A2 THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2021
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Deschutes County cases: 5,849 (11 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 58 (zero new deaths)
Jefferson County cases: 1,921 (3 new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 27 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 152,818 (111 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 2,155 (1 new death)
GENERAL
INFORMATION
BULLETIN
GRAPHIC
129 new cases
COVID-19 data for Sunday, Feb. 21:
Crook County cases: 765 (zero new cases)
Crook County deaths: 18 (zero new deaths)
7 a.m.-noon Saturday-Sunday
and holidays
SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY,
DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES
New COVID-19 cases per day
130
(Dec. 4)
What is COVID-19? It’s an infection caused by a new coronavirus. Coronavi-
ruses are a group of viruses that can cause a range of symptoms. Some usually
cause mild illness. Some, like this one, can cause more severe symptoms and
can be fatal. Symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness of breath.
108 new cases
120
(Jan. 1)
90
new
cases
110
*No data
available on
Jan. 31
due to state
computer
maintenence
(Nov. 27)
7 ways to help limit its spread: 1. Wash hands often with soap and water for
at least 20 seconds. 2. Avoid touching your face. 3. Avoid close contact with
sick people. 4. Stay home. 5. In public, stay 6 feet from others and wear a cloth
face covering or mask. 6. Cover a cough or sneeze with a tissue or cough into
your elbow. 7. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
70
60
50
(Nov. 14)
7-day
average
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
28 new cases
(July 16)
ONLINE
40
31 new cases
(Oct. 31)
30
16 new cases
(Sept. 19)
9 new cases
www.bendbulletin.com
20
(May 20)
1st case
10
(March 11)
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OUR ADDRESS
A YEAR AFTER
THE BIG FLOOD
Street .............. 320 SW Upper Terrace Drive
Suite 200
Bend, OR 97702
Mailing ........... P.O. Box 6020
Bend, OR 97708
B
ADMINISTRATION
Publisher
Heidi Wright ..............................541-383-0341
Editor
Gerry O’Brien .............................541-633-2166
Barricades mark the closure of Pendleton’s Riverside
neighborhood as floodwaters from the Umatilla River
continued to inundate the area on Feb. 27, 2020.
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Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian file
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ý
90
80
47 new cases
541-382-1811
100
Lottery results can now be found on
the second page of Sports.
PENDLETON —
elicopters buzzed over-
head as Pendleton City
Manager Robb Corbett
helped the sandbagging
effort at Riverview Mobile Home
Estates on Feb. 6, 2020.
Corbett later realized that the
helicopters, which were en route
to rescue efforts further up the
Umatilla River, were an indication
that the situation was about to be
much worse than the river runoff
city staff were preparing for.
Overall, Corbett said he was
pleased by the way the city re-
sponded to the floods. But a year
after Pendleton’s Riverside neigh-
borhood was briefly subsumed into
the swelling waters of the Umatilla,
Corbett said his staff continue to
meet on how the city can improve
its flood prevention procedures.
One of the key talking points is
the city’s changing climate. Corbett
said people could call it what they
want, but the region’s weather pat-
terns are changing. 2020 marked
the second year in a row that Pend-
leton had weathered a significant
flood, following the McKay Creek
floods of 2019. Two years later, Cor-
bett said the city was still working
on mitigation efforts for McKay.
“We are planning for the worst
— there are new weather patterns
that we are now dealing with —
and hoping for the best,” he said.
Corbett said these events used to
be considered anomalous, but Uma-
tilla’s water level was 30% higher
than any levels in the city’s recorded
history. Should they get too much
higher, Corbett said the water risked
flowing over the Pendleton River
Parkway, threatening the thousands
of people who live in the flats.
City officials may not have been
able to prevent the flood, but they
would have been able to react to it
earlier if they had checked water
gauges upstream from Pendleton.
Corbett said the city is now track-
ing a wider variety of sources to
anticipate any future flooding.
The city is also encouraging
more residents to sign up for Alert-
Sense, the city’s electronic notifica-
tion service that sends out texts and
emails during emergencies.
The flood not only destroyed
homes and displaced dozens of res-
idents — it also breached one levee
and seeped through another, eroded
roads and exposed sewer lines.
Public Works Director Bob Pat-
terson said most of infrastructure
damage has been repaired, but it
will likely take years to finish up-
dating their mitigation efforts.
One of those long processes is
H
Eastern Oregon communities draw lessons from
2020 disaster: ‘We are planning for the worst’
BY ANTONIO SIERRA, JADE MCDOWELL AND BRYCE DOLE • East Oregonian
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
The Umatilla River runs adjacent to the Umatilla School District athletic complex
this month. The school district was forced to rebuild the berm separating the
river and fields after high water flooded the fields last year.
updating the floodplain map. Cor-
bett said both floods revealed areas
that were outside the floodplain
that ended up underwater.
Watching the snow as it fell on
the afternoon of Thursday, Feb. 11,
Corbett said he now looks at pre-
cipitation with a sense of wariness.
“I can’t think of a rainstorm or
snowstorm again and not be ner-
vous,” he said.
West Umatilla County rebuilds
more carefully
While flooding was less severe on
the west side of Umatilla County, it
highlighted needs that some com-
munities are trying to fix.
In Echo, the city and property
owners abutting the Umatilla River
have been working to identify op-
portunities for physical mitigation,
such as berms, in an effort to redi-
rect high water away from homes
and farms that got hit in February
2020. They have formed the Mid
Umatilla River Coalition to work
together in lobbying state and fed-
eral agencies for permission to
complete projects, and are search-
ing for funding opportunities.
Umatilla School District Super-
intendent Heidi Sipe said the dam-
age to the district’s athletic complex
behind the high school and berms
along the Umatilla River there are
“almost completely restored.”
The district was allowed to re-
build the berm built along the river
to keep the fields from flooding, and
Sipe said they built it not just bigger,
but smarter — designed not only
to keep the water out during most
flooding, but to allow the water a
way to drain out of the fields if the
river breaches the berm again. Sipe
said that should prevent a repeat of
the 4-foot deep lake that lingered for
days after the river receded.
“That said, I’m fairly certain
people thought they did it right
last time,” she said. “I doubt they
thought they did a halfway job.”
In Hermiston, last year’s flood
spurred the city to move infra-
structure at Riverfront Park out
of harm’s way. When the park was
built in 2005, planners put the play-
ground, restrooms, welcome kiosks
and parking lot at the north end of
the long park — directly in the path
the river takes when it overflows its
banks at the location.
The city plans to move the play-
ground and parking lot to the south
end of the park this summer, and
the restroom at a later date. Parks
and Recreation Director Larry Fet-
ter said the new location may see
some standing water during fu-
ture flooding, but shouldn’t be in
the path of the rushing water that
causes the most damage.
One disaster provides training
for the next
Umatilla County Emergency
Manager Tom Roberts said past
floods taught the county lessons that
could be used in 2020, and the 2020
flood helped identify more gaps to
be filled before the next crisis.
“At the end of planning exercises,
we take a close look at where there
is room for improvement,” he said.
“We do the same thing after a di-
saster.”
An example of a “gap” the flood
identified was the need to pre-stage
emergency supplies at more loca-
tions around the county. Roberts
said while the emergency man-
agement department had plenty
of sandbags and shovels, for exam-
ple, they were stored in one loca-
tion that took time to mobilize to
everywhere they were needed. He
said he is working with some com-
munities to create staging areas to
store supplies closer to where fu-
ture flooding may occur.
One unknown when planning
for disasters is how much non-
profits and individual volunteers
will step up to help, Roberts said,
and the 2020 flood drew an “un-
real” level of community support
that will help the county have
more confidence about a response
for future events. He also said the
support Umatilla County received
from the emergency management
community was unprecedented.
“We had 13 different emer-
gency managers rolling through
our center the first few weeks after
the flood, lending their expertise.
... That model really helped set the
stage for other disasters (in 2020),”
he said.
While government agencies are
working on an updated hazard mit-
igation plan, Roberts said improve-
ments won’t all happen overnight,
especially as the pandemic contin-
ues to complicate efforts. He urged
everyone to be “two weeks ready”
with food, water and other supplies
in case of future disasters.
“If people can use these lessons
to better prepare themselves, that’s
one less item we have to worry
about, one less person we have to
worry about,” he said.
Marilyn Lohman, a hydrologist
with the National Weather Service
in Pendleton, said now is a good
time for people to assess where they
live and the risks to their property
as high water events become more
frequent. She said counties and cit-
ies should also be looking at what
adjustments they might need to
make to their hazard mitigation
plans.
“There’s a lot of people looking at
a lot of these issues around the area,
and maybe their expertise can be
drawn into help counties and cities,
and better prepare their infrastruc-
ture,” she said.