COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019 | 7A
Ready
from A1
there,” said City Manager
Richard Meyers. “If it had
been a snowstorm that
stayed in blizzard condi-
tions for the whole week,
it would have taxed our
equipment, our resources
and we would have needed
somebody else’s help.”
The Disasters
The other disasters,
while less severe, caused
evacuations along the af-
fected areas. Flooding saw
historic rates of water re-
leased from Dorena Res-
ervoir to prevent overflow
and the fire put a network
of about a dozen agencies
to the test, seeing at least
86 emergency personnel
respond to the event.
While each disaster
posed its own challenges
and learning moments, the
snowstorm stood out most
saliently as a small taste of
what a truly catastrophic
incident such as the Cas-
cadia earthquake might
bring.
Though no deaths di-
rectly related to the storm
were reported by Peace-
Health Cottage Grove
Community Medical Cen-
ter or emergency services,
damage to the area was
extensive and some resi-
dents reported more than
two feet of snow. Many
roads outside of town were
impassable, blockaded by
fallen trees and barriers of
snow, effectively cutting off
many rural residents from
in-city resources. Fuel sta-
tions and grocery stores
were understaffed and
overwhelmed by throngs
of customers stocking up.
A state of emergency was
declared.
In a damage assessment
scheduled to be submitted
to the Federal Emergen-
cy Management Agency
(FEMA) today, the full in-
dex of damage and costs
estimates a $251,175 price
tag.
In response to the car-
nage, emergency services
became inundated with
calls and incidents.
From Monday through
Thursday the week of the
storm, police department
data reported 44 welfare
checks, 60 fire or medical
calls and 10 burglary alarm
responses. In all, 328 emer-
gency and 875 non-emer-
gency calls came in, bloat-
ing the phone lines to two
or three times the normal
amount.
Power companies, too,
scrambled to respond to a
high volume of inquiries
and outage reports. When
the sun broke on the first
day, Cottage Grove was
completely without power
save for those with gen-
erators. The city’s main
electricity provider, Pacif-
ic Power, reported more
than 3,300 Cottage Grove
customers affected by the
power outages and 44,000
throughout its coverage
area, though the company
fully restored power by the
end of the week.
Grade Report
Despite the seeming dis-
order, city and county offi-
cials remain largely pleased
with Cottage Grove’s re-
sponse to the disasters.
Meyers felt that the city’s
habit of looking ahead set
it apart from other Lane
County cities outside the
Eugene-Springfield area.
“That’s one of the rea-
sons we were successful,”
he said. “Let’s plan for the
next thing and if we don’t
need it, let’s put it away af-
terwards. … That helped
us a lot, that we were con-
stantly thinking of that.”
Though the city’s speed
of plowing during the
snowstorm was a source
of frustration among some
residents, Meyers credits
the upgrading of the plow
equipment last fall as eas-
ing much of the strain.
“If we’d had the old-
er equipment it would’ve
been much more difficult
to have handled the situa-
tion,” he said.
Keeping main arteries
open to traffic for basic re-
sources came first and, as
welfare check requests and
emergency incidents began
to roll in, the city also pri-
oritized its plows to clear
the way for emergency
responders before finally
getting around to smaller
residential streets.
At the time, South Lane
County Fire and Rescue
Division Chief Joe Raade
spoke to The Sentinel about
the district’s response.
“The fire district was
able to weather the storm
well and is definitely pre-
pared for the next time this
occurs,” he said.
City facilities such as wa-
ter and wastewater treat-
ment plants also proved to
be ready for inundation.
“We didn’t have any hic-
cups or any issues as far
as backed-up sewer lines.
Our waste treatment plant
functioned,” said Cottage
Grove Public Works and
Development
Director
Faye Stewart. Though, “It
was touch and go. It was
close to capacity.”
Keeping basic operations
up and running during the
power outage caused by
the snowstorm was instru-
mental to much of the city’s
ability to respond effective-
ly. Generators at treatment
plants and other municipal
facilities passed this test.
Additionally, city data
had been stored electroni-
cally and moved to an on-
line cloud.
“So, we could still go op-
erate anywhere,” said Mey-
ers. “Any place that had
electricity we could go and
run the city.”
With this technology,
Meyers predicted that if a
large enough catastrophe
struck, the city could still
set up in a tent with a gen-
erator.
“Those kinds of things
we’ve put together — we
just hope we never have to
use,” he said.
Attendance of city staff
remained high during the
snowstorm as well, a char-
acteristic owed to staff be-
ing individually prepared
enough to come to work,
assured that their families
were safe at home.
“Virtually every one
of the employees got to
work in the middle of the
storm and stayed here and
worked with their focus
on the city’s well-being,”
said Stewart. “Our staff is a
strength. We have seasoned
employees with long tenure
and are very skilled in mul-
tiple areas.”
During the snowstorm,
the city opened a warm-
ing center at the Commu-
nity Center and arranged
for American Red Cross
stations during both the
snowstorm and flooding.
The city had also stocked
up on bags and sand to
prepare for warmer March
weather after the snow.
“We went ahead and
brought in a couple more
dump truck loads of sand
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didn’t suffer a lot of dam-
age from the flood event,”
said Stewart. “It was more
toward Creswell and some
of the county areas.”
City concerns revolved
around keeping water flow
areas free of debris and
finding a dry place for af-
fected residents coming
from the outskirts of the
city. And because the city
had already restocked sand
and sandbags in anticipa-
tion of a quick snowmelt,
citizen access to these was
swiftly laid out.
A discrepancy between
impacts within city lines
and in county jurisdiction
was partly due to higher
standards in city limits,
which stipulate that hous-
es in flood zones are raised
two feet above base flood
elevation; Lane County’s
standard is just one foot.
“We have a lot of things
that the city has already
been doing for many de-
cades,” said Cottage Grove
City Planner Amanda Fer-
guson.
Tactics to curb the threat
of flooding include buying
up properties with hous-
ing dangerously close to
rivers, effectively running
treatment facilities, using
ponds as flood storage ar-
eas, maintaining a storm
water system, street sweep-
ing programs and using the
city’s golf course as irriga-
tion and flood storage.
Ferguson, who is also the
flood plain manager and
community rating system
(CRS) manager for the city,
has used these aspects to
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with concerns that the
snowmelt might cause
some flooding,” said Stew-
art.
A sandbag filling site was
set up and concerned citi-
zens eagerly accepted the
gift, a token of the city’s
foresight.
“As a matter of policy, we
try to keep some level of
material on site and avail-
able,” Stewart said.
Then post-disaster, the
question was raised of what
to do with all the natu-
ral debris. In response, lot
space was made for fallen
branches and trees, giving
an opportunity for citi-
zens to help clean up their
neighborhoods. A gnarled
hill formed from the
amount of wood hauled in
before it was ground down
to chips.
Selling three quarters of
the wood chips to a local
company covered hauling
costs and the rest of the
chips have been left for
citizens to use as needed.
The city plans to use the
remainder for parks and
beautifying other city sites.
“There were a lot of
positive comments from
citizens in the communi-
ty who really felt that that
was just a great offering the
city did by giving them a
place to bring their storm
damage and then make
the product available for
them, too,” Stewart said. “It
worked out really well.”
A month later, the flood-
ing event had comparative-
ly minor impact, especially
within city limits.
“For the most part, we
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