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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2021)
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50 MONDAY • February 15, 2021 Coronavirus in Central Oregon Summit High extends closure as outbreak grows Bulletin staff report An outbreak of COVID-19 traced to Summit High School students who attended a party a week ago had infected 24 students as of Sat- urday, and extended the closure of in-person classes at the Bend school through Friday. According to an email from prin- cipal Michael McDonald sent to Summit High School families on Saturday, Deschutes County had confirmed 24 cases of COVID-19 among youth who attend Summit High and were primary or secondary exposures from the party. McDonald said that while Summit had in-per- son classes Feb. 8 and 9, there was no confirmed spread of the virus at school. However, to prevent the potential spread of the virus, the school will return to distance learning through Friday, with an expected return to in-person classes and activities Feb. 22. That will allow the equivalent of a 10-day quarantine from the last time students were in the school building with academics or activities, McDon- ald said. Students who did not attend the party or have contact with those who did, and who have no symptoms, are considered low risk for COVID-19 exposure, McDonald said. But county health officials encouraged anyone who may have been in con- tact with others who were exposed or who live with elderly or medically fragile family members to consider isolating from those family members and assume the youth or adult may be contagious. In preparation for the eventual return of in-person classes, school district staff has completed a deep cleaning of classrooms and common areas in the school and left air scrub- bers on overnight. McDonald said he has heard ex- pressions of frustration, anger and sadness from students, staff and fam- ilies in regards to the outbreak. “These are all reasonable re- sponses,” he said in the email. “We are here to connect with students who need support during this time. Please reach out to our counseling, nursing and administrative staff, visit our Student Mental Health webpage or review our list of resources for mental health during COVID-19.” McDonald called the situation “a learning opportunity.” “We are all ready for the pandemic to be over and to ‘go back to nor- mal,’” he wrote. “But we are not there yet. We need to redouble our efforts at masking, distancing and staying home when ill if we want to resume some ‘normal’ activities, like in-per- son learning and athletics. We must all remember that our actions outside of school have a huge impact on what can happen inside our buildings.” DEER VALENTINE Winter wildlife » BY RYAN BRENNECKE • The Bulletin ABOVE: Snow cascades down as a mule deer nibbles on a cluster of berries while feeding on vegetation along Simpson Avenue in Bend on Saturday. RIGHT: A pair of geese feed in a small area of open water as sheets of ice cover the Deschutes River near the Old Mill District following a frigid winter storm on Saturday. Monday is forecast to be partly sunny with a high near 45 degrees. See Weather, A10 » OSU STUDY FINDS Climate change will exacerbate flooding in Columbia River Basin The Oregonian file A duck glides slowly past a partially submerged speed sign at Clackamette Park, where the Clackamas and Willamette rivers meet in Oregon City in1996. Researchers at Oregon State University have found that climate change will cause more severe flooding in the Columbia River Basin over the next half century. TODAY’S WEATHER A bit of rain High 45, Low 32 Page A10 INDEX Comics Dear Abby Horoscope Flooding in the Columbia River Ba- sin is expected to increase dramatically in scale over the next half decade as the climate warms, according to new research from Oregon State University. The severity of floods large and small — on the Columbia, Willamette and Snake rivers, along with hundreds of smaller tributaries — will increase and, in some places, the flooding sea- son will grow longer. That’s according to a new study A7-8 A4 A4 Kid Scoop Local/State Nation/World A9 A2-3 A4 Puzzles Sports Weather from researchers at the university, published last month in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Science. “The flood you’re used to seeing out your window once every 10 years will likely be larger than it has been in the past,” the study’s lead author, Laura Queen, a research assistant at OSU’s Oregon Climate Change Re- search Institute, said in a statement. Queen ran simulations using streamflow data collected from nearly 400 sites throughout the Columbia River Basin and western Washington. A8 A5-6 A10 The simulations included data from 1950 to 1999 and expected stream- flow from 2050 to 2099. “This was the best and most com- plete set of data,” said co-author Philip Mote, a professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and dean of the Graduate School at OSU. “It shows that the magnitude of one-, 10- and 100-year floods is likely to go up nearly every- where in the region. These are pro- found shifts.” See Flooding / A4 The Bulletin ù An Independent Newspaper We use recycled newsprint Monday E-Edition, 10 pages, 1 section DAILY BY KALE WILLIAMS The Oregonian U|xaIICGHy02329lz[