The Island’s Return
The unprecedented repatriation of the center of the Wiyot universe.
Geeking Out: Photos from Ohana Comic Con
The second annual Ohana Comic Con in the Sapphire Palace at the Blue Lake Casino Hotel welcomed hundreds of attendees on Saturday, despite the power outages elsewhere. Lights were on thanks to the micro-grid electricity generating system in place. The family-friendly, two-day event surged with the superpowers of costumed adults and children as they shopped…
Plane Missing After Stopping in Shelter Cove
Last Thursday, Kayla Rodriguez, a Bay Area nurse, excited to be leaving on a short jaunt up the coast with her friend, Justin Winfrey, sent an Instagram post to her boyfriend as she arrived at the Novato air base at 5:49 p.m. Between then and the moment the two passenger plane they were in disappeared…
County: No Power Shutoff Tonight
The Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services is reporting PG&E has advised that the county is no longer in the scope of the Public Safety Power Shutoff planned to commence at 7 p.m. due to diminishing elevated fire conditions. The release states that Humboldt County will remain with power throughout the evening, and that PG&E…
Fire Officials Talk Big Blue Blaze and Blackout Safety with Another Shutdown Coming
With Humboldt County looking like it’s headed toward another blackout beginning at 7 p.m., local fire officials are warning residents to be fire safe and be careful with equipment that produces carbon monoxide. Arcata Fire Battalion Chief Curt Watkins said his and other local departments responded to a number of blackout-related calls for service during…
PG&E and OES on Different Pages (and Maps) Until Late This Morning
What we have here is a failure to communicate. If you’ve been paying attention and bracing for the next PG&E blackout, you’re likely super confused by now, having been inundated with conflicting reports from the company, local officials and a nonprofit for close to 24 hours. Here’s our best attempt to unravel what’s happening, which,…
2nd UPDATE: With Information Conflicting, Uncertainty Mounts on Looming Blackouts
2nd UPDATE: PG&E spokesperson Deanna Contreras responded to a Journal inquiry this morning to clarify that Humboldt (southern), which was slated to lose power at 7 a.m. this morning, includes Garberville, Benbow, Redway and surrounding areas while Humboldt (northern), currently slated to lose power around 9 p.m., includes Willow Creek, Hoopa, Arcata and Eureka. Contreras…
County: All of Humboldt Will Lose Power Early Tomorrow Morning
The Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services just issued an alert warning that all PG&E customers in Humboldt County will lose power before early tomorrow morning and should be prepared to be without electricity for several days. The outage comes as extreme weather conditions are set to tighten fire risks in Humboldt and surrounding counties,…
Some Power Restored as Another Blackout Looms
PG&E is in the process of inspecting lines in an effort to bring power back to Humboldt County this morning, with some areas already having been restored as another Public Safety Power Shutoff looms before dawn tomorrow. According to the Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services, PG&E is hoping to restore power to all local…
‘All Clear’ Given to Begin Checking HumCo Power Lines as Another Blackout Looms Tuesday
The Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services is reporting that PG&E has indicated that portions of Humboldt County have received the “all clear,” meaning weather conditions no longer pose an elevated fire risk, allowing the company to being inspecting its lines in an effort to restore power, a process that could still take some days.…
HumBug: Ashes and Dancers
While I was doing a bit of outside work atop a ladder, several tiny chalk white dots flew with slow grace. They often appeared almost magically as they meandered through shafts of sunlight and then disappeared into the shadows. They were out of range of my cameras and I was too busy to investigate. The…
Update: Power Out, Restoration Estimates Remain Unchanged
UPDATE: According to the Humboldt Office of Emergency Services, power started going out in Humboldt around 9:30 last night. Restoration estimates remain the same. PG&E expects weather conditions to improve by 4 p.m. today, after which it will have to inspect lines before restoring power, which could take several days. See past coverage for information…
As Blackout Looms, Arcata Nonprofit Preps Free Meal Services, Seeks Volunteers and Donations
With PG&E’s public safety blackout looming, Arcata House Partnership is again planning to provide a free meal services during the shutoff and is asking for volunteers and donations to aid the effort. While estimates as to when the shutoff will start continue to fluctuate — PG&E has offered differing estimates throughout the day with the…
UPDATE: Blackout Could Hit Humboldt Hours Earlier Than Expected, Sheriff Warns to Prepare to Lose Power at Any Time
UPDATE: In the company’s latest press release, PG&E is notifying the public that power will be shut off to more than 900,000 customers across 36 California counties in phases this afternoon. And the list of scheduled phases indicates power may be cut in Humboldt County earlier than the company is reporting. PG&E has repeatedly told…
North Coast Night Lights: Be the Moon
In the days of film just prior to digital photography’s boom, photographers simply could not have made many of the nightscape images we see today. Film with enough light sensitivity to capture the stars and the rest of the Milky Way in all of the grandeur we are used to seeing in modern nightscape images…
26 Year Old Killed in Alderpoint Road Crash
The California Highway Patrol is investigating a fatal single vehicle big rig crash on Alderpoint Road yesterday afternoon. According to CHP, a 2019 Freight Liner was heading eastbound on Alderpoint Road, east of Wallin Road, when for reasons still under investigation it drifted off the south roadway edge and down a steep embankment. The 26-year-old…
Finding Groceries When the Lights go Out
UPDATE: Costco will be up and running on generators, as will Walmart and Target. Ferndale’s Valley Grocery plans to stay open with the generator running. Just like during the last blackout, Iłwai kiliwh market in Hoopa will be open and running on a generator. CC Market in Rio Dell will not only be open during…
Where to Get Medical Supplies, Charge Devices During the Blackout
With Humboldt County’s impending blackout looming, the county Office of Emergency Services is urging residents to stock up on enough medical supplies to last at least a few days and officials are scurrying to set up medical device charging stations throughout the county. The entirety of Humboldt County is expected to lose power Saturday afternoon…
Alert: Humboldt Will Lose Power, Possibly for Four Days
The Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services has issued a countywide alert warning that all PG&E customers in the county will lose power early tomorrow afternoon due to the Public Safety Power Shutoff being enacted in the face of severe fire conditions in portions of Humboldt County and surrounding areas. The office is urging residents…
Amid ‘Frustration’ with Lack of Information, Officials Warn Everyone Should Prepare for Blackout (with Preparedness Checklist)
Humboldt County officials are hoping to get some clarity this morning on what they should expect from the PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff that the company has warned may impact the entirety of the county beginning Saturday evening. As with the shutoffs that left the county dark for 28 hours on Oct. 8 and Oct.…
UPDATE: OES Warns Entirety of Humboldt May Go Dark Saturday
UPDATE: The Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services is now advising that the entirety of Humboldt County is considered “in scope” for the PG&E blackout slated to begin Saturday night and all residents should be prepared to be without electricity for days. According to OES, PG&E’s prior advisories that only 2,188 customers would be affected…
UPDATE: Humboldt Expected to be Impacted by PG&E Blackout Saturday
UPDATE: The Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services is warning that PG&E currently expects 2,188 Humboldt County customers to lose power Saturday night as a result of local fire conditions. The office says it does not yet have more information about where the outages will be, when the power will be cut or how long…
Update: Whale Euthanized
Oct. 25 UPDATE: At around 6 p.m. last night, a veterinarian with the Marine Mammal Center euthanized the whale that was stranded on the north side of Samoa beach Wednesday morning. The decision to euthanize the mammal came after the Sausalito veterinarian conducted physical examinations and blood tests to determine its health. (After the whale’s death…
California Cannabis Enters the Blast Zone
This Trump-Ukraine scandal has tendrils stretching all over the place. You may have missed it — what, with the president not only openly admitting on television to soliciting foreign help, in his re-election campaign but then doubling down by asking again for said help, and near daily revelations from the House impeachment inquiry that there…
Energy Literacy
Perhaps the biggest breakdown in the recent power shutoff was communication. As I write this, the California Public Utilities Commission has convened an emergency meeting with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. about the blackout. High among the commissioners’ concerns are PG&E’s communication failures to local governments, state agencies and customers during this event. As important…
Biomass: A Local andRenewable Source of Irony
Despite its official pledge to supply Humboldt county with 100 percent clean and renewable energy by 2025, Redwood Coast Energy Authority has doubled down on biomass energy. Nearly a quarter of our electricity now comes from burning wood. In fact, according to its latest Comprehensive Action Plan for Energy [CAPE], RCEA plans to keep buying…
Blackout
Editor: Here is a copy of the letter I am sending to all my legislators and to the governor (“Blackout,” Oct. 17). I urge everyone to contact their legislators and the governor. “Dear _________, PG&E’s latest outrage was not acceptable. It had nothing to do with fire safety in my area, Humboldt County, and I…
Wrongs Righted
Editor: I have come to see that if we are to continue as a species, wrongs will have to be righted. I can hardly bear knowing of the 1860 massacre which occurred on Duluwat Island (NCJ Daily, Oct. 17). It is right that the city of Eureka decided to return Duluwat Island to the Wiyot…
Setting the Record Straight
Editor: I am correcting and expanding upon a correction you made for the Oct. 10 NCJ. This is concerning the story “Journalism at Three Arcata High Schools” published in your Oct. 3 edition. It is really important to note the following: EHS journalism teacher Philip Preston Middlemiss started the Journalism Club in 2013. He invited…
The Island’s Return
There was a time not long ago when this was unthinkable. After all, when Wiyot tribal officials first called Eureka City Hall to request the return of Duluwat Island in the 1970s, they got laughter in response. When tribal elder Cheryl Seidner tried again a couple of decades later, she heard mostly stutters and stammers…
Correction
The contribution line on the story “Blackout” in the Oct. 17, 2019, edition of the North Coast Journal contained an omission. Journal calendar editor Kali Cozyris contributed mightily to the report, sending dispatches from gas station lines and sitting in a hospital lobby to make phone calls to help tell readers what businesses were open…
Eureka, Meet Your City Manager
The first thing incoming Eureka City Manager Dean Lotter and his wife Wendy did after arriving in Humboldt County was pick up a rental car and hit the streets, set on the idea of getting lost in the city he hoped to helm. The couple — both raised in the Midwest — had already been…
This Year of Flood
—in memory of H.L. Redwood roots feel the Eel pooling and pulsing, dammed by February king tides, over spilling banks, dissolving fragile underpinnings, fueling turbid streams. Flood dispatches downed timber, loosens fallen logs from the forest floor, threads the dead among the living, to join armadas of fast-moving slash pulled downstream. As autumn turns to…
Halloween Lite
This is an odd series of days to report on the nightlife, as it so happens Halloween is just past the clutches of this writer’s ichorous, undead claws. By which I mean it falls on a Thursday so I have to kick the can for another week before I can deliver the goods. But most…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Singapore has one of the world’s lowest fertility rate. A few years ago, this state of affairs prompted the government to urge Singaporeans to have sex on an annual holiday known as National Day. A new rap song was released in the hope of pumping up everyone’s libidos and instigating a…
Chinese Lamb Stew
As the remaining sunlight shone through my kitchen widow, I was busy cleaning the wild chanterelle and porcini mushrooms I had just received. I love fall — the crisp air, the harvest joy and the anticipation of upcoming holidays. Lamb is my favorite meat to make during fall: lamb stew, lamb and chive dumplings, lamb…
Inheriting an Obsession from My Mother
I came running into the house, my cheeks flushed from swinging. My mother was sitting at her favorite perch, the embroidered rocking chair. “Honey, I want to talk to you about something,” Mother said. “I think you should be like the big girls and go on a diet like them. Would you like that?” A…
Supernatural Web MD
For years Web MD’s symptom checker has helped millions to input their aches, pains, twitches and itches into a flowchart of data that shows what they might indicate. It also quickly and easily escalates both nagging concerns and mild curiosities into utter assurance that you’ve got flesh-eating bacteria on your brain. Since none of us…
‘A Mixed Blessing’
Editor: As a member of the conservative minority in this community, I’ve found that letters to you at the North Coast Journal are a mixed blessing (Mailbox, Oct. 11). I have received two anonymous letters in the snail mail that were unkind and attacking, and one from Brian Julian of Blue Lake that was kind…
Surrounded by Monsters
Reviews ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP. I liked Zombieland (2009) well enough: Its clever, comic tone, distinctive characters, strong performances and self-assured but restrained visual style made it stand out. Enough so that I came away hoping director Ruben Fleisher might be at the vanguard of some burgeoning action-comedy movement. Not so, as it turns out. And,…
Mirror Universes
For nearly 100 years, the idea of a “Big Bang” birthing our universe has been the leading cosmological model. In the 1920s, Russian mathematician Alexander Friedmann and later Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaître derived the notion of an expanding universe based on Einstein’s 1915 General Theory of Relativity. Extrapolating backwards in time, expansion implies an infinitely…
Following Eureka’s Lead
When researching our Jan. 24 cover story “We’re Coming Home” about the city of Eureka returning Duluwat Island to the Wiyot Tribe 159 years after it was stolen, we came across a beautiful quote in a 1988 Humboldt Historian article about the island and the egret rookery on its western shore. “The egrets, in graceful…
