Chinook Winds reopening

[MisterV]

This thread went from light hearted to downright TRAGIC... Those fires look absolutely HORRIFIC. Poor people who lost their Homes in those fires.

Bad as things were in Lincoln City, they were much worse in the Detroit, Oregon area, and much worse than that in California.

Life can hurl some shit-balls at as, no question about it.

[mickeycrimm]

I like the drive to Chinook Winds even tho the road is curvey and lots of traffic.

Absolutely.

That areas got hit by wildfires; a good friend of mine has a house outside of Lincon City on the Salmon River, and the wildfires scorched the earth to within a couple hundred yards of his home: he lucked out but many of his friends and neighbors lost everything.

I visited the area shortly after the fires stopped spreading and helped him at the local Grange hall with getting used clothing for the many fire victims in the area: quite a few houses were burned to cinders, just like in California.

Some of the fire damage is visible when driving in to the area on the main hwy, Or. Hwy 18; the charred remains of some houses / structures are visible, burnt to the ground.

Very sad.

Today Traffic in that area was stopped briefly as loggers were busy cutting and removing some of the burned yet presumably still valuable timber, and boy howdy a shit load of timber is gone.

The fire came close to town, burning in spots to East Devils Lake Road, the road flanking the edge of Devils Lake.




This photo shows Hwy 18 in flames outside of Lincoln City.

My sisters live in the Alsea area and they were afraid of the fires coming their way.

[MisterV]

I just returned from Lincoln City and drove down Hwy. 18, site of the above photo.

My wife was with me and this was the first time she'd been down there since the fire: she was surprised / somewhat blown away by all the damage.

There was much worse damage done to homes located on a road on the other side of the Salmon River, near where my buddy lives.

Many homes were burned to cinders: the home owners must be stout-hearted strong folk becaus most seem to be sticking around: a bunch of RV's are now on the burned homesites, and many live in them while they begin to rebuild.

Earlier this year the area from south of Portland to the coast got hammered by a bad ice storm, and they are still cleaning up more than a month later, blocking off traffic lanes so heavy equipment can be used to clear things out.