THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022 A3
Governor examines hailstorm’s impact in Wallowa
Gov. Kate Brown called
damage from Aug. 11
storm ‘unbelievable’
BY BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
sure insurance covers first and get a
full sense. There’s another e-board
(meeting) in December, so I believe
that would be another opportunity,
as well as the 2023 legislative session.
This is an initial investment in the
community to help meet the needs of
the community right now.”
WALLOWA — Gov. Kate Brown
was struck nearly speechless as she
viewed the hail damage still evident
in Wallowa from the Aug. 11 storm
during a visit to the community last
week.
The governor spent about 30 min-
utes on Friday looking around Wal-
lowa City Hall and discussing the
damage with about 20 people who
showed up for her visit.
“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “We
have some friends who live here and
they showed something on Face-
book. It was tennis ball-size hail. I’ve
never seen anything like that.”
Looking at the marks left as scars
on the doors of the west side of City
Hall, Brown was amazed at the pat-
tern the hailstones left.
“It’s like we just came from an art
gallery,” she said.
Brown felt the dents in the metal
siding and viewed nearby buildings,
such as the Wallowa Senior Center,
where the siding was virtually shred-
ded.
At City Hall, Wallowa Mayor Gary
Hulse showed the electric meter that
had to be replaced.
“Every meter on a west-facing
wall was damaged and had to be re-
placed,” he said.
A window near the meter remains
boarded up. The hail shattered win-
dows, sending shards of glass into the
council chambers.
During the visit, Brown asked
about recovery efforts.
Christy Lieuallen, a co-chair-
woman with the Blue Mountain
Long-Term Recovery Group, ex-
plained how the nonprofit will be
directing efforts. She said group rep-
resentatives have come to town al-
ready and would return from 10 a.m.
to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday at City
Hall. They plan to meet with owners
of damaged property to gather infor-
mation about what they need.
“Everything is by case number; we
don’t ever talk about people’s names.
They just come and tell their story,”
she said. “Then, if they are still in
Winter is coming
But the biggest need is preparing
for winter.
Hulse said as much as $40,000 has
been donated to assist in relief and is
in an account at Community Bank.
“We’ll take that out as seed money
for Christy (Lieuallen) to start insu-
lating windows,” he said.
Brown was impressed at the com-
munity’s generosity.
“That’s a significant amount for
this community to raise,” she said.
Lieuallen cautioned that Wal-
lowans need to be patient.
“It’s not all going to happen before
winter,” she said. “We’re going to have
to make sure they’re secure for the
winter and then in the spring, after
the snow melts, the recovery work
can begin. We’ll be ready, but how do
you replace a roof in the middle of
winter with a couple of feet of snow
on it? How do you replace windows
in the middle of winter? We’re just
going to have to be really patient and
get these homes secure for winter.”
Hulse said the top priority is get-
ting residents secured for winter. In-
sulating and installing windows are
the first order of business, but there’s a
shortage of windows, so many homes
will have to rely on plastic coverings.
“Getting windows is so far out.
Some people are saying it’ll be eight
to 10 weeks,” he said. “Well, in eight
to 10 weeks, we’re going to have
snow. We’re going to start off by get-
ting those windows insulated. On the
roofs, we’ve got contractors working
seven days a week.”
He said that so far, he hasn’t heard
of any trouble in obtaining materials
from roofing contractors.
Lieuallen said the priorities are
money, manpower and materials.
Though he was pleased the gover-
nor took the time to personally come
and view the damage to his town,
Hulse was upfront and practical as he
bid Brown farewell.
“Thank you for coming over and
giving us money,” he said.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
All the windows on the west side of the former United Methodist Church in Wallowa, many of them stained glass, were knocked
out by a hail during a storm that passed through town Aug. 11. The siding, too, was seriously damaged.
need of some help, they will be as-
signed a case manager and that case
manager will help them build their
disaster recovery plan.”
More money?
Although Brown requested that
the state Joint Legislative Emergency
Management Board approve $2 mil-
lion toward recovery for Wallowa —
a request the board approved Sept. 23
— no one Friday was certain that the
money would be sufficient.
“This’ll be kind of a pilot deal to
see if it’s going to work,” Hulse said.
“From there, every time they have
a disaster, they would turn (the
money) over to a nonprofit.”
Rather than it going to the mayor
or the Wallowa City Council, Hulse
said, “This independent group will
come in and set the parameters.”
The pool of $2 million will re-
main in state coffers waiting to be re-
quested for recovery work.
“Blue Mountain will come in and
make arrangements for (property) to
be fixed up and then they will request
the funds from the state,” Hulse said.
Lieuallen said she wasn’t sure if the
During a visit
Friday, Gov. Kate
Brown examines
hail damage from
the Aug. 11 storm
to the back door of
Wallowa City Hall as
Mayor Gary Hulse
discusses the storm.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa
County Chieftain
$2 million would be adequate.
“With the amount of insurance
we have in the community — I don’t
know yet,” she said. “We don’t have
enough information to really un-
derstand how much. We know that
many have insurance. We know that
the damage was around $6 million,
but that’s just a ballpark figure in
damage.”
Lieuallen said the purpose of the
funding is to restore people and their
property to pre-storm conditions.
“We’re only trying to make peo-
ple safe, sanitary and functional,” she
said. “It’s not our goal to make them
better than they were before the hail-
storm. I am so proud of the state for
giving $2 million to this community.
It’s really, really amazing that they’re
doing that.”
Asked if more state aid is possible,
Brown said it is.
“My sense is the Legislature is open
to meeting the community needs,”
she said.
“I think this was just a first in-
vestment into the community. We
wanted to get a better sense of what
the damage looks like. Obviously,
folks who don’t have insurance or
are underinsured, we want to make
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