Lessons learned! Sound familiar? It’s commonly followed by “never again” in the aftermath of one of Mother Nature’s temper tantrums. Once the initial shock subsides and recovery commences, the conversation turns to cause and prevention. Committees are formed, studies are undertaken, and a final report is completed with suggestions on how to prevent the recurrence of another “once-in-a-lifetime” disaster.

As time passes and memories fade, for whatever reason, be it cost or the feeling that it won’t happen again in this lifetime, the study ends up on some shelf gathering dust like so many others. That’s kind of what happened recently in both Texas and the Portland Metro area with those massive power outages.

Whether it be a natural phenomenon or the result human activity, changing weather patterns look to be a reality. In Texas, utility management felt the costs to winterize power generating equipment wasn’t warranted because the previous severe cold snap was a “once-in-a-lifetime” occurrence. In the Portland Metro area, trees were the main culprit. Utilities ignored warnings that disaster lurked if overgrown trees around power lines weren’t trimmed or removed.

Has our city management learned anything from past missteps? They certainly haven’t learned a thing about how trees damage concrete and power lines, planting new trees under the power lines and in the new sidewalks on Southeast Eighth Street.

Building on a floodplain was once acceptable to early settlers, feeling that a flood during spring runoff was just a part of life. As our city grew, residents became weary of the annual flooding, and the levee was constructed to bring that to an end — not, as some believe, to provide a public walkway. Much later, construction was approved along the banks of the McKay Creek floodplain, setting residents up for a “once-in-a-lifetime” flood, with Mother Nature obliging, several times over.

Lessons learned? Ignoring Army Corps of Engineers standards for levee maintenance proved costly. The city and county have addressed that issue, for now. Undertaking a project by the city to remap the floodplain provides little comfort for those rebuilding in Riverside on that same floodplain. McKay? A change in the function of McKay Dam from irrigation to flood control would be helpful, since the Columbia River has become the major source for irrigation. As it now stands, those “once-in-a-lifetime” disasters have already morphed into at least “thrice in a lifetime,” with no long-term solution in sight.

Rick Rohde

Pendleton