STEVENSON — On Monday night, people who’d evacuated from Cascade Locks, Ore., to the Hegewald Center here sat like an audience at an evening show, watching in horror as the whole landscape across the river blazed.
But by Tuesday afternoon, they couldn’t see a thing. The air was a wall of gray-yellow haze. There was nothing to do but wait out the wind and the efforts of firefighters to contain the fire, if not extinguish it.
“There’s no way of fighting it, I don’t think. It’s too steep,” said former firefighter Larry South, who fled Cascade Locks with his wife, Tammy. They abandoned a trailer that “could go up like a match,” Tammy said. Now they’re living out of a tent and a pickup truck in a dry field outside the Hegewald Center — along with the inhabitants of about 100 more tents, trailers, trucks and cars, all lined up in orderly rows.
Nothing feels orderly about life right now, Tammy said. “I didn’t sleep at all last night, I was just watching the fire.”
Want to help?
Relief efforts underway
• Friends of the Columbia River Gorge, a nonprofit grass-roots group, is collecting money for Hood River Fire & Rescue as a thank-you for rescuing hikers who were trapped at Eagle Creek. Visit gorgefriends.org/donate.
• The American Red Cross is the lead relief agency for people displaced by the fire. Donation page at www.redcross.org/donate/donation.
Local relief sites
• The Salvation Army of Camas/Washougal at 1612 I St. in Washougal has opened its doors as an emergency fire evacuation shelter. Call 360-835-2196.
• The Port of Camas-Washougal is offering free RV camping. The sites are self-contained and don’t have hookups. Call 360-335-3676.
• Bethel Community Church at 1438 B St. in Washougal has stocked up on supplies and is hosting families overnight. Call 360-835-8714.
• The Washougal Community Center at 1681 C St. is also open for evacuees, small pets and people who don’t have air-conditioning or need to escape from the smoke outside.
“The most unbelievable thing I ever saw,” added Julie Wandling, who also evacuated Cascade Locks overnight and doubts she’ll go back. “We had a little apartment, but I don’t know. Maybe we’ll go east,” she said.
Nineteen people slept in cots inside the Hegewald Center overnight Monday, according to Cindy Dahl, executive director for the American Red Cross in Central and Eastern Oregon. She was expecting more on Tuesday night and said she had no clue when the temporary shelter might close down again.
“They’re all waiting to be let back into their homes, but we have no idea when that might happen,” she said.
Maybe weeks? “Maybe,” Dahl acknowledged.
Meanwhile, the temporary shelter was offering three meals a day, a complete intake screening for people’s needs (including medications and medical equipment that may have been left behind), mental health counseling and an on-site nurse. All of that was offered by trained Red Cross volunteers, Dahl said. But the whole community has rallied too, she added, with offers of everything from free professional acupuncture and massage to eager amateur pet sitting in the conveniently adjacent Skamania County 4H building.
Falling back on charity is tough for some of these rugged individualists, said mental health volunteer responder Sandy Ramirez. People who choose to live in the Gorge love privacy, independence and natural beauty; the sudden loss of all that has got to be intensely disruptive, she said. (No conflicts between people have happened, Ramirez said, but it’s something to watch for; tempers are bound to be short and some missing medications may result in dark moods, indeed.)
“Mostly there’s a lot of anxiety. It’s the not knowing” about loved ones and about property, Ramirez said.
Pounding
“I don’t think I’m going home soon. It’s hard not to know. I don’t even know if my house is there anymore,” said Joy Marley, who was hanging out with her two German shepherds — Autumn and Ember — in a little gazebo on the Hegewald grounds. She was trying to nap after a sleepless night, she said, but couldn’t relax enough.
The house that may have gone up in flames is one Marley built herself, 30 years ago, she said. It’s at the foot of Archer Mountain, uphill from the Skamania General Store. She watched the fire across the river from her front door until she couldn’t take the stress anymore, she said, and then she went to bed. She was awakened at 2 a.m. by a sheriff’s deputy, pounding on her door. It wasn’t a polite request to start getting ready, she said; he offered to help get her dogs into her car immediately.
“I haven’t slept since,” Marley said.
Chris Ellsworth seemed a little dazed while walking his dog, Sophie, around the Hegewald grounds. He and his wife had been making a pleasant summer out of staying in state parks and raising cash by making takeout food deliveries in the area, he said. They were elsewhere when they learned that the Viento campground was being evacuated. They called a park ranger who eventually gave permission for them to come retrieve their trailer (and cat) — but they had to drive out to the Hood River Bridge to get across the river, and they had to borrow gas money to make the whole trip.
“I can’t even express my gratitude,” Ellsworth said. “I don’t like to take resources from anybody else.”
Now, Ellsworth and his wife are waylaid in Stevenson — with no idea what comes next in life, he said.
“I’ve never been in a spot where I had literally nowhere to go,” Ellsworth said.
If anyone has chanced upon a silver lining here, it’s the Souths’ friends from Cascade Locks, Percy and Jenny Bingham. Jenny works at Skamania Lodge, and after they were displaced she discovered that the lodge was putting up its displaced staffers on-site, she said.
“We’ve got this at least until Thursday,” Jenny said. “Then we’ll figure out what happens next.”
Skamania schools
Just days after school began in Skamania County, class was canceled in the Skamania and Stevenson-Carson School Districts.
Karen Douglass, superintendent of the Stevenson-Carson School Districts, said smoke and ash in the air coupled with the excessive heat made it unsafe for students to come to school.
“Last night, families from our district were experiencing ash the size of little tiny snowflakes all the way over to charred pieces of wood the size of a football on their property, still warm to the touch,” Douglass said.
District staff are volunteering at the Red Cross shelter in Stevenson, and Douglass said the district is on standby should school facilities need to be used as an overflow shelter.
Ralph Pruitt, superintendent of the neighboring Skamania School District, said some district families were affected by the encroaching fire in the northwest part of the district.
Pruitt himself was helping check on families in the district, which has only one elementary school and about 70 students, according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
“We’re concerned about the community and if there’s anything we can do to help we’re here to help,” Pruitt said. “We’ll communicate about school closures, but beyond that, we need to think about the safety of the community and their well-being.”
Local animals
For families with animals, meanwhile, there is some relief in Clark County.
VCA East Mill Plain Animal Hospital got a call first thing Tuesday morning from a breeder who was trying to get her cats out of the Washougal area. She brought her cats to the hospital, which is boarding pets that need to be evacuated from areas impacted by the Eagle Creek Fire.
Sumaya Mitchell, the hospital manager, said that they’re taking in pets on an as-needed basis for no charge.
“As long as we’ve got the space, we’ll fill it,” she said.
Call 360-892-0032 for more details. VCA Battle Ground Animal Hospital, which can be reached at 360-687-7151, is offering the same service for pet owners impacted by the fire. The Mill Plain location has more space for cats, while the Battle Ground location is better able to accommodate dogs.
