Patrick Webb

The ice storm and power outage on Dec. 23 challenged The Astorian.

This recent event reminded us of the five-day power outage The Daily Astorian experienced in December 2007. In what was called the Great Coastal Gale, winds of up to 147 mph knocked out the Bonneville Power Administration trunk lines and cell towers.

As a consequence, our newspaper was cut off from corporate headquarters in Salem, as well as from the Associated Press bureau in Portland. Neither knew the details of why we disappeared.

Using gasoline generator power, our reporting staff was able to send stories to file servers. Managing Editor Patrick Webb and his deputy, Sue Cody, led the newsroom through those days of great resourcefulness. Our production manager, John Bruijn, set up the technical details and a colleague, Crindalyn Lyster, made sure a clone of our server data was taken to The Daily News plant in Longview, Washington, for printing. A second CD was taken to Laura Sellers, our corporate internet news editor. Sellers posted all of the content to the web. Sellers lived in the Longview Red Lion for the week.

We missed our Monday edition, so published a rare “Extra” the following Saturday.

Scraps

During most of the week, two generators powered computers and file servers. By week’s end, we had three generators running. Staff worked with headlamps and battery-powered lanterns. Working in the dark renewed our sense of mission.

It was a remarkable time for the entire staff of the newspaper, not just the news department, whose members did yeoman duty trying to verify scraps of ever-changing information. Two staffers from our Salem paper arrived as reinforcements as the power returned and the reporters’ adrenalin-fueled zeal was replaced by fatigue.

Because home freezers were without electricity and meat was in immediate danger of being spoiled, some colleagues from circulation and the pressroom set up a barbecue in the parking lot. We were all affected, all cold, and sometimes wet. The Woodson home of a carrier, Peggy Crom, was washed away in a mudslide.

For up to five days, almost 23,000 Pacific Power customers in our region were without electricity. Lights in our office, which went out Sunday night, were only restored the following Thursday.

Nature’s ferocity was astonishing as downed power lines brought down trees. The North Coast was cut off from the Willamette Valley because of the closure of highways 26, 30, 53, 103 and 202 during the early days.

Sadly, four people died.

But stories of courage and ingenuity lifted our spirits, like nurse Jeanne Scott, running through the darkness to deliver a baby at Providence Seaside Hospital.

There was a reasonably thoughtful post-mortem about how various agencies fared. Radio stations KMUN and KAST did a terrific job relaying live information. Forty amateur radio hams who communicated with Salem were commended in a resolution on the floor of the U.S. Congress.

Lessons

The experience taught several lessons, especially that if there is serious weather or another huge crisis again the North Coast is likely to be coping on its own, at least in the early stages. It proved that any time spent planning for the next crisis is worthwhile.

At our office, the tied bundles of newspapers that we had printed in Longview and trucked back arrived in a totally dark Astoria, though gradually power was restored.

We placed these newspapers in the rack outside our building’s front door. Quite a number of readers drove to pick up copies.

Their appreciation was earnest — and appreciated.