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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1998)
C hristm as is in the air as area readies for holidays Christmas in the Nehalem valley may be white, or it may be wet, we probably won’t know until Christmas day. But preparations are well under way to make it joyous. Vernonia Pride volunteers have been decorating Bridge Street and, as soon as the weather allows, West Oregon workers will put up the Christ mas lights purchased and maintained by the Vernonia Area Chamber of Commerce. The chamber will also be selling the fifth in its annual commemorative Christmas or naments, all designed by Dolly Keenon, at U.S. Bank. December 5-6, the annual “Christmas in Vernonia” bazaar will present its usual outstand ing selection of handcrafted gifts and other items. The bazaar is also run by volun teers, Booster Club members and others, and is traditionally the first big Christmas activity in Vernonia. There is more in formation about the bazaar on page 6. Children have been practic ing for their winter programs, which start tonight at Banks Jr. High. The rest of the school schedule can be found on page 10. On Wednesday, Dec. 9, Santa Claus will spend a cou ple of hours in Vernonia in or der to talk with any youngsters who have a wish list. He will be at the Bridge Street Mall from 5-7:00 p.m. during the Down town Vernonia Open House, and he’ll have treats for the children. At 6:00 p.m., the Communi ty Christmas Tree will be lit and Christmas carols will fill the air as members of the Community Choir join in the festivities. The tree is next to Vernonia Realty. The annual Vernonia Library Open House will also be held from 5-7:00 that night. Plans for the new City Hall and Li brary will be on display. Re freshments will be served, too. A toy drive will be held from 9:00 am-noon at the Vernonia Fire Station to help the annual Toys for Joy program. Yes, Christmas is near. INSIDE: Gifts from the kitchen...... pg. 7 New sports season starts...... pg. 8-9 Great holiday entertainment .............pg. 10-11 Winter driving tips...........pg. 16 BULK RATE U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 37 Vernonia. OR 97064 Heavy rains trigger flood fears in many area people It wasn’t your imagination. It rained a lot in November — 13.46 inches! There were three days in the month without rain, but some local flooding resulted from nearly 10 inches of rainfall in the seven days preceding Thanksgiving day, with 4.5 of those inches falling on Tues day and Wednesday. There are three river gauges in Vernonia; one is located in Rock Creek near the city water plant, two are in the Nehalem River, at Anderson Park and at the green bridge connecting Bridge Street to Mist Drive. Monitoring of river gauges started at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, Nov. 25, leading up to an official declaration of a State of Emergency shortly before 10 p.m., when water level at the green bridge reached 11.7 feet and was rising at the rate of 6 inches per hour. Flood stage at that location is 12.5 feet. The rapid rise slowed about midnight and stopped around 2:00 a.m. The water started dropping at 4:00 a.m. and the emergency declaration was re scinded at 9:00 a.m. Knowing how rapidly the water is rising is obviously nec essary, but a lot more was go ing on during the river watch. The Emergency Operations Center for Vernonia is in the Fire Station, where 18 mem bers of the emergency re sponse team gathered Wed nesday night when called by Fire Chief Paul Epler, who is incident commander (Epler had contacted the American Red Cross Wednesday morn ing to set up an emergency shelter at Larry Steele’s Sports FREE Pricte in Vernonia... Vernonia Pride volunteers, from left, Gennie Fisher, Enid Parrow and Carolyn Keasey were caught by the camera as they tucked evergreen branches and red ribbons into a barrel at Vernonia 76 Station, just one of many barrels made ready for the holidays. Camp). Vernonia CATV and KXL ra dio were informed of the emer gency shortly after 10 p.m. and put the information on the air. Ham radio operators were on duty in case telephone commu nications were impaired. Maps were carefully reviewed and copied. Five Vernonia Police officers and two Columbia County Deputy Sheriffs kept watch over road and street conditions and started going door-to-door in low-lying areas about 11 p.m. to warn people that they might have to evacuate. They also handed out evacuation in structions. Six firefighters help ed notify people of the situa tion. Twenty-four volunteer fire fighters and emergency med ical personnel monitored the river gauges and were avail able to help anyone who need ed help. Some roads were closed because of flooding, one busi ness was flooded, but damage generally was minimal and no one was hurt. Most of the team went home about 1:30 a.m. to W O E C has fe w o u ta g e s High winds that accompa nied this past week’s storms caused remarkably little dam age to West Oregon Electric power lines. About 400 members lost grab some sleep, though some stayed on watch all night. Though the emergency was over, volunteers continued to check the gauges until 5:00 p.m. Thanksgiving evening. They weren’t going to let anyone be taken by surprise. power late Monday, but it was all restored by 4:00 a.m. Tues day. Another 5-600 lost service Tuesday evening, but crews worked all night to get every one back in service by Wed nesday night. More problems were caused by service outages from BPA and PP&L than from damage to WOEC lines, according to General Mgr. Russell Green. There were 30-40 scattered- outages yesterday, Green said.
