THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 A3
TODAY
Today is Thursday, Feb. 18, the
49th day of 2021. There are 316
days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Feb. 18, 1970, the “Chicago
Seven” defendants were found
not guilty of conspiring to incite
riots at the 1968 Democratic
National Convention; five were
convicted of violating the An-
ti-Riot Act of 1968. (Those con-
victions were later reversed.)
In 1546, Martin Luther, leader of
the Protestant Reformation in
Germany, died in Eisleben.
In 1564, artist Michelangelo
died in Rome.
In 1930, photographic evidence
of Pluto (now designated a
“dwarf planet”) was discovered
by Clyde W. Tombaugh at
Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff,
Arizona.
In 1943, Madame Chiang Kai-
shek, wife of the Chinese leader,
addressed members of the Sen-
ate and then the House, becom-
ing the first Chinese national to
address both houses of the U.S.
Congress.
In 1967, American theoretical
physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer
died in Princeton, New Jersey,
at age 62.
In 1972, the California Supreme
Court struck down the state’s
death penalty.
In 1983, 13 people were shot
to death at a gambling club in
Seattle’s Chinatown in what
became known as the Wah Mee
Massacre.
In 1988, Anthony M. Kennedy
was sworn in as an associate jus-
tice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1997, astronauts on the space
shuttle Discovery completed
their tune-up of the Hubble
Space Telescope after 33 hours
of spacewalking; the Hubble
was then released using the
shuttle’s crane.
In 2001, veteran FBI agent Rob-
ert Philip Hanssen was arrested,
accused of spying for Russia.
(Hanssen later pleaded guilty to
espionage and attempted espi-
onage and was sentenced to life
in prison without the possibility
of parole.) Auto racing star Dale
Earnhardt Sr. died in a crash at
the Daytona 500; he was 49.
In 2003, an arson attack involv-
ing two South Korean subway
trains in the city of Daegu
claimed 198 lives.
Ten years ago: The United
States vetoed a U.N. resolution
that would have condemned
Israeli settlements as illegal and
called for a halt in all settlement
building; the 14 other Security
Council members voted in favor
of the measure.
Five years ago: In what was
seen as a criticism of Republican
presidential candidate Donald
Trump, Pope Francis said that a
person who advocated building
walls was “not Christian”; Trump
quickly retorted it was “dis-
graceful” to question a person’s
faith. (A Vatican spokesman said
the next day that the pope’s
comment was not intended as
a “personal attack” on Trump.)
Dallas-based Heritage Auctions
said a rare copy of a comic book
featuring the first appearance
of Spider-Man had been sold
to an anonymous collector for
$454,100.
One year ago: Japanese health
authorities confirmed 88 more
cases of the coronavirus aboard
the quarantined cruise ship
Diamond Princess, bringing
the number of cases on board
to 542; U.S. officials said Amer-
icans who chose to remain on
board could not return home
for at least two weeks after
coming ashore. Health officials
in the Chinese city of Wuhan
announced that a hospital
director who’d mobilized the
hospital’s resources to deal with
the thousands of sick people
arriving daily had died from the
virus. The Boy Scouts of America
filed for bankruptcy protection
in the first step toward creating
a huge compensation fund
for men who were molested
as youngsters decades ago by
scoutmasters or other leaders;
the organization urged victims
to come forward.
Today’s Birthdays: Singer Yoko
Ono is 88. Singer-songwriter
Bobby Hart is 82. Singer Irma
Thomas is 80. Actor Jess Walton
is 75. Singer Dennis DeYoung
is 74. Actor Sinead Cusack is 73.
Singer Randy Crawford is 69.
Rock musician Robbie Bachman
is 68. Actor John Travolta is 67.
Game show host Vanna White
is 64. Actor Jayne Atkinson is 62.
Actor Matt Dillon is 57. Rapper Dr.
Dre is 56. Actor Molly Ringwald
is 53. Actor Sarah Brown is 46.
Actor Ike Barinholtz is 44. Actor
Kristoffer Polaha is 44. Rock-sing-
er musician Regina Spektor is 41.
Opera singer Isabel Leonard is
39. Actor Shane Lyons is 33. Actor
Sarah Sutherland is 33.
— Associated Press
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
NORTHWEST WINTER STORMS
More than 150,000 without power in Portland area
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — More than
150,000 remained without
power in the greater Portland
area Wednesday, and authori-
ties warned that outages caused
by a fierce weekend storm could
continue for several more days.
The Seattle area saw more
than a foot of snow, and West-
ern Oregon was hit with snow
and ice that toppled more than
5,000 power lines. Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown declared a state of
emergency for the greater Port-
land region.
Portland General Electric’s
map of power outages listed
about 150,000 customers with-
out electricity, while Pacific
Power listed about 6,000.
While temperatures have re-
turned to seasonal norms in the
Northwest, some people in the
Portland area have been with-
out electricity for nearly a week.
Steve Corson, a spokesman
with PGE, said “right now we
need people to be prepared for
the fact that it could be several
days yet” before power is re-
stored.
Late Tuesday the Clackamas
County Sheriff’s Office con-
firmed four deaths over the
weekend due to carbon monox-
ide poisoning. While authorities
didn’t immediately provide any
details about the deaths, they
did urge people not to use alter-
native heat sources like camp
stoves or barbecues to stay
warm.
Rob Hendrickson, medical
director of the Oregon Poison
Center, said the center took 19
calls about carbon monoxide
poisoning over the weekend, as
opposed to one they receive on
a typical weekend.
“It is extremely important not
to use outdoor grills or gener-
ators inside your home,” Hen-
drickson said in a statement.
“These appliances should be
used outdoors, well away from
windows, doors and ventilation
systems.”
Also late Tuesday Brown
said because of reports of price
gouging at local hotels she de-
clared an “abnormal market
disruption” and issued an order
empowering the attorney gen-
eral to investigate.
Police guard dumpsters of groceries
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — About a dozen po-
lice officers guarded dumpsters filled
with perishable food outside a Portland
Fred Meyer as people attempted to take
the items that were discarded when the
store lost power.
The Oregonian reported that on
Tuesday employees at a Fred Meyer in
the northeast part of the city threw out
thousands of items that were deemed
no longer safe for consumption. The
store was one of many that lost power
following a weekend winter storm. As
of Wednesday, more than 150,000 re-
mained in the dark in the greater Port-
land area.
In a statement sent to KOIN, Fred
Meyer said the food was thrown away
“out of an abundance of caution.” The
Oregon Health Authority also has re-
quirements for licensed facilities during
a power outage in order to prevent
foodborne illnesses.
Images on social media showed piles
of unopened packaged meat, cheese
and juice in the store’s dumpsters.
“We appreciate people speaking out
against hunger. We get it, throwing
Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian
Portlanders forage in large dumpsters full
of perishable food after Fred Meyer tossed
out food due to losing electricity.
away food is never a good thing,” the
Fred Meyer statement said. “Unfortu-
nately, some perishable food that re-
quires refrigeration at our Hollywood
store was out of temperature for a pro-
tracted period of time.”
According to The Oregonian, people
began gathering at the dumpster around
2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Within hours, about
a dozen officers arrived to guard the
food that had been thrown out.
Fred Meyer said it “engaged law en-
forcement, as the safety of our associ-
ates and customers is always our top
priority.”
People at the scene said police threat-
ened to arrest them for trespassing.
Eventually, officers left the area, and
people jumped into the dumpsters to
take items.
Winter blast felled trees on the northern Oregon Coast
BY KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
A broken tree branch in Astoria.
The ice that struck the North
Coast on Friday night melted
by Saturday afternoon.
The only real evidence of
the weekend winter storm on
the North Oregon Coast is
the many shattered and fallen
trees.
In neighborhoods, fallen
Series of Eastern Oregon
snowstorms set records
BY ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Back-to-
back-to-back storms blanketed
Eastern Oregon in more than a
foot of snow, but local meteo-
rologists don’t expect the after-
math to create the kind of con-
ditions that led to the Umatilla
County floods last February.
Rob Brooks, a meteorologist
with the National Weather Ser-
vice Pendleton office, said three
successive systems, starting on
Feb. 11, and running through
Monday morning, combined
to pelt the region with massive
snowfall amounts.
According to the weather
service, the Pendleton area saw
16.4 inches of snowfall over the
four-day period, good for the
fourth highest total over four
days in recorded history. The
Pendleton area set a record
with three consecutive days of
4 inches of snow or more.
Brooks said reports coming
from other parts of Umatilla
County show that most other
areas also saw well over a foot
of snow by early Monday.
While still a far cry from
the all time record of minus 4,
Pendleton’s recorded low on
Valentine’s Day was 8 degrees.
Although precipitation is ex-
pected to continue throughout
the region, significant snowfall
is not.
With temperatures expected
to exceed freezing during day-
time hours, Brooks said resi-
dents should expect a “wintry
mix” of rain, freezing rain and
snow over the next week.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Icicles hang from an awning Sunday along Main Street in Pendleton.
boughs blocked driveways,
dented cars and sometimes
only narrowly missed causing
damage to houses. In almost
every neighborhood, trees bear
fresh scars where branches
tore away under the weight
of the ice. All day Monday,
chain saws buzzed and a steady
stream of pickup trucks hauled
debris to a transfer station in
Astoria.
Crews cleared many fallen
trees and branches from As-
toria park property Monday.
There is ongoing concern
about limbs that may have
cracked but have yet to fall
from trees. The city tempo-
rarily closed a portion of the
Astoria Riverwalk east of the
Columbia River Maritime Mu-
seum because limbs still dan-
gled from cottonwood trees
that line the path.
Tree branches still litter
roadsides. In some areas, lit-
tle more than a path has been
cleared to buildings. Cleanup
efforts are likely to continue for
several days, Astoria Fire Chief
Dan Crutchfield estimated on
Tuesday.