Sun shines, but the mud sticks around

Tuesday’s sunshine was a welcome relief to residents of Pine and Eagle valleys who’ve been struggling since Thursday to cope with the floodwater that has inundated their properties.

The good weather did little to brighten the spirits of Gary Trinklein, however. He was busy trying to remove mud from his shop on Slaughterhouse Road near Halfway.

A foot of mud fouled the power tools he had stored in a shed near his home. Trinklein, who declined to give his age except to say he’s “old and retired,” uses the tools for a variety of projects, though he claims his only business these days is “monkey business.”

When the flooding first started, he said he waded out in thigh-high water to check his property.

Then he got a call from a neighbor warning him, “It’s really coming now.”

Trinklein’s driveway was washed away by high water that overflowed the ditch as it traveled through the small pipe that carries water past his property.

“I called somebody to come and get the horse,” he said. “He was drowning.”

His house remained safe from the flooding, but “it was close,” he said.

A thick layer of mud covered his lawn and driveway Tuesday as a reminder of the high water of recent days.

“You work on it for 20 years and something comes along and ruins it,” Trinklein said reflecting on the damage.

He estimated the loss of tools at about $1,000 if he’s unable to salvage any of them.

“The cabinets are wet and full of mud,” he said. “I hired a couple of kids to come and dig it out.”

Trinklein said he had no flood damage insurance.

“I’ve lived here for 20 years and never had a flood,” he said. “$1,200 a year comes up to a lot of money.”

Mark Bennett, the county’s emergency manager, said today that with the exception of Frank and Colleen Edwards, who face losing their home on Pine Creek, Trinklein and his Slaughterhouse Road neighbors suffered some of the most serious residential damage in the flood.

He said Eagle Valley ranchers appear to have suffered the most substantial agricultural losses. And infrastructure damage is mainly related to flooding on Pine Creek and Clear Creek as they flow through Eagle Valley.

Bennett said he doesn’t expect the county to reach the threshold for funding to help homeowners through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which requires that 40 percent of the county’s uninsured homes be damaged for total loss of $4 million.

“That’s somewhat daunting for us,” he said. “We’re not there yet.”

Rick Holden, a retired Baker County Road Department employee, is working through contract with the county to help assess the infrastructure damage in the two valleys, Bennett said.

That damage includes two county bridges that were demolished by high water. The cost of replacing them has been estimated at $1 million.

Bennett said he and Fred Warner Jr., Baker County Commission chair, are working to compile preliminary information for FEMA by the end of the week.

“Friday morning we’ll put it together and ship it off,” he said. “We’re hoping to get public infrastructure assistance.”

He’s not as optimistic about the likelihood of securing help for individuals.

But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen, Bennett says.

“There are other forces that can change this whole process,” he said.

For example, when Pine Creek flooded in 1997, political pressure was exerted on Oregon’s congressional delegation.

“The next thing you knew, we got the money,” Bennett said.