GRANTS PASS, Oregon — A pickleball game in this leafy Oregon community was suddenly interrupted one rainy weekend morning by the arrival of an ambulance. Paramedics rushed through the park toward a tent, one of dozens illegally erected by the town’s hundreds of homeless people, then play resumed as though nothing had happened.

Myles Baida plays pickleball as emergency responders put a homeless person in an ambulance March 23 in Grants Pass, Ore. Relatives had called police and requested a welfare check. 

Jenny Kane, Associated Press

Mere feet away, volunteers helped dismantle tents to move an 80-year-old man and a woman blind in one eye, who risked being fined for staying too long. In the distance, a group of boys climbed on a jungle gym.

The scenes were emblematic of the crisis gripping the small, Oregon mountain town of Grants Pass, where a fierce fight over park space has become a battleground for a much larger, national debate on homelessness that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

A volunteer holds on to a wheelchair as Max Hartfelt is helped into his tent after being relocated from one park to another March 23 in Grants Pass, Ore. The rural community has become the unlikely face of the nation’s homelessness crisis as its case over anti-camping laws goes to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jenny Kane, Associated Press

The town’s case, set to be heard April 22, has broad implications for how not only Grants Pass, but communities nationwide address homelessness, including whether they can fine or jail people for camping in public. It has made the town of 40,000 the unlikely face of the nation’s homelessness crisis, and further fueled the debate over how to deal with it.

People are also reading…

Grants Pass Mayor Sara Bristol visits Tussing Park on March 22 in Grants Pass, Ore. 

Jenny Kane, Associated Press

“I certainly wish this wasn’t what my town was known for,” Mayor Sara Bristol told The Associated Press last month. “It’s not the reason why I became mayor. And yet it has dominated every single thing that I’ve done for the last 3 ½ years.”

Officials across the political spectrum — from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in California, which has nearly 30% of the nation’s homeless population, to a group of 22 conservative-led states — have filed briefs in the case, saying lower court rulings have hamstrung their ability to deal with encampments.

Like many Western communities, Grants Pass has struggled for years with a burgeoning homeless population. A decade ago, City Council members discussed how to make it “uncomfortable enough … in our city so they will want to move on down the road.” From 2013 to 2018, the city said it issued 500 citations for camping or sleeping in public, including in vehicles, with fines that could reach hundreds of dollars.

A vehicle at left drives down Rogue River Highway as light shines on the area  March 23 in Grants Pass, Ore. 

Jenny Kane, Associated Press

But a 2018 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals changed the calculus. The court, whose jurisdiction includes nine Western states, held that while communities are allowed to prohibit tents in public spaces, it violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment to give people criminal citations for sleeping outside when they had no place else to go.

Four years later, in a case challenging restrictions in Grants Pass, the court expanded that ruling, holding that civil citations also can be unconstitutional.

Civil rights groups and attorneys for the homeless residents who challenged the restrictions in 2018 insist people shouldn’t be punished for lacking housing. Officials throughout the West have overstated the impact of the court decisions to distract from their own failings, they argued.

“For years, political leaders have chosen to tolerate encampments as an alternative to meaningfully addressing the western region’s severe housing shortage,” the attorneys wrote. “It is easier to blame the courts than to take responsibility for finding a solution.”

In Grants Pass, the town’s parks, many lining the picturesque Rogue River, are at the heart of the debate. Cherished for their open spaces, picnic tables, playgrounds and sports fields, they host everything from annual boat-racing festivals and vintage car shows to Easter egg hunts and summer concerts.

Brian Wright, center, prays during bible study at Gospel Rescue Mission on March 21 in Grants Pass, Ore. 

Jenny Kane, Associated Press

They’re also the sites of encampments blighted by illegal drug use and crime, including a shooting at a park last year that left one person dead. Tents cluster along riverbanks, next to tennis courts and jungle gyms, with tarps shielding belongings from the rain. When the sun comes out, clothes and blankets are strung across tree branches to dry. Used needles litter the ground.

Grants Pass has one overnight shelter for adults, the Gospel Rescue Mission. It has 138 beds, but rules including attendance at daily Christian services, no alcohol, drugs or smoking and no pets mean many won’t stay there.

Cassy Leach, a nurse, leads a volunteer group providing food, medical care and other basic goods to the town’s hundreds of homeless people. They help relocate their tents to comply with city rules.

Cassy Leach, a nurse who leads a group of volunteers who provide food, medical care and other basic goods to the hundreds of homeless people living in the parks, talks to Kimberly Marie, who is homeless and camping in Fruitdale Park on March 21 in Grants Pass, Ore. 

Jenny Kane, Associated Press

At one park last month, she checked on a man who burned his leg after falling on a torch lighter during a fentanyl overdose and brought him naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal medication. In another, she distributed cans of beans, peas and Chef Boyardee mini ravioli from a pickup truck.

“Love, hope, community and a safety net is really as important as a shower and water,” Leach said.

Dre Buetow, 48, from northern California, has been living in his car for three years after a bone cancer diagnosis and $450,000 in medical bills. The illness and treatment kept him from returning to his old tree-trimming job, he said.

Laura Gutowski’s husband died from a pulmonary embolism and she suddenly found herself, in her 50s, with no income. They didn’t have life insurance or savings and, within a month, she was sleeping outside.

“I used to love camping,” she said through tears. “And now I can’t stand it anymore.”

But some residents want to limit aid because of the trash left behind after encampment moves or food handouts. The City Council proposed requiring outreach groups to register with the city. The mayor vetoed it, laying bare the discord gripping Grants Pass.

Before the council attempted, unsuccessfully, to override the veto last month, a self-proclaimed “park watch” group rallied outside City Hall with signs reading, “Parks are for kids.” 

The group regularly posts images of trash, tents and homeless people on social media. On Sundays, they set up camp chairs in what they say is a bid to reclaim park space.

Brock Spurgeon says he used to take his grandkids to parks that were so full it was hard to find an available picnic table. Now, open drug use and discarded needles have scared families away, he said.

“That was taken away from us when the campers started using the parks,” he said.

Homeless encampment sweeps spike in cities across US as housing crisis grows

Michael Johnson gathers possessions to take before a homeless encampment was cleaned up in San Francisco on Aug. 29, 2023. Cities across the U.S. are struggling with and cracking down on tent encampments as the number of homeless people grows, largely due to a lack of affordable housing. Homeless people and their advocates say sweeps are cruel and costly, and there aren’t enough homes or beds for everyone.  

Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

Roxanne Simonson, 60, removes her long-sleeve shirt  July 27 after being told by Rapid Response Bio Clean that she has 72 hours to vacant her illegal campsite in Portland, Ore. Simonson has been homeless for two years. 

Craig Mitchelldyer

Will Taylor, 32, cleans up the campsite of a friend July 27 before Rapid Response Bio Clean removes the belongings during a sweep in Portland, Ore. Taylor says that he has had to move three times since becoming homeless. Tent encampments have long been a fixture of West Coast cities, but are now spreading visibly across the U.S. The federal count of homeless people reached 580,000 last year, driven by lack of affordable housing and a pandemic that economically wrecked households. 

Craig Mitchelldyer, Associated Press

Prohibited items that have been collected by Rapid Response Bio Clean while cleaning homeless camps sit on a table in the company warehouse in Portland, Ore., on July 27, 2023. Weapons, car parts and drug paraphernalia are not allowed to be returned to people whose items have been confiscated during a sweep.  

Craig Mitchelldyerr, Associated Press

A San Francisco Police Department vehicle drives through a homeless encampment being cleaned up in San Francisco on Aug. 29, 2023. Records obtained by The Associated Press show attempts to clear encampments increased in cities from Los Angeles to New York as public pressure grew to address what are dangerous and unsanitary living conditions. But despite tens of millions of dollars spent in recent years, there appears to be little reduction in the number of tents propped up on sidewalks, in parks and by freeway off-ramps.

Jeff Chiur, Associated Press

Members of the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team’s Encampment Resolution Team walk toward an encampment in San Francisco Aug. 29, 2023. 

Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

Two small stones that say “hope” and “peace” respectively and two flowers lay inside a circle of rocks on the ground in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 17, 2023. The rock circle is next to the site of a former homeless encampment that was cleared several times over the course of the year. With homelessness on the rise in the U.S. and a lack of affordable housing, cities and states are cracking down on mushrooming tent encampments.  

Claire Rushr, Associated Press

Roughly 30 large boulders occupy the narrow strip of land between a sidewalk and a parking lot wall in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 17, 2023. The boulders were installed sometime after late July at the site of a former homeless encampment to prevent tents from being set back up. The encampment was cleared several times over the course of the year.  

Claire Rushr, Associated Press

San Francisco Public Works crew load a truck while cleaning items from a homeless encampment in San Francisco Aug. 29, 2023. Cities across the U.S. are struggling with and cracking down on tent encampments as the number of homeless people grows, largely due to a lack of affordable housing. Homeless people and their advocates say sweeps are cruel and costly, and there aren’t enough homes or beds for everyone. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

A woman gathers possessions to take before a homeless encampment was cleaned up in San Francisco on Aug. 29, 2023. Cities across the U.S. are struggling with and cracking down on tent encampments as the number of homeless people grows, largely due to a lack of affordable housing. Homeless people and their advocates say sweeps are cruel and costly, and there aren’t enough homes or beds for everyone.  

Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

A woman gathers possessions to take before a homeless encampment was cleaned up in San Francisco, Aug. 29, 2023.  

Jeff Chiur, Associated Press

Members of the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team’s Encampment Resolution Team speak with people at an encampment in San Francisco Aug. 29, 2023.  

Jeff Chiur, Associated Press

A San Francisco Public Works crew cleans items from a homeless encampment in San Francisco Aug. 29, 2023. 

Jeff Chiur, Associated Press

Maurice Palmer waits with his possessions as a homeless encampment is cleaned up in San Francisco Aug. 29, 2023.  

Jeff Chiur, Associated Press

Francis Zamora, of Department of Emergency Management, walks past a puddle near a homeless encampment being cleaned up in San Francisco Aug. 29, 2023.  

Jeff Chiur, Associated Press

A man pushes items while a homeless encampment is being cleaned up in San Francisco Aug. 29, 2023.  

Jeff Chiur, Associated Press

Roughly 30 large boulders occupy the narrow strip of land between a sidewalk and a parking lot wall in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 17, 2023. The boulders were installed sometime after late July at the site of a former homeless encampment to prevent tents from being set back up. The encampment was cleared several times over the course of the year. Cities across the U.S. are struggling with and cracking down on tent encampments as the number of homeless people grows, largely due to a lack of affordable housing. Homeless people and their advocates say sweeps are cruel and costly, and there aren’t enough homes or beds for everyone.  

Claire Rushr, Associated Press

Amber Nastasia from Rapid Response Bio Clean cleans a homeless camp July 27 in Portland, Ore. 

Craig Mitchelldyer, Associated Press

Will Taylor, 32, cleans up the campsite of a friend July 27 before Rapid Response Bio Clean removes the belongings during a sweep in Portland, Ore.

Craig Mitchelldyer, Associated Press

Will Taylor, 32, cleans up the campsite of a friend before Rapid Response Bio Clean removes the belongings during a sweep in Portland, Ore., July 27, 2023. T 

Craig Mitchelldyerr, Associated Press

Amber Nastasia from Rapid Response Bio Clean cleans a homeless camp in Portland, Ore., on July 27, 2023.  

Craig Mitchelldyerr, Associated Press

Amber Nastasia, left, and Jacob Miller from Rapid Response Bio Clean clean a homeless camp in Portland, Ore., Thursday, July 27, 2023.  

Craig Mitchelldyerr, Associated Press

Be the first to know

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

The post Supreme Court docket to resolve Oregon homelessness case appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Listen to the article
4 mins

This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.

Dive Brief:

• In Oregon, a switch to sales of only zero-emissions residential heating and cooling appliances by 2030 could nearly halve climate pollution by 2035 while increasing electricity demand from homes and buildings 13% by the middle of the century, according to a recent report from Synapse Energy Economics.
• The report, prepared for the Sierra Club, found that making this transition could lead to $1.1 billion in gas and electric system savings for the residential and commercial sector through 2050, with cost savings beginning in 2030.
• The city of Eugene is currently developing a local policy to wean developers off natural gas in new construction, making it the first in Oregon to do so. The state is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050.

Dive Insight:

Meeting Oregon’s climate goals will mean reducing the carbon footprint of residential and commercial buildings, which currently produce 35% of the state’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to the report. One approach is to electrify building appliances and systems and switch to efficient electric heat pumps.

There are two types of heat pumps, according to Fred Heutte, senior policy associate with the NW Energy Coalition: those that can provide air heating and air conditioning and those that provide hot water.

“We’re poised to do a pretty big upward market transformation [with] both kinds of heat pumps in the next few years,” Heutte said, adding that the recent Synapse report builds on work that has been happening in the state for a long time. The transition to heat pumps represents a shift away from natural gas heating as well as older styles of electric resistance heating, he said, which tend to not be as efficient.

The report took a closer look at two electrification pathways: one that assumes a 100% market share for efficient electrical systems by 2025 and another that reaches that goal by 2030. The more-aggressive 2025 deadline would reduce carbon emissions by 56% by 2035, according to the report, while increasing electricity consumption 12% by 2030, and 13% by the middle of the century.

The 2030 pathway, meanwhile, would reduce emissions by 47% by 2035 while increasing electricity demand by 10% by 2030 and 13% by 2050. These efforts will likely lower energy system costs in both scenarios, the study found: The 2030 pathway is estimated to lead to $1.1 billion in savings through 2050, while the 2025 pathway saves around $1.7 billion in the same timeframe.

Heat pump technology can also help the power system by shifting load around, according to Heutte, because they can be scheduled to operate outside of peak electricity demand hours, essentially functioning like a kind of battery storage.

“In effect, what you’re doing is shifting the renewable energy from when it’s generated to when it’s needed,” he explained, by, for instance, pre-heating water or pre-cooling a house. “All those things are basically smart ways to manage the customer side of energy use.”

Moreover, the report shows that because of the high efficiency of heat pump technology, electricity consumption in residential buildings in Oregon would actually decrease even as the amount of homes using electricity for heating and water heating doubles, Dylan Plummer, senior campaign representative with Sierra Club , said in an email.

The main challenge standing in the way of widespread adoption of heat pump technology is ensuring that the financial burden of the transition does not fall on historically marginalized households, according to Plummer.

“That is why organizations across the State are working to put in place policies at all levels of government to fund targeted retrofit programs to ensure that the clean energy transition has values ​​of economic and racial equity at its core,” he said.

The post Switching to environment friendly, electrical HVAC home equipment might save Oregon $1.1B by means of 2050, research finds appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Listen to the article
4 mins

This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.

Dive Brief:

• In Oregon, a switch to sales of only zero-emissions residential heating and cooling appliances by 2030 could nearly halve climate pollution by 2035 while increasing electricity demand from homes and buildings 13% by the middle of the century, according to a recent report from Synapse Energy Economics.
• The report, prepared for the Sierra Club, found that making this transition could lead to $1.1 billion in gas and electric system savings for the residential and commercial sector through 2050, with cost savings beginning in 2030.
• The city of Eugene is currently developing a local policy to wean developers off natural gas in new construction, making it the first in Oregon to do so. The state is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050.

Dive Insight:

Meeting Oregon’s climate goals will mean reducing the carbon footprint of residential and commercial buildings, which currently produce 35% of the state’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to the report. One approach is to electrify building appliances and systems and switch to efficient electric heat pumps.

There are two types of heat pumps, according to Fred Heutte, senior policy associate with the NW Energy Coalition: those that can provide air heating and air conditioning and those that provide hot water.

“We’re poised to do a pretty big upward market transformation [with] both kinds of heat pumps in the next few years,” Heutte said, adding that the recent Synapse report builds on work that has been happening in the state for a long time. The transition to heat pumps represents a shift away from natural gas heating as well as older styles of electric resistance heating, he said, which tend to not be as efficient.

The report took a closer look at two electrification pathways: one that assumes a 100% market share for efficient electrical systems by 2025 and another that reaches that goal by 2030. The more-aggressive 2025 deadline would reduce carbon emissions by 56% by 2035, according to the report, while increasing electricity consumption 12% by 2030, and 13% by the middle of the century.

The 2030 pathway, meanwhile, would reduce emissions by 47% by 2035 while increasing electricity demand by 10% by 2030 and 13% by 2050. These efforts will likely lower energy system costs in both scenarios, the study found: The 2030 pathway is estimated to lead to $1.1 billion in savings through 2050, while the 2025 pathway saves around $1.7 billion in the same timeframe.

Heat pump technology can also help the power system by shifting load around, according to Heutte, because they can be scheduled to operate outside of peak electricity demand hours, essentially functioning like a kind of battery storage.

“In effect, what you’re doing is shifting the renewable energy from when it’s generated to when it’s needed,” he explained, by, for instance, pre-heating water or pre-cooling a house. “All those things are basically smart ways to manage the customer side of energy use.”

Moreover, the report shows that because of the high efficiency of heat pump technology, electricity consumption in residential buildings in Oregon would actually decrease even as the amount of homes using electricity for heating and water heating doubles, Dylan Plummer, senior campaign representative with Sierra Club , said in an email.

The main challenge standing in the way of widespread adoption of heat pump technology is ensuring that the financial burden of the transition does not fall on historically marginalized households, according to Plummer.

“That is why organizations across the State are working to put in place policies at all levels of government to fund targeted retrofit programs to ensure that the clean energy transition has values ​​of economic and racial equity at its core,” he said.

The post Switching to environment friendly, electrical HVAC home equipment may save Oregon $1.1B by way of 2050, research finds appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/AP) — Schoolchildren in California, Oregon and Washington will no longer be required to wear masks as part of new indoor mask policies the Democratic governors of all three states announced jointly on Monday.

“With declining case rates and hospitalizations across the West, California, Oregon and Washington are moving together to update their masking guidance,” the governors said in a statement.

READ MORE: Hayward Police Investigate City’s First Homicide Of 2022 After Man Found Fatally Shot Inside Home

The new guidance will make face coverings a recommendation rather than a requirement at most indoor places in California starting Tuesday and at schools on March 12, regardless of vaccination status. In Washington and Oregon, all the requirements will lift on March 12.

Federal mask requirements will still apply in high-risk indoor settings such as public transportation, airports and taxis. Rules for other high-risk indoor settings could also vary by state.

The milestone, two years in the making, comes as much of the country relaxes public health orders, including school mask mandates, in an effort to restore normalcy and boost economic recovery as Americans learn to live with the virus.

“California continues to adjust our policies based on the latest data and science, applying what we’ve learned over the past two years to guide our response to the pandemic,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement. “Masks are an effective tool to minimize spread of the virus and future variants, especially when transmission rates are high. We cannot predict the future of the virus, but we are better prepared for it and will continue to take measures rooted in science to keep California moving forward.”

“Two years ago today, we identified Oregon’s first case of COVID-19,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said in the statement. “On the West Coast our communities and economies are linked. Together, as we continue to recover from the Omicron surge, we will build resiliency and prepare for the next variant and the next pandemic.”

Earlier this month, California became the first state to formally shift to an endemic approach to the coronavirus with Newsom’s announcement of a plan that emphasizes prevention and quick reaction to outbreaks over mandated masking and business shutdowns.

Newsom has come under growing pressure from Republicans and other critics to ease the school mandate, which has increasingly become a polarizing issue among parents in California.

While many parents still support wearing masks in schools, others have questioned why it’s necessary when they no longer are required to do so in supermarkets and elsewhere. On Feb. 15 California ended an indoor mask requirement for vaccinated people, but at that time left the rule in place for the unvaccinated and for schoolchildren.

Jeff Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), released a response noting that the union, which represents 120,000 educational employees, supported changes based on science, and that’s why they’re glad there’s a two-week transition.

“The two week time period for transitioning to the new policy will give local school districts and local public health agencies time to review local conditions and, in consultation with parents and educators, make the decision about when and where masking is appropriate in their schools, Freitas wrote. “Any decision on masking at the local level should be made with an equity lens so that the health and safety of our hardest hit communities, and especially our most vulnerable students, are prioritized. Districts must continue to provide high quality masks and ensure a safe environment for all staff and students who want or need to continue to wear them. Schools must also continue to have robust testing and proper ventilation in place before making masks optional.

The CFT’s statement also called on Newsom and the state legislature to increase funding for vaccination campaigns.

“COVID vaccinations have proven to work, and will be critical to ensure the long term safety of our schools and communities. We urge the state of California and local school districts to double down on their vaccination campaigns for students and their families. This is especially critical for our low-income communities of color, who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic,” the statement said. “We will continue to work with local education agencies to strengthen proven mitigation efforts, including vaccination access, making high quality masks available to staff and students, sufficient testing, and ventilation upgrades.

Starting Tuesday in California, masks will no longer be required but “strongly recommended” for unvaccinated individuals in most indoor settings. The same shift will apply to K-12 schools and childcare facilities starting March 12, the statement said.

A handful of California school districts have already dropped mask mandates for students in recent weeks in open defiance of the state mandate.

READ MORE: Suspect Sought After Bank Robbery in San Francisco Mission District

The West Coast announcements come after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased the federal mask guidance Friday, essentially saying the majority of Americans don’t need to wear masks in many indoor public places, including schools.

The new CDC guidance bases recommendations for restrictions such as masking on a new set of measures, with less focus on positive test results and more on what’s happening at hospitals. Under the new system, the CDC said that more than 70% of Americans live in places where the coronavirus poses a low or medium threat to hospitals and therefore can stop wearing masks in most indoor places.

The CDC had endorsed universal masking in schools regardless of virus levels in the community since July, but it now recommends masks in schools only in counties at high risk.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said health officials will announce new guidance for schools next week to give them time to prepare.

“Many businesses and families will continue choosing to wear masks,” he said. “As we transition to this next phase, we will continue to move forward together carefully and cautiously.”

Despite rising criticism from parents and some school administrators, Newsom had left the school mask requirements in place in California.

On Sunday, children and parents of “Mask Choice” rallied at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, holding signs demanding the end of mask requirements in schools.

“It’s seen as this force field. It’s been given too much credit. It’s time to get our kids back to normal,” said Laura Fagan.

“The California DPH has been the most conservative, the most restrictive of all the state departments of public health in the United States,” said UCSF infectious diseases expert Dr. Monica Ghandi.

“I think we’re all in pretty much agreement that it’s appropriate to take masks off for a lot of people. It’s really a question of is it now or will it be in a couple weeks?” said UC Berkeley infectious diseases expert Dr. John Schwartzberg.

Under new CDC recommendations, the majority of school districts in California’s 58 counties would be allowed to remove masks falling under “low or medium” levels of transmission.

Nearly every Bay Area county meets the criteria too, with the exception of Napa and Solano counties, which are still in the red.

“We are doing so much better than five and six weeks ago. The surge has come down dramatically,” Swartzberg said.

In the latest UC Berkeley/IGS poll, 61 percent still support mask mandates in schools. Thirty-seven percent disapprove, with the remaining undecided.

MORE NEWS: Former Juror Richelle Nice Grilled Over Book Deal, Prison Letters To Scott Peterson

“Of course, we’d like to have the masks off with kids but it’s not dangerous, having them on,” Swartzberg said.

The post California, Oregon, Washington Finish Faculty Masks Mandates – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

YUROK RESERVATION, Calif. — The young mother had behaved erratically for months, hitchhiking and wandering naked through two Native American reservations and a small town clustered along Northern California’s rugged Lost Coast.

But things escalated when Emmilee Risling was charged with arson for igniting a fire in a cemetery. Her family hoped the case would force her into mental health and addiction services. Instead, she was released over the pleas of loved ones and a tribal police chief.

The 33-year-old college graduate — an accomplished traditional dancer with ancestry from three area tribes — was last seen soon after, walking across a bridge near a place marked End of Road, a far corner of the Yurok Reservation where the rutted pavement dissolves into thick woods.

Her disappearance is one of five instances in the past 18 months where Indigenous women have gone missing or been killed in this isolated expanse of Pacific coastline between San Francisco and Oregon, a region where the Yurok, Hupa, Karuk, Tolowa and Wiyot people have coexisted for millennia. Two other women died from what authorities say were overdoses despite relatives’ questions about severe bruises.

The crisis has spurred the Yurok Tribe to issue an emergency declaration and brought increased urgency to efforts to build California’s first database of such cases and regain sovereignty over key services.

“I came to this issue as both a researcher and a learner, but just in this last year, I knew three of the women who have gone missing or were murdered — and we shared so much in common,” said Blythe George, a Yurok tribal member who consults on a project documenting the problem. “You can’t help but see yourself in those people.”

___

The recent cases spotlight an epidemic that is difficult to quantify but has long disproportionately plagued Native Americans.

A 2021 report by a government watchdog found the true number of missing and murdered Indigenous women is unknown due to reporting problems, distrust of law enforcement and jurisdictional conflicts. But Native women face murder rates almost three times those of white women overall — and up to 10 times the national average in certain locations, according to a 2021 summary of the existing research by the National Congress of American Indians. More than 80% have experienced violence.

In this area peppered with illegal marijuana farms and defined by wilderness, almost everyone knows someone who has vanished.

Missing person posters flutter from gas station doors and road signs. Even the tribal police chief isn’t untouched: He took in the daughter of one missing woman, and Emmilee — an enrolled Hoopa Valley tribal member with Yurok and Karuk blood — babysat his children.

In California alone, the Yurok Tribe and the Sovereign Bodies Institute, an Indigenous-run research and advocacy group, uncovered 18 cases of missing or slain Native American women in roughly the past year — a number they consider a vast undercount. An estimated 62% of those cases are not listed in state or federal databases for missing persons.

Hupa citizen Brandice Davis attended school with the daughters of a woman who disappeared in 1991 and now has daughters of her own, ages 9 and 13.

“Here, we’re all related, in a sense,” she said of the place where many families are connected by marriage or community ties.

She cautions her daughters about what it means to be female, Native American and growing up on a reservation: “You’re a statistic. But we have to keep going. We have to show people we’re still here.”

___

Like countless cases involving Indigenous women, Emmilee’s disappearance has gotten no attention from the outside world.

But many here see in her story the ugly intersection of generations of trauma inflicted on Native Americans by their white colonizers, the marginalization of Native peoples and tribal law enforcement’s lack of authority over many crimes committed on their land.

Virtually all of the area’s Indigenous residents, including Emmilee, have ancestors who were shipped to boarding schools as children and forced to give up their language and culture as part of a federal assimilation campaign. Further back, Yurok people spent years away from home as indentured servants for colonizers, said Judge Abby Abinanti, the tribe’s chief judge.

The trauma caused by those removals echoes among the Yurok in the form of drug abuse and domestic violence, which trickles down to the youth, she said. About 110 Yurok children are in foster care.

“You say, ‘OK, how did we get to this situation where we’re losing our children?’” said Abinanti. “There were big gaps in knowledge, including parenting, and generationally those play out.”

An analysis of cases by the Yurok and Sovereign Bodies found most of the region’s missing women had either been in foster care themselves or had children taken from them by the state. An analysis of jail bookings also showed Yurok citizens in the two-county region are 11 times more likely to go to jail in a given year — and half those arrested are female, usually for low-level crimes. That’s an arrest rate for Yurok women roughly five times the rate of female incarcerations nationwide, said George, the University of California, Merced sociologist consulting with the tribe.

The Yurok run a tribal wellness court for addiction and operate one of the country’s only state-certified tribal domestic violence perpetrator programs. They also recently hired a tribal prosecutor, another step toward building an Indigenous justice system that would ultimately handle all but the most serious felonies.

The Yurok also are working to reclaim supervision over foster care and hope to transfer their first foster family from state court within months, said Jessica Carter, the Yurok Tribal Court director. A tribal-run guardianship court follows another 50 children who live with relatives.

The long-term plan — mostly funded by grants — is a massive undertaking that will take years to accomplish, but the Yurok see regaining sovereignty over these systems as the only way to end the cycle of loss that’s taken the greatest toll on their women.

“If we are successful, we can use that as a gift to other tribes to say, ‘Here’s the steps we took,’” said Rosemary Deck, the newly hired tribal prosecutor. “‘You can take this as a blueprint and assert your own sovereignty.’”

___

Emmilee was born into a prominent Native family, and a bright future beckoned.

Starting at a young age, she was groomed to one day lead the intricate dances that knit the modern-day people to generations of tradition nearly broken by colonization. Her family, a “dance family,” has the rare distinction of owning enough regalia that it can outfit the brush, jump and flower dances without borrowing a single piece.

At 15, Emmilee paraded down the National Mall with other tribal members at the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. The Washington Post published a front-page photo of her in a Karuk dress of dried bear grass, a woven basket cap and a white leather sash adorned with Pileated woodpecker scalps.

The straight-A student earned a scholarship to the University of Oregon, where she helped lead a prominent Native students’ group. Her success, however, was darkened by the first sign of trouble: an abusive relationship with a Native man whom, her mother believes, she felt she could save through her positive influence.

Later, Emmilee dated another man, became pregnant and returned home to have the baby before finishing her degree.

She then worked with disadvantaged Native families and eventually got accepted into a master’s program. She helped coach her son’s T-ball team and signed him up for swim lessons.

But over time, her family says, they noticed changes.

Emmilee was uncharacteristically tardy for work and grew more combative. She often dropped off her son with family, and she fell in with another abusive boyfriend. Her son was removed from her care when he was 5; a girl born in 2020 was taken away as a newborn as Emmilee’s behavior deteriorated.

Her parents remain bewildered by her rapid decline and think she developed a mental illness — possibly postpartum psychosis — compounded by drugs and the trauma of domestic abuse. At first, she would see a doctor or therapist at her family’s insistence but eventually rebuffed all help.

After her daughter’s birth, Emmilee spiraled rapidly, “like a light switched,” and she began to let go of the Native identity that had been her defining force, said her sister, Mary.

“That was her life, and when you let that go, when you don’t have your kids … what are you?” she said.

___

In the months before she vanished, Emmilee was frequently seen walking naked in public, talking to herself. She was picked up many times by sheriff’s deputies and tribal police but never charged.

The only in-patient psychiatric facility within 300 miles was always too full to admit her. Once, she was taken to the emergency room and fled barefoot in her hospital gown.

“People tended to look the other way. They didn’t really help her. In less than 24 hours, she was just back on the street, literally on the street,” said Judy Risling, her mother. “There were just no services for her.”

In September, Emmilee was arrested after she was found dancing around a small fire in the Hoopa Valley Reservation cemetery.

Then-Hoopa Valley Tribal Police Chief Bob Kane appeared in a Humboldt County court by video and explained her repeated police contacts and mental health problems. Emmilee mumbled during the hearing then shouted out that she didn’t set the fire.

She was released with an order to appear again in 12 days after her public defender argued she had no criminal convictions and the court couldn’t hold her on the basis of her mental health.

Then, Emmilee disappeared.

“We had predicted that something like this may … happen in the future,” said Kane. “And you know, now we’re here.”

____

If Emmilee fell through the cracks before she went missing, she has become even more invisible in her absence.

One of the biggest hurdles in Indian Country once a woman is reported missing is unraveling a confusing jumble of federal, state, local and tribal agencies that must coordinate. Poor communication and oversights can result in overlooked evidence or delayed investigations.

The problem is more acute in rural regions like the one where Emmilee disappeared, said Abigail Echo-Hawk, citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and director of the Urban Indian Health Institute in Seattle.

“Particularly in reservations and in village areas, there is a maze of jurisdictions, of policies, of procedures of who investigates what,” she said.

Moreover, many cases aren’t logged in federal missing persons databases, and medical examiners sometimes misclassify Native women as white or Asian, said Gretta Goodwin, of the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s homeland security and justice team.

Recent efforts at the state and federal level seek to address what advocates say have been decades of neglect regarding missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Former President Donald Trump signed a bill that required federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement agencies to create or update their protocols for handling such cases. And in November, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to set up guidelines between the federal government and tribal police that would help track, solve and prevent crimes against all Native Americans.

A number of states, including California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona, are also taking on the crisis with greater funding to tribes, studies of the problem or proposals to create Amber Alert-style notifications.

___

Emmilee’s case illustrates some of the challenges. She was a citizen of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and was arrested on its reservation, but she is presumed missing on the neighboring Yurok Tribe’s reservation.

The Yurok police are in charge of the missing persons probe, but the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office will decide when to declare the case cold, which could trigger federal help.

The remote terrain where Emmilee was last seen — two hours from the nearest town — created hurdles common on reservations.

Law enforcement determined there wasn’t enough information to launch a formal search and rescue operation in such a vast, mountainous area. The Yurok police opted to forgo their own search because of liability concerns and a lack of training, said Yurok Tribal Police Chief Greg O’Rourke.

Instead, Yurok and Hoopa Valley police and sheriff’s deputies plied the rain-swollen Klamath River by boat and drove back roads.

Emmilee’s father, Gary Risling, says the sheriff’s office failed to act on anonymous tips, was slow to follow up on possible sightings and focused more resources on other missing person’s cases, including a wayward hunter and a kayaker lost at sea.

“I don’t want to seem like I’m picking on them, but that effort is sure not put forward when it becomes a missing Indian woman,” he said.

Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal declined interview requests, saying the Yurok are in charge and there are no signs of foul play. O’Rourke said the tips aren’t enough for a search warrant and there’s nothing further the tribal police can do.

The police chief, who knew Emmilee well, says his work is frequently stymied by a broader system that discounts tribal sovereignty.

“The role of police is protect the vulnerable. As tribal police, we’re doing that in a system that’s broken,” he said. “I think that is the reason that Native women get all but dismissed.”

Emmilee’s family, meanwhile, is struggling to shield her children, now 10 and almost 2, from the trauma of their mother’s disappearance — trauma they worry could trigger another generational cycle of loss.

The boy has been having nightmares and recently spoke everyone’s worst fear.

“It’s real difficult when you deal with the grandkids, and the grandkid says, ‘Grandpa, can you take me down the river and can we look for my mama?’ What do you tell him? ‘We’re looking, we’re looking every day,’” said Gary Risling, choking back tears.

“And then he says, ‘What happens if we can’t find her?’”

–Gillian Flaccus/The Associated Press

The post Tribe grapples with disaster of girls disappearing between San Francisco and Oregon border appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Julie Levitch wasn’t arrested until a sweaty evening in August 2020 when a neighbor heard broken glass and called the police.

Levitch, a 52-year-old mother of two, had gone to her boyfriend’s house to return his phone. The doorbell was broken, so she knocked on the window. It had cracked, and when she tapped the glass, her hand broke right through, leaving a bloody wound, she said. When the Phoenix police arrived, the couple stated there was nothing wrong – but officers arrested Levitch and charged her with criminal harm through misdemeanor.

She spent the night in jail, where she says she was sexually molested, the cave was searched and put in solitary confinement for 16 hours. Three months later, prosecutors agreed to drop the charges.

Now Levitch is suing – not for her arrest and detention, but because the county jail posted her mug shot online. Like many law enforcement agencies, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office routinely releases photos of people admitted to the local detention center, potentially permanently devastating their lives before they were convicted.

“That photo will be out there forever,” Levitch told me, worrying about how it would affect everything from job openings in her job as a technical writer to new friendships. “We live in a society where you’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but I was found guilty the minute the mug shot showed up.”

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has not yet responded to Levitch’s lawsuit, and a spokeswoman declined to comment on pending litigation.

In the digital age, those images of people’s worst days lurk forever as internet clickbait. Many news outlets have stopped posting mug photos – or at least so many of the photos – but some states and cities are starting to grapple with a more fundamental problem: Why are police posting mug photos – and should they be allowed to?

“If you see a mug shot, you are suspecting crime,” said Imani Gandy, a law and court journalist and a vocal critic of the representation of colored people in the news media.

In Oregon, after January 1, law enforcement officials may only release booking photos under certain circumstances, such as trying to find a fugitive.

***

The first time I saw my own mug shot was the day after I was jailed in New York state for heroin. It was December 2010, and I was still on the high of drugs, when the other women in the cell block woke me up to point out my frowning face on the evening news.

With scabby cheeks and a red nose, I looked worse in this photo than any other I’d ever seen of myself. I had no idea then how stubbornly it would follow me. Long after I stopped getting high, articles about my arrest – with that “faces of meth” -like picture attached – were the first results when I typed my name into Google, like a digital ball and a chain to me connects with a previous life.

Still, I was fortunate and privileged to be given a second chance, unlike so many others. When I started working as a reporter, it was part of my job to add mug shots to dozens of local news and crime stories. Media has long been posting the images that drive web traffic and, with it, advertising money.

It wasn’t until some editorial offices began to abandon this practice that I began to wonder why we had ever done this and urged my own editorial team to stop. (The Oregonian / OregonLive has severely restricted the use of mug shots in recent years.)

***

It was only recently that I began to ask why the police had to publish mug shots in the first place.

Some law enforcement agencies are asking themselves this question as well. The Justice Department has repeatedly refused to post mug shots, arguing in a federal appeals court that there is no public safety interest in posting images that represent a “permanent picture of one of the most difficult episodes in a person’s life.”

Last year the San Francisco Police Department also suspended their release.

“The widespread publication of police posting photos in the news and on social media creates an illusory correlation for viewers that encourages racial prejudice and vastly overestimates the propensity of black and brown men to commit criminal behavior,” said Chief Bill Scott at the time.

Now the department only publishes arrest photos if they have a clear law enforcement purpose – such as finding a suspect or missing person. Last month, Newark, New Jersey police announced a similar policy change.

At least three states have gone a step further and have banned some mug shots from being published. In 2019, New York changed its Open Records Act to prohibit posting of mug shots unless it helps law enforcement. That year, California banned police from posting the pictures on social media, and Utah banned mug shots from posting until after the conviction.

The changes generated some resistance, particularly from civil rights groups and journalists. At a February hearing, Salt Lake City investigative reporter Nate Carlisle asked lawmakers to reject Utah law, pointing out that mug shots are sometimes the only evidence of police brutality during an arrest.

“I just don’t think it’s good public policy to hand out fewer government documents,” he told me a few weeks ago. “Whether journalists should publish them is another discussion.”

Since mug shots are often viewed as public records rather than criminal records – the latter of which are considered too personal in many states to release – it’s hard to win a lawsuit like Levitch’s.

“These lawsuits are usually dismissed because the agency says, ‘It’s a public record and we have the right to publish it,'” said Sarah Lageson, a Rutgers sociologist who studies mug shots.

There are a few exceptions, she said. A 2016 court ruling allowed the Department of Justice to withhold mug shots, and in a Pennsylvania case, ex-prisoners were awarded cash damages when a federal jury ruled that releasing mug shots was against the Open Records Act.

“It should be a change in the law and then we wouldn’t have to rely on judicial interpretation of what is publicly available in the digital age,” said Lageson.

Some law enforcement say that posting mug shots can encourage other victims to come forward, and others claim – without evidence – that threating a mug shot can help deter crime.

But for people who have publicly posted their mug shots, it seems like the practice also discourages rebuilding a life. Sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint the exact damage because when a would-be job or a landlord or date pops up after discovering a stigmatizing picture online, we usually never know. To Levitch, this seems to undermine the basic protections our justice system should have.

“Is it constitutional to publish mug shots that damage the reputation of people when they are still innocent?” Said Levite. “It just seems naturally unfair and not American to do this.”

Keri Blakinger is a salaried writer whose work has focused on prisons and prisons.

The post Rethinking mugshots: On-line period means they reside ceaselessly so states, together with Oregon, are shifting to restrict launch appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The Oregon HVAC industry struggled to withstand the record breaking heat

Phones rang at Southern Oregon Heat and Air Conditioning in Medford last weekend in June as meteorological records melted across the state of Oregon.

The company’s small crew worked around the clock to meet demand. Over the weekend, the company gained 50 customers but received 500 calls a day, turning away many potential customers.

“We had people calling and saying how unhappy and how hot they were and I had to say, ‘Look, I feel awful, but our crew works a 12-hour shift seven days a week,'” says Jesse Phillips, a dispatcher at the heating and air conditioning company. “We could only do so much.”

During the heat wave, temperatures rose to 117 degrees in some areas of the state – causing HVAC companies across the state to scramble to keep up with the sudden demand for services.

“Before the heat wave, there wasn’t really a pile of service orders,” said Brian Hansen, general manager of Bull Mountain Heating & Cooling in Portland. “People weren’t prepared for the temperature and the stress was high. What happened was this big bubble that put a lot of pressure on the industry, ”says Hansen.

In Portland, only 70% of households have air conditioning, according to data from the US Census Bureau. That makes Portland one of the least air-conditioned cities in the United States – third to last behind Seattle and San Francisco.

Those on lower incomes were less likely to have air conditioning at home, leaving many Oregonians looking for oases like cooling centers or air-conditioned accommodations – or heading to cooler parts of the state.

But not everyone was able to do it, and the results were tragic: by Tuesday morning, 99 people across the state had died from heat-related causes during the heat wave. Many, officials said, were found alone in their homes with no air conditioning or fans. Hundreds of others sought emergency care when temperatures rose.

And even households and businesses with air conditioning couldn’t necessarily keep them waiting: of the five HVAC companies contacted for this item, four stopped accepting new customers.

That’s because the HVAC industry, like many others, is faced with a staff shortage – so business owners are understaffed even in their services.

“We’re trying to get as many people into the industry as possible. We pay to take in a lot of people and pay for their schooling, ”says Hansen. “There aren’t many hands here.”

Hansen says he will always recruit and train qualified people who want to become HVAC technicians, but that he and his colleagues in the industry are struggling to find enough employees.

“Not a lot of people want to train outside in the heat,” says Phillips. “We lost a technician in our crew. Everyone in the industry has problems filling positions. ”

A 2019 report by the State Department of Labor found that craftsmen, including plumbers, truck drivers and maintenance workers, were viewed as “difficult to fill positions” because they could not be filled due to a lack of qualified applicants.

Northwest Apprenticeship Services’ apprentice administrator Lou Long said that Oregon’s skills shortage was a long time coming.

“I wasn’t even allowed to go to high school career fairs for a long time. Everyone was pushing for colleges and nobody wanted to hear about apprenticeships and vocational schools, ”says Long. “Now all of our journeymen are retiring and we have no one to fill this gap.”

That could mean that more homeowners and landlords are foregoing or doing without basic maintenance due to a lack of qualified hands.

But that trend could also be reversed due to COVID-19 and rising college costs. According to a 2020 analysis by the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of citizen apprenticeships exceeded 636,000 in 2020, a 64% increase from 10 years ago.

President Joe Biden’s administration has also signaled support for craft training: the American Jobs Plan, if it goes into effect, will allocate $ 48 billion to train workers, including the creation of “one to two million new ones registered apprenticeships “.

Training can take up to six years, but on-the-job training and booming demand could put an end to the skills shortage in Oregon quickly.

The more lucrative the trade work becomes, the more attractive it could be to high school students who are unable or unwilling to take on large college debt.

If the historic heat of the weekend – and climate models that predict an increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including extreme heat and cold – are any indication, the need for reliable heating and cooling systems will become even more important for Oregonians in the near future. And that means the demand for skilled HVAC technicians will continue to grow.

“If journeymen don’t work, it’s their own fault,” says Long. “The demand is huge.”

To subscribe to Oregon Business, click here.

The post Oregon Enterprise – Hovering Temperatures, Dearth of Expert Staff Forge Excellent Storm for HVAC Distributors appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

One of the 28 major fires ravaging California has officially become the largest blaze in the state’s history.  

The August Complex, which started as more than 30 separate fires in the Mendocino National Forest on August 17, has since burned more than 471,000 acres in and around Tehama County – surpassing the 2018 Mendocino Complex fire.  

The complex- which is just 24 percent contained – has destroyed more than 26 structures and killed at least one person. It secured the title of California’s largest-ever fire on Thursday, as the state weathers its worst most destructive year on record.  

More than 100 wildfires are currently raging across 12 western states, scorching more than 3.4 million acres and leaving seven people dead in California, Oregon and Washington. 

At least five towns have been razed by blazes ripping across the drought-stricken West Coast as hundreds of thousands of people are evacuated under apocalyptic skies stained orange and red by smoke.  

The fast-moving fires have already claimed the lives of seven people who failed to flee before flames engulfed their communities. 

In Washington state, a one-year-old boy named Uriel was killed and his parents Jake and Jamie Hyland were severely burned when they were trapped by the Cold Springs Fire in Okanogan County. 

In Oregon, 12-year-old Wyatt Tofte and his grandmother Peggy Mosso died in a blaze in the Santiam Valley community of Lyons, about 50 miles south of Portland. The boy’s mother is currently in hospital in critical condition after suffering serious burns.

Another person was killed by the Alameda Fire 250 miles away in Ashland – as Oregon Governor Kate Brown warned: ‘This could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our state’s history.’ 

In California, three people died when the Bear Fire swept through Butte County on Tuesday night.  

Dramatic aerial photographs captured the massive destruction wrought by wildfires across all three states – while drone footage showed San Francisco sitting under a stunning orange haze blanketed by smoke. 

Scroll down for video 

The August Complex in Northern California became the largest fire in the state’s history on Thursday. Firefighers are seen battling the blaze in its first week on August 23

The map above shows 103 fires that have already burned more than 3.4 million acres across the western United States

Butte county firefighters watch as flames tower over their truck during the Bear Fire in Oroville, California, on Wednesday

At least five towns have been razed by blazes ripping across the drought-stricken West Coast as hundreds of thousands of people are evacuated. Pictured: Two young children look at a charred bicycle in Phoenix, Oregon, after a fire ripped through

The Reyes family looks at the destruction of their home at Coleman Creek Estates mobile home park in Phoenix, Oregon

Drone footage captured the eerie orange haze hanging over San Francisco as two massive fires loom nearby 

Jake and Jamie Hyland were severely burned and their one-year-old son Uriel was killed as the family fled from a wildfire in Okanogan County, Washington, on Sunday night

Wyatt Tofte, 12, (far left) and his grandmother Peggy Mosso (far right in red) died in a wildfire burning near the Santiam Valley community of Lyons, about 50 miles south of Portland. The boy’s mother is currently in hospital in critical condition

MEDFORD, OREGON: Northridge Terrace is seen left in September 2019 and right after it was razed by this week’s West Coast wildfires which have ravaged communities and brought apocalyptic orange skies 

TALENT, OREGON: Mountain View Estates in September 2019 (left) and September 2020 (right) after the massive wildfires. Only ‘smoldering ruins’ remained of large parts of the town of Talent, local resident Sandra Spelliscy said 

MEDFORD, OREGON: These satellite images show the destruction in western Oregon where officials fear more deaths

PHOENIX, OREGON: A close-up of the city of 4,500 people which has been devastated by the Alameda Fire 

TALENT, OREGON: The Rogue Valley Highway 99 in June 2018 (left) and on Wednesday this week (right) 

OREGON COAST: A satellite image of the state’s Pacific coast in December 2016 (left) and September 2020 (right) 

PHOENIX, OREGON: This infrared satellite image shows an overview of the destruction, with burned vegetation and property in black and grey, and healthy vegetation that has not been burned in red 

One-year-old boy is killed and his parents are severely burned as they fled Washington wildfire

Jake and Jamie Hyland and their infant son Uriel were evacuating their property in rural Okanogan at around midnight on Sunday when they got trapped by the Cold Springs Fire. 

The family’s scorched truck was found abandoned on Tuesday afternoon, before search teams discovered Jake and Jamie, who is pregnant, gravely injured on the banks of the Columbia River. Baby Uri was already dead. 

The parents were transported to Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster before being airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. 

Jamie, 26, suffered burns covering 40 to 50 percent of her body and underwent surgery on her arms, a relative wrote on a GoFundMe page.  

Jake, 31, was burned on 25 percent of his body and was preparing for surgery on his arms as well.    

‘They are both still critical at this point, but Jamie is more so than Jake,’ the relative wrote.   

The Hyland family, who live outside Portland in Renton, had been visiting their house in Okanogan for Labor Day weekend. 

The relative said the remote property doesn’t have cell service, so it’s possible the family didn’t receive alerts about the fire blazing toward them until it was too late to evacuate safely.  

The Cold Springs Fire erupted near Omak on Sunday night and has already torched more than 163,000 acres. It was 10 percent contained as of Wednesday night. 

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but Okanogan County Sheriff Tony Hawley said Uri’s death will be treated as a homicide if it turns out to be an arson.  

Hawley praised the efforts of firefighters battling blazes around his community but expressed frustration with a lack of resources. 

He attributed aid delays to the fact that dozens of wildfires are currently burning across the state of Washington and around the western US. 

‘We’re competing for resources just like everyone across the nation,’ he said.  

Across the United States wildfires have burned nearly 4.7 million acres in 2020, the highest year-to-date area since 2018, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Most of the fires are in western states, where 17 new large blazes were reported on Wednesday, bringing the total to 90 that have burned more than 3.4 million acres – an area nearly the size of Connecticut.

Only ‘smoldering ruins’ remained of large parts of the town of Talent, Oregon, said local resident Sandra Spelliscy. 

‘There are numerous neighborhoods where there are no structures left standing… dozens of homes [gone] and literally nothing except the skeletons of a chimney or an appliance,’ she said. 

Firefighters retreated from uncontrollable blazes in Oregon as officials gave residents ‘go now’ orders to evacuate, meaning they had only minutes to leave their homes.

‘It was like driving through hell,’ Jody Evans told local television station NewsChannel21 after a midnight evacuation from Detroit, about 50 miles west of Salem. 

In Okanogan County, Washington, the Hyland family got trapped by the Cold Springs Fire as they evacuated their property near Omak on Sunday night.  

The family’s scorched truck was found abandoned on the side of a road on Tuesday afternoon, before search and rescue teams discovered dad Jake and mom Jamie, who is pregnant, gravely injured on the banks of the Columbia River. Their one-year-old son Uri was already dead.

Jamie, 26, suffered burns covering 40 to 50 percent of her body and underwent surgery on her arms, a relative wrote in on a GoFundMe page.  

Jake, 31, was burned on 25 percent of his body and was preparing for surgery on his arms as well.  

To the south in Butte County, California, Sheriff Kory Honea confirmed that three people have died in the Bear Fire. Their identities have not yet been released. 

The remains of three victims were found in two separate locations of the same fire, Honea said, bringing the total death toll from this summer’s devastating spate of California wildfires to at least 11. 

Hornea said at least 12 people remain missing in Butte County as the Bear Fire rages on.   

Leanna Mikesler, from Clovis, California, said she had been forced to evacuate her home to escape wildfires before, but it was ’10 times harder’ during the coronavirus pandemic.

‘They call… the evacuation. And then you go from there to see if your house has been burned down,’ she said. 

Over a century of efforts by federal and state agencies to suppress naturally occurring blazes have left forests replete with dry timber and brush that provides fuel for large wildfires.

Home construction has encroached on some forests in recent decades, and owners are watching their houses burn as firefighters are unable to save property. 

Half-dozen fire experts who spoke to AP agreed that more extreme fire behavior in recent years has been driven by drought and warming temperatures they attribute to climate change. Among the most concerning developments is that fast-moving wildfires leave less time for warnings or evacuations.

Recently ‘we have seen multiple fires expand by tens of thousands of acres in a matter of hours, and 30 years or more ago that just wasn’t fire behavior that we saw,’ said Jacob Bendix, a professor of geography and the environment at Syracuse University who studies wildfires. 

Hotter temperatures, longer fire seasons and an estimated 140 million dead trees from a five-year drought mean that ‘fires in California are moving faster and growing larger’, said University of Utah fire expert Philip Dennison.

Mike Flannigan, who directs the Western Partnership for Wildland Fire Science at Canada’s University of Alberta, remembers the first report of a fire-created thunderstorm in 1986.

‘They were rare events, and now they’ve become commonplace,’ he said. ‘It’s because these fires are higher intensity.’

The San Francisco Bay Bridge and the city skyline are bathed in apocalyptic orange as smoke and haze blows over the city, as seen from the artificial Treasure Island 

San Francisco skyline is seen from Dolores Park in San Francisco, California on September 9. More than 300,000 acres are burning across the northwestern state including 35 major wildfires, with at least five towns ‘substantially destroyed’ and mass evacuations taking place

A view of the San Francisco Bay Bridge under an orange sky in the afternoon in San Francisco, California. The blazes across the states have made major metropolitan areas look apocalyptic 

The Bobcat fire rages above Rincon Fire Station on Highway 39 in the San Gabriel Mountains, California

A singed ice machine sits over a burned store during the Bear Fire, part of the North Lightning Complex fires, in unincorporated Butte County, California on Wednesday

Brown smoke from wildfires blowing westward in the atmosphere from California’s Sierra Nevada to the Coast Ranges and from Oregon can be seen on Wednesday

A satellite image shows wildfires near Colton, Oregon on Wednesday as the scores of wildfires continued to rage 

Interstate 5 is seen on the left as the Bear Lakes Estates neighborhood in Phoenix, Oregon, is left devastated

Homes were essentially wiped from the map as the fire took hold and laid claim to everything in its path, blown by the wind

A prime example is the so-called Creek Fire in Sierra National Forest near Yosemite National Park, which exploded through miles of drought- and beetle-killed timber, moving so fast that it trapped hundreds of campers.

‘When you have a fire run 15 miles in one day, in one afternoon, there’s no model that can predict that,’ US Forest Service forester Steve Lohr said. ‘The fires are behaving in such a way that we’ve not seen.’

Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for California’s state fire authority, said of the Creek Fire: ‘You add the winds, the dry conditions, the hot temperatures, it’s the perfect recipe. This fire is just burning at an explosive rate.’

The phenomenon isn’t restricted to California. Doug Grafe, chief of Fire Protection at the Oregon Department of Forestry, said it was unprecedented in his state for fires this week to spread from the crest of the Cascade Mountains into the valleys below, and so quickly, ‘carrying tens of miles in one period of an afternoon and not slowing down in the evening – (there is) absolutely no context for that in this environment’. 

Winds of up to 50 miles per hour sent blazes racing tens of miles within hours, burning hundreds of homes as firefighters fought at least 35 major blazes across an area of Oregon nearly twice the size of New York City. 

Parts of Medford, Oregon, a popular retirement location with over 80,000 residents in the state’s scenic Rogue Valley, were under evacuation orders or warnings as a growing wildfire closed a section of Interstate 5, the primary north-south highway in the West.

The fire moved north to Medford from Ashland, where it started on Tuesday. The blaze did little damage to Ashland, home to the historic stages of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which normally draws more than 350,000 theatergoers a year.  

The Holiday Farm fire is seen burning in the mountains around McKenzie Bridge, Oregon on September 9, 2020

Three chairs are all that remain at the Gates Post office in Gates, Oregon on Wednesday. The post office was destroyed along with several other buildings in the Santiam Canyon community as a result of the Santiam Fire

A swing and a burned-out vehicle are seen after the Bear Fire tore through Berry Creek, California

A scorched car rests in a clearing following the Bear Fire in Butte County. The blaze, part of the lightning-sparked North Complex, expanded at a critical rate of spread as winds buffeted the region

A plume rises from the Bear Fire as it burns along Lake Oroville in Butte County, California

In central California, the Creek Fire about 35 miles  north of Fresno tore through a forest killed by drought and bark beetles as military helicopters pulled campers, hikers and residents out of the area.   

On Wednesday morning, people in San Francisco and elsewhere in California woke to a deep orange sky that triggered apocalyptic visions in a year already rife with disturbing events.

Skies so dark at times that it appeared more night than day were accompanied in some places with ash falling like snow, the cause being massive wild fires filling the air with smoke and cinders.

‘The orange skies this morning are a result of wildfire smoke in the air,’ San Francisco Bay air quality officials said in a tweet.

President Barack Obama tweeted his concern over the dangers of climate change and urged voters to hit the polls

‘These smoke particles scatter blue light and only allow yellow-orange-red light to reach the surface, causing skies to look orange.’

As smoke gets thick in some areas, it blocks sunlight causing dark skies, the officials explained.

Photos of the eerie scene, particularly of a San Francisco skyline fit for a dystopian science fiction film, spread quickly on social media.

‘Is there a word for ‘the apocalypse is upon us burnt sienna?’ read one tweet fired off by someone who felt using the word ‘orange’ to describe the sky was being too kind.

Others likened the scenes to planets other than Earth.

‘If literal fire skies don’t wake us up to climate change, then nothing will,’ tweeted YouTube influencer and Zadiko tea startup chief Zack Kornfeld.

‘Enjoy joking about how crazy this year is because we made this mess and it’s only going to get worse.’   

Robert Pylant, 65, locates his fire safe in the rubble of his mobile home, early Wednesday in Gates, Oregon. All the trailers in Oak Park Trailer Park were destroyed along with the majority of the homes along East Sorbin Avenue

Hundreds of homes including entire communities were razed by wildfires in the western United States on September 9 as officials warned of potential mass deaths under apocalyptic orange skies

At least five towns were ‘substantially destroyed’ in Oregon as widespread evacuations took place across the northwestern state, governor Kate Brown said

A frightening red haze has been cast over towns in Oregon as 35 wildfires rage around the state

Several Oregon residents shared photos of red-stained skies on social media. The photo above was taken in the middle of the day in Salem  

In Southern California, fires burned in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, and the forecast called for the arrival of the region’s notorious Santa Anas. The hot, dry winds could reach 50 mph at times, forecasters said.

People in a half-dozen foothill communities east of Los Angeles were being told to stay alert because of a fire in the Angeles National Forest.

‘The combination of gusty winds, very dry air, and dry vegetation will create critical fire danger,’ the National Weather Service warned.

The US Forest Service on Monday decided to close all eight national forests in the southern half of the state and shutter campgrounds statewide.

Firefighters have made headway with one blaze in the area – the El Dorado Fire – which was sparked on Saturday by a gender reveal photoshoot, when a pyrotechnical smoke device sent sparks into the bone-dry brush.

The El Dorado Fire has burned more than 12,610 acres as of Tuesday night and is 23 percent contained. 

Officials said the family behind the gender reveal debacle could face civil or criminal charges for the fire. 

The threat of winds tearing down power lines or hurling debris into them and sparking a wildfire prompted Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest utility, to shut off power to 172,000 customers over the weekend.   

People gather at Alamo Square under an orange and yellow overcast sky overlooking the The Painted Ladies

A view of Cupid’s Span, a sculpture by Claes Oldenburge and Coosje van Bruggen, in the foreground and the Ferry Building Clock Tower in the background under an orange overcast sky in the afternoon in San Francisco

Under darkened skies from wildfire smoke, a sailboat makes its way past the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and lights at Oracle Park Wednesday

Looking down Lombard Street, Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill at right and the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, are darkened by wildfire smoke

Smoke hangs over the San Francisco skyline on Wednesday as dozens of wildfires rage across California

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday night declared a state of emergency as his hard-hit state struggled to beat back the blazes.

The Labor Day weekend heat wave fueled new fires that pushed the state to set a new record for number of acres burned with 3.1 million as of Thursday.  

The previous record was set just two years ago and included the deadliest fire in state history, the Camp Fire, which ripped through the town of Paradise and killed 85 people in November 2018.  

Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff said the new record was especially alarming because of how early in the year it was set. 

‘It’s a little unnerving because September and October are historically our worst months for fires,’ Tolmachoff told AP. ‘It’s usually hot, and the fuels really dry out. And we see more of our wind events.’ 

Compared to last year, California has seen over 2,650 more fires and a nearly 2000 percent increase in the acres burned year-to-date (January 1 – September 7), across all jurisdictions, Cal Fire said. 

The state has seen 900 wildfires since August 15, many of them started by an intense series of thousands of lightning strikes in mid-August. There have been eight fire deaths and 5,875 structures destroyed as of Thursday.   

A Butte County firefighter douses flames at the Bear Fire in Oroville, California, early Wednesday morning

Law enforcement officers watch flames into the air as the Bear Fire continues to spread in Oroville, California, on Wednesday

Similar red skies are seen in Northern California as the Creek Fire continues its path through Fresno County outside Yosemite

Smoke from California wildfires obscures the sky over Oracle Park as the Seattle Mariners take batting practice before their baseball game against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday in San Francisco

Golfers warm up on the driving range during the preview day of the Safeway Open in Napa, California, on Wednesday

In Washington state, the town of Malden was almost entirely destroyed by a fire earlier in the week.

Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers said that 70-80 percent of homes in the town of 300 people have gone up in flames.

Local news network KREM showed pictured of the charred Malden post office, a fire still burning inside the gutted building.  

The fire station, city hall and other buildings were also consumed, Myers said.

‘The scale of this disaster really can’t be expressed in words,’ he said. ‘The fire will be extinguished, but a community has been changed for a lifetime. I just hope we don’t find the fire took more than homes and buildings. I pray everyone got out in time.’

Larry Frick, who lives in Malden, told KXLY that he spent three hours to save his house amid the flames.

‘It’s gone, brother,’ he texted his sibling after the fire swept through. ‘The entire town is gone. Everything from here to Pine City is gone. The scariest time of my life.’ 

KREM said that at least nine wildfires were burning throughout the Inland Northwest on Monday, amid dry and windy conditions.

Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz tweeted on Monday evening that, ‘Today alone, almost 300,000 acres in Washington have burned.’

‘Thousands of homes are without power. Many families have had to evacuate their homes and many homes have been lost,’ Franz wrote. ‘We’re still seeing new fire starts in every corner of the state.’

Governor Jay Inslee noted that more acres burned on Monday than in 12 of the last fire seasons in the state.  

‘We think all of these are human-caused in some dimension,’ Inslee said.

The post 103 wildfires rage throughout western US, killing seven individuals in California, Washington and Oregon appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Dramatic aerial images captured the massive destruction wrought by wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington which have killed at least seven people including a 12-year-old boy and his grandmother. 

Ninety major fires across 13 western states have already burned more than 3.4 million acres – the size of Connecticut – and are still spreading in high winds amid fears that the number of casualties will rise. 

‘This could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our state’s history,’ Oregon Gov Kate Brown told a press conference. 

Entire communities have been razed with five towns ‘substantially destroyed’ and widespread evacuations taking place under apocalyptic orange skies. 

Only ‘smoldering ruins’ remained of large parts of the town of Talent, Oregon, said local resident Sandra Spelliscy. 

‘There are numerous neighborhoods where there are no structures left standing… dozens of homes [gone] and literally nothing except the skeletons of a chimney or an appliance,’ she said. 

Twelve-year-old Wyatt Tofte and his grandmother Peggy Mosso died in a blaze in the Santiam Valley community of Lyons, about 50 miles south of Portland. The boy’s mother is currently in hospital in critical condition after suffering serious burns.

The fire also was suspected of causing at least one death outside of Ashland, Oregon, while in Washington state a one-year-old boy named Uriel was killed and his parents Jake and Jamie Hyland were severely burned fleeing a fire in Okanogan County, police said.

Another three were feared dead in the California Bear Fire that swept through Butte County on Tuesday night.

MEDFORD, OREGON: Northridge Terrace is seen left in September 2019 and right after it was razed by this week’s West Coast wildfires which have ravaged communities and brought apocalyptic orange skies 

The map above shows 103 fires that have already burned more than 3.4 million acres across the western United States

TALENT, OREGON: Mountain View Estates in September 2019 (left) and September 2020 (right) after the massive wildfires. Only ‘smoldering ruins’ remained of large parts of the town of Talent, local resident Sandra Spelliscy said 

MEDFORD, OREGON: These satellite images show the destruction in western Oregon where officials fear more deaths

PHOENIX, OREGON: A close-up of the city of 4,500 people which has been devastated by the Alameda Fire 

TALENT, OREGON: The Rogue Valley Highway 99 in June 2018 (left) and on Wednesday this week (right) 

OREGON COAST: A satellite image of the state’s Pacific coast in December 2016 (left) and September 2020 (right) 

PHOENIX, OREGON: This infrared satellite image shows an overview of the destruction, with burned vegetation and property in black and grey, and healthy vegetation that has not been burned in red 

Wyatt Tofte, 12, (far left) and his grandmother Peggy Mosso (in the right-hand picture, left in dark blue) died in a wildfire burning near the Santiam Valley community of Lyons, about 50 miles south of Portland. The boy’s mother is currently in hospital in critical condition

Jake and Jamie Hyland were severely burned and their one-year-old son Uriel was killed as the family fled from a wildfire in Okanogan County, Washington, on Sunday night

Dramatic: The San Francisco Bay Bridge and the city skyline are bathed in apocalyptic orange as smoke and haze blows over the city, as seen from the artificial Treasure Island 

Butte county firefighters watch as flames tower over their truck during the Bear fire in Oroville, California on September 9

Security officials survey the Bear Lakes Estates neighborhood which was left devastated by the Almeda fire in Phoenix, Oregon

Houses and vehicles in the Bear Lakes Estates neighborhood which were left devastated by the Almeda fire 

Interstate 5 is seen in the background in the aftermath of the Almeda fire in Phoenix, Oregon. The road appeared to serve as a divider as nothing on the opposite side of the road was harmed by the fire

Homes were essentially wiped from the map as the fire took hold and laid claim to everything in its path, blown by the wind

Interstate 5 is seen on the left as the Bear Lakes Estates neighborhood is left devastated

A satellite image shows wildfires near Colton, Oregon on Wednesday as the scores of wildfires continued to rage 

One-year-old boy is killed and his parents are severely burned as they fled Washington wildfire

Jake and Jamie Hyland and their infant son Uriel were evacuating their property in rural Okanogan at around midnight on Sunday when they got trapped by the Cold Springs Fire. 

The family’s scorched truck was found abandoned on Tuesday afternoon, before search teams discovered Jake and Jamie, who is pregnant, gravely injured on the banks of the Columbia River. Baby Uri was already dead. 

The parents were transported to Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster before being airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. 

Jamie, 26, suffered burns covering 40 to 50 percent of her body and underwent surgery on her arms, a relative wrote on a GoFundMe page.  

Jake, 31, was burned on 25 percent of his body and was preparing for surgery on his arms as well.    

‘They are both still critical at this point, but Jamie is more so than Jake,’ the relative wrote.   

The Hyland family, who live outside Portland in Renton, had been visiting their house in Okanogan for Labor Day weekend. 

The relative said the remote property doesn’t have cell service, so it’s possible the family didn’t receive alerts about the fire blazing toward them until it was too late to evacuate safely.  

The Cold Springs Fire erupted near Omak on Sunday night and has already torched more than 163,000 acres. It was 10 percent contained as of Wednesday night. 

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but Okanogan County Sheriff Tony Hawley said Uri’s death will be treated as a homicide if it turns out to be an arson.  

Hawley praised the efforts of firefighters battling blazes around his community but expressed frustration with a lack of resources. 

He attributed aid delays to the fact that dozens of wildfires are currently burning across the state of Washington and around the western US. 

‘We’re competing for resources just like everyone across the nation,’ he said.  

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told the Sacramento Bee confirmed that three people have died. Their identities have not yet been released. 

The remains of three victims were found in two separate locations of the same fire, Honea said, bringing the total death toll from this summer’s devastating spate of California wildfires to at least 11. 

Hornea said at least 12 people remain missing in Butte County as the Bear Fire rages on. 

In Oregon, one victim was found close to where the Almeda Fire began near homes in Medford on Tuesday. 

Firefighters retreated from uncontrollable blazes in Oregon as officials gave residents ‘go now’ orders to evacuate, meaning they had only minutes to leave their homes.

‘It was like driving through hell,’ Jody Evans told local television station NewsChannel21 after a midnight evacuation from Detroit, about 50 miles west of Salem. 

In Okanogan County, Washington, the Hyland family got trapped by the Cold Springs Fire as they evacuated their property near Omak on Sunday night.  

The family’s scorched truck was found abandoned on the side of a road on Tuesday afternoon, before search and rescue teams discovered dad Jake and mom Jamie, who is pregnant, gravely injured on the banks of the Columbia River. Their one-year-old son Uri was already dead.

Jamie, 26, suffered burns covering 40 to 50 percent of her body and underwent surgery on her arms, a relative wrote in on a GoFundMe page.  

Jake, 31, was burned on 25 percent of his body and was preparing for surgery on his arms as well.  

Leanna Mikesler, from Clovis, California, said she had been forced to evacuate her home to escape wildfires before, but it was ’10 times harder’ during the coronavirus pandemic.

‘They call… the evacuation. And then you go from there to see if your house has been burned down,’ she said. 

Across the United States wildfires have burned nearly 4.7 million acres in 2020, the highest year-to-date area since 2018, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Most of the fires are in western states, where 17 new large blazes were reported on Wednesday, bringing the total to 90 that have burned more than 3.4 million acres – an area nearly the size of Connecticut.

Over a century of efforts by federal and state agencies to suppress naturally occurring blazes have left forests replete with dry timber and brush that provides fuel for large wildfires.

Home construction has encroached on some forests in recent decades, and owners are watching their houses burn as firefighters are unable to save property. 

Half-dozen fire experts who spoke to AP agreed that more extreme fire behavior in recent years has been driven by drought and warming temperatures they attribute to climate change. Among the most concerning developments is that fast-moving wildfires leave less time for warnings or evacuations.

Recently ‘we have seen multiple fires expand by tens of thousands of acres in a matter of hours, and 30 years or more ago that just wasn’t fire behavior that we saw,’ said Jacob Bendix, a professor of geography and the environment at Syracuse University who studies wildfires. 

Hotter temperatures, longer fire seasons and an estimated 140 million dead trees from a five-year drought mean that ‘fires in California are moving faster and growing larger’, said University of Utah fire expert Philip Dennison.

Mike Flannigan, who directs the Western Partnership for Wildland Fire Science at Canada’s University of Alberta, remembers the first report of a fire-created thunderstorm in 1986.

‘They were rare events, and now they’ve become commonplace,’ he said. ‘It’s because these fires are higher intensity.’

An orange glow fills the sky above the Embarcadero as smoke from various wildfires burning across Northern California mixes with the marine layer, blanketing San Francisco in darkness, on September 9, 2020 in San Francisco, California

San Francisco skyline is seen from Dolores Park in San Francisco, California on September 9. More than 300,000 acres are burning across the northwestern state including 35 major wildfires, with at least five towns ‘substantially destroyed’ and mass evacuations taking place

The Bobcat fire rages above Rincon Fire Station on Highway 39 in the San Gabriel Mountains, California

A view of the San Francisco Bay Bridge under an orange sky in the afternoon in San Francisco, California. The blazes across the states have made major metropolitan areas look apocalyptic 

An orange sky filled with wildfire smoke hangs above hiking trails at the Limeridge Open Space in Concord, California

A singed ice machine sits over a burned store during the Bear Fire, part of the North Lightning Complex fires, in unincorporated Butte County, California on Wednesday

Brown smoke from wildfires blowing westward in the atmosphere from California’s Sierra Nevada to the Coast Ranges and from Oregon can be seen on Wednesday

A prime example is the so-called Creek Fire in Sierra National Forest near Yosemite National Park, which exploded through miles of drought- and beetle-killed timber, moving so fast that it trapped hundreds of campers.

‘When you have a fire run 15 miles in one day, in one afternoon, there’s no model that can predict that,’ US Forest Service forester Steve Lohr said. ‘The fires are behaving in such a way that we’ve not seen.’

Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for California’s state fire authority, said of the Creek Fire: ‘You add the winds, the dry conditions, the hot temperatures, it’s the perfect recipe. This fire is just burning at an explosive rate.’

The phenomenon isn’t restricted to California. Doug Grafe, chief of Fire Protection at the Oregon Department of Forestry, said it was unprecedented in his state for fires this week to spread from the crest of the Cascade Mountains into the valleys below, and so quickly, ‘carrying tens of miles in one period of an afternoon and not slowing down in the evening – (there is) absolutely no context for that in this environment’. 

Winds of up to 50 miles per hour sent blazes racing tens of miles within hours, burning hundreds of homes as firefighters fought at least 35 major blazes across an area of Oregon nearly twice the size of New York City. 

Parts of Medford, Oregon, a popular retirement location with over 80,000 residents in the state’s scenic Rogue Valley, were under evacuation orders or warnings as a growing wildfire closed a section of Interstate 5, the primary north-south highway in the West.

The fire moved north to Medford from Ashland, where it started on Tuesday. The blaze did little damage to Ashland, home to the historic stages of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which normally draws more than 350,000 theatergoers a year.

The Holiday Farm fire is seen burning in the mountains around McKenzie Bridge, Oregon on September 9, 2020

Three chairs are all that remain at the Gates Post office in Gates, Oregon on Wednesday. The post office was destroyed along with several other buildings in the Santiam Canyon community as a result of the Santiam Fire

Charred debris is seen after the Bear Fire burned through Berry Creek, California

A swing and a burned-out vehicle are seen after the Bear Fire tore through Berry Creek, California

A scorched car rests in a clearing following the Bear Fire in Butte County. The blaze, part of the lightning-sparked North Complex, expanded at a critical rate of spread as winds buffeted the region

Charred items are seen after the Bear Fire burned through Berry Creek, California

A plume rises from the Bear Fire as it burns along Lake Oroville in Butte County, California

Appliances are seen scattered over the ground after the Bear Fire burned through Berry Creek including an old metal oven

Hundreds of horses have been brought to the fairgrounds in Salem by people fleeing the fires, along with llamas, goats and other animals. The Red Cross is helping people at the fairgrounds, which has been turned into an evacuation center

But as the blaze moved northward, it heavily damaged the small town of Talent with about 6,000 residents and Phoenix, with around 5,000, according to local police..  

Medford, with over 80,000 residents, was under evacuation orders or warnings as a growing wildfire closed a section of Interstate 5, the primary north-south highway in the West. 

The fire is suspected so far to have caused one death north of Ashland, said Rich Tyler, spokesman for the Oregon State Fire Marshal.

Brown saw no respite to the hot, windy weather and requested a federal emergency declaration for the state.

‘Absolutely no area in the state is free from fire,’ said Doug Graf, chief of fire protection for the Oregon Department of Forestry. 

The Oregon town of Mill City, about 65 miles south of Portland with a population around 1,900, also had major damage, and Malden, with about 200 people in eastern Washington state, was destroyed on Monday.

In central California, the Creek Fire about 35 miles  north of Fresno tore through a forest killed by drought and bark beetles as military helicopters pulled campers, hikers and residents out of the area.

Robert Pylant, 65, locates his fire safe in the rubble of his mobile home, early Wednesday in Gates, Oregon. All the trailers in Oak Park Trailer Park were destroyed along with the majority of the homes along East Sorbin Avenue

Hundreds of homes including entire communities were razed by wildfires in the western United States on September 9 as officials warned of potential mass deaths under apocalyptic orange skies

At least five towns were ‘substantially destroyed’ in Oregon as widespread evacuations took place across the northwestern state, governor Kate Brown said

Oregon Governor Kate Brown called the extreme heat and wind a ‘once in a lifetime event,’ as climate scientists blamed human activities for higher average temperatures that have supercharged fires.

‘This is proving to be an unprecedented and significant fire event for our state,’ Brown told a press briefing.  

‘This could be the greatest loss in human lives and property due to wildfire in our state´s history,’ Brown said, without providing details. 

Officials said 64,000 people had been evacuated from their homes as 28 major fires raged across the most populated US state. 

Evacuations were ordered for a broad area around a massive 200,000-acre wildfire burning north of Sacramento. Residents of more than a dozen towns including the city of Oroville were either told to evacuate immediately or be prepared to go. 

The fire raged perilously close to the town of Paradise, which was burned to the ground in 2018 by a wildfire, killing 85 people. 

Climate scientists blame global warming for extreme wet and dry seasons in the West that have caused grasses and scrub to flourish then dry out, leaving abundant fuel for fires.

In California, all 18 national forests were closed due to ‘unprecedented and historic fire conditions’.

To the south, the Creek Fire, about 35 miles north of Fresno, tore through the Sierra National Forest, which was susceptible due to drought and bark beetle damage, destroying over 360 homes and structures. 

President Barack Obama tweeted his concern over the dangers of climate change and urged voters to vote 

People gather at Alamo Square under an orange and yellow overcast sky overlooking the The Painted Ladies

A view of Cupid’s Span, a sculpture by Claes Oldenburge and Coosje van Bruggen, in the foreground and the Ferry Building Clock Tower in the background under an orange overcast sky in the afternoon in San Francisco

Traffic lights and car lights illuminate California Street during an orange overcast sky over the financial district in the afternoon in San Francisco. California wildfire smoke high in the atmosphere over the San Francisco Bay Area blocked the sunlight and turned the sky a dark orange and yellow shade for most of the day

Under darkened skies from wildfire smoke, a sailboat makes its way past the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and lights at Oracle Park Wednesday,

On Wednesday morning, people in San Francisco and elsewhere in California woke to a deep orange sky that triggered apocalyptic visions in a year already rife with disturbing events.

Skies so dark at times that it appeared more night than day were accompanied in some places with ash falling like snow, the cause being massive wild fires filling the air with smoke and cinders.

‘The orange skies this morning are a result of wildfire smoke in the air,’ San Francisco Bay air quality officials said in a tweet.

‘These smoke particles scatter blue light and only allow yellow-orange-red light to reach the surface, causing skies to look orange.’

As smoke gets thick in some areas, it blocks sunlight causing dark skies, the officials explained.

Photos of the eerie scene, particularly of a San Francisco skyline fit for a dystopian science fiction film, spread quickly on social media.

‘Is there a word for ‘the apocalypse is upon us burnt sienna?’ read one tweet fired off by someone who felt using the word ‘orange’ to describe the sky was being too kind.

Others likened the scenes to planets other than Earth.

People from San Francisco to Seattle woke Wednesday to hazy clouds of smoke lingering in the air, darkening the sky to an eerie orange glow that kept street lights illuminated into midday, all thanks to dozens of wildfires throughout the West

Looking down Lombard Street, Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill at right and the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, are darkened by wildfire smoke

Under darkened skies from wildfire smoke, a waiter carries a tray of Irish Coffee to people having lunch at the Buena Vista Cafe Wednesday in San Francisco. The photo was taken just after midday 

Lunchtime on Wednesday in San Francisco has an otherworldly glow about it thanks to the smoke from the states wildfires 

The sky was turned orange as hazy clouds of smoke lingered in the air all day long which saw the street lights remain on

California wildfire smoke high in the atmosphere over the San Francisco Bay Area blocked the sunlight and turned the sky a dark orange and yellow shade for most of the day on Wednesday

‘If literal fire skies don’t wake us up to climate change, then nothing will,’ tweeted YouTube influencer and Zadiko tea startup chief Zack Kornfeld.

‘Enjoy joking about how crazy this year is because we made this mess and it’s only going to get worse.’

Dark skies blocking the sun chilled temperatures at what has historically been the warmest time year in San Francisco.

‘Geo-color imagery shows a very thick multilevel smoke deck over much of California,’ the US National Weather Service said in a tweet.

‘This smoke is filtering the incoming energy from the sun, causing much cooler temperatures and dark dreary red-shifted skies across many areas.’ 

An orange sky in the early afternoon as seen from King Street in San Francisco

People sit at Alamo Square under an orange and yellow overcast sky overlooking the The Painted Ladies, the iconic row of historical Victorian homes with a downtown backdrop

An orange sky at Alamo Square Park in the afternoon in San Francisco, California

An orange sky in the early afternoon with the San Francisco Bay Bridge in the background as seen from King Street in San Francisco

Traffic lights and car lights illuminate an intersection under an orange overcast sky in the afternoon in San Francisco

Smoke hangs over the San Francisco skyline on Wednesday as dozens of wildfires rage across California

A satellite image shows smoke from dozens of wildfires in California and Oregon billowing over the Pacific Ocean

Two of California’s largest wildfires are located just outside of San Francisco, which is seen covered in smoke on Wednesday

A frightening red haze has been cast over towns in Oregon as 35 wildfires rage around the state

Several Oregon residents shared photos of red-stained skies on social media. The photo above was taken in the middle of the day in Salem  

Similar red skies are seen in Northern California as the Creek Fire continues its path through Fresno County outside Yosemite

Smoke from California wildfires obscures the sky over Oracle Park as the Seattle Mariners take batting practice before their baseball game against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday in San Francisco

Golfers warm up on the driving range during the preview day of the Safeway Open in Napa, California, on Wednesday

A man walks along the Redwood highway by the Pacific Ocean as smoke covers Orick, California, on Wednesday

A woman crosses a street as smoke from wildfires covers an area near Eureka, California, on Thursday

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday night declared a state of emergency as his hard-hit state struggled to beat back the blazes.

The Labor Day weekend heat wave fueled new fires that pushed the state to set a new record for number of acres burned with 2,178,015 as of Tuesday night.  

The previous record was set just two years ago and included the deadliest fire in state history, the Camp Fire, which ripped through the town of Paradise and killed 85 people in November 2018.  

Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff said the new record was especially alarming because of how early in the year it was set. 

‘It’s a little unnerving because September and October are historically our worst months for fires,’ Tolmachoff told AP. ‘It’s usually hot, and the fuels really dry out. And we see more of our wind events.’ 

Compared to last year, California has seen over 2,650 more fires and a nearly 2000 percent increase in the acres burned year-to-date (January 1 – September 7), across all jurisdictions, Cal Fire said. 

The state has seen 900 wildfires since August 15, many of them started by an intense series of thousands of lightning strikes in mid-August. There have been eight fire deaths and more than 4,300 structures destroyed as of Wednesday. 

Randy Moore, regional forester for the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region, warned that the blazes are expected to worsen in the coming days.  

‘The wildfire situation throughout California is dangerous and must be taken seriously,’ Moore told AP. ‘Existing fires are displaying extreme fire behavior, new fire starts are likely, weather conditions are worsening, and we simply do not have enough resources to fully fight and contain every fire.’   

Law enforcement officers watch flames into the air as the Bear Fire continues to spread in Oroville, California, on Wednesday

A Butte County firefighter douses flames at the Bear Fire in Oroville, California, early Wednesday morning

Butte County firefighters watch as flames tower over their truck at the Bear Fire in Oroville, California, on Wednesday 

An orange glow hangs over Yosemite as the Creek Fire draws near, threatening evacuations 

Oregon family runs out of gas while fleeing fast-spreading wildfires during camping trip 

An Oregon family’s camping trip took a terrifying turn when their car ran out of gas as they fled from a raging wildfire.  

Allison Hargett, her husband Tyler and their six-year-old daughter Lilly drove up to Detroit Lake State Park on Labor Day to go boating. 

Hours after they settled in for the night, the family was awoken by evacuation orders at about 1am on Tuesday as the Beachie Creek Fire encroached on their campgrounds. 

The Hargett family quickly hitched up their boat and packed up their car to drive to safety, following behind their friends, Tim and Adamma Dye.  

As they made the trek out of the evacuation zone, Allison filmed several videos from the car which showed the forest enveloped by an eerie orange glow as flames consumed dozens of trees and embers cascaded from the sky.   

The family made it about 20 miles before their car ran out of gas outside Mill City, trapping them in the Marion County evacuation zone. 

Thankfully, they weren’t alone on the road. 

‘[Our friends] were in front of us and saw that we pulled over and turned around, tossed their stuff in the back seat and told us to get in and let’s go,’ Allison told CNN on Tuesday.   

Despite being forced to leave behind their boat, car and much of their gear to fit into their friends’ vehicle, Allison said her family was grateful to have made it to safety.  

‘We completely ran out of gas and would’ve been stranded. They saved us,’ she said.  

On Tuesday night, Cal Fire said that the Creek Fire had worsened in the previous 24 hours owing to strong winds.

‘The fire continued to grow under extreme conditions,’ the agency said in an update. ‘The Red Flag Warning for strong winds will impact the fire in the early morning, with stronger winds to come. The fire made wind driven runs and increased spotting distance. 

‘Red Flag Warning in effect until 11 pm Tuesday for high temperatures, low humidity and high winds.’

The California National Guard (CNG) was called in over the weekend to rescue more than 400 hikers and campers who found themselves trapped in the mountains after roads were closed to the Creek Fire. 

More than 200 people were airlifted from Mammoth Lake over Saturday and Sunday – and another 148 were rescued from near Lake Edison and Chinese Peak early Tuesday morning, the CNG said.  

Officials said at least 65 more hikers could still be trapped in the Sierra National Forest as rescue efforts continue.    

One hiker had been confirmed dead from an apparent heart attack, and officials warned there may be multiple more casualties.   

In Southern California, fires burned in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, and the forecast called for the arrival of the region’s notorious Santa Anas. The hot, dry winds could reach 50 mph at times, forecasters said.

People in a half-dozen foothill communities east of Los Angeles were being told to stay alert because of a fire in the Angeles National Forest.

‘The combination of gusty winds, very dry air, and dry vegetation will create critical fire danger,’ the National Weather Service warned.

The US Forest Service on Monday decided to close all eight national forests in the southern half of the state and shutter campgrounds statewide.

Firefighters have made headway with one blaze in the area – the El Dorado Fire – which was sparked on Saturday by a gender reveal photoshoot, when a pyrotechnical smoke device sent sparks into the bone-dry brush.

The El Dorado Fire has burned more than 12,474 acres as of Tuesday night and is 18 percent contained. 

Officials said the family behind the gender reveal debacle could face civil or criminal charges for the fire. 

The threat of winds tearing down power lines or hurling debris into them and sparking a wildfire prompted Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest utility, to shut off power to 172,000 customers over the weekend.  

In Washington state, the town of Malden was almost entirely destroyed.

Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers said that 70-80 percent of homes in the town of 300 people have gone up in flames.

Local news network KREM showed pictured of the charred Malden post office, a fire still burning inside the gutted building.  

The fire station, city hall and other buildings were also consumed, Myers said.

‘The scale of this disaster really can’t be expressed in words,’ he said. ‘The fire will be extinguished, but a community has been changed for a lifetime. I just hope we don’t find the fire took more than homes and buildings. I pray everyone got out in time.’

Larry Frick, who lives in Malden, told KXLY that he spent three hours to save his house amid the flames.

‘It’s gone, brother,’ he texted his sibling after the fire swept through. ‘The entire town is gone. Everything from here to Pine City is gone. The scariest time of my life.’ 

KREM said that at least nine wildfires were burning throughout the Inland Northwest on Monday, amid dry and windy conditions.

Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz tweeted on Monday evening that, ‘Today alone, almost 300,000 acres in Washington have burned.’

‘Thousands of homes are without power. Many families have had to evacuate their homes and many homes have been lost,’ Franz wrote. ‘We’re still seeing new fire starts in every corner of the state.’

Governor Jay Inslee noted that more acres burned on Monday than in 12 of the last fire seasons in the state.  

‘We think all of these are human-caused in some dimension,’ Inslee said.

Allison Hargett, her husband Tyler and their six-year-old daughter Lilly had driven up to the lake on Labor Day to go boating when they were suddenly awoken by an evacuation order at about 1am Tuesday as the Beachie Creek Fire encroached on their campsite.  

The Hargett family quickly hitched up their boat and packed up their car to drive to safety, following behind their friends, Tim and Adamma Dye.  

As they made the trek out of the evacuation zone, Allison filmed several videos from the car which showed the forest enveloped by an eerie orange glow as flames consumed dozens of trees and embers cascaded from the sky.  

Allison Hargett, her husband Tyler and their six-year-old daughter Lilly (pictured together) were camping at Detroit Lake State Park when wildfire forced them to evacuate on Tuesday

The family made it about 20 miles before their car ran out of gas outside Mill City, trapping them in the Marion County evacuation zone. Thankfully, they weren’t alone on the road. 

‘[Our friends] were in front of us and saw that we pulled over and turned around, tossed their stuff in the back seat and told us to get in and let’s go,’ Allison told CNN on Tuesday.   

Despite being forced to leave behind their boat, car and much of their gear to fit into their friends’ vehicle, Allison said her family was grateful to have made it to safety.  

‘We completely ran out of gas and would’ve been stranded. They saved us,’ she said.  

The Beachie Creek Fire ignited on August 16 and has since torched more than 130,000 acres, according to local officials. It remains zero percent contained and is traveling at a rate of three acres per hour. 

High winds, dry conditions and a heatwave in the drought-stricken region helped fuel the fire over the weekend, prompting evacuations for several cities in Marion County, which includes Detroit Lake State Park.   

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office released video of multiple structures on fire in Mill City on Wednesday night, hours after the Hargett family and their friends left the area. 

Neighboring Clackamas County declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as four active fires – including Beachie Creek – put several communities under threat. 

As her family fled from the Beachie Creek Fire early Tuesday, Allison Hargett filmed several videos from the car which showed the forest enveloped by an eerie orange glow as flames consumed dozens of trees and embers cascaded from the sky

The post Three useless in California bear fireplace and two in Oregon as greater than 200 main fires proceed to burn appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Clackamas County Historical Society recovers 40% of potential revenue from event space.

Thanks to generous donations, a new HVAC system was installed at the Museum of the Oregon Territory on May 4th.

In early 2020, the Clackamas County Historical Society’s HVAC system on the third floor failed, making events impossible in the CCHS’s Tumwater Ballroom, which generated 40% of the historical society’s revenue. Fortunately, according to CCHS Marketing Director Waldo McGinnis, the Clackamas County community donated 27% of the total goal of $ 143,000, or just over $ 38,000, which CCHS used as a down payment to secure a loan to cover installation costs.

“The COVID-19 pandemic had already profoundly affected Tumwater’s operations; however, the paralyzed HVAC system ensured that the ballroom would not be able to host events at full capacity due to this critical system failure.” said McGinnis. “However, we are still happy about financial donations, as these contributions would help to relieve our reserves and ensure better financial stability for the institution.”

McGinnis said the historic society is “eternally grateful” to its supporters who helped make this HVAC installation a reality.

“We know last year was a particularly difficult one, and we appreciate your donations even more,” said McGinnis. “Please know that the Clackamas County Historical Society would not be here without your contributions. While the HVAC units are now installed, we are not out of the woods yet. ”

The CCHS loan is due by the end of the calendar year, so donations of all sizes continue to be accepted on clackamashistory.org for more information on the museum’s exhibits and services.

“The less money we have to pull from our reserves, the more exhibition updates and relevant programs we can make available to the community in the years to come,” said McGinnis.

On April 7, the Museum of the Oregon Territory returned to full operating hours, four days a week.

MOOT overlooks the Willamette Falls, which changed the region’s industry by powering mills and electricity, as shown by the exhibits in the museum. MOOT is home to petroglyphs and Native American artifacts, the original maps of Oregon City from 1850 and San Francisco from 1851, a piece of the Willamette meteorite, original items from 19th century immigrants to Clackamas County, and thousands of other objects, photographs, and documents representing the Reflecting the history and culture of Clackamas County.

The MOOT is located at 211 Tumwater Drive in Oregon City and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10:30 am to 4:30 pm. Admission is $ 8 for adults, $ 5 for children ages 5-17, and $ 7 for seniors 65 and over. Veterans get free entry with ID.

You rely on us to stay tuned and we rely on you to fund our efforts. High quality local journalism costs time and money. Please support us to secure the future of community journalism.

The post Pamplin Media Group – Museum of the Oregon Territory installs HVAC models appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.