Weather was THE topic of conversation in Oregon this week. While water flooded the West, Eastern Oregon froze over, and, for one reason or another, the roads were dangerous everywhere in between. But, with the ice melting, its easy to remember things could always be worse.

In Eastern Oregon, most of us are accustomed to snow and ice. We keep salt on hand, brace for blizzards and stay home if we can when the winter weather fights back.  When blizzards are on the horizon, people stock up on bottled water and firewood, fresh batteries and canned goods.

If youve ever lived outside the Pacific Northwest, you know thats not always the case.

I moved back to Oregon two years ago from South Carolina, and in the Palmetto State, even the faintest chance of snow sends people flooding to the grocery store to buy milk and bread. I asked everyone I knew why those two (perishable) items would help if they were stranded, but the only people who had a good answer were those who bought them because they knew they would sell out and wanted to be able to make breakfast in the morning. They may not have blizzards, but South Carolina is far from natural-disaster free.

Flooding is common year-round. Wind storms tear down buildings and overturn mobile homes. Hurricanes, although rare, do tremendous damage, and tornados touch down multiple times a year in almost every landlocked county. You learn to tell the difference between a tornado alert, tornado watch and tornado sighting, a micro-burst and a wind storm. You learn when to go about your day and when to head to the center of the house away from windows.

The wind doesnt discriminate between cheap storage sheds or antebellum mansions, and wooden planks can hurtle through the air like spears only to plunge half a foot into the ground to stand like impromptu fence posts. One home can stand untouched while the buildings around it fall to rubble, and power lines come down just as easily in the wealthy parts of town as they do in the slums.

And if you work for a newspaper when a true tornado hits, you grab a camera and a notebook, park the car and head out on foot when trees and buildings block the road because there will be damage, emergency crews will respond and there will be people ready to curse mother nature or the power provider or their neighbor for not cutting down an old tree.

In Eastern Oregon, ice and snow are an inconvenience. We grumble about having to put chains on our tires or about the roads being closed or about the idiotic drivers going too fast or too slow, but we know to be careful, to be prepared.

Over the years, Ive faced earthquakes and sandstorms, dust devils and flash floods. Ive participated in fire drills, earthquake drills, bomb drills, intruder drills. Despite all that, Ill be one of the first complaining about how long it takes to get the ice of my car in the morning, but Ill take it for granted that my car is still where I left it and still in one piece. If this was a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake, an attack, that isnt always the case.

As far as natural disasters go, Umatilla County isnt that bad, and you cant ask for much more than the survival instincts of rural Oregonians. I check whenever theres a storm warning, and somehow, theres always plenty of milk. 

Contact Jennifer Colton at jcolton@hermistonherald.com