Oregon on Fire

[dreamshark]

On Wednesday evening Lena sent me a photo with the excited audio notation: "Gramma, guess what! Here it is all yellow and without even a filter or playing a trick, I promise!" The picture of her back yard was a little blurry but not especially yellow, to her chagrin. "Oh no! On my camera it doesn't tell that it's all yellow! But it is because the sun is all red because there's smoke from a fire somewhere close to our house. It's 15 miles away."

I knew there were fires raging in California, but Oregon had barely been mentioned at this point. 15 miles away? Surely not? So I talked to Amber and Lena had it right. The southern end of the county they live in (Clackamas) was burning. Two days later the fires are still out of control but don't seem to be getting any closer. There are a lot of natural (and unnatural) barriers in the way, including an 8-lane freeway, which makes a pretty good firebreak. If the infernal Santa Ana wannabe winds that fanned the flames earlier in the week don't come back, they are probably safe from the flames, although they are currently breathing some Very Bad Air. They are under a Level 1 Evacuation Order. Level 1 means "Stay alert and keep the radio on."  Level 2 is "Pack your car and be ready to leave at a moment's notice - you could be next!" and Level 3 means "GO NOW!!"

Amber says, "If the fires actually get to where we are, all of Portland will be on fire and we're basically screwed."  She seems to think that's reassuring. I told her to pack the van with bedding and food and water because they might end up living in it, but I think all they've done is pack a few bags. They have friends further north, which is probably where they would go if they had to flee. And technically their area is not at the "Pack your car now" level of alert, but that's what I would do.

If you want to follow along in real time, the fire map is here. I think the Riverside Fire is the closet. As of 27 minutes ago, it was about to merge with the Beachie Creek Fire, moving in on the town of Estacada, which is about 20 miles from where Amber lives in Milwaukie. 

Here's the evacuation map.

Comments

[quadong]

I guess whether I'd pack my car would depend on whether I trusted the authorities setting the levels. If they are experienced with this sort of thing and believe in science, I'd pack it when they said to pack it. If they were even a little bit Trumpy, I'd pack it much earlier than that.

[dreamshark]

I'm pretty sure that the state fire service is putting out the most accurate information that they have, but you don't always know what a fire is going to do. News reports have stressed that some areas went from Level 1 to Level 2 to Level 3 in just a few hours. One town jumped directly from Level 1 to 3.

[quadong]

Then they haven't defined the levels correctly. If Level 1 means "you don't need your car packed", then you should only be at level 1 if it is nearly impossible for you to go to level 3 in less than the time it takes to pack a car. They may not be science-denying, but they apparently are statistics-ignorant or not keeping up with the scale of the crisis. I agree, I would have my car packed at any level.

[dreamshark]

Follow the link to the Evacuation Map if you want to see the long-winded definitions of all the levels. I just gave a short paraphrase.

[kaffy_r]

I hope everything becomes normal, or as close to normal as possible, for your family, and for everyone up and down the Pacific Coast.

[spiderplanet]

I think I might just jump ahead to level 3.

I hope they are all well and safe.

[dreamshark]

So far so good. Lena thinks it is pretty exciting that everything has changed color, but is a little disappointed that her remote learning kindergarten class has been cancelled for the next 4 days.

[pameladean]

Lena is intrepid! I wish I had half her insouciance and delight in abnormal circumstances. It is sad that a cellphone camera cannot convey the yellowness of the light, though.

I sure hope they don't need to evacuate.

P.