THE STORM

This blog will attempt to relate what happened, what we did about it, what we learned, what we did well and what we can improve on.

What happened? Well, first our power went out about 11 am on Sunday, December 2nd. The power went back on for about 4 hours Sunday evening (for some of us) and then went out again for an additional 125 hours until the very early hours of Saturday morning.

During Sunday and Monday about 5 inches of rain fell on Cannon Beach within a 12 hour period of time. Downed trees and flooded roads resulted in Routes 101 and 26 being blocked at various points and many of our local roads as well. Cell phone service ceased and 2 of Qwest's trunk lines were severed in the northern part of Clatsop County resulting in the county's 911 systems failing. The lack of communication services even resulted in the Governor's office in Salem not being able to establish contact with the North Coast.So, Sunday and Monday, there were no communications, no way into CB and no way out of CB. We were effectively isolated.

Our police department spent the first 2 days conducting welfare checks, patrolling our city and helping motorists and pedestrians. Our public works crews spent the first 2 days clearing local roads and keeping our water, sewer and stormwater systems operational which involved transporting several generators from from sewer lift station to lift station. This latter effort was hampered by the main road to our water plant and springs, the source of the city's water supply, being blocked by literally hundreds of trees. 2 of our water department employees conducted an inspection of our watershed and a hike that would normally take 25 minutes took more than 2 1/2 hours.

Beginning Wednesday, our Director of Public Works would spend the bulk of his time with Pacific Power crews at the CB substation. For my part, I spent most of my time either with Pacific Power, at the Presbyterian Church shelter (which opened Monday morning), checking in at our RV Park (to monitor the gas supply) and meeting daily with city staff (every morning at 8 am), with city department heads including the fire district chief (every morning at 11 am) or at the County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Astoria. The EOC met at 9 am and 9 pm every day with the fire district chief and me splitting up the meetings.

As I indicated, by Monday morning our shelter at the church opened, I believe the first shelter to open on the coast. By Monday evening, Route 101 opened from the north and, by Tuesday afternoon, from the south. By Tuesday all local roads were open except the aforementioned Elk Creek Road in the City's watershed. Early Thursday some of the city received sporadic cell phone service which became more consistent and reliable by late Thursday. Also late that day, Route 26 opened all the way to Portland and on Saturday our watershed road was completely cleared.

Throughout the week, it became apparent that Cannon Beach fared better than most other towns to the north and south of us. The one exception was the damage sustained in our watershed, mostly on state property, where hundreds of trees were either uprooted or, more likely, snapped in two from the high winds. Citizens can see for themselves with a 2 minute walk east of the Elk Creek Road gate.

On Wednesday, Pacific Power made a valiant effort to bring electricity to what they hoped then would be 30 to 40% of Cannon Beach. This involved contracting with several different companies to deliver generators, transformers and related equipment (cranes, poles, fork lifts, cables, etc.) from as far away as California to connect to the CB substation. Finally, on Thursday afternoon, about 20% of CB received some power including City Hall and the Presbyterian Church and by Friday noon, another 10% of the city was powered.Pacific Power had 43 power poles lost to the storm just from their substation near MP 4 on Route 26 to the CB station alone, not to mention the extensive damage to their system throughout the northwest part of the state. So, considering they virtually rebuilt most of their entire infrastructure under adverse weather conditions within a 5 day period, I feel their efforts should be applauded.

So what did we learn? Our experience the week of December 2nd verified something our planning for an earthquake and tsunami has assumed for the last 2 years. That is, in the event of a disaster, the community of Cannon Beach shouldn't count on anyone or anything other than ourselves. For, despite the best of intentions of some of the assistance we relied on from the outside, that help didn't come through.

During the week of December 2nd, the City and Fire District worked with, directly or indirectly, or relied on 18 different organizations from outside our community. They were: 3 cell phone companies, Clatsop County, FEMA, Globalstar (for satellite phones), ham radio operators, the National Guard, ODOT, Pacific Power, Qwest, 3 radio stations, the Red Cross, the State of Oregon, the US Coast Guard and Western Oregon Waste. By now you've probably heard that some of these agencies stepped up and some didn't. But in order for us to be effective public managers in the future, we have to get along with these groups to the extent we may come to rely on them and appreciate them for their assistance. So, we will work with these organizations behind the scenes in an attempt to improve performance and relationships for the benefit of all CB citizens. After all, there are things we can improve on also. (See below.)

What did we do well? Early on, our public works department and community volunteers got all of our local roads open and kept our underground infrastructure operational. Our police department and local EOC at the fire station checked on home-bound citizens through the welfare check program and answered many questions to the best of their ability. Our church shelter, with much assistance from local businesses served more than 2500 meals over a 5 day period and offered overnight accomodations to several guests. Our ham operators at the EOC provided and accepted vital communications during the time that satellite, cell and land line phones did not work.

What can we improve on? The City and Fire District have finetuned a list of seemingly minor but very important items, a checklist if you will, that improves the detailing of what needs to be accomplished before a storm hits. This includes items such as turning off a switch here, opening a gate there, reviewing safety procedures, coordinating radio communications, things like that.

I also think we can improve communication to the public. While we posted bulletins on the city's website, made 2 announcements street by street with loudspeakers, distributed informational "Updates" to 7 locations and conducted interviews with 3 North Coast radio stations and the Daily Astorian, I feel we could have and should have done all those things earlier in the week. Next time we will. In the future, I will also be utilizing my City Manager Blog to disseminate information so if you would like to be included, please email me to get automatic updates during emergency situations. Other ideas you may have on improving communication are most welcome.

Other improvements we'll be working on are organizing and clarifying emergency shelter operations and finding and training at least 2 more ham radio operators from our community. The City and Fire District will also be working with State of Oregon officials to attempt to develop wider power line corridors. As I understand it, 80% of all power failures are caused by downed trees on power lines. When 100 foot tall trees fall within 50 foot easements, it's not difficult to understand that wider corridors will reduce that potential and alleviate a lot of hardship.

In conclusion, I'd like to thank the many individuals and agencies that assisted the City and Fire District during the difficult week of December 2nd. It was a true community effort that helped us all cope with what I hope is a rare event.