JANUARY 2008: AROUND THE STATE
Storm blows through economy
STATEWIDE
Clean up is well under way after storms wreaked havoc on
Oregon’s northwest coast early last month, but businesses
will likely feel the effects for quite some time.
Overall, Clatsop, Tillamook and Columbia counties, which took
the brunt of the storms, have reported more than $144 million
in damages.
Preliminary estimates from the Oregon Department of
Transportation put damage to the state’s highway system
at around $10 million. Though ODOT was able to quickly reopen
many roads from the coast inland, a 20-mile section of I-5
— the West Coast’s main artery —
remained closed for three days. A slide that closed
Highway 30 for several days did not have a big impact.
Washington State secretary of transportation Paula Hammond
estimated that the closure of I-5 resulted in $4 million per
day in additional shipping costs. Some, like Bob Russell,
president of the Oregon Trucking Associations, believe the toll
was even higher.
“Ten thousand trucks per day travel along that
corridor,” he says. “That’s a lot of
cargo.”
Tillamook Bay Railroad, a conveyor belt for timber heading
from the coast to the Willamette Valley, also took a major hit.
The $20 million in damages to tracks will force an already
ailing timber industry, which saw 7,000 acres of trees on
private forestland mowed down by the storm in Clatsop County
alone, to ship product by truck at additional cost until
repairs are made, says Ray Wilkeson, legislative director for
the Oregon Forest Industries Council.
Other businesses in Tillamook County avoided floodwaters
thanks to Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars that
allowed them to elevate after the 1996 floods, says Sheriff
Todd Anderson.
Still, many shops throughout the affected areas were forced to
close when power lines went down. At the peak of the storm, as
many as 66,000 customers were in the dark, says Jan Mitchell, a
spokesperson for Pacific Power.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski declared an “abnormal disruption of
the marketplace,” as allowed under the state’s new
price-gouging law, in areas affected by the storm.
The declaration prevents merchants from increasing prices of
essential goods and services — including food, water,
petroleum and repair materials and services — by 15% or
more during a crisis. JAMIE HARTFORD
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