The INDEPENDENT, January 3, 2008
Page 15
Power of the People
By W. Marc Farmer,
General Manager,
West Oregon Electric Cooperative
And the Rains Came
and the Winds Blew
together to be ready to open the doors for business flood plain. Had this been done before, we would not
and to assist our members by the following Monday. have lost power to Vernonia during this flood. As
We will remain in the mobile unit until our office build-
Please see page 21
ing is restored. Operations should be able
to move back in by the second week in
January, but I don’t anticipate the rest mov-
ing back until at least February.
Now, for the two questions I have been
• Complete Remodel Paul Cap Contracting Inc.
asked repeatedly since the flood: what
• Kitchens
about the high bills from drying out homes
• Baths
and is the Co-op going to stay where we
• Additions
are?
• Garages
At this point, we are working with sever-
Licensed/Bonded/Insured
al agencies to obtain funds for energy as-
CCB# 111866
• Interior/Exterior
sistance for those who have large bills
A Columbia County Business
from using heaters to dry out their homes
before rebuilding. The Board has asked
staff to review how many and how much
the impact is on our members. When we
know the extent of the increase, we can
then identify which option for assistance
will best fit our members’ needs. We are
™
and will be assisting our members to ac-
cess rate relief. For those who have flood
insurance, the increased amount in your
electric bill can be claimed. Just come in
and ask us to print out a historical average
of your bill for the month of December and
The name you
January and match that with your current
trust for:
bills. The difference can be submitted for
insurance purposes. For those without in-
• Gasoline
surance, we will be working with energy
assistance to help cover the increased
• Diesel Fuel
costs. Being part of a Cooperative means
• Oils • Solvents
that we are concerned about the needs of
our members, not the needs of sharehold-
• Additives • Greases
ers. We will work diligently to meet your
needs.
Where does the Co-op go from here?
The Board has given me the authority to
identify a new location, funding for a new
office, and hire an architect to design and
build a new office and warehouse in Ver-
nonia. What is the main objective in identi-
fying a new location? Getting us on higher
ground so that in a crisis situation we can
focus on keeping the power on and provid-
ing continuous serviced to our members,
not on our own survival. We want to make
sure that the office is in a location that will
never be flooded again or the access
roads to our building. An architect has
been hired and possible locations are be-
ing reviewed.
The same is true of our Vernonia Sub-
station. This event validated our decision
in 2007 to include in our construction work
plan to build a new substation out of the
Like many of you, I have been
a little busy since the storm hit
on December 3 and haven’t had
time to submit my articles. I’ll
bring you current from the Co-
op’s perspective in this article.
On December 3, we had flood waters breach our of-
fice and we had to evacuate staff by boat and in the
back of trucks. From the time we knew water was go-
ing to come into the building, we had an hour-and-a -
half to get all of the computers and as much important
files, equipment, and materials as possible up into the
attic. From the time the water first came in the doors
and wall, until one hour later, when we locked the
doors and left, it was already knee deep in the office.
In the end, the water was 7.5 inches higher than in
1996. Needless to say, it was devastating to the office
building and even had 9 inches of water up in Opera-
tions. Flood waters and downed trees even trapped
Line Crew at the Mist and Necanicum Substations. We
lost power in Vernonia about 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon
when the flood waters reached the Reclosers, shorting
out the Vernonia Substation located between the Co-
op office and Anderson Park. We had to wait until the
water subsided enough to get into the substation to by-
pass the reclosers and restore power by 9:00 a.m. on
Tuesday.
The west side of our system suffered massive dam-
age, as the 130 mph winds from the coast blew down
miles of distribution lines. Trees and tree limbs took
out service throughout the Olney and Necanicum ar-
eas. We brought in seven outside crews to assist our
own crews and together they worked continuously
through the week to put lines and poles back up. West
Oregon actually got our lines up and ready before the
utility that provides the power to Necanicum and Olney
could get theirs done. We had to wait for them to re-
build their lines to us in order for them to be able to
provide power back to our substation and metering
point. It was a great example of the effort and hard
work of our Line Crews and the quality of outside
crews that were working with us. Necanicum was re-
stored late Friday and Olney by 5:00 p.m. on Saturday.
We have experienced continuing outages from the
heavy, wet snow that has sent broken trees and limbs
into our lines. We also had an automobile take out one
of our poles during this period. We have had to work a
lot of overtime to keep the system up and going.
Just as I have been so impressed by the hard work
of our Line Crews, I have been equally impressed by
our Office Staff and Management Team. The Office
Staff was out the day after and
through the week in rain gear,
masks, and rubber boots
mucking out the office building,
boxing up things that survived,
power washing metal cabinets,
Most parts under warranty
and hauling out ruined materi-
Open
Tuesday-Saturday
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
als and equipment. They
Closed Sunday and Monday
worked hard and long to get
things ready for the cleaning
54372 Nehalem Hwy South, Vernonia, OR 97064
crew and for the move into a
6 miles south of town on Hwy 47
mobile portable unit. They did
Buying
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an excellent job of pulling it all
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