'All gone:' Residents return to burned-out Oregon towns as many West Coast wildfires keep burning

[webfact]

'All gone:' Residents return to burned-out Oregon towns as many West Coast wildfires keep burning

By Adrees Latif and Patrick Fallon

 

Hansel Valentine, 24, inspects the remains of the burnt down property of her relatives, as the wildfire continues in Estacada, Oregon, U.S., September 13, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

 

TALENT, Ore. (Reuters) - Search-and-rescue teams, with dogs in tow, were deployed across the blackened ruins of southern Oregon towns on Sunday as smoldering wildfires still ravaged U.S. Pacific Coast states after causing widespread destruction.

 

A blitz of wildfires across Oregon, California and Washington has destroyed thousands of homes and a half dozen small towns this summer, scorching more than 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) and killing more than two dozen people since early August.

 

Tracy Koa, a high school teacher, returned to Talent, Oregon, on Saturday after evacuating with her partner, Dave Tanksle, and 13-year-old daughter to find her house and neighborhood reduced to heaps of ash and rubble.

 

"We knew that it was gone," Koa said in a telephone interview on Sunday. "But then you pull up, and the devastation of just every home, you think of every family and every situation and every burnt-down car, and there are just no words for it."

 

Crews in Jackson County, Oregon, where Talent is located, were hoping to venture into rural areas where the Almeda Fire has abated slightly with slowing winds, sending up thick plumes of smoke as the embers burned. From Medford through the neighboring communities of Phoenix and Talent, an apocalyptic scene of charred residential subdivisions and trailer parks stretched for miles along Highway 99.

 

Community donation centers popped up around Jackson County over the weekend, including one in the parking lot of Home Depot in Phoenix, where farmers brought a pickup truck bed full of watermelons and people brought water and other supplies.

 

Farther north in Clackamas County, Dane Valentine, 28, showed a Reuters journalist the remains of his house.

 

“This is my home," he said. "Yep. All gone.”

 

Search and rescue teams looked for victims and families picked through the ash and debris in Talent, Oregon, in the hope of finding any belongings - including pets - after the Almeda fired burned their entire neighborhood to the ground. Lisa Bernhard produced this report.

 

Down the road, a woman with a Trump 2020 sign on her home, pointed a shotgun at the journalist and shouted at him to leave.

 

"You're the reason they're setting fires up here," she said, perhaps referring to false rumors that left-wing activists had sparked the wildfires.

 

After four days of brutally hot, windy weather, the weekend brought calmer winds blowing inland from the Pacific Ocean, and cooler, moister conditions that helped crews make headway against blazes that had burned unchecked last week.

 

Still, emergency officials worried that the shifting weather might not be enough to quell the fires.

 

"We're concerned that the incoming front is not going to provide a lot of rain here in the Medford region and it's going to bring increased winds," Bureau of Land Management spokesman Kyle Sullivan told Reuters in a telephone interview on Sunday.

 

At least 10 people have been killed in Oregon, according to the office of emergency management. Oregon Governor Kate Brown has said dozens of people remain missing across three counties.

 

There were 34 active fires burning in Oregon as of Sunday morning, according to the state's office of emergency management website.

 

CLIMATE CHANGE 'WAKE-UP CALL'

Thick smoke and ash from the fires have darkened skies over the Pacific Northwest since Labor Day last Monday, creating some of the world's worst air-quality levels and driving residents indoors. Satellite images showed the smoke was wafting inland in an easterly direction, the Bureau of Land Management said on Twitter on Sunday.

 

Drought conditions, extreme temperatures and high winds in Oregon created the "perfect firestorm" for the blazes to grow, Brown told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

 

"This is a wake-up call for all of us that we've got to do everything in our power to tackle climate change," the Democratic governor said.

 

President Donald Trump, a Republican, was scheduled to travel to California and meet with federal and state officials on Monday. He has said that Western governors bear some of the blame for intense fire seasons in recent years, as opposed to warming temperatures, and has accused them of poor forest management.

 

In California, evacuations were ordered for the northern tip of the San Gabriel Valley suburb of Arcadia as the Bobcat Fire threatened communities.

At Wilderness Park in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, firefighters prepared to stave off the blaze as it worked its way downhill.

 

Steep terrain and dry hills that have not burned for 60 years are providing fuel for the blaze, which started over the Labor Day weekend.

 

As the smoke that has been clogging the air and blocking heat from the sun begins to lift, firefighters expect the weather to heat up and fire activity could increase, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

 

All told in California, nearly 17,000 firefighters were battling 29 major wildfires on Sunday, Cal Fire said.

 

Improving weather conditions had helped them gain a measure of containment over blazes in many parts of the state, and some evacuated residents in Madera County near where the massive Creek Fire was burning, were allowed to go back home.

 

More than 4,000 homes and other structures have been incinerated in California alone over the past three weeks. About 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of land have been burned in the state, according to Cal Fire.

 

(Reporting by Adrees Latif in Ashland, Oregon, and Patrick Fallon in Arcadia, California; Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein, Gabriella Borter, Dan Whitcomb, Doina Chiacu, Shannon Stapleton and Aishwarya Nair; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Nick Zieminski and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-09-15

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[Tug]

Just horrific my heart thoughts plus a donation god this sucks...........

[Puchaiyank]

California...so many people love the energy of the place.  Personally, believe negatives outweighs the positives...

 

 

[JeffersLos]

52 minutes ago, webfact said:

Down the road, a woman with a Trump 2020 sign on her home, pointed a shotgun at the journalist and shouted at him to leave.

 

"You're the reason they're setting fires up here," she said, perhaps referring to false rumors that left-wing activists had sparked the wildfires.

What an utterly bizarrely people.

 

Was the song from Deliverance playing in the background? 

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

"This is a wake-up call for all of us that we've got to do everything in our power to tackle climate change," the Democratic governor said.

There are reports from the original wood sailing ships telling of constant wild fires along the California coasts.

Apparently the climate is exactly the same as it was nearly 300-500 years back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires

"from a historical perspective, it has been estimated that prior to 1850, about 4.5 million acres (17,000 km²) burned yearly, in fires that lasted for months."

 

https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-fire-perspectives-20171022-story.html

"on Oct. 8, 1542 — 475 years to the day before the wildfires began ravaging Northern California — the Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo saw smoke in the sky above Southern California. Cabrillo’s pilot, Bartolomé Ferrelo, dutifully recorded the phenomena in the ship’s log, as the explorer christened the San Pedro roadstead “Bahía de los Fumos o Fuegos.” (Bay of smoke and fire)"

Edited September 15, 2020 by BritManToo

[Tug]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

There are reports from the original wood sailing ships telling of constant wild fires along the California coasts.

Apparently the climate is exactly the same as it was nearly 300-500 years back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires

"from a historical perspective, it has been estimated that prior to 1850, about 4.5 million acres (17,000 km²) burned yearly, in fires that lasted for months."

 

https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-fire-perspectives-20171022-story.html

"on Oct. 8, 1542 — 475 years to the day before the wildfires began ravaging Northern California — the Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo saw smoke in the sky above Southern California. Cabrillo’s pilot, Bartolomé Ferrelo, dutifully recorded the phenomena in the ship’s log, as the explorer christened the San Pedro roadstead “Bahía de los Fumos o Fuegos.” (Bay of smoke and fire)"

Ahhh nope

[bendejo]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

"You're the reason they're setting fires up here," she said, perhaps referring to false rumors that left-wing activists had sparked the wildfires.

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/us/fires-oregon-antifa-rumors.html

 

 

[Eric Loh]

1 hour ago, bendejo said:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/us/fires-oregon-antifa-rumors.html

 

 

Really a shame that Trump can't raise to the occasion and exercise moral leadership to calm the people who are consumed by rumors and political exploitation.

[Emdog]

That's my state. Heart wrenching and so sad.

I don't think the bit about Trump backer with shotgun was useful or necessary.

I'd be classed as a liberal, fwiw

[nobodysfriend]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Drought conditions, extreme temperatures and high winds in Oregon created the "perfect firestorm" for the blazes to grow,

Extreme weather conditions due to climate change were predicted years ago already . But it is accelerating by now .

Some still do not see it ...

 

8 hours ago, webfact said:

"This is a wake-up call for all of us that we've got to do everything in our power to tackle climate change," the Democratic governor said.

That's right , but too late already to stop it .

[Eric Loh]

34 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

Extreme weather conditions due to climate change were predicted years ago already . But it is accelerating by now .

Some still do not see it ...

Hard not to see the glaciers melting at rate of 390b tons of ice and snow. 

[nobodysfriend]

2 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Hard not to see the glaciers melting at rate of 390b tons of ice and snow. 

Don't buy land near the beach ... but even in the mountains people will get storms and fires and landslides ... if someone digs a hole to live in it , there will be torrential rains ...

[nobodysfriend]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46183690

 

" What's the role of climate change?

n terms of loss of life and damage to property, the data shows the worst fires have all been in the past 10 years or so - except for one fire in 1991 in Alameda County.

And this year, there have also been unusually strong winds combined with periods of drought across parts of the western US. Six of the largest fires recorded in California have all happened this year.

Prof Doerr says a combination of drier, hotter and windy conditions is the key factor in these recent fires.

He adds that even in areas where there have been attempts to reduce flammable material in forests, it's not clear how much difference this would have made.

"The bottom line remains that the extreme meteorological conditions are the main drivers for these extreme fires."

[Whip]

Moral of the story: get fire insurance

[Scott]

Troll post removed.

 

[The Deerhunter]

23 hours ago, BritManToo said:

There are reports from the original wood sailing ships telling of constant wild fires along the California coasts.

Apparently the climate is exactly the same as it was nearly 300-500 years back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires

"from a historical perspective, it has been estimated that prior to 1850, about 4.5 million acres (17,000 km²) burned yearly, in fires that lasted for months."

 

https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-fire-perspectives-20171022-story.html

"on Oct. 8, 1542 — 475 years to the day before the wildfires began ravaging Northern California — the Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo saw smoke in the sky above Southern California. Cabrillo’s pilot, Bartolomé Ferrelo, dutifully recorded the phenomena in the ship’s log, as the explorer christened the San Pedro roadstead “Bahía de los Fumos o Fuegos.” (Bay of smoke and fire)"

Ah!  So they weren't raking and sweeping the forest floors even then, Huh?

[Cryingdick]

On 9/14/2020 at 8:17 PM, JeffersLos said:

What an utterly bizarrely people.

 

Was the song from Deliverance playing in the background? 

 

There is actual statistical evidence that arsons are playing a larger role. I am not saying they are set by the left, but there are a lot of garden variety pyromaniacs about. Easy to light hard to prove. You can see people throw fire bombs in the cities daily why would the country be any different?

[Credo]

1 hour ago, Cryingdick said:

 

There is actual statistical evidence that arsons are playing a larger role. I am not saying they are set by the left, but there are a lot of garden variety pyromaniacs about. Easy to light hard to prove. You can see people throw fire bombs in the cities daily why would the country be any different?

Another day, another deflection.   There have always been fires caused by arson, and campers and lots of human caused reasons.   Here's the difference, they no longer burn themselves out and they are no longer controllable.   They move with extreme speed and thus there is a high number of people killed.  I have only been in an area where we were advised to evacuate once, although I have been told to be ready to evacuate.   But those fires were not moving at lightening speed.  These are.   

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

21 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

Extreme weather conditions due to climate change were predicted years ago already . But it is accelerating by now .

Some still do not see it ...

 

That's right , but too late already to stop it .

Most of us do see it but what is the plan to change it?

I've heard of nothing that is affordable, acceptable and doable.

Perhaps others on here can enlighten me as to the plan.

 

Increased taxes will not change anything so that's not a plan.