THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 A13
U.S. needs to brace itself for more deadly storms, experts say
BY MATTHEW DALY AND ELLEN
KNICKMEYER
The Associated Press
Deadly weather will be hitting
the U.S. more often, and Amer-
ica had better get better at deal-
ing with it, experts said Wednes-
day as Texas and other states
battled winter storms that blew
past the worst-case planning of
utilities, governments and mil-
lions of shivering citizens.
This week’s storms — with
more still heading east — fit a
pattern of worsening extremes
under climate change and
demonstrate anew that local,
state and federal officials have
failed to do nearly enough to
prepare for greater and more
dangerous weather.
At least two dozen people
have died this week, including
Delays
Continued from A1
In addition to the sixth likely
congressional district, Ore-
gon Legislature’s 60 House and
30 Senate seats will need new
boundaries. Data to redraw the
maps was due April 1 — but
census officials now say it won’t
arrive until Sept. 30 — six
months late.
“The biggest reason?
COVID-19. It’s something be-
yond the Census Bureau’s con-
trol,” Kathleen Styles, the cen-
sus bureau’s top redistricting
official said last week.
State officials need the
block-by-block data to draw
districts that meet federal and
state civil rights guidelines.
The late September deliv-
ery date is 45 days after Ore-
gon’s self-imposed deadline for
submitting maps. The mess
will land in the Oregon Su-
preme Court, which will ref-
eree whether the Legislature
gets a shot at reapportionment,
it goes to the secretary of state
or some other result. The con-
gressional maps could go to a
five-judge panel.
Big population increases
over the past decade will add
from fire or carbon monox-
ide poisoning while struggling
to find warmth inside their
homes. In Oklahoma City, an
Arctic blast plunged tempera-
tures in the state capital as low
as 14 degrees below zero.
“This is a different kind of
storm,’’ said Kendra Clements,
one of several businesspeo-
ple in Oklahoma City who
opened their buildings to shel-
ter homeless people, some
with frostbite, hypothermia
and icicles in their hair. It was
also a harbinger of what social
service providers and govern-
ments say will be a surge of
increased needs for society’s
most vulnerable as climate and
natural disasters worsen.
Other Americans are at
risk as well. Power supplies of
all sorts failed in the extreme
cold, including natural gas-
fired power plants that were
knocked offline amid icy con-
ditions and, to a smaller extent,
wind turbines that froze and
stopped working. More than
100 million people live in areas
under winter weather warn-
ings, watches or advisories,
and blackouts are expected to
continue in some parts of the
country for days.
The crisis sounded an alarm
for power systems throughout
the country: As climate change
worsens, severe conditions that
go beyond historical norms are
becoming ever more common.
Texas, for example, expects
power demand to peak in the
heat of summer, not the depths
of winter, as it did this week.
legislative districts to Central
Oregon and the Portland sub-
urbs. But lawmakers and po-
tential challengers won’t know
what districts will look like ear-
lier than late fall at best.
ally required to adjourn July 1.
Deadlines are starting to
loom. Friday is the deadline
for drafted bills to be sent from
staff to lawmakers. The final
day that bills can be introduced
is Feb. 23. With the exception
of bills that go to Rules or Ways
& Means committees, bills that
don’t hit key deadlines auto-
matically die.
Bills must have a work ses-
sion — when a bill is brought
up for a vote by committee —
scheduled by March 19. The
work session must occur by
April 13. At each point, the
number of dead bills grows.
Additional deadlines for
floor votes, hearings and work
sessions in the second cham-
ber and floor votes in the sec-
ond chamber are all tripwires
for bills to die. By the time the
Legislature adjourns, the leg-
islative carnage at each point
accounts for the overwhelming
majority of legislation.
The logistics of virtual com-
mittee hearings and the need
to limit floor sessions because
of the COVID-19 infection
level will make it difficult to
make up ground already lost.
House Speaker Tina Kotek,
D-Portland, said last week
Expulsion of House member
back on track
The winter storm and power
outages led the House to can-
cel a planned floor session this
week which would have in-
cluded a vote on expelling Rep.
Diego Hernandez, D-Port-
land, over allegations of sexual
harassment. Hernandez has
refused repeated requests by
Gov. Kate Brown and top leg-
islative officials to resign. The
vote — listed as House Resolu-
tion 1 — is now scheduled for
Feb. 23.
Legislative logjam
Lawmakers have submitted
thousands of new bills and res-
olutions for the current session
— with the overwhelming ma-
jority headed for the trash bin.
Concern over possible right-
wing violence last month and
winter storms this month have
put the 2021 session behind
schedule from the beginning.
The Legislature is constitution-
James
Andrews
uses a
plastic bag
to stay
warm and
dry while
he walks
Wednes-
day in
Tulsa,
Okla-
homa.
Mike Simons/
Tulsa World
via AP
there will be little time left to
debate beyond a short list of
pandemic-related bills, eco-
nomic recovery, housing, po-
lice reform and the sprawling
state budget.
2022 election early birds
It’s been just a little over
three months since the 2020
election, but candidates are
starting to pop up for 2022
races.
Sixteen candidate cam-
paign finance committees
have been created. Senate
Majority Leader Rob Wag-
ner, D-Lake Oswego, is the
biggest name to have a 2022
committee so far. Others in-
clude Bud Pierce, who has
declared his candidacy for
the GOP nomination for the
open governor’s seat in 2022.
Pierce was the 2016 GOP
nominee for governor, losing
to Brown, who is barred by
term limits from seeking an-
other term.
In a separate move, Raiph
Huber, a Springfield private se-
curity officer, has filed with the
Federal Election Commission
to create a fundraising com-
mittee to run in the Republi-
can primary in the 2nd Con-
gressional District, a seat held
by freshman Rep. Cliff Bentz,
R-Ontario.
While candidacy for Con-
gress must be filed with the
state, fundraising is handled by
the federal commission.
Exoneration expenses
People who are incarcerated
for crimes they did not com-
mit would be eligible for state
payments under Senate Bill
499, introduced by Sen. Kim
Thatcher, R-Keizer.
Oregon is currently one of
15 states that does not auto-
matically allocate money to
those exonerated for crimes
they didn’t commit. The aver-
age allocation in states that do
offer aid is $50,000 per year
behind bars, according to the
Oregon Innocence Project,
which works to clear wrongly
convicted people.
The group says that 21 peo-
ple in Oregon who served
nearly 90 years cumulatively in
prison have been exonerated
in recent years. The bill is cur-
rently in the Senate Judiciary
and Ballot Measure 110 Im-
plementation committee. No
hearing date has been sched-
uled.
Kropf steps up
Until the past week, new
Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, was
not listed as a sponsor of any
legislation during the current
session.
Kotek said it wasn’t unusual
for freshman lawmakers to go
slow at the beginning, and law-
makers have been told that a
lot of legislation won’t be con-
sidered with the heavy work-
load and limited time.
But Kropf is now one of
three chief co-sponsors on
House Bill 2593 — to establish
a search and rescue card that
would defray costs of local gov-
ernment efforts to find lost or
injured people.
He’s also signed on as
co-sponsor of five other bills
— a requirement for gun locks,
limits on transfers of gun own-
erships, plus legal services for
inmates, wildfire protection and
low-income housing assistance.
Kropf is vice-chair of the
House Economic Recov-
ery and Prosperity Commit-
tee, which plots the course
of the state’s comeback from
COVID-19. He’s also on the
House Judiciary and Joint
Ways & Means committees.
e e
gwarner@eomediagroup.com
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