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A Little Off My Game Due to Fires

WazzuCoug

WazzuCoug

Member
We aren't under evacuation orders, yet, but many people surrounding us have been. The picture below was the scene at my house (northwest Oregon) mid-day. It's a little bit brighter now. The air quality and getting prepared to evacuate have certainly knocked me off my game. Eating is fine, physical activity is down, for sure. I'm not exercising indoors either because even though we have a great air filtration system, the air quality is still not great inside either. Nothing like the outside, of course.

I forgot to close the side in windows in my truck and now it has piles of ash all over the inside...sigh.

So, week 8 is an interesting one.....how many times am I going to say how weird 2020 has been? Now I'm expecting our volcano to blow, and the big west coast earthquake to happen before the end of the year.
3124


Ryan
 
Kayleigh said:
That looks really scary. How close is the fire from your house?
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At the moment there are several fires. Probably 5 miles-ish is the closest, but there is quite a wall of fires to our east and southeast. But smaller fires keep popping up here and there, so you never really know. The winds have been favorable for us, but that could certainly change. It’s as brown and dry as I’ve ever seen in this part of Oregon.
 
In Washington down close to WSU, the town of Malden has been wiped off the map. It only had a population of about 230 people. But the fire ate .

Here in Seattle the only way the wildfires could get to us would be by scaling the Cascade Curtain. However there is fire activity coming up I-5 from an unknown place, probably California. But considering how close things are to you Ryan, we could be getting smoke from you also.

My entire family lives in Wenatchee, which is the center of the state of Washington. The Columbia River splits Chelan and Douglas counties, but there are real threat right now is Douglas County.

My sisters tell me that the entire town is covered in ash and they can barely breathe because of the smoke. They are practically surrounded. My little sister doesn't know what happened to her friend who lived in Malden.

It will be days before we can even start to put things together, but wildfires in central Washington generally start in July and continue until October, non-stop.

I was born and raised in the Seattle area but after my father's job was phased out, we ended up going to St Paul Minnesota, which we really hated. My mom and dad are staunchly anti-catholic and the Saint Paul and Minneapolis area are extremely Catholic.

My dad spent the six months in Minnesota trying to find employment in Washington state so we can move back there. He did really well and if you ever go to the rocky reach Dam my dad landscaped the entire thing.

But opportunities for slim for me butas an adult because I'm a journalist. I put out a magazine and a newspaper at different times but I just could not get advertisers support. I did own a house free and clear but then I mortgaged it for $25,000. That's why I ended up back in Seattle-'well, that and the wildfires. I even reported on the wildfires in Wenatchee, Entiat, Lake Chelan and Manson for National Public Radio. I remember the line where I said that Ranchers we're trying to save their herds. But when they got to the pastures the cattle who weren't already dead we're on fire. It was less than a year later that I packed my bags and move to Seattle. This was 1994.

For a for a while, my son and I lived in a tipi in a friend's backyard. I remember watching The Castle Rock fire spreading and it was not even a mile away from me. I wasn't scared until somebody said a live ash could land on my tipi and it would be gone before I could even turn the hose on. So I abandoned it and went into the house until the fire finished its destructive path.

strangely enough, the wildfires are not the most destructive strangely enough, the wildfires are not the most destructive thing going on in our country right now some. I won't get political in this particular forum, but to me it looks like there is an international consortium trying to take down the world. I think the increase in natural disasters is Mother Earth's way of telling us to knock it off.

People should take a moment to reflect on the fact that bad things, horrible things I've seen things are going on around us all the time. Don't use this stress as an excuse to eat. Eating is not going to help.

It's time to recommit to your own path and ignore all the saboteurs around you and inside your head.
 
Hi all. It was looking pretty bad. We had our vehicles packed with all of our critical papers, keepsakes, and living essentials and were ready to evacuate. We were at a Level 2 (be prepared to leave at a moment's notice) and expected to go to Level 3 (Go!). The closes level 3 areas were not very far to our east and south. Our county has two of the largest fires in Oregon, and a few smaller ones.

We were going to head out before it got to Level 3, but the county made a request for Level 2 residents to stay put because the roads were getting jammed up and preventing residents of Level 3 areas to get out, so we stayed put.

Thankfully, the winds died down and started coming in from the ocean, which brought fog and humidity to the area. This has been consistent for three days and we've been downgraded to Level 1 ("Be ready"). A few areas of the county have been downgraded to "normal."

Tonight and tomorrow there is a reasonable chance of rain. That will help the lowlands, but the two major fires that are higher up will probably be burning until the real winter Oregon rains come.

The air quality is horrendous and exacerbated by the fog that rolled in, but the fog has certainly helped the firefighters. The last two days there was a nice layer of water/dew on everything, although it made the ash pretty pasty on our vehicles.

So, we are feeling pretty safe now. We are staying in a "ready" mode for a while, just in case a fire starts to our west, but that is starting to look like it shouldn't be an issue with the weather patterns that seem to come over the next couple of weeks.

Our daughter still hasn't started school. The fires torched some networking for the school, and although they were able to switch to alternative networks and servers, the fires and air quality has kept them from starting. They are supposed to start this Thursday (online video classes).

There is still a lot burning out there, and there are many, many people suffering. We have been lucky, so far.

So, there's the update. :)
 
WazzuCoug said:
Hi all. It was looking pretty bad. We had our vehicles packed with all of our critical papers, keepsakes, and living essentials and were ready to evacuate. We were at a Level 2 (be prepared to leave at a moment's notice) and expected to go to Level 3 (Go!). The closes level 3 areas were not very far to our east and south. Our county has two of the largest fires in Oregon, and a few smaller ones.

We were going to head out before it got to Level 3, but the county made a request for Level 2 residents to stay put because the roads were getting jammed up and preventing residents of Level 3 areas to get out, so we stayed put.

Thankfully, the winds died down and started coming in from the ocean, which brought fog and humidity to the area. This has been consistent for three days and we've been downgraded to Level 1 ("Be ready"). A few areas of the county have been downgraded to "normal."

Tonight and tomorrow there is a reasonable chance of rain. That will help the lowlands, but the two major fires that are higher up will probably be burning until the real winter Oregon rains come.

The air quality is horrendous and exacerbated by the fog that rolled in, but the fog has certainly helped the firefighters. The last two days there was a nice layer of water/dew on everything, although it made the ash pretty pasty on our vehicles.

So, we are feeling pretty safe now. We are staying in a "ready" mode for a while, just in case a fire starts to our west, but that is starting to look like it shouldn't be an issue with the weather patterns that seem to come over the next couple of weeks.

Our daughter still hasn't started school. The fires torched some networking for the school, and although they were able to switch to alternative networks and servers, the fires and air quality has kept them from starting. They are supposed to start this Thursday (online video classes).

There is still a lot burning out there, and there are many, many people suffering. We have been lucky, so far.

So, there's the update. :)
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I’m glad you’re safe! My friend lives in Central Point, works at a hospital in Medford. She has horrible asthma already, so this is just the worst for her. I hope y’all get some rain sooner rather than later!
 
WazzuCoug said:
Hi all. It was looking pretty bad. We had our vehicles packed with all of our critical papers, keepsakes, and living essentials and were ready to evacuate. We were at a Level 2 (be prepared to leave at a moment's notice) and expected to go to Level 3 (Go!). The closes level 3 areas were not very far to our east and south. Our county has two of the largest fires in Oregon, and a few smaller ones.

We were going to head out before it got to Level 3, but the county made a request for Level 2 residents to stay put because the roads were getting jammed up and preventing residents of Level 3 areas to get out, so we stayed put.

Thankfully, the winds died down and started coming in from the ocean, which brought fog and humidity to the area. This has been consistent for three days and we've been downgraded to Level 1 ("Be ready"). A few areas of the county have been downgraded to "normal."

Tonight and tomorrow there is a reasonable chance of rain. That will help the lowlands, but the two major fires that are higher up will probably be burning until the real winter Oregon rains come.

The air quality is horrendous and exacerbated by the fog that rolled in, but the fog has certainly helped the firefighters. The last two days there was a nice layer of water/dew on everything, although it made the ash pretty pasty on our vehicles.

So, we are feeling pretty safe now. We are staying in a "ready" mode for a while, just in case a fire starts to our west, but that is starting to look like it shouldn't be an issue with the weather patterns that seem to come over the next couple of weeks.

Our daughter still hasn't started school. The fires torched some networking for the school, and although they were able to switch to alternative networks and servers, the fires and air quality has kept them from starting. They are supposed to start this Thursday (online video classes).

There is still a lot burning out there, and there are many, many people suffering. We have been lucky, so far.

So, there's the update. :)
Click to expand...
I'm really glad to hear that the weather is in your favor and that the risk has been downgraded. Sheesh, on top of everything else going on in the world... I feel for everyone out west. I can't even imagine.
 
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