A8
OFF PAGE ONE
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Bruce Eien/Contributed Photo
Trees are down in front of Wallowa High School on
Thursday, Aug, 11, 2022, following a severe storm that
rolled through Wallowa County.
Damage:
Continued from Page A1
“Of course, there were
a lot of people who got hit
but didn’t seek treatment,”
he said.
Eien said around 4 p.m.
Aug. 11, the power went
out in Enterprise and about
the same time, his wife
received a text from her
parents in Wallowa.
“We lost everything,”
he recalled the text saying.
“We immediately got in the
car. We didn’t know what
that meant.”
Eien said as they
reached Wallowa, the dam-
age sharpened into focus
— cars with shattered win-
dows and windshields,
downed trees and homes
with severe damage.
“There was a tree that
hit a house, some trees in
front of the high school
went over,” he said. “Tele-
phone lines, power lines
went down.”
More than 5,300 custom-
ers in Enterprise and Wal-
lowa were without power
late in the afternoon Aug.
11. Power was restored
in Enterprise and Joseph
before 8 p.m. on Aug. 11.
Paul Karvoski, emer-
gency services director for
Wallowa County, said the
power came on in Wal-
lowa about 10:20 a.m. on
Aug. 12. Only residents in
outlying areas remained
without power at midday,
he said.
Karvoski, whose pur-
view also includes fi re-
fi ghting in the county, said
no fi res had been reported
as a result of the storm.
Plunkett said the storm
was a perfect chain of
events to cause the large
hailstones.
“We had really strong
updrafts and then we had
really strong wind shear
that allowed an organized
supercell thunderstorm to
develop,” he said.
Supercells are the least
common type of thun-
derstorm, but they have a
high propensity to produce
severe weather, includ-
ing damaging winds, very
large hail, and sometimes
weak to violent tornadoes,
according to the National
Weather Service website.
The storm took about
90 minutes to pass through
the county, Plunkett said,
and once it crossed into
Idaho, the storm weakened
signifi cantly.
Plunkett
said
the
expected 50 mph wind
gusts did not materialize.
There were reports of 60
mph gusts at the La Grande/
Union County Airport.
“We did not have any
confi rmed wind gusts in
Wallowa County,” he said.
Plunkett also said there
is not a lot of data available
on supercells in Wallowa
County. The last recorded
event was a tornado with
a rating of EF2 that hit
June 11, 1968. EF means
“enhanced Fujita scale,”
and a 2 on the scale means
gusts of three seconds of
111-135 mph. The West-
ern Regional Climate Cen-
ter, he said, reports that tor-
nado came with golf-ball
sized hail.
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Brought to you by,
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Solar panels on the longhouse of the Nez Perce Tribal Homeland Project at Wallowa show damage from the Thursday, Aug. 11,
2022, wind and hail storm.
Help:
Continued from Page A1
He did mention 1917
Lumber in Joseph sent sheets
of plywood for residents and
businesses to board up their
windows. Also, the M.J.
Hughes Construction Co.
workers, who were in Wal-
lowa doing work for the Ore-
gon Department of Transpor-
tation, jumped in and helped
residents and businesses
board up windows.
M Crow of Lostine —
known for its pizza — sent
pizza to feed fi rst-responders
at the triage unit set up at the
Wallowa Fire Hall.
Wallowa Mayor Gary
Hulse said Boise-Cascade
donated plywood for res-
idents to board up broken
windows.
A meal site also had been
set up at the Wallowa Senior
Center, said Paul Karvoski,
county emergency services
director. City Administra-
tor Carolyn Harshfi eld con-
fi rmed Aug. 15 that Commu-
nity Connection will operate
the meal site, but because of a
shortage of volunteers, it will
only be operating Monday,
Wednesday and Friday.
Churches, too, are help-
ing the needy, as groups from
the Presbyterian churches in
Lostine and Joseph, Tender-
foot Christian Fellowship in
Joseph and Enterprise Chris-
tian Church sent groups of
volunteers to help Wallowa
residents over the weekend,
and the Wallowa Assembly
of God opened its coff ers to
provide funds for those in
need, Hulse said Aug. 15.
Hulse said the city is in the
process of establishing a fund
at Community Bank where
people can donate to help res-
idents of Wallowa.
He said help has also been
coming from the county, the
Oregon Department of For-
estry and the U.S. Forest
Service.
“People have really
stepped up to help,” he
said, adding that many peo-
ple come to town, help and
leave before they’re even
acknowledged.
“Right now, I have more
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Randy Frash dumps a load of leaves he just picked up from a yard Friday, Aug. 12, 2022, in
Wallowa. Leaves and branches were strewn all over town after a hail and wind storm passed
through Wallowa on Thursday, Aug. 11, and residents quickly began repairing the damage.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Windows are boarded up to keep out the weather after
being broken by the hail storm Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022.
Local businesses have donated the lumber and screws and
volunteers have put the boards in place since the storm.
volunteers (off ering help)
than I have people in need,”
Harshfi eld said.
The vast number of dam-
aged vehicles has created
another need — people who
need to get to work outside of
Wallowa. Community Con-
nection is running a work
bus and a shopping bus. The
work bus leaves the Wallowa
Senior Center at 7:15 a.m.
and leaves Enterprise at
5 p.m.
Anyone interested in mak-
ing use of either bus can call
541-426-3840.
Harshfi eld and Hulse have
been fi elding phone calls of
off ers to help and request
need almost constantly since
the storm struck.
The city plans to estab-
lish an emergency help line,
but for now, the City Hall
phone number will serve:
541-886-2422.
Ever since the storm, res-
idents have been active all
over town cleaning up the
mess the storm created.
Leaves and branches littered
yards and streets and people
were just trying to get back to
normal.
“I just came in and mowed
this yard yesterday and it
looked pretty good,” resident
Randy Frash said. “Look at it
now.”
Hulse said on Aug. 15
that six to 10 people suff ered
minor injuries when they
were struck by hail, which
reports said ranged from the
size of ping pong balls to
baseballs. He said he knew of
one person who was hospi-
talized, but did not know that
person’s status.
Hulse began the process
of declaring a state of emer-
gency Friday, Aug. 12 for the
city, which will start the work
to obtain federal or state aid.
He said Friday the city attor-
ney was working on the dec-
laration. The declaration must
be in place before govern-
ment aid can be forthcoming.
He said the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency
isn’t likely to get involved, as
FEMA requires a minimum
of $8 million in uninsured
damage before it is mobi-
lized. Hulse said he believes
most of the damage in town
was insured.
In the days since the
storm, Hulse said he and
other city offi cials have been
going around town to make
sure residents are all right and
no one is just toughing it out
rather than asking for help.
One of his main con-
cerns is the extensive damage
caused by the shards of glass
from broken windows.
“A lot of people don’t real-
ize those beds have shards of
glass that are impossible to
get out,” he said.
He urged residents to have
beds, carpeting and furniture
that may have glass in them
replaced.
Hulse said he has yet to
see the approximately 300
electric meters expected
from Pacifi c Power & Light
to replace those damaged
by the hail. Most residents
have either gone ahead and
turned on the power or done
without.
He said about 400 homes
and businesses in town are
PP&L customers.
For now, the city is work-
ing to assess damage. Likely
next week, offi cials will
begin actually reaching out to
the state for assistance, Hulse
said.
Roberts said Aug. 12 that
although the county doesn’t
“have a pile of cash” sitting
there waiting for such emer-
gencies, the county will help.
“We’ll help out any way
we can,” she said.
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