Printer Friendly
The Free Library
14,636,034 articles and books
Member login
User name  
Password 
 
Join us Forgot password?

Spilled logs are offshore, headed north.


Byline: LARRY BACON The Register-Guard

A load of 12,000 bundled Douglas fir Douglas fir: see pine.
Douglas fir

Any of about six species of coniferous evergreen timber trees (see conifer) that make up the genus Pseudotsuga, in the pine family, native to western North America and eastern Asia.
 logs, spilled from a barge in Verb 1. barge in - enter uninvited; informal; "let's crash the party!"
gate-crash, crash

intrude, irrupt - enter uninvited; "They intruded on our dinner party"; "She irrupted into our sitting room"

2.
 rough seas Tuesday offshore from Depoe Bay, remained at sea off the northern Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a geographical term that is used to describe the coast of Oregon along the Pacific Ocean. Stretching 362 miles from Astoria to the California border, the Oregon Coast is unique in that the whole coastline is public land.  late Thursday afternoon and appeared headed for Washington waters.

Ensign Matt Botnen, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman, said the logs remained eight to 10 miles offshore, only slightly closer than Wednesday. "It's hard to say exactly when they will make that turn into shore," he said.

The logs were in three groups off the Clatsop County coast, extending from Tillamook Head Tillamook Head (455630 N, 1235720 W) is a high promontory on the Pacific coast of northwest Oregon in the United States. It is located in west-central Clatsop County, approximately 5 mi (8 km) southwest of Seaside.  near Seaside on the south to a buoy off the mouth of the Columbia River Columbia River

River, southwestern Canada and northwestern U.S. Rising in the Canadian Rockies, it flows through Washington state, entering the Pacific Ocean at Astoria, Ore.; it has a total length of 1,240 mi (2,000 km).
. Botnen said the logs appeared to have broken free from the steel straps that bundled them.

Winds up to 24 mph were pushing the logs northward north·ward  
adv. & adj.
Toward, to, or in the north.

n.
A northern direction, point, or region.



north
 in 20-foot seas at slightly less than 2 miles an hour. One concern, Botnen said, is that some logs were expected to be drawn into the mouth of the Columbia River on an incoming tide about midnight Thursday. Those logs could cause a hazard to navigation, he said.

It was possible that a few logs could drift ashore along the northern Oregon and southern Washington coasts Thursday night, Botnen said, but it remained unclear where the bulk of them might end up.

The state Department of Parks and Recreation, which manages Oregon's beaches, warned people on the beaches to stay away from logs in the surf or on wet sand.

"The ocean is strong enough to pick up the biggest log in the calmest of conditions," said Tom Towslee, a parks spokesman. "These logs can cause serious injuries or even death."

The Coast Guard put out a notice to mariners to watch for floating logs and contacted emergency response agencies in Oregon and Washington so they can notify their coastal counties to be prepared for an influx of logs on the beach. The Columbia River bar pilots also were warned about logs in the river, Botnen said.

A rogue wave rogue wave
n.
An unpredictable, abnormally large wave that occurs on a seemingly random basis in the oceans.
 caused the log spill when it struck a barge towed by the tug Sea Commander on Tuesday about 30 miles west of Cape Foulweather Cape Foulweather is a basalt outcropping 500 feet above the Pacific Ocean on the central coastline of the U.S. state Oregon in Lincoln County south of Depoe Bay. The cape is notable as the first promontory on the northwest coast of New Albion (as the area was then known) to be  near Depoe Bay. The logs had been expected to come ashore Thursday along the Oregon Coast north of Nehalem, but winds continued to push them north.

The logs were being shipped from Vancouver, B.C., to Eureka, Calif., for delivery to a Mendocino, Calif., company, Harwood Products. Art Harwood, the company's manager, said they were valued at $1 million and were to be cut into lumber by a mill his company owns in Branscomb, Calif. The logs are no bigger than 15 inches in diameter and up to 40 feet long, he said.

The insurer for the logs has already declared its intent to hire a logging company to salvage them, Harwood said.

Towslee said any salvage operation 1. The recovery, evacuation, and reclamation of damaged, discarded, condemned, or abandoned allied or enemy materiel, ships, craft, and floating equipment for reuse, repair, refabrication, or scrapping.
2.
 on Oregon's beaches will require a permit and must be completed in 15 days.

Members of the public can seek a permit for beach salvage of the logs if the owner or insurer chooses not to salvage them or abandons the effort, he said.

No state permit is required to salvage logs from the Columbia River or along its banks, said Monte Turner, a spokesman for the Division of State Lands. He said the owner has the first right of salvage.

Washington Department of Natural Resources Many sub-national governments have a Department of Natural Resources or similarly-named organization:
Australia
  • Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines
Canada
  • Natural Resources Canada
 officials said they would have to research permit requirements for log salvage from their beaches. The Coast Guard and Oregon parks officials received numerous phone calls from people interested in salvaging the logs.

Towslee said if the insurance company doesn't remove them, he doesn't expect the state will have any trouble disposing of any of the logs that end up on Oregon beaches.
COPYRIGHT 2001 The Register Guard
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2001, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

 Reader Opinion

Title:

Comment:



 

Article Details
Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback
Title Annotation:Accident: The Coast Guard isn't sure where they will come ashore, but coastal towns are warned to be prepared for an influx.; Disasters
Publication:The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)
Date:Nov 16, 2001
Words:628
Previous Article:Commissioners face touchy boundary issues.(Government)
Next Article:Security firm offers to patrol Red Cross.(Crime)(Crime: The company plans to provide a month of services; the gesture is one of many received.)



Related Articles
Some of barge logs wash ashore.(Disasters)
State to conduct tsunami response drill.(General News)
Barge loses logs; safety advisory issued.(Accidents)(U.S. Coast Guard officials say about 2,000 logs left drifting off the Oregon Coast may not reach...
Living within tsunami hazard zones.(General News)(Reactions to and implementations of tsunami preparedness differ depending on where you stand in...
A tsunami could be wave of the future.(Columns)(Column)
Coast officials grim at tsunami talks.(Government)(Those responsible for quake readiness fear the area could not withstand major damage)
Like a fire drill.(Editorials)(Tsunami scare exposed spotty preparedness)(Editorial)
Another red flag.(Editorials)(False alarm undermines emergency readiness)(Editorial)
BRIEFLY.(Reviews)(Book Review)
Bribing the states.(Editorials)(Bill offers royalties for allowing offshore drilling)(Editorial)

Terms of use | Copyright © 2009 Farlex, Inc. | Feedback | For webmasters | Submit articles