STORM CLEANUP DONE QUICKLY

By Chris Cook - Forks Forum editor

The storm cleanup following the high winds and heavy rains of Monday, Dec. 3 proceed quickly last week, with days of sunny weather aiding recovery workers.

Except for remote areas, and isolated sites of severe damage, the West End’s power and phone service was restored, while reports from Ocean Shores and Aberdeen showed power being out for up to 10 days.

The storm wielded severe wind damage to several homes, forcing residents to relocate. Some families and individuals were issued vouchers from the American Red Cross to cover temporary housing and storage of household items.
On Friday, the Clallam County Emergency Management office tallied over $321,000 in reported public and private damage had been reported to their office.

Penelope Linterman said the county needed a report of at least $190,000 to apply for emergency storm recovery funds from the state.

“There was a lot in Forks,” Linterman said in a call to Port Angeles. “It was primarily roof damage, roofs peeled off.”
The emergency management office posted requests for storm information on store windows in Forks, requesting photos where possible.

Forks Mayor Nedra Reed said power outages caused by the storm put the focus on weaknesses in local energy delivery during storms.

She said the PUD did an “absolutely great job” in restoring power following the storm,  but there are concerns about the maintenance of main transmission lines running between Forks and Port Angeles that are controlled by the federal Bonneville Power Administration.

“Whenever there’s a problem repair people must come out from Bremerton or beyond,” she said of the Bonneville lines. “(We want to know) whether they are doing actual routine maintenance on lines. A status update needed.”

An onsite electrical generator to pump propane is also needed, she said. Following the storm Forks Community Hospital came close to running out of propane on Tuesday, and there was no local supply available.
“They need to be able to provide mechanical backup,” she said.

Reed said potentially critical situations that occurred during the Monday storm highlighted weaknesses in local disaster response systems.

Reed said a central location where the public can contact emergency officials is needed.

“We don’t have a central clearing house for those impacted by these kinds of disasters,” Reed said.
Calls were taken by the Forks Police dispatch line, the Clallam County Emergency Management Office, the American Red Cross, the hospital and other agencies.

“We’re working out fine details,” she said of work to set up a central phone number for calls during a disaster, and in making the new Forks community center a central location when storms, floods and other disasters strike the area.

“When the new community center goes on line it will be an incredible facility to use when we have these kinds of emergencies,” she said.

Reed said this would include storage of bedding, being able to set up an emergency kitchen and other relief services.

She said the Department of Natural Resources has been generous to the community in the past in providing similar help.

“We need to be better prepared and this pointed that out to us,” Reed said. “We can’t always depend on Port Angeles, that’s a geographic fact, we need to be better prepared. That’s a goal for the upcoming year.”

Initial meetings of a community emergency task force were held earlier this year.

Reports of estimated wind gusts made on Monday ran higher than readings supplied by the National Weather Service following the storm. Sustained wind readings of 72 mph at Tatoosh Island off the north tip of the Makah Reservation, and 77 mph on Destruction Island off the Hoh River area. Instruments at the remote locations are powered on-site.

Bill Plumley, the director of the Olympic Community Action Programs office in the Forks Recreation Center, said the new community center, where his agency will be relocated, is designed to have its own source of power in times of emergencies.
On Monday, Plumley used a generator to keep food served in programs for seniors chilled. He said due to a light pole breaking off in the center’s front yard the agency lost their phone service for about 48 hours.

This week Plumley worked with the American Red Cross out of Port Angeles in providing vouchers for storm victims. He said his organization also delivered 400 frozen meals to the Hoh Tribe during the storm recovery.

Bert Black, a Quileute Tribal Council elder, said LaPush suffered a couple roofs ripped off, one a trailer home and one a stick home. He said both roofs had been tacked back on and repaired  by week’s end.

He said the snow melt and heavy rains that began late Sunday night caused the Three Rivers area to flood on Monday, cutting off access to the Quileute reservation at LaPush.