WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Umatilla tribal members monitoring megaloads tonight (Wednesday) between Pilot Rock and likely Ukiah, Oregon, need our on-site solidarity and cooperative work, for their safety constantly compromised by cops.  See the monitoring notes about the Tuesday night megaload movement on the Wild Idaho Rising Tide and Portland Rising Tide facebook pages and below.

From Portland Rising Tide information:

The Oregon Department of Transportation permitted movement of the third Oregon megaload last week, just before a major regional snowstorm brought blizzard conditions up the Columbia Basin and snow to Lewiston area ports.  But as the snow melts, Portland Rising Tide and allies expect the Omega Morgan-hauled tar sands transport to move tonight, Tuesday, February 11.  They are hosting an anti-megaload rally at the Port of Umatilla, likely the last public opportunity in eastern Oregon to show tar sands profiteers that tribal and climate activists and Oregon citizens will not let them transform indigenous Umatilla homelands into a long-term, heavy haul route for dirty energy extraction equipment used to destroy the Earth and climate.

Please come prepared with warm clothes and rain gear for cold and rainy conditions, food and hot drinks, maps and protest signs and banners if you have them, and a plan for self-sufficiency and sleeping accommodations if you choose to stay overnight.  Most rally participants will return to Portland or other places after the protest.  Lowen is coordinating 3 pm ride shares converging outside the Cherry Sprout Grocery, 722 North Sumner Street in Portland.  Eddie is arranging 3 pm carpools departing the Red and Black Café at 400 SE 12th Avenue in Portland.  If you have space in your rally-bound vehicle or need a ride to participate, please stop by one of these locations and offer rides or gas funds for drivers.  Meet for a pre-rally gathering at the Quality Inn conference room, 705 Willamette Street in Umatilla, Oregon, at 7 pm on Tuesday, February 11.  Call Lowen at 503-407-8749 to discuss travel questions or issues.

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Third Oregon Omega Morgan Megaload Monitoring Notes:

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Oregon megaload frontline reports: The third Omega Morgan-hauled tar sands transport left the Port of Umatilla at 9:40 pm tonight and is moving from Umatilla toward Hermiston, with almost 20 state and county police officers and cars, a paddy wagon, and undercover vehicles. It is having difficulty making the turn from Highway 730 onto U.S. Highway 395. Ongoing updates soon! (10:20 pm)

Just a few Umatilla tribal activists are monitoring megaload movement and protecting their homelands, as the transport is now crossing Hermiston and Stanfield, just before 11 pm.  They will document infrastructure and traffic abuses on the Highway 395 bridge over Interstate 84, where the behemoth must make a sharp left turn from the bridge.  During the first transit, the convoy allowed other vehicles, including semi-trucks, to pass the 901,000-pound megaload parked on the bridge! (10:55 pm)

Police must have assumed that more protesters would converge in Umatilla, but a Portland Rising Tide activist said that uncertain and late megaload departure made getting people there on short notice difficult.  Many police officers have questioned the identity and purpose of travelers near the convoy, while three to four undercover vehicles follow the megaload. (11 pm)

The megaload is almost at the Interstate 84 on-ramp turn after the Pilot truck stop.  Although activists are safely out of range from impeding their police state area, three patrol cars have stopped by them. (11:40 pm)

On-site anti-megaload activists just shot a video that shows the transport taking 40 minutes to make a sharp left turn from the Highway 395 bridge onto Interstate 84. (12:30 am)

Megaload haulers let traffic go around the transport before turning, but they did not allow other vehicles on the interstate entrance ramp behind it.  The convoy was next at the first exit off-ramp after the bridge near the Pilot, where it went around a too-low overpass and the first megaload encountered a protest.  Police spotlighted monitors there. (12:40 am)

The megaload has been bypassing Interstate 84 bridges numerous times, as its weight damages on/off ramps.  Around the site of the first Pendleton megaload protest, near the Highway 395 exit, Burger King, and first traffic signal on December 2-3, flagging vehicles are roaming up and down the steep Highway 395 hill that the transport must noisily struggle up to head south. (1:40 am)

Observers saw ODOT and flagger vehicles on Highway 395 in Pendleton, and still the megaload has not reached its parking spot. (1:45 am)

Unlike during the first Oregon megaload’s passage, activists did not project illuminated protest slogans and their shadows onto the load after it parked tonight.  The wind was kicking in, as the megaload parked.  Local activists will keep us updated and see what the sunrise brings for further actions.  Maybe Portland allies can assist a load-side ceremony on Wednesday evening, if local folks wish to lead.  Sending good energy from Nez Perce country (2:40 AM)

The third Oregon Omega Morgan megaload continued through Pendleton and parked just outside Pilot Rock before 3 am, obviously avoiding the scrutiny and nightly, load-side, protection ceremonies of Umatilla tribal members in Pendleton.  The Umatilla community is suffering a sad, traumatic loss since Monday, so its few megaload monitors would appreciate some assistance.  Nonetheless, they will keep all of us updated as the megaload moves again tonight. (9 am)