a PSA: Reuters Graphics of West Coast Wildfires

(h/t Mr. wd)

Thick smoke is seen above Salem City, Oregon, U.S., September 8, 2020. Zak Stone/REUTERS

A devastated West Coast; Major blazes continued to wreak havoc across vast tracts of California, Oregon and Washington, covering much of the western United States in a thick blanket of smoke blocking out the sun and turning skies orange’, graphics.reuters.com, Sept. 10, 2020

They've included huuuge satellite images of the West Coast, fires named an captioned, aerial photos, and ground photos.

“While more than two dozen major blazes continued to devastate California, the neighboring state of Oregon bore the latest brunt of wildfires plaguing much of the western United States over the past week.

An unprecedented spate of fierce, wind-driven wildfires in Oregon have all but destroyed five small towns, leaving a potentially high death toll in their wake, the governor said on Wednesday, as initial casualty reports began to surface.”

Devastated homes and vehicles in the Bear Lakes Estates neighborhood after the Almeda fire in Phoenix, Oregon. Adrees Latif/REUTERS

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wendy davis's picture

InciWeb- Incident Information System, inciweb.gov

you can zoom in or out, hover your cursor over an orange teardrop to see the name of the fire and other info.

here, it had been hot hot hot, yesterday a.m. almost freezing, and the la plata mountains are white with snow already.

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Granma's picture

@wendy davis My only complaint is that they haven't been able to get planes up to see perimeters of the fires. If you are trying to check on places the fires are fairly close to, you are out of luck trying to figure out if the home you evacuated is still there. I hope that will change today.

I did comment more about the on the ground situation In my area in today's open thread.

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wendy davis's picture

@Granma

from an inter-agenccy fire map, amiga. ; ) but as a for instance, i'd just clicked on the east fork fire near snoopy: Size: 43,780 AcresContained: 15% (near hanna, iirc) and found the fire's site page.

more maps, incident overview, etc. and sometimes a number to call, in this case both:

Incident Contact

Fire Information
Email: 2020.eastfork@firenet.gov
Phone: 435-635-8738
Hours: 7 am to 9 pm

i'm so sorry you'd had to evacuate, granma. we were forced to in jeez, i can't even recall what year. 2007? oopsie, just checked. not even close: in 2012.

do you see your fire on the map? can i help?

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Granma's picture

@wendy davis learn from the map was the approximate perimeter. It has not changed on the map for days. And at the same time, the officials say the fire is growing.

For people who live in and know area, if you know where the edges of the fire are, you can tell if it is say 2 miles away or 7. Of course, the fire isn't an exact line and hot spots and embers go all over. But if you know the fire is 7 miles away and wind not blowing, you can guess your neighborhood is still there for the time being.

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wendy davis's picture

@Granma

do you mean the inciweb map or the Reuters' satellite images at the top?

on later edit: i need to scoot; mr. wd's due back w/ groceries, and i have things to do before he gets here.

at the oregon city website site under fire conditions, there's a link to a clackamas county evacutaions map; maybe it'll help? other wise you can always call them.

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Granma's picture

@wendy davis None of the maps have updated since early in the week. And the details about the fires has stayed the same for days with one exception. I have bookmarks for all the maps and information sites and check them 2 or 3 times a day. We are all a little obsessed with the fires, those of us in some level of evacuation zone. A close relative with young children lives very close to the Riverside fire, so I keep looking for information on that fire.

I am irrationally irritated today. Maybe the heavy smoke and hazardous to breathe air is part of the reason. The air in Oregon and Washington is filled with smoke over almost, if not the whole states. Much of CA is too. For Oregon and Washington, we are waiting for Monday night rain to improve the air. It feels like a long wait.

Our local news web sites have banner headlines about latest information on wildfires. Clicking to read the article gets you the same thing you read Thursday or Friday, or even Wednesday night, despite a time stamp saying it was updated an hour two earlier. I don't watch tv news. And I'm thinking unless a person is bored out of their mind, there is no reason anyone would. They have nothing useful to offer other than weather forecasts.

General rant, not aimed at Wendy

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harrybothered's picture

@Granma There's a YouTube video for the Almeda Fire (Ashland/Talent/Phoenix): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi42MtEPC64.

I found my house amazingly intact.

Where are you at?

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"The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to those who think they've found it."
Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

wendy davis's picture

@harrybothered

news! as for granma, she'd said she'd left her info on an open thread, so i poked about and discovered that she's in oregon city near portland. clackamas county, it seems.

externally bingling hasn't brought the name of the fires near her, so i cannae give her the local contact info.

hooray again on your house still standing, harrybothered. ; )

on later edit: i just checked at the oregon city website, and it seems that the fire nearest granma might be the riverside fire:

Size: 130,052 Acres
Phone: 5416380668

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harrybothered's picture

@wendy davis A neighbor sent me an aerial photo of our neighborhood. I went on YouTube and searched for the name on the photo and found the full-length fly-over video. No luck finding one for the Riverside fire. The Almeda fire had already done it's stuff and moved on so I guess it was safe enough to do the fly-over. The Riverside fire is still going strong from what I understand.

We were very lucky but a lot of people we know have lost everything. Kind of a bittersweet relief really.

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"The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to those who think they've found it."
Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

wendy davis's picture

@harrybothered

say specifically: no drones! the helicopters need the airspace! for some it would be 'slurry bombers need the air space!' i half-heatedly looked on youtube for granma, too, but it may be that the evacuation map i'd given her might have helped. fire maps and fire sizes are very fluid, of course.

thanks for searching, harrrybothered. may all be well with her and her abode.

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harrybothered's picture

@wendy davis I was in my car yesterday reading the news while a very nice kid at America's Tire was checking my tires out for me. There was a poor woman at work at Harry and David's when the evacuation order came up for her neighborhood in Phoenix. She couldn't get there in time to save her beloved dogs and her trailer park was burnt to the ground. She had just cancelled her fire insurance because she couldn't afford it anymore.

I just started bawling. Poor kid thought he'd done something wrong. It was hard to explain.

I wish I had enough money to help all these people out. The working poor in Phoenix and Talent were hardest hit.

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"The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to those who think they've found it."
Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

Granma's picture

@harrybothered And glad you know now, instead of wondering for days.

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harrybothered's picture

@Granma Thank you, Granma. I hope everything works out for you as well.

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"The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to those who think they've found it."
Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

Granma's picture

@harrybothered

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snoopydawg's picture

5f5b474a85f540148b355682.jpeg

The Riverside Fire in Mount Hood National Forest

DC got hit with torrential rain. Lots of vids and pics.

Floods’n’fires: DC underwater, California continues to choke on wildfire smoke as apocalyptic weather continues (VIDEOS)

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

beauty. thanks for the link. national geographic send info and photos this a.m.:
National Geographic

THE BIG TOPIC:
THEY CAPTURE THE APOCALYPTIC SKIES

Friday, September 11, 2020

and this page keeps popping up.

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Granma's picture

@snoopydawg I've been saying that we will never forget the year 2020. Now I'm hoping we always remember it instead of having a 2021 or 2022 or whatever that is worse.

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edg's picture

Some of the West Coast smoke is being blown into the Tucson, Arizona area. Our skies are overcast and the smell of smoke is strong.

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