MISSION — The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation were prepared for the 2020 flood that devastated homes and property in February 2020.

J.D. Tovey, director of the CTUIR Planning Department, said the flood was the worst in two to three generations and while it was disastrous for many, it was expected to occur at some point.

The Tribes had planned for this event for years with a Hazard Mitigation Plan and an Emergency Operations Plan. Additionally, the Tribes have been a partner in the National Flood Insurance Program since 2012.

“All these plans and preparations has made our community resilient to events such as these,” Tovey said.

As soon as an emergency was declared, CTUIR government made it clear that its recovery efforts would be made available for all residents of the reservation — native as well as nonnative.

Paul Rabb, the Tribes’ finance director who was thrust into the position of incident commander, said information processing was “confusing and complicated.”

“We had lots of calls and stories coming in on different things going on, and we didn’t know if they were true or not. We had multiple calls about the Highway 331 bridge being washed away, but that didn’t happen,” Rabb said.

Two things — communication and jurisdictional organization — had considerable impact on that information process.

“We didn’t have a good feeling about what was going on upriver, because in many places there was no cell service, no power, roads were washed out above Cayuse. We didn’t know how many people were trying to just survive,” Rabb said.

The Oregon National Guard plucked people off rooftops and Umatilla County rescue crews spent days working their way up washed-out roads to rescue people all the way to Bar-M Ranch, just over the reservation’s east boundary.

Add to the mix for potential confusion the number of jurisdictions involved with the CTUIR — Umatilla County, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Federal Emergency Management Administration, Oregon Emergency Management, the Oregon Health Authority, the Northwest Indian Health Board, Indian Health Services, the Oregon Department of Transportation, and Union Pacific Railroad.

Tribal programs like the Umatilla Tribal Fire and Police departments, Public Works, Children and Family Services, the Planning Department and Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center were also heavily involved.

The designated coordination center was at the Mission Gym. A shelter was set up at the Cmuytpama Warming Station. Additionally, Wildhorse Resort & Casino put people up. One Tribal member stayed in a Pendleton hotel for more than three months before her home was ready to be occupied again.

A pair of volunteer outfits — Samaritan’s Purse and Team Rubicon — plus a host of individual groups like the Pendleton Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and many individuals, including community-area sports teams, had to be organized.

The Tribes’ Incident Command team met daily for two weeks, and a team of CTUIR staff continued to meet every other day for another six weeks.

After the flood, the most pressing issues were contaminated drinking water and septic tank failures, and the effort to open roads to better analyze what people needed. Bingham and Upper Cayuse roads were closed to nonemergency personnel; Thorn Hollow Bridge was impassable because of damage. Off-road vehicles were needed to navigate several roads into forested areas.

While the municipal water system was OK, the Tribes tested 69 private wells for E. coli and total coliform. Private well owners were advised to boil water for drinking and washing dishes until supplies were tested and determined safe. Nine private wells were retested after initial positive tests.

Tovey said it is not always known if the water contamination came from well inundation or if it was something else, such as cross-contamination, after the flood. Tovey said wells that tested positive were “shocked” and some are still are being observed.

The Tribes assessed and pumped 52 septic tanks.

“The vast majority of the septic systems that were flooded needed repairs, from pumping flood water to some whose caps came off and were filled with debris,” Tovey said. “This work took a long time to rectify because septic systems can’t be pumped when the ground is hyper-saturated; if the tank is pumped then the tank could float and pop out of the ground like a cork.”

It’s difficult to estimate the number of dollars provided by agencies, or spent on flood restoration efforts, Tovey said. In many cases individuals worked directly with FEMA for financial assistance.

Of 59 registrations received by FEMA, 33 were found eligible and awarded $305,977 in housing assistance and other needs assistance, according to a spokesperson for FEMA’s Region 10 based in Seattle.

FEMA, the state of Oregon, the National Guard, Umatilla County and the Tribes all provided direct and indirect relief. New dollars have recently been identified for repair work for the Thorn Hollow Bridge, which is a Umatilla County infrastructure.

The Oregon Emergency Board provided $4 million toward manufactured home development for flood-impacted people throughout Umatilla County. One-fourth of that money — $1 million — went to the CTUIR, which is using it to cover a portion of the cost of redeveloping Lucky 7 Trailer Court. Old trailers were removed and work has begun on installation of 18 new units. Some current residents of Lucky 7 are flood-impacted individuals. And any flood-impacted victim whose home was or is within the reservation is given priority for a home in the new trailer park.

The FEMA spokesperson said the agency also implemented for residents of Umatilla County and the CTUIR the Crisis Counselor Program for “folks dealing with the stress of recovering from the flooding.”

In addition to the individual claims people may have made to FEMA, that federal agency also provided public assistance and some short-term rental assistance to those that lost their homes or were unable to live in their homes after the flood, Tovey said.

The Tribes are in the midst of a land buy-out program with 10 landowners, mostly in the Thorn Hollow and Cayuse areas. The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program has approved $2.3 million for property and home acquisition. This is a voluntary program for the landowners with the Tribes preparing grant applications. Once the properties are purchased the land will be rehabilitated and naturalized, and then placed into permanent conservation.

Rabb said he hopes this type of flooding won’t occur again “in our lifetime.”

“I think about how lucky we were. We didn’t lose anyone who lives on the reservation,” he said. “We had massive water through houses and places it had never ran through before. I think we dealt with the flood of a lifetime.”

“I think about how lucky we were. We didn’t lose anyone who lives on the Reservation,” he said. “We had massive water through houses and places it had never ran through before. I think we dealt with the flood of a lifetime.”

— Paul Rabb, Confederated Tribes of the

Umatilla Indian Reservation finance director