Oregon up in Flames

 It's difficult to even sleep thinking of all the animals suffering and dying out in the fires.

People are losing their homes and livlihoods, too.

I am at a loss.   

My friend lost her home and motel in Detroit and most of the town is gone too. Seven of her cats she couldn't catch are probably deceased.  Several other Oregon towns, including Gates, which is near Detroit, parts of Mill City and Lyons, Talent, Phoenix and Blue River, to name a few are mostly gone.

Pretty bad stories coming out of it too.  Firefighters and residents got trapped by fire at Mongold Day Use area at Detroit Lake but finally made it out through a forest service road that put them clear up at Government Camp on Mt. Hood.  They were lucky.  Down in Blue River, outside Springfield, firefighters and residents made a stand at the local high school track for the night, until they could escape.

A Gates or Mill City or Lyons couple got out last minute with their dogs, ran to the river, stood in the river for hours upon hours, until rescue, but their cat is missing.  A little boy was found burned to death in a car with his dog I think in either Gates or Mill City.  His grandmother is presumed dead although they have not found her body and his aunt is in the hospital severely burned.

How many animals are dead out there, or suffering badly burned?  Probably thousands upon thousands.  The colony I trapped in Holley this summer, where all those kittens came from, they're under Level 2 evac notice.  

And I can't do a damn thing.  My knee makes life a hazard, really.  I have to drive to my darn mailbox.  I haven't been to a store yet for food even.  I can't manage the check out lines really, just going to convenience stores where I can go in and out fast.  I feel useless, in a time I want to be out helping somewhere.  I'm born in Oregon, for gosh sakes.  I want to be out helping save it.

I don't know why there aren't tables out all over the state with people signing up long lines of volunteers to go fight the fires in any capacity they're able.  I'd be in line right now.

I suppose such a thing is no longer possible in our world.  Lawyers and all that.  Terrible beaucracy, like with the medical system now, I suppose.

I got the MRI results back but was only told I have a torn medial meniscus and torn MCL but also have other probems in my knee, but they didn't go into detail just said I need to see orthopedics.  The referral to orthopedics was made two or more weeks ago, time is now a blur, but they had not called me so I called them and they said I will maybe get a call next week to make an appointment.  In the meantime, I need to figure what to do myself.  This medical system is so difficult to navigate or get useful information from sometimes, so cumbersome and time consuming.    You have to figure it all out yourself, while you endlessly wait otherwise.  How to get around, how to manage the pain, how to get groceries.  I sit here and wonder will this heal on its own or won't it, and if so, how long and will my new normal be hobbling around and begging others to do things needing done that I can't manage?  I just don't know.

And then I think its petty to even think about my problem with the state on fire.  I think what if a fire starts near me, how in the world would I get out, with at least some of my cats, with my knee like it is.  

It is what it is and that's about all I can say right now.  

There's a fund raiser going for my Detroit friend, now in a motel in Salem.  Here's the link.

Here's the link to the fundraiser.

If you want to see news coverage of Oregon fires, here is one link to FOX 12 out of Portland.  We have no mid valley TV news stations.  There are TV news stations south of the mid valley in Eugene, but none between Portland and Eugene.

Here's a fire story from Portland station KPTV.

The air quality is still horrendous.  We still have ash falling like rain here.  But the winds are supposed to start changing today and the smoke may start leaving the valley by Sunday.