WALLOWA — A devastating hailstorm like the one that pummeled Wallowa on Aug. 11, 2022, isn’t something to celebrate, but the resilient folks of the town weren’t about to let the anniversary go by without recognizing it.

That’s why on Friday, Aug. 11, they planned a community gathering at Evans Park to share food and their remembrances of the day.

“Somebody said we don’t want to celebrate such a horrible day, but we want to have the date pass with a positive memory,” said Marilyn Soares, who is organizing the gathering. “We do want to remember that we survived it and have a more positive memory than last year.”

A devastating storm

Virtually every building and vehicle in town was hit by the hailstones. Many vehicles were totaled and windows — both on cars and on the west sides of buildings — were shattered by the hail, which ranged in size from golf balls to baseballs, according to some estimates.

Soares said her home’s roof needed replacing, all three cars were totaled, lawn furniture was destroyed, 8 to 9 inches of debris had to be cleaned up and trees fell in her pasture and on fences.

“My husband’s garden was his pride and joy. … It was destroyed,” she said of her husband, Jim.

Mayor Gary Hulse said being mayor doesn’t move him to the head of the repair line. His home still shows damage to siding and he’s waiting on a contractor to install windows he’s ordered and has sitting out back under tarps.

“He ordered the windows to get them here, but he has other houses he’s trying to catch up on,” Hulse said of the contractor. “He said he had about two more to do before he could get to my house.”

Hulse said while the Wallowa Senior Center’s siding has been replaced, buildings owned by local government are bumped to the back of the line. For example, the Wallowa History Center has only part of its restoration work completed.

“Hopefully it’ll all get fixed soon,” Hulse said.

Numerous homes have either undergone partial repairs or are still waiting. Hulse noted that since the beginning of the repair work, it’s been difficult to line up contractors, as they’re so busy.

“It’s hard to get them,” Scott McCrae, president of the Wallowa City Council, said of the busy contractors. “You see a lot of roofing that hasn’t been done; you see siding that hasn’t been done. Rain gutters, they haven’t even gotten around to that. They’re still trying to get stuff weatherized.”

He noted however that progress has been made, such as during a citywide cleanup day held in April.

“We got a lot of junk out of here,” McCrae said. “We hauled at least 40,000 pounds of metal out. We had six big dumpsters that we filled, plus we had two or three trucks that went to Ant Flat (the county landfill) with garbage, so that helped to clean it up.”

The cost of recovery

From the beginning, it was recognized that recovery would not come cheap. Many local donations have poured in, as well as government aid.

A month after the hailstorm, the Legislature’s Emergency Board (a committee that meets between legislative sessions) allocated $2 million to help. But the money was to be doled out a half-million at a time.

Hulse said the state effort got off to a slow start figuring out how to disburse the aid money.

“We had a bit of a glitch at first,” he said. “But we’ve been getting a half-million when we need it.”

As it is, the money goes first to Wallowa County, which was then supposed to move it to the city. But rather than that, it was decided to move the money to Blue Mountain Region Long-Term Recovery Group, part of the United Way of the Blue Mountains, an organization that has experience dealing with disaster aid and insurance. Then, Blue Mountain assesses the cases and moves the money to those in need.

“That seems to be working out,” Hulse said. “That just gives them a little more control and they document all the spending.”

But that $2 million is unlikely to cover the entire cost of the storm. Christy Lieuallen, executive director of Blue Mountain Region Long-Term Recovery Group (and executive director of the United Way of the Blue Mountains) previously estimated the total damage could be in the $7 million to $8 million range, so the state’s contribution won’t come close to covering all the 330 cases Blue Mountain has assessed. Lieuallen could not be reached for comment for this story.

One hailstorm can’t keep the town down

Soares recalls how suddenly the storm came on.

“We were having a great afternoon playing. The sky got kind of dark and about five minutes later, everything exploded,” she said. “This gray storm hit and those hailstones hit the size of baseballs. … I was almost panicked.”

But she’s beyond that now.

“It’s been a long, hard year in the aftermath,” she said. “It’d be nice to mark it with a community potluck.”

Maybe Wallowa will even hold an in-your-face celebration every Aug. 11 to show that one hailstorm can’t keep the town down.

“It’d be a nice idea,” Soares said. “Maybe we’ll expand it with music.”