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When a possible measles case is identified in California, a phone rings at the local health department and the clock starts ticking.

Laboratory workers need to process samples as soon as possible to confirm the case. And a public health nurse must call the patient to find out where they’ve been and who they’ve been in contact with recently.

If test results are positive, the communicable disease team has 72 hours or less to identify anyone who has been exposed and may be at high risk of infection or serious illness. Those people must quarantine or take a dose of a post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent spread. For the next 21 days nurses will monitor the group for symptoms.

Measles is the most contagious vaccine-preventable viral infection in the world, and California is fighting multiple outbreaks. In a room where one person is infected, nine out of 10 unvaccinated people will also contract the disease. The viral particles also linger in the air long after the contagious person leaves, risking exposure to those who enter the room up to two hours later.

“That’s ridiculously infectious,” said Dr. Sharon Balter, director of acute communicable disease control with Los Angeles County public health. “It balloons very quickly, and because measles spreads very fast we have to get on it right away. We can’t say we’ll wait until tomorrow.”

California has a high enough vaccination rate — about 95% of kindergarteners — to provide herd immunity against measles, but throughout the state pockets of unvaccinated communities drive outbreaks, experts say.

Shasta and Riverside counties are working to contain localized outbreaks. These are the first measles outbreaks in the state since 2020 and are happening at a time when health departments have less money and fewer staff than in recent years. In total, seven counties have reported a total of 21 measles cases this year, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Throughout the country, 26 states have reported measles cases since the start of the year, including a massive outbreak in South Carolina where officials identified nearly 1,000 cases, mostly among unvaccinated children. It is the largest outbreak since theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention declared measles eradicated more than 25 years ago.

“The United States is experiencing the highest numbers of measles cases, outbreaks, hospitalizations and deaths in more than 30 years, driven by populations with low vaccination rates,” said California Public Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan in a statement earlier this month. “We all need to work together to share the medical evidence, benefits, and safety of vaccines to provide families the information they need to protect children and our communities.”

Containment comes with high costs

Investigating any communicable disease is time-intensive and expensive. The first three measles cases reported in L.A. County this year cost an estimated $231,000, according to a health department analysis.

Why does it cost so much? Because a disease investigation often requires a legion of public health nurses, physicians, epidemiologists and laboratory scientists to follow-up with hundreds of contacts, Balter said.

A computer shows an analysis of measles sequencing results at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health laboratory in Downey on Feb. 26, 2026. Photos Ariana Drehsler for CalMatters

That includes sometimes visiting homes or exposure sites. For example, a recent exposure at a daycare required nurses to wring urine out of used diapers to test babies for measles. County health workers monitored 246 people who had been exposed to those first three measles cases — and the work is ongoing.

On Feb. 19, the county reported its fourth measles case. All of them were related to international travel. Other cases in California also have primarily been related to travel either internationally or to states where there are outbreaks. An unvaccinated child in Napa County contracted measles in January after traveling to South Carolina.

Riverside County health officials reported one measles case where the child had not traveled recently, and Shasta County health officials suspect their first case could be related to travel in Southern California but are waiting for DNA testing for confirmation.

Orange County reported two travel-related cases this year.

Health departments have fewer resources, more cases

Local health departments rely heavily on federal funding to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, but last year, the Trump administration slashed nearly $1 billion of public health funding from California. This year it attempted to claw back another $600 million from California and three other Democratic states.

Pending lawsuits froze the cuts, but local health departments are treating the money as a lost cause because they cannot bear the financial risk if a judge eventually rules in favor of the Trump administration.

Consequently, health departments closed clinics, terminated programs and laid off dozens of workers.

“What we can do with less is less unfortunately,” Balter said. L.A. county is facing a $50 million shortfall due to federal, state and local cuts and recently closed seven public health clinics.

Health departments are also confronting decreased public confidence: The high-profile questioning of vaccine safety and effectiveness by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has complicated public health’s struggle to contain the spread of preventable infections.

California Democratic leaders are aggressively fighting Kennedy’s direction. They sued to block the administration’s new vaccine guidelines, which stripped universal recommendation from seven childhood vaccines. They blame Kennedy and the Trump administration for “dismantling” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and stoking fears over debunked claims that vaccines cause autism.

The state also released its own vaccine guidelines and formed an alliance among four western states to share public health information and recommendations.

“Everything including the outbreaks, the financial cuts, the questions from the federal government that are arising are making our work very difficult,” said Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, Orange County public health officer.

Lab Assistant Abraham Jimenez loads blood samples for automated serology testing for measles immunity status at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health laboratory in Downey on Feb. 26, 2026. Photo by Ariana Drehsler for CalMatters

Twelve years ago, Orange County was the site of California’s largest measles outbreak in decades. An exposure at Disneyland from an unknown source infected 131 Californians and spread to six states, Canada and Mexico.

The outbreak, which lasted four months, spurred state lawmakers to pass some of the strictest childhood vaccine requirements in the country.

But even a single measles case requires “vast amounts of infrastructure” to contain, Chinsio-Kwong said. On average, the department identifies and monitors 100 exposed people per case. Since the start of last year, Orange County has lost $22 million in federal cuts to public health. The department is trying to protect their communicable disease surveillance work, but it gets harder with every cut.

“We’re trying to prioritize our communicable disease control division,” health officer Chinsio-Kwong said. “There are a lot of different federal cuts, but we’re putting that as front and center: That has to be saved no matter what.”

Measles spread in unvaccinated groups

Six hundred miles north, Shasta County is grappling with its first measles cases since 2019 and the state’s largest outbreak of the year.

In late January, a sick child visited a health clinic in Redding with measles symptoms that laboratory testing later confirmed. Health officials interviewed 278 people and identified six locations where others were exposed: a restaurant, a church basketball game, a gym, a park, Costco and the clinic.

They also identified seven other cases among family members or neighbors who were in close contact with the child.

It can take 21 days from the time of exposure for measles symptoms to develop. On Feb. 19, just before the end of that period, health officials confirmed a ninth case.

That person didn’t recognize the symptoms and visited several places while contagious, including a school, a church service, a basketball game and a clinic, said Daniel Walker, a Shasta County supervising epidemiologist. Now, the contract tracing process has started over. The communicable disease team expects to interview even more people this time.

All cases have been among children who were unvaccinated or did not know their vaccination status.

“It’s a great time to get immunized, because you can’t know when you’re next going to be exposed…especially because we’re in an outbreak situation,” Walker said.

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Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

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For more than a month, Republican lawmakers in California have blasted a legislative proposal to study alternatives to the state’s gas tax, declaring it a dishonest ploy by Democrats to hike taxes on drivers — a claim that’s gone viral on social media and is frequently repeated by conservatives nationally.

Ironically, though, several of California’s biggest conservative interest groups and rural Republican officials support the legislation, some from the very districts those critical GOP lawmakers represent.

Assembly Bill 1421, introduced by Assembly Transportation Chair Lori Wilson, a Suisun City Democrat, would order the California Transportation Commission to summarize all existing research and recommendations on how to charge drivers by how much they use the road instead of how much fuel they consume.

California has taxed drivers at the gas pump since 1923 and relies on that revenue for 80% of the state’s highway maintenance and road repairs. But the state is expected to take in $31 billion less than projected over the next decade as vehicles become more fuel-efficient and more Californians switch to electric vehicles, the California Transportation Commission estimated last year.

With the shrinking revenue and growing road needs, the commission concluded that the state could fall $216 billion short of what is needed for maintenance over the next 10 years, which means roads and highways could fall further into disrepair.

“(The bill) responds to a reality that we can no longer ignore,” Wilson said at a committee hearing in January. “California’s transportation funding system is becoming less stable, less equitable and less sustainable.”

Wilson’s legislation has support from a bipartisan coalition spearheaded by Transportation California, which helped kickstart the state’s research into road use-based charges in 2014. The coalition includes major labor unions, business groups, county associations and representatives from the building and agricultural industries.

But the issue of the gas tax is so radioactive that even a bill to study alternatives could become a huge political lift for Democrats, especially for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who advocates worry could veto the bill if it even passes because of GOP backlash during his presumed presidential bid. California has the nation’s highest gas prices and Californians pay nearly 90 cents per gallon in taxes, fees and surcharges, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“It’s caught up in political drama and these guys are afraid of their political lives in the future, and so they succumb to all this pressure,” said Robert Poythress, a Republican Madera County supervisor who spent a day last week talking to lawmakers and rallying support for Wilson’s bill.

“Democrats could move forward quickly, (but) I think that they are scared to death themselves and just don’t have the political backbone.”

Deferred maintenance is backing up

The political fight and the lack of alternative solutions leave many local officials worried: They say they’ve long had to defer road projects due to declining gas tax revenue, and the projected loss could mean more dangerous roads.

“We are right before the waterfall in terms of a big drop in revenues,” said Poythress, who serves on the state’s Road Charge Technical Advisory Committee formed in 2014 to study gas tax alternatives.

Madera County had the fourth worst roads of all California counties in 2022, according to the most recent annual assessment by the California State Association of Counties. Heavyweight trucks regularly pass through the “big ag” county, which means roads deteriorate fast and require frequent maintenance, he said.

Similarly, ranchers and beef producers, who are heavy travelers, could see increased damage to their trucks, trailers or cattle as falling gas tax revenue threatens road repair funding, said Kirk Wilbur of California Cattlemen’s Association. The organization, traditionally more aligned with conservative causes, supports Wilson’s bill.

“It really can’t be understated how essential it is … for the livestock industry that we properly fund our transportation system,” he said. “I know it’s a politically fraught issue, but what is entirely clear to me is that the status quo moving into the future is entirely untenable.”

The hyper-partisan fight, Poythress said, makes him feel “ashamed” of his own party.

“It’s an election year and everybody’s lining up with all their arguments, but it’s really sad, because they are going to hurt the citizens of California in the long run,” he said.

Already, there’s been little political appetite to change the status quo, even though the state has conducted multiple studies and pilot programs of mileage-based charges since 2014. The political risk is simply too great: In 2017, Democrats mustered enough support to raise the gas excise tax by 12 cents per gallon to fund transit and road repairs, a controversial call that cost former state Sen. Josh Newman his reelection bid a year later.

The issue is especially explosive now as Californians, contending with high costs of living, consistently deem affordability a top concern. The GOP attack on Wilson’s bill forced her to publicly commit to amendments that clarify its exploratory nature. Even Newsom’s office weighed in online, stressing that the governor would not sign a mileage tax proposal.

Among some supporters of Wilson’s bill, there’s more caution than excitement. While they all agree that the gas tax revenue shortfall is problematic, no one could articulate another solution they’d prefer, with several telling CalMatters that they staunchly oppose additional taxes.

“The state believes there needs to be an (alternative),” said Justin Caporusso, executive director of the Mountain Counties Water Resources Association, which represents dozens of water districts, counties and municipalities in mountainous areas. He said he supported the bill to get a seat at the table, because state policies often “leave rural California behind.”

‘We’ve got to do something’

In 2017, then-Gov. Jerry Brown championed a 12-cent gas excise tax hike that tied the tax rate to the state Consumer Price Index, while facing a $59 billion backlog in deferred highway and bridge maintenance and $78 billion in deferred costs for local streets and roads.

It was evidence that California leaders only implement such policies when “we have no choice but to do this because we are desperate for the revenues,” said Brian Taylor, a professor of urban planning and public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

The increase provided cities and counties with $1.5 billion annually for repairs and maintenance. But the funding for each county is largely based on the number of registered vehicles in that county, which some officials say disproportionately hurts rural areas.

Tuolumne County, which was rated in 2022 as having the worst roads in California, had 77,000 registered vehicles and 609 miles of roads to maintain in fiscal year 2022-23 and received just $3 million from Brown’s gas tax increase, according to a state auditor’s report.

Ventura County, in comparison, had fewer miles of roads to maintain that year at 543. But with 780,000 registered vehicles, it claimed $14 million in funding.

Tuolumne County Supervisor Jaron Brandon, a Democrat running for state Senate who compared the two counties, said the state’s current gas tax revenue distribution hurts his county. Home to the popular Yosemite National Park, Tuolumne County roads are heavily traveled, and the area gets ample snowfall during the winter, making it harder to maintain roads, Brandon noted.

Tuolumne County Supervisor Jaron Brandon in Sacramento on Feb. 25, 2026. Brandon is running as a Democratic candidate for the state Senate’s 4th District. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr. for CalMatters

“Has the gas tax worked well for rural areas? No. Should we look at alternatives that are more fair? Absolutely,” he told CalMatters.

But until then, “we are still paying into a system (from which) we are going to get less,” he said.

Some lawmakers say it’s past time the state reformed its road repair funding.

“We’ve got to do something. Accounts are running out of money, causing projects to be canceled and deferred,” said Assemblymember Corey Jackson, a Moreno Valley Democrat who supports Wilson’s bill but said he wished the legislation went further and proposed actual policies.

In more than a decade of research, the state has studied four pilot programs examining the feasibility of funding road repairs with charges based on road use. Scholars, including Taylor, have noted privacy, equity and administrative costs as factors policymakers should consider when designing a road user charge and made recommendations to avoid pitfalls, such as charging lower rates to lower-income households instead of applying a flat rate.

Meanwhile, Oregon, Utah and Virginia have implemented voluntary road use charge programs, allowing drivers to opt into a mileage-based fee. Hawaii is the only state to adopt a mandatory charge program but is phasing it in for all light-duty vehicles by 2033.

“Do we understand the issues conceptually? Completely. Do we understand the issues technically? Mostly. Do we understand the consequences and pros and cons of different kinds of charging structures? Yes we do,” Taylor said.

But voters prefer a much gentler transition, Taylor noted. “Calling for more study is a way of saying, we are not dropping it, but we are not ready to implement it,” he said.

Even with the information from her proposed study, Wilson said legislators would still be years away from any policy decisions. But she said it would ensure legislators have all the information they need before debating policies.

“I want the Legislature to make a data-driven decision,” she said. “There’s going to be multiple options. There’s no silver bullet to address declining gas tax revenue.”

Suspend the gas tax instead?

Republicans who oppose the legislation aren’t letting up. Following a largely partisan vote to pass Wilson’s bill out of the Assembly, several GOP lawmakers made false claims online that the bill would impose a new tax on every mile a Californian drives. The posts drew outrage nationwide, with some starting petitions online to “abolish the proposed mileage tax.”

“It is a mileage tax plan. It’s not a study,” Assembly Budget Committee Vice Chair David Tangipa, a Fresno Republican, claimed at a press conference last week, even though the bill does not include any language to implement a mileage tax.

To “combat” Wilson’s bill, Republicans proposed a one-year suspension of the state’s gas tax, arguing that it would give drivers relief at the pump, where gas prices are higher than the national average. When asked how else the state would pay for road repairs, Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez, a Coachella Republican who authored the bill proposing a suspension, said the state should use money from the general fund, the state’s primary account.

But the proposal, as well as the GOP blowback against Wilson’s bill, are largely “political theater” that hurts Republican constituents and does not help local governments’ funding strains, Poythress said.

“We are going to have to see more significant declines in revenues before the Legislature on both sides of the aisle decides that it’s a very serious matter and decides to move forward.”

Frances Marrs, age 77 of McKinleyville, went to be with the Lord peacefully in her home on Monday February 16. She was born on July 1, 1948, to Lois Allien Grace and James Murdock Daggs in Victoria, Texas. When she was young her family moved to Fairhaven on the Samoa peninsula. She was raised in a loving home with three brothers and one sister. They were best friends — she and her sister Betty spent hours playing on the sand dunes, or building creative houses out of wooden blocks their father would bring in for the fireplace. A favorite past time was making their own stew on the campfires out back out of the vegetables they got from the garden and making pretend blackberry wine from the berries they picked.

 Frances was such a light in the world, from the time she was young she would help anyone and everyone who needed it. She even shared her beautiful daughter Tina with her sister. She was lucky enough to have 2 moms that she knew could depend on each other. Not only did she have her daughter, but she also helped raise so many other children as her own. She had many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews and became GG to everyone. One of her favorite things to do as she gained all these children in her life, was put them to sleep for naps or bedtime, from rocking them to sleep or laying with them to listen to the frogs at bedtime.

She loved being outdoors, from gardening to sitting out in the sun watching her grandchildren play, to going to yard sales and finding treasures to take home. She was an animal lover through and through. They were her babies as well. She also loved crafting and sewing as she got older, and teaching all she could to the numerous children and people in her life.

Frances was preceded in death by her two brothers, her mother and father as well as her daughter., and is survived by far too many family members to list, as well as extended family. I also want to thank her best friend Kathy for all the calls and love through their lifelong friendship.

A special thanks to Ayres Crematorium for being so kind during this hard time and helping guide us through all of the necessary arrangements. 

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This musicial memoir and others can be found on Paul DeMark’s Substack.

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Something got a hold of me while playing drums with Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarist Hubert Sumlin on the Jambalaya Club’s stage.

In January of 1976 I moved to Arcata. The college and counterculture vibe suited me. Humboldt County loved live music and had an amazing number of excellent musicians and nightclubs. I thought, ‘I could live here for a while.’

I was playing drums three nights a week with local country music veterans, the Sons of Redwood Country, at Harvey’s Club. It was a rowdy country music honky tonk near Fortuna. I made $50 cash a night playing four sets from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Real good money in those days. 

My friend Harry Duncan called me in early March and asked if I could free myself to play a six-week West Coast tour beginning in April. I’d be playing again with the great Chicago blues pianist and singer Sunnyland Slim. I came out to California with him on a tour in 1972. 

Our guitarist for the tour would be Hubert Sumlin. He played and recorded with Howlin’ Wolf for 20 years. His guitar playing strongly influenced Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and even Jimi Hendrix.

Of course, I said yes. Harry said one of the stops would be the Jambalaya Club, in my new home of Arcata, for a couple of dates in April. Two shows a night.

After playing some Bay Area clubs for a week, we headed north. The band had already created a cool chemistry. I learned what an amazing musician Hubert was. He played with joy, creativity and a unique style. In 1954, Wolf reached out to Hubert in Mississippi asking him to move to Chicago to join his popular blues band. At Wolf’s demand, Hubert tossed away his guitar pick and played his electric guitar with his fingers, old-school Mississippi Delta-blues style.

Hubert was a funny and affectionate guy. For some reason, he took a liking to me. I’d spend as much time with him offstage as I could. He made me laugh. Once he put his arm around my shoulders backstage and said, “Paul, you ain’t nothing but a scuttlebucker.”

“What’s that, Hubert?” He said, “When I think someone’s a nice guy I call them a scuttlebucker. If I think they’re a son of a bitch, I call them a scownbucker.”

I was new to town, but I had already booked some gigs at the Jambalaya. Musicians Fred Neighbor and Joyce Hough opened the venue in 1973. It had become the cultural nightclub of Arcata. Jazz, bluegrass, jam sessions, poetry readings and dance bands – often Fred and Joyce of Freddy and The Starliners – were featured on a weekly basis.

The club had rarely booked a touring Chicago blues band. But interest in the music was high. By the time we arrived in Arcata, the 120-person capacity club had sold out four shows in two days. 

Sunnyland, ever the entertainer, was in a fine mood looking out at the crowd. “Ladies and gentleman, we have someone in the band who lives in your town, our drummer Paul DeMark,” he announced. I received some applause since I was a local but I was virtually unknown to the audience.

We played Sunnyland’s usual mixture of uptempo Chicago blues shuffles, swing tunes and slow blues. “Darling, can I have a glass of California wine?” he asked the bartender. A waitress appeared with some California red wine.

The crowd was appreciative and excited by the music. During Sunnyland’s uptempo shuffle, “She’s Got a Thing Goin’ On,” Sunnyland called for Hubert to take a solo.

As Hubert began soloing, he locked his eyes with mine. With a mischievous smile, he slowly walked over the stage to me. He closed in, raised his black-and-white Rickenbacker guitar neck and pointed it at my eyes. He had a smile that seemed on the verge of laughter. The full force of his joyful and close presence, and his extraordinary guitar playing, lit up my mind and body. The feeling he projected was tangible.   

By the end of the tour, I understood one couldn’t play with these blues masters without feeling the music deeply. They told me that’s what they cared about musically.  

I was talking to Hubert a few weeks after the Jambalaya shows. “Paul, I don’t know why, but you feel this music like Sunnyland and I do,” he said. I didn’t know exactly why either, but I know I felt it. They brought it out of me.

I was lucky and honored to play music with them as a young man. They changed my musical life forever.

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Author’s note: There will be another story about Hubert Sumlin in the future. Thank you to Pamela Long for editing and Julian DeMark for photo scanning. 

On this week’s EcoNews Report, Assemblymember Chris Rogers joins the program to discuss this year’s legislative session. Asm. Rogers has emerged as an enviro legislative darling, with bills like year’s AB 263, which established minimum instream flow protections for the Shasta and Scott Rivers. Asm. Rogers joins the show to preview three new and exciting bills: 

AB 1984 would redefine corporate powers under state law to remove corporation’s ability to spend money on elections. (Asm. Rogers recommends this article to learn more.)

AB 1699 would remove operational hurdles to prescribed fire and address liability issues with the goal of expanding “good fire.”

AB 2494 would reimagine state-owned demonstration forests, changing their management goals from “maximum sustained production” of timber to managing for climate, clean water, wildlife, and more.

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December 14, 1916 was just another cold, foggy morning along the Humboldt coast until three Samoa schoolboys on the school grounds at 8:30 a.m. thought they saw a whale on the beach through the mists. “Pat” Gallagher, a Humboldt Times newsboy, Robert Hensel and Curtis Peterson ran across some small dunes to get a better look and discovered the U. S. submarine the H-3 wallowing in the breakers.

The boys informed the doubtful teachers, Nina Graham and Esther Merkey, who checked and then sent the boys to notify Walter Pratt, chief electrician for the Hammond Lumber Company. Pratt immediately phoned authorities in Eureka, who sent the coast guard cutter to the scene. The cutter was helpless in the sea as the submarine was practically on the shore. Men from the Humboldt Bay Life Station were on their way up the ocean beach with two horses pulling their heavy equipment, and several men hauled lighter equipment on handcarts.

Until 9 a.m. there was no one on the beach except the students. They watched the craft dip into the waves, first on one side and then on the other. I was never allowed on the beach without my parents, but when Barbara McMillan told me there was a boat on the beach and that there was no school that day, I forgot I had parents and a home and scurried to have a look at what I thought was a wrecked red boat.

There was no sign of life aboard but occasional bursts from the sub’s whistle revealed that someone was calling for assistance. By this time parents and other adults of Samoa were straggling to the beach, housework postponed. This was an unusual occurrence, and the youngsters at this unscheduled field trip were totally unaware of the significance of this news to the nation.

Shorty before 11 a.m. the life saving crew arrived from their five-mile hike. Though the men were tired they went to work at once. They were often hampered by the crowds of people who had been filtering in all morning.

One of the older boys of Samoa, Harry Morian, who was a Boy Scout, arrived on the scene with semaphore flags. He was assisted by Kenneth Farley, another Scout. When a member of the sub’s crew appeared topside, Harry sent a communication inquiring if any lives had been lost. The answer was “No,” but he reported that fumes inside the hull were causing some discomfort. It was also mentioned that a crewman had lost two fingers.

It was about this time that my mother and small sister appeared and I was jolted back to reality. They were happy to find me and after escorting me home for a quick lunch, we all returned to the beach for the rest of the day. The life-saving crew found the high wintry seas and the high tide troublesome as they attempted to shoot a line to the wreck. Time and again a Lyle Gun (small cannon) was employed to shoot a rope to the derelict vessel. Men aboard the sub would appear, and if they caught the rope they would lose it. Seasickness and gas fumes had weakened them.

The station keeper eventually found it necessary to send for a surfboat. When it arrived, surfmen were dispatched to the submarine. A member of the local crew, Werner Sweins, leaped from the prow of the boat and scrambled aboard the sub with the line. If he had lost his footing there would have been little chance of rescuing him.

Sweins fastened the line on the sub and the crowd eagerly awaited action. A bystander on the beach took the hawser and fastened it to a redwood stump. It was at that time that a massive swell rolled the submarine seaward and the slackless line snapped. The entire process started over again, and this time it was successful. When Sweins returned to the beach through the pounding surf, he received a round of applause from the onlookers. Before leaving the sub, he had raised flags revealing that all men aboard were safe.

The hawser tying the submarine to the beach hung just atop the breakers and was just right for shooting the breeches buoy (seat resembling short trousers) to the sub. After eight or more hours in their gassy prison the men were ready for their release. Just before dark we watched the first man roll down the hawser. The crowd was entirely sympathetic as each man was submerged in the icy breakers before coming to shore in the biting wind. 

Residents had been gathering blankets and clothes and had a fire roaring and hot coffee ready for the rescued men. Nurses and a doctor were also on hand. The blankets were attached to poles making a room and a windbreak. The refugees, all of whom were saved, were housed with Samoa residents until the next day. It was the wreck of the submarine that led to the losing of the heavy cruiser, the U.S.S. Milwaukee. The cruiser, with two other ships, the navy tug Iroquoise and the U.S. monitor Cheyenne, attempted to pull the sub seaward but failed. All cut their lines after the hawser between the Milwaukee and the Cheyenne broke, but for the Milwaukee it was too late. She made her berth on the beach for all time on January 13, 1917.

The submarine’s fate was put to bid, with Mercer-Fraser being awarded the contract. After several months the vessel was transported across the sand into the bay. She was towed to Mare Island where she underwent extensive repairs.

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Lena Catherine Petty, 105, died peacefully and gracefully in her sleep on January 13, 2026 in Vancouver, Wash. Lena lived in Humboldt County for 91 years until moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2011. She is remembered for her kindness and empathy, zest for life and sense of humor, abundant energy, prodigious memory, and warm welcoming smile.

Lena was born on June 19, 1920 on her parents’ farm above the Eel River in Holmes Flat and baptized Madalena Caterina Sequestri. Her Aunt Nettie called her “Lena” from the beginning, and the name stuck. Lena’s parents, Tito Lino Sequestri and Rosalia Brambani, emigrated from the Lake Como area of Northern Italy in the early 1900s. Tito was a hand bucker and crosscut sawyer for Pacific Lumber Company. Lena lost her father at age 5, when he was drowned in the flooding Eel while helping to save boats used for crossing to the work site at Shively. Her mother followed him in death from pneumonia 5 years later. Two young brothers died in early childhood.

Lena often spoke of the intense poverty that her family experienced during the years after Tito’s death as her mother strove to raise three young children. The struggle seemed to nurture Lena’s curious nature as she described happy memories spent with her brother Pietro Lino (Peter Lee) and sister Maria Domenica (Mary). More than 90 years later she still recalled their two-story farmhouse, the two-room Holmes school house, and train and bus rides into Fortuna and Eureka. She remembered visiting a gypsy camp on the river bank where she found a tube of lipstick, and walking with her brother and sister out to Highway 101 in the Redwoods to watch the Native American marathon runners.

After Rosalia’s death in 1931, the three Sequestri children were taken in by different relatives. Lena moved to Eureka to live with her mother’s first cousin, Carlo (Charlie) Maffia, his wife Mary Albini and their sons Sero (Sag), Rinaldo (Nard) and Carlo (Charlie) in their home on West Clark Street. A lasting memory of that time was Nard teaching her to drive so she could get a hardship driver’s license when she was 15. She drove for her “Papa and Mamma Maffia”, going even as far as San Francisco which was a two-day trip in those days. The anxiety of making it up hills like Table Bluff haunted her for the entire trip. When she got her first Oregon Driver’s License at age 91, the clerk told her she had never given a license to someone who had been driving for more than 70 years. Lena passed the difficult test on the first try. She drove until she was 97, turning in her last license on the same day Saudi Arabia gave women the right to drive. Always interested in current events, Lena said she thought that was a fair trade.

She fondly remembered making ravioli with Mamma Maffia and strolling arm and arm together for evening passeggiate around Eureka’s Little Italy. She told stories of the lively neighborhood of Italians, Irish, Germans, Greeks and Czechoslovakians, and vividly remembered the horrible night when the Colivas grocery store burned down. She loved taking the streetcar to get ice cream at the Bon Boniere in what is now Old Town. Every year before Christmas she and Mamma Maffia carried sacks of oranges to give to tuberculosis patients at the county hospital. They carried the heavy sacks on the streetcar out Myrtle Avenue, and continued up the Harrison Street hill on foot. In the summers she joined her brother and sister on her beloved Zio Tony Albini’s ranch at Alton and later in Ferndale, happy to be with her siblings and to help Tony with his chores. Every time Lena rode on old 101 past the eucalyptus trees at Alton, she reminded us that we were driving over Tony’s carrot patch. For many years she joined Tony’s family in Ferndale for annual sausage making.

After her first years in the small Holmes school house, Lena attended Jefferson Elementary and Eureka Junior and Senior High Schools, graduating in 1938. After graduation she attended Eureka Business College and was hired at S.H. Kress as head floor walker. During World War II she became the ticket agent at the Greyhound Bus Lines, a job she loved because she heard stories of other places and was even allowed to drive an empty bus occasionally. In the early 1960s she worked in sales at Daly Brothers’ Department Store, starting in the men’s department. She managed the Daly’s Fortuna store for a while before returning to be assistant manager in the Bargain Center. In the mid-1960s she was offered a newly created job in the accounting department at the Eureka City Schools where she worked until retirement in 1988. She loved all her jobs, never leaving because she didn’t like them but for a new opportunity. Until she moved to Oregon in 2011 she met Eureka High classmates and former coworkers for lunch every month.

The outbreak of World War II affected Lena deeply, as it did her entire generation. She described collapsing to the floor when she heard about the Pearl Harbor attack on the radio while changing her bed that December morning. She knew her brother was in the Navy somewhere near Hawaii. He was safe then but would later lose a leg in the attack and sinking of his ship, the USS Monsson, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942.

At Christmas, 1943, Lena began dating the older brother, Reginald, of two close friends from high school, Frances and Durward Petty. A few weeks later at the end of January 1944, Lena drove with Reg’s parents Charles and Irene to visit Reg at Camp Adair near Corvallis, OR. There they decided spontaneously to drive to Vancouver, WA and be married by a justice of the peace. They did not tell their own children until they were nearly adults themselves about this quick courtship, fearing it might set a bad example. But because Lena knew Reg’s family so well by then, she felt like she already knew him. She traveled with him during his medical training to Illinois and Texas until he received orders to ship out to the Philippines. Always ready for adventure, Lena drove their convertible back to Eureka alone.

In the early 1950s Lena and Reg owned a meat market at 5th and L until they sold it so Reg could take over a Fuller Brush distributorship. In 1958 Reg became an insurance salesman, first for MetLife and then The Travelers. During these years Lena took on a few side hustles. For years she made potato salad from her own recipe for most of the markets in Eureka and Arcata. Every week she set up an assembly line of kids and friends to peel boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, chop celery and mix the condiments. All measurements were done by Lena’s eye, no recipe. She sold Irish Sweepstakes Tickets, an illegal endeavor at the time. She also worked for a while for Gallup Polls, interviewing people in their homes. She told stories of meeting people in alleys to sell tickets and of interviewing interesting people, including her first encounter with a Buddhist. “A Buddhist!” she said, thrilled by the new experience. She and Reg managed these enterprises as a team in their home on 8th Street, where Lena lived for 65 years.

After Reg’s sudden death in 1970, Lena was introduced by friends to Alfred “Al” Foster because they were both great dancers. Al became her companion and dancing partner for 30 years. They were well known on the Dixieland Jazz Festival circuit where onlookers loved to watch their graceful, close and fast West Coast Swing style. They could be seen dancing in Eureka at the Moose Lodge, the Friendship Circle and to their favorite band, the Hall Street Honkers, at the Red Lion.

Lena’s love of travel must have begun on those early train rides to Eureka from Holmes. She made many trips to Europe alone and with family and friends. She especially enjoyed time in Switzerland with her son and his family, where she also made several new friends. Highlights of her trips included seeing cousins and visiting her mother’s village, Garzeno above Lake Como. She also spent a memorable vacation with friends in the Valle Maggia above Locarno on Lago Maggiore. Her unequalled stamina was seen when she hiked thousands of feet to one of the tallest dams in Switzerland. Lena’s remarkable memory and love of learning never waned. She chronicled her trips, making detailed notes on all the sights and monuments. At age 87, she traveled twice to Italy and toured museums and ruins with equal interest, showing a keen appreciation for art and history—and gelato for breakfast.

Lena actively volunteered in the Eureka community. She sold annual subscriptions to the Community Concerts series, volunteered for the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, and helped serve lunch weekly at the St. Vincent de Paul Dining Facility. She was a member of the Sons of Italy, the Italian Catholic Federation and the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. She helped host the Redwood Coast Jazz Festival (now the Redwood Coast Music Festival). On her own she often spent her lunch hours visiting people she knew who were in a hospital or nursing home.

Lena described herself as a shy child. She learned to lead with her famous smile, breaking the ice with everyone she met. In the mornings she faithfully visited local coffee shops, first Deb’s until it closed, then the 305 and finally The Pantry, to enjoy tea and toast while reading the three newspapers she bought every day. She made many friends during these morning sojourns. Over the years more than one checked up on her if she failed to show up for a couple of mornings. After retirement, she followed these outings with time at the Adorni Center gym, long afternoon walks and ending with tea at Ramone’s or Border’s Books.

Lena was observant of those around her, accepting their failures and quirks, though quick to point out ways to improve. She was definite in her opinions but kind and often funny in their delivery. Her secret power was helping people find and accept love, making friends everywhere she went. “Never go to sleep angry,” she would say. She enjoyed mentoring young people, and many called and visited her for advice over the years. In recognition of that gift, she and Reg (posthumously) were honored in 1973 by the National CYO for their work as advisers to Catholic youth. She followed current events avidly, volunteering for many years as a poll worker for the elections office. She enjoyed all music, babied her tart cherry tree in the backyard that she grew from a cutting, organized long camping trips and always kept a suitcase ready for travel. Above all she loved her family, her Italian Heritage and Catholic Faith, and Eureka. Within minutes of meeting her, people would hear that she was from “Eureka, California, in the Redwoods, on the Coast.”

In 2011 Lena moved to Lake Oswego, Oregon to live near her daughter. At 91 she was ready for a new adventure and was often found surrounded by a group of friends in the social lounge of her retirement community. Another move in 2023 took her to Vancouver, Wash., back where she had first begun her married life.

In addition to her parents and young brothers, Lena outlived her brother Peter Lee Sequestri and sister Mary McManus, her Maffia foster parents and brothers, her husband Reginald Petty, her long-time companion and dancing partner Alfred Foster, her daughter-in-law Tana Lyn Wells, and most of her generation of family and friends. She is survived by her son David of Etoy, Switzerland; her daughter Diana and husband John Bosshardt of Vancouver, Wash.; her grandson Damien and wife Kirsten of Los Angeles; her niece Joanne Sequestri Kratzwald and nephew Tom Smith; grandnephew Guy Smith and grandnieces Debbi Logue Lal and Kitty Bryan; several generations of cousins in the extended Maffia and Brambani families; and many friends from several generations. Barbara Maffia Westlake, Lynn Maffia McKenna and Linda Albini Beatty were not only her “foster nieces” but close friends.

The family are grateful to Gigi and Julia Bittar, Evelia Lim and Casey Heist of G&J In Home Care who cared for Lena in her home in Lake Oswego for several years, and to the dedicated staff at Touchmark at Fairway Village Memory Care in Vancouver. Her final days were greatly eased by Providence Hospice of Portland. Those who wish to make gifts in Lena’s memory are invited to contribute to the Sequoia Humane Society (6073 Loma Ave., Eureka, CA 95503), the St. Vincent de Paul Dining Facility (P O Box1386, Eureka, CA 95502), or the Redwood Coast Music Festival (P O Box 314, Eureka, CA 95502).

A rosary will begin at 10:30 a.m., followed by mass and reception, on April 25 at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church, 615 H St., Eureka. Lena will be interred at Oceanview Cemetery, in a private ceremony.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Lena Petty’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.