November 20, 2012
A lot of wind and a lot of water…
Between Friday morning and today more than 5 ½ inches of rain fell over the Florence area… about half of that came in the 24-hour period ending at six this morning. Add to that hurricane force winds… sustained or regularly gusting to 64 miles an hour or more… and that spells backed up storm sewers; minor flooding in some homes and power outages all over the area.
Florence Public Works Director Mike Miller said the city’s stormwater system was overwhelmed Monday afternoon. One rain gauge showed more than an inch of rain fell in Florence between three and four pm alone.
Line crews with Central Lincoln PUD were active, dealing with downed trees, power lines and power outages from North Bend to Depoe Bay and inland to Mapleton and Toledo. They were called out Sunday evening, worked overnight and through yesterday before calling it a night around nine pm. They were back at it by six this morning. A PUD spokesperson said if you don’t have any power, don’t assume they know about it… call the outage line.
The same spokesperson said if you’ve been in the dark for more than 12 hours… it may be another 24 hours before your reconnected.
Airport Fools
A break-in overnight Friday at the Florence Municipal Airport caused concern among city officials and volunteers. Paul Thompson heads up the group of volunteers that operates the airport office for the city.
Paul Thompson – “They didn’t steal a thing. They kicked in the flightline door and came in. They kicked another door in; they didn’t rifle through anything it looked like in there because there were was a number of file cabinets and they were all closed. Then they came in there and watched TV for a while and used the computer and made some phone calls.”
Although it doesn’t appear that they stole anything, there was a considerable amount of damage and mess… they threw ten ceramic coffee mugs out on the flight line, followed by two glass coffee carafes, then threw a large plant through the glass front door. On the way out, the culprits also broke three windows in a vehicle parked at the office, then broke another window in the nearby Oregon Coast Military Heritage Museum across the parking lot. Police say they are working leads in the case… including checking phone and computer histories to try to identify the suspects.
Generous Residents
By contrast… there were plenty of helpful people Saturday that were intent on helping out Florence Food Share… the 13th annual “Pounding” gathered almost seven-thousand pounds of food donations. Those will be matched, pound for pound, by another single donor says Food Share director Karen Lyn.
Karen Lyn – “We will end up with something like 13, 948.”
Local business owner Cindy Wobbe will spread her half of the donation out over the next few months, filling any immediate needs that Lyn and Food Share may have at any given time. Lyn says the Pounding comes at a good time.
Karen Lyn – “We’re getting ready to do Christmas baskets with the Soroptimists, we’re getting ready for people who need food in the cold winter and this is huge… this is just huge.”
The next major fundraiser for Florence Food Share is the annual Empty Bowls coming up November 30th and December 1st.
