My Home State on Fire

If you haven't been under a rock for a couple weeks you probably know about all the fires in the Pacific Northwest. Washington State has has a lot of attention as some of those fires are particularly large and three firefighters were killed last week battling one.

What you may NOT know is every firefighter in the US is already working overtime. There is no more internal capacity available. So KINDLY, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have sent help.

For an idea of how bad this is I took a screen shot from THIS mapping website—it is an official one—it is the same one I use professionally to pull mapping information and they are updating it regularly. Look at all the fires in Northern Idaho.

The red spots are satellite-observed hot spots, even if a fire hasn't been formally marked. My parents are in Moscow, Idaho, which is about 30 miles above Lewiston on this map (about where Idaho, Washington and Oregon all meet) and about 30 miles from the nearest fire which is in Harvard, Idaho, but because the fires are in every direction, the air quality is horrible—full of smoke. Wear a mask if you go outside, bad.

My friend Nancy took a picture yesterday and posed it with one from 5 years ago (images used with her permission), same time of day, same “official weather” (clear) were it not fr the fires.

July 2009 8am

That dome in the middle is the University of Idaho's Kibbie Dome where they play football. It's a pretty little town, isn't it? Farmland in every direction.

Then this picture taken from the same exact spot (she thinks the smudge in the middle was a bug, but the difference is striking, regardless) Same weather forecast except the one below is meant to be cloud-free. In addition to the smoke, you ca see how much drier the grass is below--how much higher the hazard potential.

August 23, 2015 8:30am

I remember an earthquake recently that got me into a conversation on natural disasters and I always think of Idaho as a place that doesn't really have them. This is a startling reminder that in fact they do.

Homes have been lost. People have evacuated. It is heartbreaking that people with herds of cows or horses sometimes just have to open gates and hope for the best because they don't have means to move them.

A friend of mine played local hero and set a time and threw out an invitation for people to donate whatever they could. On Friday they took 1000 bottles of water, a bunch of Gatorade and power bars, and delivered them to Kamiah, Idaho (Thanks, Reen!)—the people coordinating firefighters were very appreciative, for the water especially. I feel badly for being too far to help tangibly and am worried about family and friends. And SO SAD. For all my mocking Idaho's politics, it is one of the prettiest and most varied states anywhere, and it is devastating to think of the thousands and thousands of acres of forests that will be gone for decades.

If everybody could join your karmic energies, whether prayers or meditation or thoughts... however you do it, and send thoughts of rain, it would definitely be appreciated.

In Related Spirit, Sort of...

Idaho is an underappreciated place and my cousin's cousins, Cameron (left) and James, are spearheading a TV show related... two brothers trying to save their farm. The trailer is funny and the idea is fresh and it feels very much like home. If you have the ability, they are doing an Indiegogo funding of it. It's called Idaho Boys.