T he C olumbia P ress
June 14, 2019
Mayor’s Message
by Henry Balensifer III
Surviving, if not thriving
Last week I had the distinct
and eye-opening pleasure to
observe the capability the US
Navy can bring to our coast-
line should a major disaster
occur.
Several elected officials in-
cluding myself and Mark Ku-
jala, the county commissioner
for our district, were briefed at
Camp Rilea about the process
by which active-duty military
assets are requested or tasked
to assist in major disasters.
We then rode out to the USS
Anchorage on a hovercraft to
see firsthand the capabilities
the Navy could bring to bear.
It’s extremely important for
all of us to consider emergen-
cy preparedness with person-
al responsibility in mind, as
well as reasonable expecta-
tions. We should be ready and
able to survive for at least two,
if not three, weeks after a ma-
jor event.
What does that mean to sur-
vive for at least two weeks? I
mean to survive, not thrive. We
can live quite some time with-
out food, but water is vital. That
said, if you pack enough water
and food for two meals a day
for two weeks in a backpack, it
would be unwieldy. One week
alone would be too much. So
let’s look at preparedness with
a practical lens:
Recommended daily wa-
ter intake for thriving is 64
ounces. That’s half a gallon
each day, or 3.5 gallons a
week. At 8.34 pounds per gal-
lon, that means if you packed
just a week of water in your
backpack it would weigh 29
pounds! Two weeks is just
about 60 pounds!
To survive, you need to con-
sider how far the evacuation
zone is from your home or
place of work. Using that in-
formation, determine what
you can reasonably carry with-
in the time window for the tsu-
nami that will affect you. Free
tsunami evacuation maps are
available at City Hall if you
don’t have one. The map out-
lines the evacuation routes and
areas that will be affected in a
nearshore or distant tsunami.
I’ll stop short of recommend-
ing a pack for legal reasons,
but I’ll tell you what suste-
nance I have in my pack and
the philosophy of use behind
it. This isn’t everything in my
pack, just the water/food.
I have two bottled waters
(about 32 ounces) and an
empty wide-mouth Nalgene
bottle. I have both a cheap
LifeStraw (for direct filter
drinking) and a Katadyn water
filter for pumping water into
empty bottles.
So I can drink with the
lifestraw out of water sources
directly, or I can pump filtered
water into bottles to save. I’ve
also got purification tablets
in case a filter breaks. I carry
enough electrolyte packs to
have a dose each day for three
weeks — the brands are Nuun
and DripDrop.
I also have two Solas ration
packs (same as found in emer-
gency kits on lifeboats).
Am I going to thrive in bad
conditions with these? No.
Will I survive? Yes. Any more
and my pack with all the oth-
er items becomes too heavy to
travel on foot to safety.
We live on the coast because
we love the place where we live.
Our choice to live here has con-
sequences, good and bad.
The place that provides
beautiful sunsets and great
clam-digging is the same place
that has the potential to suffer
catastrophic natural disasters
or big windstorms as in 2007.
Every individual has a re-
sponsibility to be prepared for
themselves and their family.
3
Summer programs kick off with sign dedication
Warrenton Community Li-
brary kicked off its summer
reading program last week-
end with the dedication of a
new sign and about 40 chil-
dren and adults pledging to
read books.
“It went off quite well; we
had quite a few people there,”
site manager Nettie-Lee Ca-
log said.
The county’s other libraries
participate with summer pro-
grams as well. Children and
adults have a chance to win
prizes for reading.
“We want to keep kids so
they don’t forget stuff over the
summer,” Calog said.
The library recently pur-
chased new chairs and tables
for the children’s area, with
money for part of it donated
by Human Bean, which held
a fund-raiser for the library’s
children’s programs.
The cedar planks for the
sign were donated by War-
renton City Commissioner
Alissa Trotter of Hu-
man Bean coffee in
Warrenton presents
a $210 check to
Mayor Henry Bal-
ensifer on Saturday,
after the company
held a fund-raiser to
support children’s
programs at the
library. At left is Rick
Newton, who do-
nated wood for the
sign.
Courtesy Warrenton
Community Library
Rick Newton and Coast Hard-
ware donated brackets for the
project.
Warrenton High School
graduate and resident Dennis
Thomas designed and made
the sign. Thomas also made
the sign in front of Warrenton
Fire Department.
“It’s interesting that the sign
cost $350 and the permit for
it cost $350,” Newton said.
The sign permit fee came
out of the city’s library fund.
“It comes out of the big-
ger budget we have,” Calog
said. “It’s fair that we pay our
share, too.”
Fisher/cable cooperative wins state award
Oregon Fishermen’s Cable
Committee, an Astoria based
nonprofit group that works
with commercial fishermen
and fiber-optic cable provid-
ers, received the Department
of State Lands 2018 Partner-
ship Award from the State
Land Board on Tuesday in
Salem.
The award is based on in-
novation, consistency, effort
and setting a good example
for partnership with state
agencies to protect natural
resources.
The award recognized the
OFCC’s more than 20-year
history of working coopera-
tively with submarine cable
owners and installers.
The installations have been
done in a way that minimizes
impacts on coastal seas and
the Oregon fishing industry
while providing significant
benefits to the state.
Chairman Scott
McMullen, left,
and founding
member Terry
Thompson re-
ceive the Part-
nership Award
from Gov. Kate
Brown on Tues-
day in Salem.
Courtesy OFCC
“This ongoing collaboration
has resulted in responsible,
sustainable stewardship of
the territorial sea and the nat-
ural resources it contains,”
Oregon Secretary of State Bev
Clarno said.
The increasing number of
undersea cable landings in
Oregon has meant a more
robust internet backbone
for the state, development of
data centers and cloud stor-
age facilities and better con-
nectivity for tech companies,
she said.
“Working together, the
OFCC and submarine cable
owners have achieved what
neither could accomplish
alone — making Oregon a
very successful place to land
west coast fiber-optic cables
while maintaining a vibrant
fishing industry,” Clarno said.
The group’s work has been
held up as an example global-
ly, not just for marine spatial
management, but in other in-
dustries as well.”