The latest news stories across the state of Oregon from the digital home of the Oregon coastal cities, OregonBeachMagazine.com
Monday, June 7, 2021
Oregon Beach Weather
Today– Scattered showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 59. Calm wind becoming west northwest 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Tuesday– Showers likely. Partly sunny, with a high near 59. Light and variable wind becoming west southwest 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Wednesday– A 50 percent chance of showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 59. Light and variable wind becoming west southwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.
Thursday– A 30 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 61.
Friday– Showers. Cloudy, with a high near 60.
Oregon reports 258 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 3 new deaths
There are three new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,694. The Oregon Health Authority reported 258 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 bringing the state total to 203,252.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (1), Clackamas (41), Columbia (2), Coos (1), Crook (5), Deschutes (19), Douglas (11), Harney (1), Jackson (7), Jefferson (2), Josephine (1), Klamath (6), Lane (18), Linn (11), Marion (35), Multnomah (56), Polk (7), Sherman (1), Union (1), Washington (20), Yamhill (12).
Governor Brown Gives More Information About What Will Happen To COVID-19 Restrictions Once 70 Percent Of Adults Are Vaccinated
In a press conference Friday morning, Governor Kate Brown gave more information about what will happen to COVID-19 restrictions once 70 percent of adults are vaccinated. What does fully reopen mean? Masks will “largely” no longer be required in businesses and most other places, with the exception of public settings currently outlined by the CDC such as public transportation. Schools are expected to return to a full in-person school day in the fall.
Restaurants will be able to open to a full house without capacity restrictions, and people can enjoy all the events they’ve missed out on due to the pandemic, Brown added.
Oregon’s current risk level framework, which determines county restrictions based on local case rates, will be retired once the vaccination benchmarks is hit. Brown also said that the vaccination status check guidelines will be made obsolete, as mask and social distancing rules will be the same regardless of vaccination status.
The state will still strongly recommend that the unvaccinated and those who are medically vulnerable continue to wear masks and practice other precautions. Brown pledged that vaccination efforts will not stop once Oregon hits that target, as the risk of COVID-19 remains for people who are not vaccinated.
LOCAL HEADLINES:
New Youngs Bay Bridge on U.S. 101 Closed at Night for 2 Weeks
Travelers on the North Oregon Coast are reminded that starting Sunday evening there will be a full two-week night time closure of the New Youngs Bay Bridge.
Most of the work that impacts the travel lanes will be done at night. There may be times when one-lane closures occur to accommodate equipment needed for the work and activities being done underneath the bridge.
The nighttime closure is scheduled from Sunday, June 6 to Friday, June 18, from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. each weeknight (Sunday night through Friday morning).
The closure is part of the repair project that began in March 2019, and is necessary to complete work on the bridge’s lift span towers. The New Youngs Bay Bridge on U.S. 101 connects Astoria to Warrenton.
During the night time closure, travelers will use U.S. 101 Business over the Lewis and Clark River and Old Youngs Bay Bridges as the alternate route. Travelers should add some extra travel time and expect delays. The work is weather dependent which may impact the schedule. MORE INFO: https://www.oregon.gov/odot/projects/pages/project-details.aspx?project=18602
Two Chiefs of Police to Retire on South Coast
The Bandon Police Department announced this week that Police Chief, Bob Webb, will retire on December 31st. Chief Webb started his Law Enforcement career in Bandon in 2001. Initially, he was a Reserve Police Officer. He was hired full-time in October of the same year. He was appointed as interim Chief in May of 2005 and promoted to Chief of Police on September 3rd that same year.
The announcement came the same week that the City of Coos Bay announced a change of command ceremony on Tuesday, June 15th. Coos Bay Police Chief Gary McCullough is retiring and the city’s current Deputy Police Chief Chris Chapanar will take the reins to lead the department. The last change of command in Coos Bay was 12 years ago.
AROUND the STATE of OREGON
Water Crisis in Klamath Continues to Escalate
The fringe group of irrigators and People’s Rights Oregon volunteers who plan to forcibly open the Klamath Project’s A Canal say the law is on their side when it comes to who’s entitled to the water in Upper Klamath Lake. As it turns out, the law may be on many people’s sides. Led in part by irrigators Dan Nielsen and Grant Knoll, the group is
operating a “water crisis info center” on a plot of land adjacent to the canal headworks.
The red-and-white tent, along with signs criticizing federal water management, are visible from Nevada Street. The Klamath irrigation project has a right to stored water in Upper Klamath Lake dating back to the early 1900s, though some individuals and irrigation districts within the project have rights that go back even farther.
Oregon water law centers around the “first in time, first in right” doctrine, which indicates that the first user to take water from a stream has priority over those who make later diversions. When there’s not enough water available to meet all needs, senior water users can make calls on water to prevent junior users from taking theirs first.
However, the most senior water rights in the Klamath Basin don’t belong to farmers: They belong to the federally recognized tribes that have lived here for countless generations, their priority dates simply reading “time immemorial.” The rights of the Klamath Tribes have been affirmed by the Klamath Basin Adjudication in Oregon, which over the course of nearly 40 years sorted out the various water right claims in the basin.
The Yurok and Hoopa Valley Tribes downriver also possess time immemorial rights, but they were not quantified in the Oregon adjudication because their points of use lie in California.
Umatilla County Sheriff’s Deputy Drowns In Northeast Oregon River
A sheriff’s deputy for Umatilla County died Saturday in an accident on a northeast Oregon river, the sheriff’s office confirmed Sunday.
The deputy drowned near Minam State Recreation Area, a state park in Wallowa County, according to Lt. Sterrin Ward with the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office.
Lt. Ward planned to release a statement later Sunday. The deputy’s name has not been formally released.
Wallowa County Search and Rescue said it was dispatched at 11:11 a.m. Saturday “for a boat accident on the Wallowa River near Minam Park.”
The team had been training on the Wallowa River but quickly moved equipment to Minam, “where they backed up the emergency personnel already on scene.”
The man died during a weekend river trip, leaving his family and the regional law enforcement family grieving.
Locals in La Grande witnessed a law-enforcement vehicle procession escorting the deputy’s body through town on the way back to Umatilla County, where the deputy lived.
His home agency shared a message Sunday morning:
Our hearts are broken. To his family, you are our family. We are so sorry and we love you. To those who joined us yesterday to help bring our brother home, we are forever grateful for your outpouring of love, your support, your respect and your concern. We are family. 💔
A post Saturday night on the Union County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page reads, “Prayers to our family over the hill….” The photo attached is of a mourning badge: the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office badge with a black “mourning band” stretched across.
Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office shared the same image to Facebook, changing its profile photo in a show of support.
A mourning badge is typically worn in the days between the death of a law enforcement officer and the memorial service for that officer, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
The Minam River is a tributary of the Wallowa and runs through the Wallowa Mountains between La Grande and Joseph, Oregon. The Wallowa is a tributary of the Grand Ronde River.
Minor Earthquake That Struck Near Mount Hood on Saturday Night Triggered Oregon’s New ShakeAlert System
A minor earthquake that struck near Mount Hood on Saturday night triggered Oregon’s new ShakeAlert system for the first time. ShakeAlert is designed to give residents a momentary warning before a quake’s shock wave hits them.
Saturday’s quake, which measured magnitude 3.9, was too small to trigger regional emergency alert systems that are broadcast over TV, radio and to smartphones. So people didn’t receive warnings on their phones.
But the people who deployed the system were heartened that the ShakeAlert technology worked as designed Saturday.
“This is the first time that we have actually gone through this process in Oregon for an alert,” said U.S. Geological Survey scientist Robert de Groot. In a bigger quake, he said, alerts could have given people enough warning to get under a table or take other protective measures.
ShakeAlert operates in Oregon, California and Washington. California was first, in 2019; Oregon’s system went live in March, and Washington’s has been active since May.
The technology uses a network of regional sensors to detect an earthquake, then rapidly calculate a quake’s size and location, and where it is likely to generate shaking. ShakeAlert immediately sends alerts to phones and to other public safety networks within those areas.
Saturday’s quake hit about four miles northeast of Government Camp at 8:50 p.m. The staff at Charlie’s Mountain View restaurant reported feeling a gentle shaking, but didn’t immediately realize it was an earthquake. Even though the quake was small, de Groot said people reported feeling it as far away as Beaverton.
Initial calculations had indicated Saturday’s quake was a 4.0, just large enough to trigger emergency alerts in some automated safety systems close by. Those automated systems may slow trains or shut off gas valves. Larger quakes trigger wide alerts.
A 5.0 quake, which is 30 times more intense than Saturday’s, would produce alerts over the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system. WEA warnings reach every smartphone in areas close enough to feel significant impacts, unless the phone’s owner has disabled public safety emergency notifications.
“If it was a magnitude 5, that’s when alerts would be delivered,” de Groot said. “And it would be delivered to people who would feel a minimum level of shaking, which is considered to be a light level of shaking.” That could reach a wide geographic range.
Because an earthquake’s vibrations move more slowly through the earth than radio signals travel over wireless networks, it’s possible to provide a warning that ranges from a couple seconds to a very significant advance notice.
Warnings about Saturday’s quake, for example, gave Hood River 1.9 seconds of warning, according to ShakeAlert metrics. However, de Groot cautioned that may overstate the amount of warning people actually had – he said it takes some period of time for ShakeAlert to process information before sending out the alerts.
Farther away, the warnings arrived long before any shaking. In Portland, 49 miles from Saturday’s epicenter, the alert provided 11.9 seconds of warning. In Eugene, 112 miles away, ShakeAlert gave 40.5 seconds of warning.
Saturday’s quake wasn’t large enough to trigger smartphone notifications. People who have smartphone apps that tap into the ShakeAlert network can customize their notifications to receive alerts at modest thresholds, for quakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater.
In Oregon, de Groot said there are two such apps available – MyShake and QuakeAlertUSA. Additionally, smartphones running Google’s Android operating system have ShakeAlert notifications built in. (Again, though, you don’t need these apps for notifications about larger quakes – the WEA system should notify smartphone owners automatically.)
The apps will provide additional information about a quake’s size, epicenter and intensity – but de Groot cautions that you should take protective measures before studying the data too closely.
Joseph Canyon Fire’s Growth Slowed – Second Nearby Fire Grows To 1,600 Acres
Cooler temperatures and moderate winds Sunday slowed the growth of the Joseph Canyon Fire in northeast Oregon, estimated at 4,000 acres with no containment Monday morning, the Oregon Department of Forestry reported.
Extreme winds on Saturday challenged air resources battling the fire, located on the border of northeast Oregon and southeast Washington, officials said Sunday, but also aided the suppression effort by pushing the active fire line back onto itself in some areas.
The Joseph Canyon Fire was one of several blazes sparked by an overnight lightning storm Thursday and Friday. It was reported Friday morning by the Washington Department of Natural Resources, burning in steep, rugged terrain in northern Wallowa County.
The blaze began on Vale Bureau of Land Management lands, but soon crossed over onto Washington state lands protected by Oregon Department of Forestry, about 23 miles southwest of Lewiston, Idaho.
By Monday morning, more than 200 firefighters were battling the blaze. Officials hope they can declare containment by June 14.
You can find a map, photos and more details on the fire’s InciWeb page.
A second fire, Dry Creek, was burning just to the east of the larger blaze, estimated at 1,600 acres by Monday morning, all on on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
“This is probably one of the most difficult places to fight fire in Oregon,” said Matt Howard, deputy agency administrator for the Oregon Department of Forestry. “Joseph Canyon is known for its extreme terrain, communications challenges and natural hazards.”
The Northwest 7 Type 2 Incident Management Team shadowed the interagency Blue Mountain Type 3 Incident Management Team Sunday and assumed command of the Joseph Canyon Fire Monday.
Engine crews on Saturday were able to establish and hold a line along 10 miles of roadway bordering the east side of Cottonwood Creek. They worked Sunday to reinforce the line and contain any slop-overs (areas where the fire has crossed the line).
Fire personnel from the Oregon Department of Forestry, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, Vale Bureau of Land Management and Washington Department of Natural Resources worked cooperatively to protect public and private lands affected by the fire.
Several ranchers and permittees were moving cattle out of the fire zone to protect the livestock and allow firefighters unrestricted access into and around the fire footprint.
“The private landowners involved are no stranger to fire,” Howard said. “We have good communication with them and, given the circumstances, they are happy with the progress that has been made in battling this wildfire.”