(From Nehalem Bay Health District social media post – May 15, 2026)
Update on Water Damage at Nehalem Bay Health Center and Pharmacy
This is an update for the community regarding an internal water line connection failure this week at the Nehalem Bay Health Center and Pharmacy in Wheeler.
Sometime late Monday or early Tuesday – May 11 or 12 – a water line connection in a ceiling area failed and a significant amount of clean water spread throughout the first floor of the facility. Health Center staff discovered the situation as they arrived to open the building early Tuesday morning. Nehalem Bay Fire and Rescue personnel responded quickly, as did Wheeler Public Works and water and power in the building was turned off.
Staff members quickly took up brooms and squeegees to direct water outside the building. There were no injuries and minimal damage to equipment and furnishings.
By late morning Tuesday water had been substantially moved out of the building and Servpro, a firm specializing in cleanup of such events, was onsite to begin efforts to dry the areas where water had penetrated baseboards or drywall. By Wednesday nearly all affected vinyl baseboards had been removed in order to facilitate drying that is being accomplished with dehumidifying equipment. Repairs to baseboard and sheetrock will begin when drying is complete, likely by the weekend.
The Health Center was able to operate the pharmacy and dental departments on Wednesday and those services are ongoing. It is hoped that full Health Center services will resume next week.
Health District president Marc C. Johnson said of the incident:
“While the Health District certainly regrets this unfortunate event we want to applaud the extremely quick and effective response from all who helped get water quickly out of the building. The quick response clearly minimized damage.
“Having said that no one expects a water line failure in a very new building, but unfortunately despite inspections and testing such events are not unheard of. The District, its contractor and subcontractors, have appropriate levels of insurance and facility equipment remains under warranty.
“The Health Center and Pharmacy will fully and quickly recover from this and will be back in full operation as soon as humanly possible.”
Both the board of the Health District that owns the facility and the Health Center leadership and staff who provide health care services thank our supportive community for their understanding.
We will continue to provide updates in the days ahead.
