Get ready. Get set. Go.
We accumulate stuff. When it is time to leave it all--right now--what do you take?
Last summer Southern Oregon city-dwellers discovered they were at risk of wildfire. Residents here had long understood that people who lived in forestland were at risk--no mystery there. So were farm residences when they are surrounded by un-mowed grasses, so there are county ordinances requiring dry vegetation be mowed. But still, if one lives in an area with a Mediterranean climate, with natural vegetation of scrub oak and manzanita, you had to be aware that people who lived outside built-up cities had a risk during the long hot dry summers.
Last summer was new. Whole housing developments inside the cities of Talent and Phoenix, Oregon were burned to the ground as the wind kept spreading an unstoppable wall of fire. Some residents last year learned the unthinkable when emergency people were pounding on their doors on city lots, being told to leave now. Right now. NOW. They had to leave everything behind.
This year has worse potential. It is hotter and dryer than last year and it got to this point far earlier in the summer. People are having a new conversation at home. What do we take if we have an hour to evacuate? And what do we have ready to grab if fire fighters said to leave immediately, and to get that ready and placed where one can grab it. A billfold with a photo ID and charge cards would be very useful. So would medicines you take regularly. Documents like passports and car titles can be replaced. No one cares about your diplomas. You will miss the old photos so this is the time to have them digitalized and stored in the cloud.
How we got to this place, and what to take in the event of an evacuation order, was on the mind of singer, songwriter, and music producer Rick Millward. He lives in Medford, uphill from a lot of homes with dry vegetation around them.
Guest Post by Rick Millward
Wildfires are now common in the West. As I write 18 are in progress all around us, with a new one flaring up almost daily. We now expect smoke in the Valley, not if, but when.
As the Ashland fire raged up the Valley and approached East Medford, it occurred to us we might be evacuated. We were not prepared. It took about an hour to grab suitcases and pack them, sort through the files and pull critical documents, Oh, and photos. 30 years of snapshots from a long ago retired film camera in several albums. Box ‘em. My guitar. I stood at the door way of my home studio and envisioned it charred. No room for a drum set and other equipment. Ok, replaceable, but grab the hard drives. The car is a lifeboat, what is there room for?
What if we had only a few minutes to get out? It would have been a much different story.
As it turned out we were spared, the wind veered West and then died down. The fire never reached Medford, but it could have. This year we are ready. All packed. Our neighborhood is on the lower slope of RoxyAnn peak, near Prescott Park, now closed until further notice. We are vulnerable and it’s a real danger. We moved here to escape the hot Summers in Tennessee; they followed. Long hot Summers are here to stay.
Can we keep moving? Eventually we will run out of places to go.
I wrote here recently about climate change, suggesting that the first step in combating the effects would be to disband every army in the World. I thought it would generate a lot of controversy, but there wasn’t much said by commenters specifically about my proposal. Yes, much anti-war sentiment, but not much about the connection I was making between destructive behavior epitomized by war making, and climate change, which is a far greater threat to the future of mankind than anything we have ever faced. I’ll add this; a ban on recreational vehicles that use fossil fuels. Right, park that ATV and boat.
The Ashland fire is a metaphor for the larger threat of climate change. It’s burning, perhaps not in your neighborhood, but elsewhere. This Summer we are in the midst of a heat wave and drought, one that began very early in the season and is continuing. The impact on quality of life and the economy is being felt on top of last year’s disruption due to COVID.
I see growing concern among citizens about the need to address climate change as a national emergency. Hopefully we are heading towards a tipping point; no doubt this Summer will change some attitudes.
Or next Summer…or the one after that.
Meanwhile, we’re packed."
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[Note: Rick Millward formerly lived in Nashville, where he collaborated on two EMMY nominated soundtracks. He is active in the Southern Oregon music scene. His latest project is Loveland, available on Spotify and other streaming services.]
8 comments:
I recently talked to a friend in Tennessee who claimed people were moving there to escape the climate problems in the West. Rick is right; We can't move our way out of this.
The economic costs of climate change will catch up to us as well. Just got my renewal from State Farm for my homeowners insurance. Up 15 per cent. If that happens on an annual basis that starts to be material. If insurance companies just flat out start red lining homes in the dry desert areas of the west then things get more interesting. And what about water? Who will be able to afford it when all the rivers and lakes run dry - as is already starting to happen. How will the unfettered free enterprise system so totemized by many deal with climate change?
The sad thing for me is that flying is a major contributor to global warming. I’m an environmentalist who still wants to fly to various places. Guess that makes me a hypocrite.
Terrific recap of Ashland, Talent, Phoenix fire. Front line fireman explain their fears and needs.
https://youtu.be/1XPB95JkVME
I have the same feelings. My Son and family will in all likelihood be relocating to Europe late this year, or early next. I'm too old to try and sail the Atlantic solo, but do not want to miss all my grandsons childhood, either.
The origins of Almeda were arson at the northern end of Ashland. The two bodies discovered there have supposedly never been identified, nor have results of any investigation been reported.
The only thing specifically reported was one obviously mentally ill, probably drug-addled, person at the north end of Phoenix later that day,
Central Point and Obenchain were believed to be arson also.
Just noting all this for the record.
That aside (and I’ll continue to think it’s important and oddly secret) everyone I have encountered on daily walks all this year has predicted a horrible fire season this year. The drought has made itself loudly known.
Forest thinning projects that are advertised don’t amount to a pimple on a basketball.
The Bootleg Fire cannot be fought.
I could not agree more about the Forest Thinning being nearly meaningless. If, and it's a huge IF, enough funding was provided for a full bore program of thinning throughout the West were implemented, it might help. Too Little, Too Late..
And a few minutes ago, an update on the Bootleg Fire ruled out my Hope's of visiting my personal sacred spit in Southeast Oregon.
Yes, it's going to be a horrible Fire Year, and I'm almost ready to finish packing my Camp Trailer, ready to go on very short notice.
I worked withODF's Brian Ballou and Jim Wolf, “fighting” about how to convert SB 360 into practical OARs for rules to regulate people’s ineptitude re self preservation during wildfires.
I learned that-according to USFS and ODF, if a person performed the requisite fire suppression work around 40-100 feet of their homes, they had roughly a 95% chance their home would survive a wildfire, WITH NO ASSISTANCE FROM THE HOMEOWNER, THE LOCAL FIRE COMPANY, OR ODF!
We lose $billions per year from inadequately protected structures most every year!
Having carefully planned what we need to do, my wife and I plan to “shelter in place”, in the event we ever have a wildfire approaching out home. We’ve worked way too many years building the house, and all the (firewise) landscaping to lose it all in fires.
Some jurisdictions say that we are more likely to die trying to flee a fire than by sheltering in place.
I suggest we all demand that ODF, our city fire departments, or whoever else is supposed to protect our homes, offer free clases in sheltering in place. Even if we don’t want to do this, we may get trapped at home, and wish like hell we’d had some training in this area.
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