FRIDAY November 29, 2019
BOMB CYCLONE
S E R V I N G O U R C O M M U N I T Y S I N C E 1 8 7 9 • W W W. T R I P L I C A T E . C O M
packs a punch
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Staff Report
he clean-up from Tuesday’s regional windstorm was underway Wednesday morning, as a path of destruction greeted local residents and visitors. There had been no reports of injuries following what forecasters called a “historic bomb cyclone weather sys-
tem” that swept across Curry and Del Norte counties, and south into California. First-responders and utility crews were kept busy will a flurry of service calls, while drivers and pedestrians dodged a number of downed trees, fallen electrical wires, and other storm debris in roadways and along sidewalks.
Brookings police reported no blocked streets by Wednesday morning after city, county and state works crews removed debris. Motorists were warned that some outlying roadways might still be blocked by downed trees. In Crescent City, Russell Kinikin, the Ace Hardware assistant manager, said that at about 1 p.m. Tuesday one
of his lumber buildings lost about 7,000 square feet of roof from a 120,000-squarefoot facility. Kinikin said the wind caused no damage to the main store nor to any merchandise or vehicles. Crescent City Ace Hardware was open for regular business on Wednesday. Crescent City Manager
Eric Wier said the storm kept emergency responders tied up throughout the day Tuesday and into the night. “The major issue with this storm was not major rain, but major wind creating a lot of unusual scenarios and power outages,” Wier said. Emergency calls put a More Storm on Page A2 (Above) An entire tree and the turf surrounding it succumbed to the strength of the wind at Sutter Coast Hospital off of Washington Boulevard in Crescent City. (Left) A portion of the roof for one of the Crescent City Ace Hardware store’s lumber buildings was damaged by the wind. Photo courtesy California Highway Patrol. (Right) A redwood tree crushed an empty RV at Rambling Redwoods Campground and RV Park at 6701 U.S. Highway 101 in Crescent City during Tuesday’s storm. No one was injured. Photos by Jessica Goddard and David Hayes.
Encinal, Del Norte match up well for Saturday John Pritchett For The Triplicate
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el Norte High School football coach Nick White is hoping to surprise Encinal High on Saturday in the North Coast Section Division 5 championship game. No, not on the Hayward High School field, where the Warriors will take on the Jets of Alameda with a title at stake. No, he wants the surprise to come from the visitors’ bleachers. “I hope we have more fans in the stands than they do, even though our fans are driving seven hours and the (Encinal fans are) about a half-hour away,” White said. “That would be pretty cool, pretty special.” Those visiting fans - school officials are expecting at least several hundred - will be heading south hoping to see their Warriors do something perhaps no other Del Norte football team has done: Bring home a N-C-S title. The 7 p.m. matchup will be broadcast live on KPOD 97.9 FM, with the Warrior Pregame Show starting at 6:30. No. 2-seed Del Norte advanced to the championship game with a convincing 28-7 victory over No. 3 Moreau Catholic last Saturday. Top-seeded Encinal needed - literally - a last-second field goal to avoid overtime in a 2421 win over fourth-seeded De Anza High School. Both teams now are 101, with their only losses coming against highly successful programs on the road at midseason. Both captured conference crowns with unblemished More Football on Page A6
Washing dishes – watching bears her neighbors down South Bank Road even set up a night-vision camera to keep an eye on the fourlegged visitors. Peter Tira, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) public information officer, said black bears actually are quite active this time of year. “You’ve got to keep in mind that bears have a great sense of smell. They are always looking for food before they hibernate for the winter,” Tira said. “They do slow down and are far less active,
By David Hayes Staff Writer
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Crossword Answers ....................................B5 Calendar.....................................................B1 Classifieds...................................................B3
More Bears on Page A5
Directed by Saturday, Dec 7 at 7PM Daniel Sedgwick Gold Beach - Curry Public Library
Smith River resident Donna Vail took this bear photos across the Smith River from her back deck with a Nikon camera equipped with a 300mm zoom lens. fun to think of them as a family.” Vail said her neighbors
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population today is conservatively estimated at 30,000 to 40,000. According to the CDFW’s website, the North Coast/Cascade black bear subpopulation occurs north and west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. About half of the statewide black bear population resides in this portion of the state. Studies indicate that densities range from 1.0 to 2.5 bears per square mile, according to the CDFW.
Wild Rivers Symphony presents
regularly talk of bears amongst the trees, getting into trash cans. One of
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onna Vail was washing dishes in her Smith River home last Saturday when out the kitchen window she spotted a trio of bears. She and husband Larry have lived in Del Norte County for 10 years, the last three on the Smith River along South Bank Road. They’ve seen plenty of wildlife, from elk to eagles. But no bears. So Donna Vail ran to get her 300mm Nikon camera, then snapped some quick shots of the three bears. “It was early morning, about 9 a.m. The bears are usually out at night when we’re sleeping. We don’t normally see them in the daytime,” Vail said. “I captured this big papa standing there. I like to think the other two were mama and baby. It’s
but right now, they’re out fattening up on the landscape. So, you really need to be vigilant if you live in bear country.” Tira said black bears are very common in the northwest corner of California, adding that the population is growing statewide. According to the CDFW, California’s black bear population has increased over the past 25 years. In 1982, the statewide bear population was estimated at 10,000 to 15,000. The California black bear
Sunday, Dec 8 at 3PM
Crescent City - Crescent Elk School
Monday, Dec 9 at 7PM
Brookings - Trinity Lutheran Church Tickets: $12 at door / $10 pre-sale / K-12 Free Pre-sale at Gold Beach Books, Del Norte Office Supply, Wrights Custom Framing, and online at www.WildRiversSymphony.org
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The Snowman (video) Danse Macabre Alleluia (strings) Undertale/Megalovania October (brass) Prelude for Strings The Christmas Song
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