Homeless kids get help • B1
Bend High girls, Sisters boys fall in semis D1 •
MARCH 10, 2012
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Deschutes struggling to find its new chief
JAPAN TSUNAMI: ONE YEAR LATER
Wave of destruction, wave of reconstruction
• Hunt for county administrator resumes after 2 finalists rejected
Miyako, Japan
By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
The search for Deschutes County’s next county administrator will go on. On Friday afternoon, county commissioners opted not to offer the job to either of the two finalists for the position, Michael Segrest and Walt Munchheimer. Instead, the county may hire a recruitment specialist to conduct a new search, and Deputy County Administrator Erik Kropp will continue to serve as interim county administrator. The position has been vacant since August, when commissioners voted to fire then-administrator Dave Kanner. Kanner has recently accepted a job as city manager in Ashland. See Administrator / A4
SEX ABUSE CASE
In recorded phone call, RPA director admitted kissing, fondling pupil
The Associated Press file photo
In this March 11, 2011, photo, the tsunami overtakes the breakwater protecting the coastal city of Miyako after northeastern Japan was hit by a powerful earthquake.
By Scott Hammers
On U.S. coast, a flurry of work Curry Coastal Pilot and Del Norte Triplicate staff By the time dawn broke on Friday, March 11, 2011, Crescent City Harbormaster Richard Young and his crews had been up all night moving boats, equipment and people out of the low-lying tsunami evacuation zone. “The worst moment was about 6 o’clock in the morning. It’s just getting light, all the boats are gone, the people are gone, and the only thing you could hear was the tsunami siren going off,” recalled Young earlier this week. He was the last one to leave the harbor. “It was just surreal. It was eerie to look at the harbor and think, ‘It may never look like this again.’ ” By 8:30 a.m., the first of dozens of waves spawned by a Japanese earthquake more than 5,000 miles away pummeled the California port, twisting and snapping docks and tossing commercial and sport fishing boats like bathtub toys. At the same time, 30 miles north in Oregon, the same tsunami waves
MORE COVERAGE
Crescent City, Calif.
MON-SAT
Michael Bremont acknowledged an inappropriate relationship with a teenage student at the Redmond Proficiency Academy during a phone call recorded in February, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Deschutes County Circuit Court. The director at RPA, Bremont, 39, was arrested three weeks ago following a brief investigation of allegations he sexually abused a girl who attended the Redmond- Bremont based charter school. Bremont currently faces one count of third-degree sodomy, one count of third-degree attempted rape, two counts of second-degree sexual abuse and 10 counts of third-degree sexual abuse. He has been released from jail to live with relatives in West Linn. He is due to enter a plea to the charges April 9. The alleged victim was 15 in late 2009, when the string of incidents for which Bremont has been charged began. See Bremont / A4
By Chico Harlan
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin file photo
Debris from destroyed docks and damaged boats lies smashed in a corner of the Crescent City, Calif., marina on March 11, 2011, after the tsunami struck.
struck the Port of Brookings Harbor, resulting in slightly less devastation. Fishermen stood helpless as they watched ocean surges redirect the Chetco River into the port, where the swirling currents sank docks, slammed boats into one another and carried several vessels and dock debris out to sea. “It was pretty much pandemonium at that time,” Brookings commercial fisherman Mike Wiley recalled.
At the height of the tsunami, Wiley was videotaping the surges when his 34-foot boat, ChristyLee, broke loose from a dock and was swept to sea. “It was like watching a fire of your home,” he said. “You can’t do anything about it. You’re helpless. It’s just a real helpless feeling.”
A fateful day On Sunday, it will be one year to the date of the tsunami.
Then and now: Revisiting the damage to harbors in Crescent City, Calif., and Brookings, A6
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
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In Japan, recovery has only begun The Washington Post
In the tsunami’s wake: A closer look at Japan’s devastated coastline, A2
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The Bulletin
Vol. 109, No. 70, 72 pages, 7 sections
Both Crescent City and Brookings ports are well along the path to rebuilding what was destroyed but, for the people who experienced it firsthand, the tsunami still looms large in their lives. Brookings resident Richard Laskey can still hear the cracking and splintering of his beloved 48-foot recreational boat, the Pegrin II, as larger vessels slammed into at the Port of Brookings Harbor that day. See Coast / A6
Bend native was killed: Dustin Weber, 25, was swept out to sea on the West Coast
INDEX Business C3-5 Comics B4-5 Crossword B5, F2
Dear Abby Editorials Movies
B3 C6 B2
One year later, nothing is resolved. The rubble and ocean muck of last March 11 have been scrubbed from every wall, pulled from every basement and picked from every crevasse. Now the debris is piled in terraced mountains at the edge of this town along Japan’s tsunami-devastated northeastern coastline. But even after months of cleanup, the reconstruction remains at a starting point, equally capable of taking off or faltering, depending on if people stick around. A full recovery will take at least a decade, officials say. Residents along the battered coast must be willing to endure trying conditions — prefab houses that don’t stay warm; communities that don’t provide jobs; grief that doesn’t abate — all because they hope that, eventually, they will regain normal lives in functional towns. See Japan / A2
By Michael E. Ruane The Washington Post
The old photograph shows a young Confederate soldier posing proudly in an elegant uniform, with a pistol in his belt and a saber in his hand. It is a well-known 1860s ambrotype worth thousands of dollars, and experts have identified the style of his buckle, the make of his revolver and the cavalry outfit in which he served. But scholars at the Library of Congress, which was given the photo last year, had no idea who he was. Like scores of forgotten Civil War portraits, his was listed as “unidentified.” Until this week. Last Sunday, Karen Thatcher of Martinsburg, W.Va., opened a Washington Post Civil War history supplement. She spotted the picture in a Library of Congress advertisement, and realized: “That’s Uncle Dave!” See Soldier / A3
Coming Sunday: A father’s tribute to his late son
TODAY’S WEATHER Obituaries C7 Stocks C4-5 TV B2, ‘TV’ mag
West Virginia family spots ‘Uncle Dave’ in Civil War photo
Mostly cloudy High 56, Low 31 Page C8
TOP NEWS
Time flies Sunday Don’t forget to set clocks ahead one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday AP
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SOLAR STORM: Skies light up, A3