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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1996)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, Feb. 21,1996 INDEPENDENT The & it A ‘ erving the upper Nehalem River valley. Published twice monthly on the first and third Wednesdays of each nonth, by Public Opinion Laboratory Ltd., 725 Bridge Street, Vernonia, OR 97064, as a free newspaper. Editors and Publishers, Dirk & Noni Andersen, (503) 429-9410. Mutual tragedy has created friendships j ó mams W PULL TORO tce.uwù et Hi It’s easy to forget how special our families, friends, neighbors and acquaintances are. It’s also easy to re ome member small slights and disagreements. These last two weeks, with their tragedy, stress, worry and fatigue, have reminded so many of us just how important and how valuable those others are in our lives. How many of us would choose to watch the rising water alone or say “no” to the thoughtful offers of help? A few, yes, but only a few. The communities in the upper Nehalem Valley had little choice about whether to handle the emergencies alone. There was on one available to help and the few that wanted to help couldn’t get here. Nevertheless, we have much to be grateful for, es pecially the locally developed emergency command From page 1 center and the myriad volunteers who helped anyone has done so many times in who needed help. the dark of night. I rolled over and dozed off. Soon, I could A few special people should be mentioned: John and Mary Ann Shaw and their family not only hear the scanner crackling with com m unications and I rescued most of a neighborhood, including one wom c o u ld n ’t stay in bed any an who had just had open heart surgery, but took longer. Mom was up, and told more than 50 of the evacuees into their own home, me the river was rising again. In fact, she thought she heard fed them and kept them safe overnight. the pa ge r re p o rt a rise of Randy Aultman suddenly had to run an emergency about a foot an hour. I decid shelter and he did so, accepting responsibility for ed it was time to head to the some 200 people while having to leave his family to station to give a hand. I ar be watched over by others. rived at the Incident Com The women at St. Mary’s who fed our bodies with m and C enter, w hich had been established the day be hot food and our souls with warm concern. fore as the heart of communi Kim and Jim Tierney, Sue Cavinee, Genny Fisher cations for local agencies. It and all the others who started the relief effort before wasn't long before the volun FEMA and the Red Cross could find Vernonia on the te e r fire fig h te rs , men and w om en, w ere being d is map— or even find the map. Debbie Sturdefant for opening up her banquet patched to check out roads and residences. room at the Sidetrack as a child care center, feeding I was teamed up with Jim the children and charging nothing. Hayes, you know, th a t big Linda Hartman for keeping another 50-60 older barrel-chested guy with the children busy and safe; also for helping others by do hickory shirt opened all the way to the bottom and that ing their flood-contaminated laundry, free. red chest hair hanging out. No, we’re not ignoring other very important figures; We were sent to Riverside we’ve just started. In the next issue of The INDE Drive to check on water con PENDENT, we will do considerably more detailed ditions in the m obile home * park. As we got to the cul-de- coverage of the flood and its aftermath. We hope that some valid estimates of recovery sac we noticed the rising wa ter was only a foot away from costs will be available by that time and that plans will the pavement. A local police have been started to accomplish the recovery. officer was also checking out C tip cm watcr J* i o' the R a t , w ho to a l l helaeo • h • *50 ioat needed to help people evacuate Thanks Mayor Hyde and President Clinton Mayor Tony Hyde was one of a handful of mayors who spoke with President Bill Clinton and, instead of breathing platitudes, he spoke emotionally and from the heart about the lack of help from federal, state and county governments. The President listened ca re fu lly and, the next day, FEMA, the N ational Guard and Red Cross arrived in Vernonia. It was not a coincident. President Clinton said he would get on the problem right away— and he did what he said he would do. the s itu a tio n and we c o n curred with his decision to evacuate the area. The officer conferred with Police Chief Walters, then began sounding his siren as he drove through the street of mobile homes. Jim and I returned to the station just as daylight broke and were inside when the call went out for a boat. Since Jim had hijacked his b ro th e r’s boat the day before, we were ready to go. Our assignment was to evacuate the Barela fam ily from their residence alongside Rock Creek. We launched our boat at the Wa- te rs ’ (what an appropriate name) residence. The river was right up to the pavement and launching the boat was easy. We eased our way into the river and took a careful look at what we were getting into. The current was mainly in the channel, but just before the Barela’s, some current kicked up next to their garage. Jim forced the boat through the c u rre n t, ju s t m issing the garage and the top of a fence post th a t ba rely show ed above the swirling currents. We made our way to the up stream side of the house and hung out in an eddy caused by three vehicles that were barely above the turbid water. Mrs. Barela was quite ex cited to see us and waved from her upstairs window. Af ter sizing up the exits to the house, we eased into the door of the residence, with the stem of the boat actually in sid e the house. We d is patched life jackets to the three occupants, then loaded Mrs. Barela and some of their belongings into the boat for our first trip to shore. Rock C reek raged a m ere fo rty yards away, and we knew we mustn’t get caught up in its currents with the bridge so close below us. We eased our way below the house using its eddy as s h e lte r from the currents, then powered across the cur rent toward safety. My heart skipped a beat when we tem porarily hung up on a sub m erged fence, fo r ge tting caught up against something in a boat can spell disaster. Freed from the underwater obstacle, we delivered Mrs. B a re la to som ew hat dry ground and started back for the remaining two occupants. Back at the house, we dis covered Mr. Barela and his son in a canoe that had been tied up outside the home. We watched in disbelief as they headed toward the main cur rent and a fir tree. They bare ly missed getting tangled up in the tree before they pad- died back toward us. Jim and I breathed a big sigh of relief as they made their way past us and into calm er waters. We quickly loaded our boat and started back for the sta tion. The riv e r was po uring across the street by the Medi cal Center, but was not on B ridge S tree t in fro n t of W ashington Grade School. We were back at the station just long enough to grab a sandw ich, when we w ere sent to evacuate a woman and two children on Hwy 47 North. Jim said the address sounded familiar, then real ized it was w here he had once lived. We didn’t need our boat this time, the house was still out of the water, but the highway in the Riverview area was under water. We delivered our refugees to the grade school, where the wa ter was now in the street but the sidewalk was still dry. We returned to the station, grabbed a bite to eat and, once more, we were ordered to the Riverview area. Jim and I crossed the bridge and stopped to check out the wa ter that now poured over the highway. Easing o u r way through the water, we could see it wasn’t above the tire hubs. Before reaching our destination, we were forced to park on the only dry spot we could see, and launch our boat because of high water ahead of us. The current was a lot swifter there and, as we floated down Hwy 47, the wa- Please see page 14
