County appoints a ‘flood czar’

By Michael on Monday, February 21st, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

UMATILLA COUNTY – The floods of 2019 and 2020 impacted 32,000 Umatilla County residents and only a minuscule number of them have been compensated. Commissioner Dan Dorran says that’s due to a bureaucratic maze of red tape with different agencies requiring different things from those who suffer losses due to floods.

Dorran said that at a meeting of the McKay Creek flood committee they were discussing the fact that there is no one expert on flood response who understands all the requirements from a number of different federal and state agencies. At that point, Pendleton’s city manager stated that what the county needed was a flood czar.

Dorran agreed, as did Commissioner George Murdock and Commissioner John Shafer. They have approved a contract with the Umatilla County Soil and Water Conservation District to help coordinate both preparation for and response to flood events.

“My hat’s off to Robb Corbett for kind of putting this idea together,” Dorran said. “My hat’s off to the other commissioners for making sure that we take care of Umatilla County residents.”