NEWS
A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
FLOOD
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Norman said he was glad everyone
was safe — that was the important thing.
“Everything here is materialistic,” he
said.
Echo School quickly jumped into
action, setting up cots in the commons
area to form a shelter for anyone in need.
Echo Community Church started tak-
ing donations of food, clothing and other
items, and offered up three free meals a
day to anyone who needed it through-
out the weekend and this week’s cleanup
efforts.
As many as 50 homes in Echo were
directly affected by flooding late Thurs-
day and early Friday across the Echo
Rural Fire Protection District area,
according to the district. However, peo-
ple at Echo Community Church remained
optimistic.
“Things are good, considering every-
thing,” Pastor John Marcum said on
Saturday.
Marcum and his wife fled their own
home on the west side of Echo early Fri-
day morning, and when they returned
later they found waters rising at least 3
feet. They will likely lose some of their
belongings, Marcum said, but the house
should be OK, noting that others were
probably not so lucky.
“Some houses will be inhabitable,”
Marcum said. “The flooding was much
worse this year than in a long time.”
Rushing past Echo, the flood waters
made their way to Stanfield, crossing
Interstate 84 to do so. Rescue personnel
from area fire districts had to rescue driv-
ers from semi-trucks and vehicles as the
vehicles got mired in high water on the
interstate during the predawn hours of
Friday morning.
The interstate remained closed
between mileposts 182 and 188 until Sun-
day evening, when one lane was opened
in each direction. The Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation does not have an
estimate for when the remaining lanes
will open.
While most of Stanfield escaped dam-
age, homes on Stanfield Meadows Road
were damaged, along with ministorage
and other businesses in the Hoosier Lane
area. The Stanfield Moose Lodge got a
few inches of water in its kitchen, but vol-
unteers had restored the building to work-
ing use by Monday, according to the ser-
vice club’s Facebook page.
Next, the water made its way to Herm-
iston, where flood levels in the Riverfront
Park area blanketed Riverfront Park in
rushing water and washed away a section
of Orchard Avenue.
Parks and recreation director Larry
Fetter said the park’s 2019 flood, which
he estimated caused about one fourth of
the damage of this year’s flood, quali-
fied for some financial assistance from
FEMA, so he hoped this year’s would as
well.
“The parking lot has been broken up
into chunks and distributed all over,” he
said. “There really is no parking lot. The
driveway is gone, fencing is gone, the
restroom appears to be off its base, por-
tions of the trail are gone .... Our irriga-
tion system is completely compromised.”
For now, however, the park remains
closed and Fetter said it was far too early
to have a timeline for reopening or an esti-
mate of the damage costs. He said people
walking or driving in the damaged area
were making the damage worse — not to
mention putting themselves in danger —
and asked that everyone steer clear.
Brian Mack, an area resident, said he
knew homeless families that had been
camping along the Umatilla River near
Hermiston, mostly in the Oxbow area,
who had been displaced by the flood. He
said many of them lost tents and other
belongings.
“I know six or seven families that
had to grab their families and get out,”
he said. “It just sucks because they lost
everything.”
Mack said he hoped in the event of
future flooding in the area, emergency
responders would make an attempt to
alert anyone in makeshift camps along
the river and in the wooded Oxbow prop-
erty that floods when the river overflows.
After hitting Hermiston, flood waters
rose downstream, shutting down Uma-
tilla River Road Friday evening and put-
ting the athletic complex behind Umatilla
High School underwater.
Superintendent Heidi Sipe said Mon-
day the mud was still too thick to prop-
erly assess the damage, but she should
know more later in the week. The school
leases the property from the Army Corps
of Engineers, and Sipe said she was work-
ing with both the Corps and the school’s
insurance company.
“As soon as we get the all clear to start
removing debris, we will have a work
party and we will invite the community,”
she said.
Sipe said it was unclear yet how
quickly all of the elements of the com-
plex would be useable again, but spring
sports could start early practices indoors
if need be, and she had confidence they
could work with neighboring communi-
ties to find other options for practices as
well.
“I know Eastern Oregon is amazing
about banding together in situations like
that,” she said.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2020
Contributed photo by Larry Fetter
Flood waters tore large chunks of asphalt out of the Riverfront Park parking lot in Hermiston.
RECOVERY
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for financial assistance or
volunteer labor to assist in
cleanup. Echo City Hall is
541-376-8411 and the City
of Stanfield can be reached at
541-449-3831.
On Friday, Echo city
administrator David Slaght
gave kudos to Echo Commu-
nity Church and Echo School
District for their assistance in
making sure displaced resi-
dents have food, water, bed-
ding and shelter. He also
praised Echo Rural Fire
Department and others who
evacuated people from their
homes before the floods hit.
“I believe many lives
were saved,” he said.
He posted on Facebook
Tuesday that there were vol-
unteers ready to assist people
with cleanup of their prop-
erty, if people ask at city hall
for assistance. Dumpsters for
flood-damaged materials are
set up beside city hall and
between Thielsen Street and
the railroad tracks.
A webpage with flood
information and resources
county-wide has been set
up on the county’s web-
site, co.umatilla.or.us, and
updates will continue to be
posted to the Facebook page
of the Umatilla County Sher-
iff’s Office.
For those looking to
donate, the county said Com-
munity Action Plan of East
Central Oregon (CAPECO)
is collecting donations for all
of Umatilla County via Pay-
Pal on their website, while
the Blue Mountain Commu-
nity Foundation is collect-
ing donations in the Mil-
ton-Freewater area through
www.bluemountainfounda-
tion.org.
Pendleton
Salvation
Army is handing out “clean-
ing kits” of mops, garbage
bags and other supplies to
area residents, and vouchers
for clothing at their store.
Echo Community Church
is collecting donations of
cleaning supplies such as
shovels and rubber gloves,
and Altrusa International
of Hermiston took a load
of supplies over to them on
Tuesday. Desert Rose Min-
istries in Hermiston is also
looking to assist homeless
families that were reportedly
displaced by the flooding in
the Oxbow area.
The Red Cross has also
been assisting in cleanup,
and people can earmark
donations at www.redcross.
com to stay in the region.
More than 100 volunteers
showed up Sunday and
Monday to assist in clean-
ing up the hard-hit River-
side neighborhood in Pend-
leton, and people wishing to
assist in cleanup efforts there
and other heavily damaged
areas this week should visit
the Red Cross shelter set up
at the Pendleton Convention
Center.