter of
2022 to be cold and wet, but several
weeks without significant snow
or rain are creating concerns of
another drought year.
Northeastern Oregon is faring
better than Central and Southern
Oregon, with cold temperatures
preventing the early January snow-
fall from melting. Snow in the last
few days has helped inch up snow-
pack and snow water equivalent
levels for the Blue and Wallowa
mountains.
According to the USDA Natu-
ral Resources Conservation Service
website, monthly streamfl ow and
reservoir conditions for January in
the Umatilla-Walla Walla-Willow
Basin were above average. Two
bodies of water in the southern
region of the basin near Heppner are
considerably higher than the rest of
the basin: Willow Creek is at 187%
and Rhea Creek is at 142% of the
30-year median.
Farther south, the North Fork
John Day River at Monument
is recording 83% of its 30-year
median. The basin has one strong-
hold for water: Camas Creek near
Ukiah at 346% of the median.
The Grande Ronde-Burnt-
Powder-Imnaha Basin is averag-
ing between 83% and 95% of the
30-year median with one anomaly:
Bear Creek, outside of Wallowa, is
at 216%.
Snowpack has been holding up,
despite the lack of precipitation in
the last fi ve weeks.
In the Blue Mountains between
La Grande and Pendleton, Emigrant
Springs has 45 inches of snowpack
and is 148% above average with
10% snow water equivalent.
High Ridge Snotel east of Pend-
leton has 52 inches of snowpack,
5% below its average, but with 33%
snow water equivalent. Milkshakes
Snotel on the Washington state line
has 71 inches of snowpack, which
is 87% of normal with 35% snow
water equivalent.
In the Wallowas, Mount Howard
has 27 inches of snowpack, 25%
below average with 32% snow
water equivalent. On the south side
of the range, Moss Springs Snotel
is recording 49 inches of snowpack,
which is 15% below average with a
snow water equivalent of 32%.
In Baker County, Schneider
Meadows Snotel is recording 22%
See Drought, Page A9
Flood waters from McKay Creek surround a tractor
and inundate a fi eld of lavender at the Lavender
Road Botanicals farm off Southwest 44th Street on
April 17, 2019 in Pendleton.
East Oregonian, File
Flooding eff ects
The water receded
two years ago, but
the recovery from
the fl oods remains
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
P
EN DLETON
—
Umatilla County contin-
ues to recover from the
2020 Umatilla River
fl oods while trying to fi gure out
how to better respond to the next
high water event.
Heavy rains combined with
a rapidly melting snowpack
overwhelmed the banks of the
Umatilla River on Feb. 6, 2020,
destroying homes, damaging
public infrastructure, displacing
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
A bridge in Thorn Hollow bows as the Umatilla River rises below it
on Feb. 6, 2020.
families and killing one person.
Two years later, local offi cials still
are picking up the pieces while
trying to coordinate with a wide
array of state, tribal and federal
agencies.
“Recovery from a natural
disaster like that is years long,”
Umatilla County Emergency
Manager Tom Roberts said. “It’s
not something that happens,
generally speaking, overnight or
within months. We kind of put our
fi ve-10-year hats on.”
Pendleton City Manager Robb
Corbett has spent many hours
over the past few years think-
ing about floods, not just the
Umatilla River fl ood from 2020,
but also the McKay Creek fl oods
from 2019. Roughly three years
after the McKay fl oods, Corbett
said the city is on the verge of
soliciting a consultant to make
recommendations on how to
help prevent signifi cant fl ood-
ing in the future. The consultant
See Flood, Page A9
Returning to the stage — finally
By JENNIFER COLTON
For EO Media Group
PENDLETON — When “The
Sound of Music” closed March 1,
2020, Pendleton’s College Commu-
nity Theater expected to open its
next production in six weeks.
Instead, rehearsals at the Bob
Clapp Theatre would be canceled
for two years.
“Little Women: The Broad-
way Musical,” the first Pend-
leton-based theater production
since the coronavirus pandemic,
runs the next two weekends, Feb.
24-26 and March 3-5, in the theater
on the campus of Blue Mountain
Community College.
“When COVID hit, it was really
scary because nobody knew what
to expect,” said Margaret Mayer,
president of the CCT board of
directors. “We had no idea it would
be two years, no one knew. Here
we are.”
Almost exactly two years later
(“Sound of Music” opened Feb.
20, 2020; “Little Women” opens
Feb. 24, 2022), Mayer was back in
the theater as music director for
“Little Women.” Caitlin Marshall
is directing.
“The last two years have been
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Samantha Steff ey, right, and Pablo Galindo perform as Belle and Gaston
Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, during a rehearsal for Hermiston High School’s
production of “Beauty and the Beast” at the high school. The shows fi -
nal performance was Feb. 19. The musical was among several produc-
tions returning to the state in Eastern Oregon.
really stressful. People need some-
thing that can take their minds off
everything,” Marshall said. “I
really just feel it’s important to
keep some kind of normalcy with
all the chaos going on.”
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That idea of normalcy has
prompted shows to come back
this month in Hermiston and
La Grande, even with COVID-
19 impacts. At Hermiston High
School, Jordan Bemrose brought
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together 70 students for perfor-
mances of “Beauty and the Beast,”
which concluded Saturday, Feb. 19.
“The biggest reason we wanted
to jump back into live theater
is mostly to give these fantastic
students something exciting to
look forward to,” she said.
Bemrose added the performing
arts students are talented and hard-
working and need opportunities to
shine.
“With online school, we missed
out on so many performance
opportunities that now, being back
in person, we wanted to make up
for that loss of time,” she said. “For
many students, singing, acting and
playing their musical instruments
is their whole life and inspira-
tion and what they aspire to do as
careers after high school.”
With the lingering impacts of
COVID-19, the Hermiston produc-
tion required masks to rehearse
on stage and careful tracking
to avoid quarantine that could
cancel rehearsals — or perfor-
mances. That same fear became
a reality this month for Eastern
Oregon University’s “We’ve Got
Your Number,” a choreographed
See Stage, Page A9