Wildfire Storm
Wildfire Storm
This title sounds strange to me like the words don't go together. This is nothing but a post of how I am feeling about our circumstances right now.
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| Oregon Fires 9/17/20 - over a million acres burned |
Labor Day, September 7th, 2020 I was notified the evening before that there was a storm coming in that contained high winds, dry weather, and low humidity and would hit the Portland area hard on Monday. This was the making of a firestorm. This is nothing like what we get in our area of the world. I've never even heard of anything like this, ever. What makes this worse is that we are in the heart of Fire Season. We were already dealing with a brand new fire (Lions Head) that broke out on our Backpacking trip, White River that broke out on the East side of Mt Hood just a week prior, and Mosier Fire that broke out early in the season that was fully contained. There were other fires that were not as significant that were already contained including the Green Ridge. Labor day I decided I better leave Haystack Reservoir early to beat the wind storm, as I didn't want to get caught in it. This was feeling all too familiar as three years prior we were leaving Haystack and facing the Eagle Creek fire. On the way home there were announcements about PGE shutting down the power on Mt Hood and all the surrounding towns including Brightwood, Rhodendron, all the way into parts of Sandy. The thought was that the wind would take down powerlines causing sparks that would cause fires.
I arrived home 30mins later than I had planned, unloaded most of the trailer, and hunkered down to watch the wind storm. At first, it didn't feel like anything big. Just wind. I almost felt like this was going to be overrated. But something about it didn't feel right. As the night progressed on Lionshead fire took off. New fires were popping up all over the place.
- The Holiday Farm Fire broke out near Eugene and everyone had just gone down to college to get ready for a new school year. Friends in that area were already being evacuated. Things were progressing quickly.
- Hagg Lake had two fires in the area and was already calling for evacuations.
Tuesday morning meant evacuations were happening all over the Santiam Pass. The prior Saturday they were evacuating people out of Jefferson Park because Lionshead had switched direction and was headed west. Beachie Creek fire that had started a couple weeks prior was just a little fire that was almost contained, but the storm that came in blew up both of these fires into a huge storm. We were all worried about what would happen with these two fires because they grew hundreds of acres overnight.
Not only were we worried about current fires growing but a whole new mess of fires were starting.
- a brand new fire 1/2 mile southeast of Estacada called the Riverside Fire.
- A small fire broke out in Colton and another one near Molalla. All these were in the same general area but close in. Fires this close to town down typically happen. It didn't take long for these fires to get out of control either.
Another new fire broke out Monday evening but became significant this morning at the coast in the small town of Otis just outside of Lincoln City called the Echo Mountain Fire. Within hours people were asked to evacuate. They went from a level one Monday night to Level 3 Tuesday Morning. I immediately thought of Brian and Jenn's parents.
By Wednesday morning a whole new fire broke out in the Roseburg area called Archie Creek. It was shutting down I5 and sending everyone into a frenzy. Riverside Fire was growing rapidly. Lionshead had took out Breitenbush Hot Springs, and a few towns in the Santiam. Another fire across the river broke out called Mad Hatter and was making a mess of Hwy 22. Beachie Creek was growing and heading north threatening Colton, Mill City, Scotts Mill. Rumor had it that Silver Falls is burnt.
By this time everything is becoming a blur, the worry was setting in, but who and what to worry about was becoming unclear between family, friends, community, self. Who do I help, should we be evacuating? The Wershey's were elevated to Level 2. All of Clackamas County was on a Level of some sort. I truly felt like this is what California feels like. I left to go teach a class in North Gresham at 5pm and the smoke had started rolling in. By the time my class started the sky was filled with smoke. By the time I left my class, it was bad. When I got home the worry was intense. I had gotten phone calls asking if friends could store their stuff at our house. The winds had just started to die down but I knew that it was only going to slow things down. There was no way our fire crews were going to be able to contain all of these fires. The Governor was not asking for help, no Federal Aid, No Fire crews, No Hot Shots, No National Guard. Nothing. There was no talk about what was happening in Multnomah County. What was weird was there were no big fires in Multnomah County. Just Clackamas, Marion, Washington Counties. Earlier today that National Forests were officially closed. No entry.
Thursday, 9/10/20, brought a whole new set of problems. No fires were being contained. There was simply not enough help. Fire Departments were helping out and didn't have a lot of resources so people went on Social media asking for supplies for our Firefighters. I grabbed everything we had around the house packed it up and took it over to Jenny Bryne's house for her son to take to Hoodland and Sandy Fire Depts. I went and resupplied our goods, stocked up on groceries, and started making plans for evacuation. We hadn't put away the trailer yet, and I told Jason not to bother. Instead, we cleaned it out, restocked the cupboards with food. Started shooting videos of our belongings and uploaded them to the cloud. I put together lists of what to grab, packed groceries in the kitchen and started discussing where we would go.
I made the mistake of going out to Gerens to stock up on Cat food in case of evacuation. On the way out evacuation, levels increased again. I got the alert on my phone but I couldn't read it without my glasses. I noticed on the drive out that Good Sheperd Church was creating an evacuation lot for RV's. Mt Hood Equestrian was taking in livestock. When I pulled in to Gerens the parking lot was full of livestock trailers, the staff behind the counter was on the phone crying and scared. I was there to pick up cat food but immediately felt bad for purchasing flowers while they are worried about evacuations. A part of me was not worried about the Evacuations but a part of me was. Instead, I thought I would try to stick with some kind of normal and purchased the flowers anyway. I'm sure it sounded crazy, but I didn't care. We all handle stress differently. As I was purchasing my stuff they were talking about closing the store and leaving to evacuate their homes. People were running in through the door trying to grab last-minute things. It got overwhelming really quick. The employees were worried about getting stuck in traffic and not being able to get out. As I was leaving and entering back on to the freeway I was met with an insane amount of RVs and livestock trailers which made it challenging to get back on to the freeway. Traffic was moving slow, but it was moving. I kept my cool but cried the whole way home. If this wasn't real, I don't know what is.
I still felt like we had no representation for Multnomah county. Clackamas was spreading. Almost all of their Levels 1's had moved to Level 2's. Much of their Level 2's had moved to Level 3, but we hadn't even gotten a Level 1 yet. People were talking about Antifa purposely started these fires and were trying to burn down our city. This was my breaking point. I couldn't take it anymore I was about to just stop looking at Facebook when the news channels started talking about how Extremist groups didn't have anything to do with the fires. There were random acts of people starting fires in their area but had nothing to do with any of the wildfires. Then it was announced that the Riverside Fire was caused by humans. That sent everyone into a whole new set of blaming. I couldn't take it anymore and started sharing the news about all the claims being false. That of course had a handful of my redneck friends in an uproar of which I didn't care. Then the FBI released a statement about the extremist groups not starting the fires. This time I was being ignored. I was fine with that.
Sadly, I wish I could say things improved from here but they did not. The Wershey's were put in a Level 3 evacuation "go now". They were not responding to messages anymore. I tried not to worry, but I couldn't. I had Chey reach out to Baylie. She said they were evacuating and sounded really stressed. Needless to say, I never heard from them until Friday night. Ugh. That was awful.
By Friday 9/11/20 the smoke in the air was unbearable. It was seeping into our house. We are currently showing the worst air quality in the world. The fires were still raging. Lionshead and Beachie Creek fires had merged into one big fire with very little containment and have been renamed the Santiam Canyon Fire. Washington County was under control. Echo Mt was still blazing. Eugene and Roseburg were still blazing. Assholes were starting small fires all over the place. All of our police departments are overwhelmed. The 911 calls were backlogged. Ash has been falling from the sky for days now. Reports of looting is breaking out in Clackamas County. The smoke is so bad that you can barely see to drive anywhere. Schools have announced that they will not be starting on Monday and will be delaying another week. Almost all of the towns in the Santiam are gone. The worst is feared many dead, thousands of people evacuated across the state. Many staying with friends and family which has gotten the government worried about the increase in COVID which had been dropping quickly. We had finally gotten below 200 cases per day.
The good news is that the blame had stopped on social media about who is starting the fires. Instead, I'm seeing tons of people out helping each other. Helping their communities.
I finally heard back from the Wershey's. They are safe and at home. They had left their home on Wednesday as soon as the Evac was given. They ended up staying in a friend's shop, the dogs were a wreck, the family was stressed and overwhelmed. They got a call that night saying one of their neighbors was being looted, so Keith and Renee went back and patrolled their property. They got little sleep that night. So Thursday morning they decided to go back home and protect their property. All of the goats were moved to safety. Even though their property was severely smoky the dogs were less stressed, and so was the family. They were keeping an eye on the fires and a few of the neighbors were banding together to create a militia of security watching their neighbors property, stopping people that were coming through making sure they lived in the area.
Saturday, 9/12/20: well the world is still burning here. There have been no changes in the weather, the fires are still burning. Evacuation notices are holding steady with most of Clackamas County under a level 3. Very little is left at Level 2 and 1. Everyone is worried. The smoke was terrible. We had gone out to run some errands and couldn't believe how awful it was.
The Wershey's decided that they still wanted to host a birthday party for Baylie since she missed her 16th birthday because of them moving. They didn't want to miss two years in a row. Baylie was super stressed so she really needed it for her mental wellbeing. We decided to go and support. She was surprised as she had canceled it because of everything going on. I was surprised at how many people still showed up. It goes to show the support within their community of friends.
I expected the drive in their direction to be bad, and it was. The smoke was getting in the car and we were coughing before we even got there. I was surprised to find that they had their doors open, but maybe they were accustomed to it. We stayed inside most of the time we were there. As the party was winding down I got worried about the time and the curfew that was set in place. The militia definitely had a presence and I had no intention of stopping for them. So Keith got us an escort out of their neighborhood. No sooner did we pass the Barton store we were pulled over by the Multnomah County sheriff and who was checking to see if we were looters. We were quickly released on our way. What was surprising is that the drive home was a lot worse than the drive there. There were times that I couldn't see a foot in front of me. There stagnant air pockets where the wind was moving at all. It was pretty bad.
Sunday, 9/13/20: I think the smoke has reached its peak. It's definitely bad today. I'm struggling to keep the smoke out of the house even with the doors and windows closed. We stayed home all day minimizing even stepping outside to do anything. I ran 'clean air' essential oils through the diffuser, on the stove and through the candle heated warmers. I think it helped.
Jason's work closed and wont reopen until the air quality improves. Right now the news is stated that the air quality has reached a hazardous level. They've advised all businesses that require people to work outside to close. Currently they are saying that we have the worst air quality in the world. THE WORLD! can you believe that? I have to say I'm getting stir crazy being locked inside and the smoke seems much worse than the Eagle Creek Fire three years ago.
We got notice that one of our Scout Camps received some damage. Butte Creek lost all of their Adirondacks, the buildings and the barns all survived. Looks like we will have some work to do there. All of our other camps are fine.
Monday, 9/14/20: I think I've reached a new level of stir crazy. I want out of here. I have looked at the closest location for a drive that would get some blue skies. Utah is the closest followed by Colorado. Can you believe that? Wow. Sadly, the rain is not coming in until Thursday that was originally predicted for Tuesday. This doesn't surprise me, I kinda saw it coming. But I'm disappointed. That means that this is hanging around longer.
The good news is that yesterday they raised the evacuation notices. Almost everyone in level 2 was raised to level 1. But there are still no changes to Level 3 evacuees. The Govenor has stated that we have reached over a million acres burned. That's just mind boggling to think about. Not much of anything has been contained. Echo fire has 20% containment, Chelan Fire has 50% containment.But we are still at 0% on Riverside.
I was able to escape the confinements of the house for a quick run to Costco with Jacquie. Even though we had fun and it was much needed, the smoke was horrible. I taught a cycle class at the gym and it felt good but my lungs protested a bit. We got through it and it felt good. It definitely calmed me down.
Tuesday, 9/15/20: The smoke looks a little bit better. Unfortunately, it doesn't feel better on my lungs. We are still rated hazardous and I think my lungs are sensitive at this point. I've been staying indoors except a few errands here and there. I've had headaches almost every day since all of this started. Sunday was the worst, I had to take ibuprofen.
The fires are still showing very little containment. Chelan was announced its 100% contained! Yeah! Though they reduced the evacuation notices a bit. We are starting to hear about some of the damage and lives lost, though I think this only the beginning. I've tried to take a break from the news today as its getting to be too much.
Wednesday 9/16/20: Today we got hit with dense fog on top of the smoke so it looks worse but supposedly it's supposed to be better out there. The sky are less orange/yellow and more white. But still no blue skies, no sun. The scouts have scheduled a 20mile hike this weekend, and were supposed to have rain tomorrow and Friday which should clear the skies. The temps have been much cooler than predicted because the programs used to predict the weather can't take the smoke in as part of the configuring. It feels like 55 to 65 out there, but its hard to predict because I'm not out there very long.
I have however noticed that the garage doesn't smell of smoke anymore. That's a move in the right direction. Also, the fires are starting to be contained. Riverside is now 3% contained, Echo is 40% contained, Beachie Creek is 40% contained, Lionshead is 10% contained. I've been watching this one move north over Olallie Lake resort and still heading north across the PCT. I fear we will have a lot of work to do in that area as well. Even Whiteriver is showing improvement at 80% containment. They have been sitting at 70% for such a long time that I thought maybe there was no one working it. The state has announced that we have been approved for an emergency declaration that would bring in funds for recovery by the state, individuals and get more help from firefighters from out of state. It seems like this is a late call and should've happened a long time ago, but what do I know. I'm not in their shoes.
