Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50
MONDAY • July 5, 2021
‘ WHAT. A. BLAST. ’
Bulletin staff report • Photos by Ryan Brennecke
A
citywide water fight took place Sunday at Pine Nursery Park after a Bend
woman casually suggested on Facebook that instead of fireworks, which are
banned in Bend, residents have a water balloon fight.
Stephanie Von Aydan’s impromptu post generated so much interest, she
set up a Facebook event for it, and nearly 100 people said they were coming.
“Ok… I was just kidding but LETS DO THIS!!” Von Aydan posted on the event
page. “On July 4th 2021, join us as we engage in a city wide water battle, immediately
followed by a group clean up.”
She encouraged participants to bring trash bags to help clean up and set some fight
ground rules (no face shots, no pets, no young children).
“What. A. Blast.” Von Aydan wrote after the event. “THANK YOU BEND!!!!!”
PHOTOS FROM TOP: Participants scramble to grab water balloons at Pine Nursery
Park. David Garsia, of Bend, squirts a fellow participant with water. Kenna Simpson,
of Prineville, looks for her next target after grabbing an armful of balloons. After the
fight, dozens of participants work together to collect the popped balloons.
Northwest heat wave joins list of
Oregon’s deadliest natural disasters
Governor: Death toll at least 95 in Oregon
The Northwest heat wave has killed at least 95 people in
Oregon alone, a number that Gov. Kate Brown called “absolutely
unacceptable.”
“Following events like this, we always do reviews and see what we
can do better next time,” Brown, a Democrat, said
Sunday on “Face the Nation” on CBS.
Hundreds are believed to have died from the heat
over the past week in the Pacific Northwest and
southwestern Canada.
Records included 116 degrees Fahrenheit in Port-
land and 108 in Seattle. The hot weather was headed
east, with temperatures well above 100 for parts of
Brown
Idaho and eastern Montana.
Government officials warned people about the
heat, dispersed water to vulnerable people and set up cooling stations.
“We still lost too many lives,” Brown said.
Scientists consider the heat wave an ultra-rare event that’s nonethe-
less consistent with the effects of human-caused climate change.
Heppner Flood of 1903 remains the worst
Oregon has a long history
of terrible natural disasters,
and almost all of them come
in one of four bitter flavors:
flood, fire, windstorm and
earthquake.
But now, with the tempera-
ture getting as high as 116 de-
grees in the past week, a heat
wave can be added to the list
of the worst that Mother Na-
ture has thrown at the Pacific
Northwest. The brutal temps
TODAY’S
WEATHER
led to the deaths of at least 95
people in Oregon, making the
hot weather one of the dead-
liest events the state has ever
seen.
The worst loss of life from
natural disasters in Oregon’s
recorded history comes from
flooding, and the ultimate
such event, taking place in the
small Morrow County town
of Heppner, is linked to sum-
mertime heat, not winter rain
or snow.
See Disaster / A10
Sunny
High 95, Low 59
Page A10
INDEX
— Associated Press
Bruce McCurtain/The Oregonian
Much of downtown Heppner was a mess in 1971 after a flash
flood. Smaller floods continued to hit in later years. Nothing
matched the destruction of 1903, however.
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BY DOUGLAS PERRY
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