mountainsoft
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Around October 9th, during one of our hottest and driest summers on record, a group of people (idiots) playing with fireworks started a forest fire here in Clark County, Washington. It was about 5 miles from our house, and was burning in a previously logged area with lots of brush and debris. It grew to about 50 acres before fire crews could get in, and slowly grew to about 150 acres over the following week as they worked to contain it. It was a little unnerving having the fire so close, but crews seemed to have it under control. Still, it was unsettling having helicopters and water tankers flying overhead constantly.
On Sunday, Oct 16th an unusually hot wind storm kicked up and the fire jumped the containment lines. We received a level 1 "get ready" evacuation alert around mid-morning, and within a matter of about 3 hours the fire grew to over 1500 acres, and we quickly moved to level 2 "get set", then level 3 "go now" mandatory evacuation orders. The fire was now less than 2 miles from our house, in dry forest with strong winds blowing our direction. Not good.
We quickly loaded both cars and my utility trailer with as many essentials and irreplaceable items as we could. Clothing, photos, computer backups, sentimental items, etc. Thankfully we had planned ahead with a list of items to take in an emergency, as neither of us were thinking clearly at this point.
We heard reports that another fire had started at the bottom of our road (later proved untrue), and we were fearful of getting trapped with no way out. So we tied down what we had, locked everything up, took a few last minute photos of home in case we lost everything, and headed down the hill. Police had the road blocked at the bottom of our hill so we knew it was a one-way trip out.
We weaved our way through various road blocks to our daughters apartment down town. We unloaded as many items as we could to her apartment, and parked the trailer there. Then we frantically searched for a hotel room that wasn't already booked up with hundreds of other evacuees. We finally found a room at the fourth hotel we tried.
We both went through a range of emotions through all of this. My wife immediately jumped into frantic busy bee mode grabbing everything she could. I froze, like those goats that fall over when scared.
Disbelief, confusion, fear, etc. But, somehow we managed to work together to get out safely.
We spent four nights in the motel, not knowing if we would have a home to come back to. While the house could be rebuilt, it would never be the same since we built our home with our own hands. It's more than just a building, it has been much of our life, our own hard work, our pride and joy, and the home we planned to live out the rest of our lives in. So many memories and hopes for the future. This has been our home for 30+ years.
Thankfully, October 20th the evacuation orders were downgraded and we were able to return home. While my wife broke down early on, I managed to hold up okay until we got home. When we pulled up and I saw our home was still here I lost it and broke down crying. All that tension and fear finally released. I was hit with the pride I felt for the home we built and how close we came to losing it.
Over the next week we slowly tried to get our home back in order. We basically ransacked the place trying to grab everything on the way out, so it was a real mess.
The rains finally started the day after we returned, and we went from 80's last week to 30's and snow yesterday. Crazy.
Fires are always a fear here in the forest, so we tried to plan ahead. Overall we did fairly well grabbing the most important items. Our preplanned emergency list really helped with that. Of course, we wanted to take everything, but with just three hours and two small vehicles, we could only take the items that meant the most. Since then I have been reviewing our list to see if there is anything we should add to it. We have also been looking at ways we can improve things for the next emergency, which we hope never comes.
It was a scary and hectic time, but thankfully it worked out in the end. While thieves broke into some evacuated homes in our area, we were fortunate not to have any damage to our home or property. Fire crews did an excellent job. No structures were lost in the fire, despite how close it came.
This morning a neighbor posted a before and after photo. The first was the flames and smoke on October 9th. The second was the same hillside covered in a blanket of white snow yesterday.
I hope and pray we never have to go through that again, but hopefully we will be better prepared if it should happen.
Insurance said they would cover the costs of the hotel, meals we ate out, etc. Of course, we have a $1000 deductible and our total costs for those five days came to just over $800. So, it was all out of pocket. Figures, but the alternative would have been much worse, so we don't care.
Home Sweet Home and we have each other.
On Sunday, Oct 16th an unusually hot wind storm kicked up and the fire jumped the containment lines. We received a level 1 "get ready" evacuation alert around mid-morning, and within a matter of about 3 hours the fire grew to over 1500 acres, and we quickly moved to level 2 "get set", then level 3 "go now" mandatory evacuation orders. The fire was now less than 2 miles from our house, in dry forest with strong winds blowing our direction. Not good.
We quickly loaded both cars and my utility trailer with as many essentials and irreplaceable items as we could. Clothing, photos, computer backups, sentimental items, etc. Thankfully we had planned ahead with a list of items to take in an emergency, as neither of us were thinking clearly at this point.
We heard reports that another fire had started at the bottom of our road (later proved untrue), and we were fearful of getting trapped with no way out. So we tied down what we had, locked everything up, took a few last minute photos of home in case we lost everything, and headed down the hill. Police had the road blocked at the bottom of our hill so we knew it was a one-way trip out.
We weaved our way through various road blocks to our daughters apartment down town. We unloaded as many items as we could to her apartment, and parked the trailer there. Then we frantically searched for a hotel room that wasn't already booked up with hundreds of other evacuees. We finally found a room at the fourth hotel we tried.
We both went through a range of emotions through all of this. My wife immediately jumped into frantic busy bee mode grabbing everything she could. I froze, like those goats that fall over when scared.
Disbelief, confusion, fear, etc. But, somehow we managed to work together to get out safely.We spent four nights in the motel, not knowing if we would have a home to come back to. While the house could be rebuilt, it would never be the same since we built our home with our own hands. It's more than just a building, it has been much of our life, our own hard work, our pride and joy, and the home we planned to live out the rest of our lives in. So many memories and hopes for the future. This has been our home for 30+ years.
Thankfully, October 20th the evacuation orders were downgraded and we were able to return home. While my wife broke down early on, I managed to hold up okay until we got home. When we pulled up and I saw our home was still here I lost it and broke down crying. All that tension and fear finally released. I was hit with the pride I felt for the home we built and how close we came to losing it.
Over the next week we slowly tried to get our home back in order. We basically ransacked the place trying to grab everything on the way out, so it was a real mess.
The rains finally started the day after we returned, and we went from 80's last week to 30's and snow yesterday. Crazy.
Fires are always a fear here in the forest, so we tried to plan ahead. Overall we did fairly well grabbing the most important items. Our preplanned emergency list really helped with that. Of course, we wanted to take everything, but with just three hours and two small vehicles, we could only take the items that meant the most. Since then I have been reviewing our list to see if there is anything we should add to it. We have also been looking at ways we can improve things for the next emergency, which we hope never comes.
It was a scary and hectic time, but thankfully it worked out in the end. While thieves broke into some evacuated homes in our area, we were fortunate not to have any damage to our home or property. Fire crews did an excellent job. No structures were lost in the fire, despite how close it came.
This morning a neighbor posted a before and after photo. The first was the flames and smoke on October 9th. The second was the same hillside covered in a blanket of white snow yesterday.
I hope and pray we never have to go through that again, but hopefully we will be better prepared if it should happen.
Insurance said they would cover the costs of the hotel, meals we ate out, etc. Of course, we have a $1000 deductible and our total costs for those five days came to just over $800. So, it was all out of pocket. Figures, but the alternative would have been much worse, so we don't care.
Home Sweet Home and we have each other.
