Pacific Northwest still recovering from back-to-back storms

Published: 2007-12-12

VERNONIA, Ore. (CNS) -- Judy Budge was happy to have her grandchildren living with her at her home in Vernonia, a remote logging town in Oregon's Coast Range. She just wished it was for a visit, and not because their mother's home had six feet of water rush through Dec. 5 after two severe rain storms hit the Oregon coast and made their way through their sleepy town off Oregon Highway 47. Vernonia was among the hardest-hit in back-to-back storms that left tens of thousands of residents without power and pounded the Pacific Northwest, killing at least five people and causing severe flooding and other major damage. "The water just moved so fast," said Budge, a longtime parishioner of the town's St. Mary's Catholic Church, which was spared flooding damage because it sits on a hilltop location. Budge saw Rock Creek and the Nehalem River come together to form a giant lake that swept through town. More than a week later the streets of Vernonia were still caked with mud, silt and sludge from all the flooding. Toilet seats and cardboard packaging adorned trees all over town.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .