Wildfires

Pretty scary stuff going on in Washington and Oregon - wildfires all over the place. And with the big open areas and mountains, there are very few roads. So when one is closed because fires are burning hundreds of acres of land on both sides, there are not a lot of options. Driving up from Oregon to Washington on Friday, a convey of fire crews passed me on the road, heading off to fight fires. And I've seen several places already where crews are working to put out fires coming down the hillsides. Over 100 National Guard units have been mobilized to help fight the fires, after the crews working for days have been exhausted and not sufficient to put down these fires. The Governor is considering asking the military for help, calling these firestorms. Fire crews from all the neighboring states and Canada are coming in to help. It just sounds awful. http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/07/okanogan-county-sheriff-up-to-100-homes-lost/

You can see the wildfire areas on the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center's website: http://www.nwccweb.us/information/firemap.aspx. The Washington State Department of Transportation's site also has useful information - "SR 20 is closed east of Twisp in both directions from milepost 204 at the junction of SR 20 and SR 153 to milepost 227 at the B&O Road. There is no detour available. Currently there is no estimated time of reopening." http://www.wsdot.com/traffic/trafficalerts/ We are going through this area in a couple of days, so are paying attention to any strategies for driving around it.

It definitely feels strange to be on vacation in an area where hundreds of people are being evacuated, homes and businesses are being destroyed. Fortunately, it sounds like everyone is okay - aside from the massive property loss (which is a big "except" of course). So we will be treading lightly, trying to spend money locally to help businesses, and avoiding areas of danger.

Donations can be made to a variety of local places, or online cash donations: http://mynorthwest.com/108/2567860/How-to-help-the-Washington-wildfire-victims.

The Red Cross is taking donations: https://www.redcross.org/quickdonate/index.jsp. I donated, and did not see a way to specify Washington (or Oregon); but directing money toward Disaster Relief is probably generally a good idea. They will figure out how to get it to people who need it. You can also send a check with a note in the memo spot specifying Washington Wildfires (or Oregon) to zero in on this area of need.

(Leery of giving to the Red Cross? They now show donor options:  http://www.charitywatch.org/articles/RedCrossKnowOptions.html. And they are rated reasonably highly by Charity Navigator: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3277#.U8v4EvldUt8. It's always good to do some investigation before donating to any charity, especially one you don't know.)