Heavy Snow and High Wind in Oregon, March 2 to 3, 1999

The strongest Pacific storm of the winter season brought high winds to the coast and Willamette Valley, extremely heavy seas offshore and extremely high surf along beaches, and heavy snow in the Cascades. Along the coast, the highest reported winds included a gust to 120 mph at Depoe Bay in Lincoln county, a gust to 105 mph in Cannon Beach in Clatsop county, 58 mph wind with a gust to 92 mph at Tillamook in Tillamook county, and numerous gusts of 70 to 80 mph all along the coast. The Highway 101 bridge across the mouth of the Columbia River from Astoria to the Washington state side was closed for five hours due to the high winds, which toppled an empty wood chip truck on the bridge. Highest reported winds in the Willamette Valley included gusts to 77 mph in Sandy in Clackamas county and gusts to 75 mph in Shreridan in Yamhill county. There were numerous reports of downed trees and widespread power outages due to downed trees and limbs on power lines all along the coast and throughout the Willamette Valley. The storms highest winds occurred between 930 pm and 1230 am. Perhaps the most dramatic effect of this storm was the huge seas and extremely surf beach surf that accompanied it. At 11 pm the Stonewall Bank buoy 15 miles west of Newport reported seas of 46 feet, and at midnight the Columbia River buoy reported 42 foot seas. The most notorious impact of the heavy seas was the severed towline on the bow portion of the ship New Carrissa which was being towed out to sea for burial, which set the hulk free to be swept onshore at Waldport the morning of the 3rd. See the following narrative for details. Extremely heavy surf along beaches resulted in heavy erosion, and large logs were tossed onto roads and into buildings. Large logs were tossed through the first floor windows of the Stephanie Inn at Tolovana Park in Clatsop county, the Proposal Rock Inn in Tillamook county, and and a number of residences all along the coast. Arch Cape in Clatsop county was particularly hard hit. The town of Manzanita was evacuated overnight in anticipation of the heavy surf. The storm also dumped heavy snow in the Cascades, where Santiam Pass and Timberline Lodge reported 19 inches of new snow, Government Camp and Willamette Pass received 17 inches, and Blue Box Pass had a foot of new snow. The New Carrissa IncidentOn February 4, the New Carrissa, a 600 foot cargo ship, ran aground on a sand bar at the mouth of Coos Bay, Oregon. The ship was empty of cargo, but contained 130,000 gallons of fuel oil. The ship could not be towed off of the sand bar it came to rest on, and took a pounding in a series of strong storms with accompanying heavy surf. On February 10, a Navy explosives team attempted to burn the remaining fuel. After failing to ignite the fuel, the Navy team set the ship ablaze the next day with napalm. Hours later, the ship broke into two pieces. On March 2, the bow section containing most of the remaining fuel was towed to sea to be sunk well offshore. However, the tug and bow section in tow encountered 35 foot seas and high winds, the towline parted, and the bow section drifted back to shore at Waldport. On March 8 the bow was towed out to sea. On March 11, about 50 miles offshore, explosives were set off in the bow, but did not sink it. The US Navy Destroyer David ray fired 69 rounds from a 5 inch gun into the hulk, but it refused to sink. Finally, a 19 foot torpedo carrying 650 pounds of explosives fired from the nuclear attack submarine USS Bremerton sent the bow section of "the ship that wouldn't go away " under the sea. The cost of the operation up to this point was about $6 million, and the stern remained in the sand at Coos Bay.