Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50
TUESDAY • June 29, 2021
CULVER, LA PINE BRING HOME STATE TITLES
PREP WRESTLING • SPORTS PULLOUT, A5-8
EXTREME HEAT
Bend bans
fireworks;
Pilot Butte
show stays
BY BRENNA VISSER
The Bulletin
Lauren Tolo carries ice as she volunteers with others at a cooling station Monday on Hunnell Road in Bend. Community volunteers delivered ice, water
and other cooling essentials to the homeless camp on Hunnell Road after two residents died during the extreme heat wave. Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Two homeless Bend residents die,
raising concerns about resources
BY DYLAN JEFFERIES
The Bulletin
26
82
See Fireworks / A4
Pendleton
84
T
wo people died over the weekend at a
Portland
homeless camp on Hunnell Road on
101
197
La Grande
Bend’s north end, and some home-
97
395
5
less outreach workers and social justice ac-
Salem
26
tivists are attributing the deaths to heat-re-
lated causes.
84
Madras
Temperatures reached 104 degrees in
26
Bend on Sunday amid an ongoing heat
20
Prineville
Sisters
Bend temperature comparison
wave sweeping the Northwest.
Redmond
The deaths have raised concerns
Monday,
395 June 28, high and low
Bend
Eugene
among residents who work with home-
temperatures compared to the June
20
less people that more outreach and ser-
20
average, in degrees Fahrenheit.
La Pine
vices are necessary to keep homeless
Source: NOAA
5
108
individuals safe from the heat.
Temperatures rose Monday to 108
78
73
66
degrees and were forecast Tuesday
to hit 111, according to the National 101
42 95
97
Weather Service. High temperatures
will not dip below triple digits until
at least Thursday, with a high of 98
Average June 28 Average June 28
Medford
degrees expected, according to the
June high high June
low
199
395
95 low
National Weather service.
5
Lt. Juli McConkey with the Bend
Police Department confirmed the
deaths, both reported on Sunday,
High/low temperatures near Bend and statewide (As of 4:30 p.m., Monday, June 28)
stating there was no indication of
Sun., June 27
Mon., June 28
Sun., June 27
Mon., June 28
suspicious circumstances or crimi-
City
High Low
High Low
City
High Low
High Low
nal activity.
Bend
104 64
108 66
Portland
112 73
115 76
According to Eric Garrity, who
Redmond
107 64
109 62
Salem
112 70
116 76
works with Street Kitchen Collec-
tive, a homeless outreach organi-
Madras
105 65
109 66
Eugene
111 68
93
69
zation, the eviction of the camp on
Prineville
104 61
106 61
Medford
112 71
114 75
Emerson Avenue in Bend a few
La Pine
99
60
101 65
Pendleton
110 69
112 73
days before the anticipated heat
Sisters
100 59
106 59
La Grande
101 60
103 61
wave put homeless individuals in
unnecessary danger.
See Homeless / A4
The city of Bend is immediately banning the use
of all fireworks, legal and illegal, in response to ex-
tremely high temperatures and drought conditions.
“The decision was pretty clear
RELATED
that this was an extreme safety
concern from multiple angles,”
• States of U.S.
Mayor Pro-tem Gena Good-
West weigh
man-Campbell said Monday.
bans on fire-
works, A3
Not overwhelming first re-
sponders, who already are busy
the week of the Fourth of July in more normal
years, was also a consideration.
“For people calling in with an emergency, we
want to make sure we can respond to those in a
timely manner,” Goodman-Campbell said.
The local state of emergency declaration issued
Monday by the city manager also allows the city
to use resources to provide services such as cool-
ing shelters to people experiencing homelessness
during the heatwave.
The emergency declaration remains in effect
through July 9. The ban does not make it illegal to sell
fireworks, or to own them, Goodman-Campbell said.
Professional shows at the Vince Genna Stadium
on July 3 and at Pilot Butte on July 4 will go on as
scheduled.
Source: National Weather Service, NOAA
Wyden: Expect
feds to mobilize
firefighters this
wildfire season
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
The Bulletin graphic
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden says he is awaiting an an-
nouncement by President Joe Biden’s administra-
tion about a mobilization plan for firefighters and
equipment for widespread forest fires in the West.
The Oregon Democrat told reporters Saturday
that such a mobilization plan is likely to require
more money as well. He based his observation on
a June 17 hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee, which heard a presentation
by U.S. Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen
about Biden’s 2022 budget request for the Forest
Service. That budget year starts Oct. 1.
“I do think it will take additional resources,”
said Wyden, who sits on that committee . “I think
in a matter of days, the Biden administration will
be outlining the steps that I have touched on that
constitutes its strategy against this grave threat.
See Wyden / A14
OREGON HOSPITALS
Emergency rooms are jammed after exodus of nurses
After 18 years as a nurse,
much of it in the emergency
department, Jeremy Lail con-
sidered himself a battle-tested
veteran.
But recently, he asked his
bosses at Providence Portland
Medical Center if he could go
on leave. Lail said he’s over-
whelmed by the horde of pa-
tients seeking treatment at his
TODAY’S
WEATHER
ER and unnerved at the erratic,
angry nature of many of those
patients.
“I dreaded going to work,”
he said. “I found myself think-
ing, is this the day someone is
going to pull a gun and shoot
me? We’re seeing how soci-
ety can devolve right now. I’ve
been dealing with a lot of anxi-
ety and depression.”
For months, hospital work-
ers have wanted nothing more
Dangerous heat
High 111, Low 66
Page A13
INDEX
than for the pandemic to end
and life to return to some sem-
blance of normalcy. But the
much-deserved respite has
yet to begin. Instead, a combi-
nation of understaffing and a
tidal wave of seriously ill pa-
tients who have deferred health
care for months has made life
in the ER as bad or worse than
the height of the pandemic.
It’s a recipe for disaster that
is unfolding at hospitals across
Business
Classifieds
Comics
A11, 13
A14
A9-10
Dear Abby
Editorial
Horoscope
A7
A8
A7
the country: Blend emotion-
ally exhausted caregivers with
emotionally disturbed patients,
throw in a wave of street vi-
olence and the departure of
some of the most experienced
workers on the wards due to
fatigue and burnout, and voila,
America has its latest health
care crisis.
Many employees argue
there is another key ingredi-
ent added by the hospitals that
Kid Scoop
Local/State
Lottery
A12
A2-3
A6
Obituaries
Puzzles
Sports
A4
A10
A5-7
makes the end result particu-
larly toxic: A penny-pinching
mentality that allows the un-
derstaffing to develop in the
first place.
Meanwhile, the dangers
health care workers confront
have changed. A year ago, hos-
pital front-line staffers faced
the deadly threat of infection.
Now, emergency department
staffers worry about assault
as more patients come in im-
The Bulletin
An Independent Newspaper
We use
recycled
newsprint
Vol. 117, No. 329, 14 pages, 1 section
paired, angry and, sometimes,
armed.
Oregon Health & Science
University Hospital is installing
a metal detector in the emer-
gency room next month that
all patients and visitors will
have to go through before en-
try. Twice in recent months,
staffers have found patients
or visitors in the ER carrying
weapons.
See Nurses / A14
DAILY
BY JEFF MANNING
The Oregonian
U|xaIICGHy02329lz[