30 June 2014
World’s Longest Charity Bike Ride to Pass Through Florence
Riders with the Texas 4,000 are expected to pass through Florence Thursday. They left Austin, Texas May 31st and are slated to reach Anchorage, Alaska by Labor Day.
The 79 members of the Texas 4,000 team split into three groups at the start; part of the group riding the Sierras through Utah, Nevada and California before heading north in a zig-zag route through Oregon and Washington.
The two other teams are riding along the Rocky Mountains and the Ozarks.
Along the way they’re hoping to raise as much as $600-thousand for fighting cancer. That would bring the total raised over the last ten years to just over $4-million.
All of the riders have a connection to the disease and are riding for friends and family members.
The Sierra group is scheduled to stop in Florence Thursday where they will share their stories about riding in pursuit of a “cancer-free” society.
Sinking Investigated
A 28-foot commercial and charter fishing boat was discovered under water early this morning at the Port of Siuslaw Commercial marina.
The “Tie-One-On”, owned by David Huntington was laid over on its side and about 80-percent submerged early this morning.
Jay Cable, from the Bridgeport Market on the boardwalk said the U.S. Coast Guard alerted Huntington very early this morning that a rescue beacon registered to the vessel had been triggered.
A diver is searching for the cause of the sinking. Cable said Huntington has only had the boat about six months and recently upgraded all the electronics on the vessel.
The Coast Guard has been standing by. So far there has been no spillage of fuel.
Father’s Day Plane Crash
A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board says witnesses report a single-engine plane appeared to stall before it crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Florence, killing the pilot and his 15-year old grandson.
The NTSB says witnesses saw the plane descend from the clouds, then heard an increase in engine power. They say the plane then stalled and began to spin before it hit the water near the North Jetty June 15th.
Killed in the crash were 69-year old Richard Munger of Florence and his grandson, Benjamin Dressler of the Seattle suburb of Burien, Washington.
Munger’s Grumman American AA-5B crashed about an hour after takeoff from the Florence Municipal Airport.
NTSB officials say plane components are being recovered from the ocean as part of the ongoing investigation. Futher details will be released after the probable cause of the crash is determined.
Oregon Water Sampling
A conservation group in Tillamook County has been collecting samples of ocean water near Pacific City to test for radiation.
A large earthquake off the coast of Japan just over three years ago damaged the nuclear power plant at Fukushima, sending millions of gallons of contaminated water into the ocean.
Lisa Phipps, the executive director of the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership, said she expects the results to show radiation levels within the normal range. That’s backed by assertions on the part of public health officials that say they have yet to find radiation levels any higher than normal off the coast. The Oregon Health Division compares the amount of contaminated water released by the spill to that of a drop of ink in a large public swimming pool.
Members of the public up and down the coast have been reluctant to automatically take the government’s word however as private efforts to test sea water have sprung up along the entire coastline.
