STATE ON FIRE

And Denver is under a winter storm warning, Snow included. Too bad they can't send some our way.

It has been a hot, dry summer. Drier than usual. Most of the Northwest is under some degree of drought designation. There had been some fires in Oregon and Washington but from what I've heard nothing out of the ordinary. Then the jet shifted, eastern flow heated us up over the weekend and Monday the wind began to blow from the east. Here in Umatilla/Hermiston it probably didn't get gusts over thirty miles an hour. There was grass fire near town but it was contained. Smoke was bad for a few hours but gone by evening.

Not so on the other side of the mountains. High winds into Tuesday, gusts up to sixty miles per hour. Or more. Fires that were already burning blew up. Some folks up the Mckenzie didn't know there was a fire until they woke up in the middle of the night with flames at the back door. They made it out.

You go east up the McKenzie and EWEB (power company) has a small dam/power station at Leaburg. There's a small lake behind the dam. Was anyway. The lake has been drawn down probably to protect the dam. That meant that the Leaburg fish hatchery had to be emptied. The fish released. There was a video on youtube of the hatchery workers opening the pens to release the fish. Fire was at the top of hill as everyone left. One of the workers made the remark that his son's school was gone and his house was probably gone too  Unfortunately the video has been marked private by someone and pulled.

Updates today. Vida is mostly OK. Most of Blue River is gone. They managed to save the High School. It's a brick building. I haven't heard about Leaburg except for the lake and the hatchery. My grandparents had a little store up there when I was a little girl. Last I heard, or saw, it was a pizza parlor.

You won't know their names I can only describe the town I grew up in. Oakridge, Oreon. Logging town, once upon a time mill town about forty miles SE of Springfield. Highway 58 is a state road, it's the truck route to eastern Oregon hooks up with north/south bound 97. And there isn't much after you leave Oakridge until Willamette Pass. Ranger station and the staging area for snow plows and repair equipment.

It's a beautiful part of the state and part of me will always be there. But the road is two lane, fairly narrow with the odd slow taffic cut out. The mountains are steep and trees tend to run very close to the highway. And often the river is on the other side of road either has steep banks down to the water and more trees. And it's probably a good thing it didn't sink in when I was a kid. There is one road in and one road out. Especially southbound there's at least ten miles with trees right next to the road with nice steep mountains on one side and the middle fork of the Willamette on the other. To be honest the river isn't all that impressive until it hits the valley.

And then that devil wind hit Monday and everything went to hell in a handbasket.