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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (May 31, 2019)
T he C olumbia P ress 1 50 ¢ C latsop C ounty ’ s I ndependent W eekly n eWspaper www.thecolumbiapress.com May 31, 2019 Vol. 3, Issue 22 Emergency operations center may be vulnerable to a tsunami B y C indy y ingst The Columbia Press The center built to handle opera- tions in a catastrophe may itself be vulnerable to a disaster. The county’s Emergency Opera- tions Center is in Warrior Hall at Camp Rilea. “The best science at the time indi- cated that the EOC was in a good lo- cation,” said Vincent Aarts, emergen- cy management coordinator for the county. harm to Clatsop County: volca- Shortly after the center’s nic activity, dam failure, floods ribbon-cutting in 2011, a 9.0 and landslides, wildfires, insect quake struck off the coast of infestations, wind and weather Japan, triggering a tsunami emergencies. Man-made disas- that devastated that country. ter could come from bombs, “As Tohoku happened, it wars, hazardous materials in- looked like we were in an in- cidents, communications fail- Aarts undation zone,” Aarts said. “What ures, influenza outbreaks, civil disor- we’re talking about is the very largest der and nuclear disaster. of earthquakes. The EOC is very well Warrenton and other coastal com- placed for every other disaster.” munities would be particularly vul- See ‘Emergencies’ on Page 4 Plenty have potential to do great Courtesy Clatsop County The county’s Emergency Operations Center is at Camp Rilea. City takes another swipe at blighted properties Cindy Yingst/The Columbia Press A boulder bound for North Jetty on the Washington side of the river glides past Dairy Maid and the four-way stop perched on the back of a Big River Construction truck. Roads rock and roll in Warrenton as project continues The Columbia Press Things are rocking down the highway once again. After a winter hiatus, the project to stabilize North Jetty in Ilwaco is back in full swing. Boulders for the Army Corps of Engineers project are headed through town. As many as 40 truckloads of rocks, weighing 6 to 30 tons each, are making their way through town, courtesy of Big River Con- struction, which is serving as a sub-contractor for J.E. McAmis, a heavy civil marine contractor from Chico, Calif., which won the jetty sta- bilization contract. Last July, the rocks began arriving by barge from Bellingham, Wash., to the Warrenton Fiber/Nygaard Log- ging dock on Northwest 13th Street. Eight to 10 Big River tractor-trailers are making four to five rock hauls a day from Warrenton to Ilwaco. Both North and South jetties were built between 1885 and 1939 to make passage safer for vessels entering the Columbia River from the ocean. The North Jetty project should be completed this year. Then recon- struction begins at South Jetty in Warrenton and will go through 2023. The jetties are critical for com- merce in the Northwest. Should a major storm breach a critical sec- tion, sand could be deposited into the navigation channel, potentially shutting down commercial ship- ping, according to the corps. The Columbia Press Balancing compassion with the strong arm of the law can be daunt- ing, Warrenton officials have found. A hoarder whose rental property is packed inside and out with bottles, cans and other “collectables” will likely be homeless unless patience prevails in cleaning it up. City commissioners voted Tuesday night to declare a duplex at Main Av- enue and Ninth Street a public nui- sance. The property at 951-953 S.W. Main Court is strewn with junk cars, rub- bish, overgrown veg- etation and boxes of junk. Community De- velopment Director Kevin Cronin sent a letter by certified Cronin mail to property owner Adam Brid- gens of Portland and Warrenton Police Department posted the site, which has a single tenant, with an abatement notice on May 9. Another property at 165 S.E. Sec- ond Street owned by Hazel Moore See ‘Blight’ on Page 5