Cover Story
The Hoopa Valley Versus the Digital Divide
This summer, the mountains moved in the Hoopa Valley. As a wildfire burned through trees and vegetation, a thunderstorm dropped 2 inches of rain in one day. The result was catastrophic. The rain, coupled with the unstable burned ground, caused the mountainsides along the Klamath, Trinity and Salmon rivers to collapse. “Our community was freaking…
Food for People Food Distribution Events Happening Today
Food for People is holding an emergency food distribution of nonperishable pantry stables today from noon to 2 p.m. in Fortuna for those who lost food due to the earthquake and power outage. It will take place at Gene Lucas Center parking lot located at 3000 Newburg Road. Scheduled mobile pop-up distributions will also take…
Humbodlt Quake Updates: Power Still Out in the Eel River Valley, Fendale Post Office Closed, Boil Water Advisories, California AG Warns Against Price Gouging
Huge swaths of the Eel River Valley remain without power today after taking the brunt of the early morning magnitude-6.4 earthquake that struck just off the coast of Ferndale on Dec. 20. The latest damage assessments, which are continuing, “show at least 30 residences and one commercial structure have been determined structurally unsafe,” according to…
Quake Update: State of Emergency Declared, Two Dead, A Dozen Injured, Shelter Opened in Fortuna, State Funds for Fernbridge and Boil Water Advisories
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal has declared a state of emergency in response to this morning’s magnitude-6.4 earthquake, which left two dead and potentially hundreds displaced while severely damaging Fernbridge. According to a news release, the declaration allows “the county to seek state and federal reimbursement for damage repairs and other associated impacts. The amount of…
Boil Water Advisory for Rio Dell, Parts of Fortuna
A boil water advisory has been issued for the city of Rio Dell and parts of Fortuna due to today’s magnitude-6.4 earthquake and responding power outage. Residents in Rio Dell and the Forest Hills Subdivision in Fortuna are warned not to drink water without boiling it first or to use bottled water. Water should be…
Food for People Holding Emergency Food Drive
Food for People is hosting an emergency food drive for those who have been affected by the earthquake at Cooper’s Gulch (1720 10th St., Eureka) until 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20. “Emergency food distribution today at 1:30 to 5 PM for those without functional cooking facilities (ready to eat meal kids, just add hot water),…
UPDATE: Nearly a Dozen Injuries Reported from Quake Reported, Two Medical Emergency Deaths
Security footage of the quake shaking products from the shelves at the Eureka branch of Eureka Natural Foods. UPDATE: State Sen. Mike McGuire reports via Twitter that $6 million in state funds has been secured for emergency repair on the more than 100 year Fernbridge, which serves as a vital link and is currently closed to…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Dec. 20
In the interest of filling in some space on the dead end of the week, while also showcasing a venue that doesn’t get much sunshine in this column, I’m going to recommend checking out the Drinking and Thinking Trivia Night with Davey G over at Gyppo Ale Mill down south county way. It’s an hour…
Earthquake Shakes Humboldt
A preliminary magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck about 7.5 miles west of Ferndale at 2:34 a.m. today, according to the United States Geological Society. No tsunami threat is expected, according to the National Weather Service. Strong shaking was felt throughout the region, and the temblor knocked out power from Ferndale to McKinleyville. According to North Coast…
NWS Citizen Science Network Needs Your Help
Got a couple minutes each day to help your community? The Eureka office of the National Weather Service is looking for volunteers to join the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network, or CoCoRaHS, to gather data about local conditions. “This grassroots effort is part of a growing national network of home-based and amateur rain…
Saving Salmon: Chinook Return to California’s Far North — With a Lot of Human Help
Chinook salmon haven’t spawned in the McCloud River for more than 80 years. But last summer, thousands of juveniles were born in the waters of this remote tributary, miles upstream of Shasta Dam. The young Chinook salmon — some now finger-sized smolts in mid-migration toward the Pacific Ocean — are part of a state and…
Arcata Seats City’s First All-Woman Council
There’s a new city council in Arcata. On Dec. 15, newly elected members Meredith Matthews and Kimberley White were seated at the dais, forming the city’s first all-woman council, joining just a handful of cities across California to ever do so. (Read more about the landmark occasion in the Nov. 17 Journal story “Marking a…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Dec. 18
Here are a couple of matinee shows to round out your Sunday. At 2 p.m. at the Arcata Playhouse, it’s your last chance to catch the production of (take a big breath) The Ballad of Flint Westward and the Five Who Made Their Way. This play has it all: dancing, musical numbers, the Blue Lake…
NCJ Preview: Internet, Wind and Children’s Theater
This week we’re sharing an Indian Country Today story on bringing the Hoopa Valley up to internet speed. We’ve also got updates on where wind power plans are right now and the road ahead. Dell’Arte’s holiday show Nightlight gets a review and a new(ish) winter squash gets the holiday appetizer treatment. Hit subscribe for weekly…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Dec. 17
The Logger Bar has a free show at 8 p.m. for anyone who enjoys garage and surf rock and wants to see local talent do it right. Guitar and drum duo Big Mahoff will be joined by Former Chimps and The Flying Hellfish. Come break off a piece.
Tribes Decry Klamath Water Proposal
The Karuk and Yurok tribes issued a warning this morning that a Bureau of Reclamation proposal to reduce flows on the Klamath River could kill off an entire salmon run in advance of a historic dam removal and restoration effort aimed at saving the fish. Noting that tribes and state officials just last week celebrated…
Music Tonight: Friday, Dec. 16
The local yacht-rock/smooth jazz/hip funster band Conman Bolo has been entertaining the 707 since the kids were all still music majors at what is now called Cal Poly Humboldt. But much like the name of that institution, the only constant in life is change, and all good things must come to an end. It seems…
Ladies Dancing and Lords a-Leaping
Everyone loves those delightful Christmas crackers. Not the ones you pull at the dinner table that pop open to reveal little prizes and colorful paper crowns, but the other kind — the nutty ones. Of course, I’m talking about the quintessential Christmastime ballet, The Nutcracker, performed every year by local dance companies. Two of the…
Craft Fairs and Pop Up Markets Continue this Weekend
Still have Christmas shopping left to do? I see you. Haven’t started? I feel you! Thankfully, there’s an abundance of smaller craft fairs popping up all over this weekend, where you’re (we’re) bound to find just the right gift for everyone on your list. Here’s a smattering: The Craft Fair and Gnome Adventure happens Friday,…
Scared of Santa (Or Not) Photo Contest
Who’s afraid of Santa? Or not? You tell us! Vote for your favorite photo here at vote.northcoastjournal.com. You can vote once per day through Dec. 18. We’ll announce the winner on Dec. 21. The winner will receive $150 cash and a $150 gift certificate to the Toy Box in Henderson Center, Eureka.
Lease to Farm
To much fanfare, two foreign multinational corporations combined to spend more than $331 on winning bids for the chance to develop more than 207 square miles of ocean off Humboldt Bay into two floating offshore wind farms. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) two-day auction saw 43 companies vie for five leases — including…
The Slough Man’s Song
This time of year, I like to savor the sun as much as possible, even if it’s perpetually hanging too low in the sky and blinding me as I zip around the landscape in its brief presence. I have a spot I go to, a favorite slough, where I watch the birds in the slow,…
Add Another Squash to the Table
Winter squash is my comfort food this time of the year, helping me accept the irrefutable reality of winter. By the time December comes around, several dishes featuring them are on dinner rotation. Winter squashes work wonders on two levels: first with their colors and shapes, which brighten up the space where I store them,…
Gardening for Caterpillars?
Here’s some good news for gardeners who are concerned about the environment: We can make an important, positive impact by the plant choices we make in our gardens. How do you choose plants? I remember that when I started gardening, I wanted flowers, flowers and more flowers, lots of color and fragrance. I think for…
Nightlight Illuminates a Different Dell’Arte
I am used to Dell’Arteians eviscerating themselves for audiences to use their organs as runes to divine a work’s meaning — the absurdity of characters so realized that overly grand gestures are not only normal but expected as the given circumstances of the piece. Nightlight, the newest devised Dell’Arte work is neither. Nor does it…
Rivers Turning Green, Dropping Quickly
After a very wet weekend that saw all our coastal rivers plum full of water, just about all are now in fishable shape. And the ones that aren’t will be in the next couple days. The reason behind the quick clearing of the rivers is twofold. After years of drought, the soil is extremely thirsty.…
Exit Strategies
DECISION TO LEAVE. Park Chan-Wook’s Oldboy (2003) lives on the not-so-short list of movies a listicle might reference as impossible to watch a second time. It is, as a relatively unflappable friend intoned years ago, devastating. But, like all of Park’s work, it also bears the marks of a master: While sometimes hideously violent and…
‘Some Suggestions’
Editor: A woman was found dead crouched in the doorway of Arcata City Hall on Monday morning vainly trying to escape the cold and rain of this past weekend. If this doesn’t scream to you the need for an extreme weather shelter (or shelters) for the homeless, I can’t imagine what would speak to you,…
Dinosaurs Died, Mammals Thrived
Ten minutes before a huge space rock — as wide as Humboldt Bay and half as long — barreled through Earth’s atmosphere 66 million years ago, ending the Mesozoic Era with a bang, the ecological balance between dinosaurs and mammals was working fine. The two groups had been living and thriving alongside each other for…
Death at City Hall
“Stiff and stark sat the child – frozen to death, there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. ‘She wanted to warm herself,’ people said.”Hans Christian Anderson, “The Little Match Girl” Stars, falling thick as snowflakes, keep company with the cold of night. Like a candle wick, all spark and fizz, they…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries painter Vincent van Gogh was renowned for translating his sublime and unruly passions into colors and shapes on canvas. It was a demanding task. He careened between torment and ecstasy. “I put my heart and soul into my work,” he said, “and I have lost my mind in the process.”…
