Worst storm in the history of the world. Into hour 6. Fires abound. Is this on the news?

[DemoTex]

I'll try to post more tomorrow about the epic storms and unheard of
number of lightning fires. I'm doing 15-hour days. My off days
tomorrow and Tuesday are canceled.

In the 24-hour period between 3:30 pm Saturday and 3:30 pm Sunday
(today, barely) we had 144 lightning fires reported. How do I know? At
3:30 on Saturday I reported a fire that was tagged 469 (469th fire
since 1/1/2009) and today I reported a fire at 3:30 pm that was tagged
613.

Then we got battered again by two waves of severe storms late this
afternoon and early evening, with no time to check for fires between
storms and before dark.

At 5:47 pm PDT I took a lightning strike on the road leading up the
east side of East Butte to the lookout. The road leading up is the
road leading out, and a fire on that road would be a very bad thing.
What did the USFS do? My boss pulled a fire engine (my guardians,
Engine 34!) and a hand crew (my buds on Crew 301) off a wildfire 12
miles away and dispatched them to East Butte to check the road all the
way to my lookout for fire. He also put an extraction helicopter on
order (for Nick and me) in case the road was cut by fire (Plan A).
Plan B, in case the helo could not get in due to weather (which it
could not have), was to have Crew 301A hike Nick and me out down the
west side of the butte to the FS-1850 road. Black Butte 7/7 redux!

The second wave of storms (much more severe) kept Engine 34 and Crew
301 from reaching the summit of East Butte until around 9 pm PDT. By
that time East Butte had taken several more strikes on all flanks
(this is kind of like being pinned down by mortar barrages in Viet
Nam, with the rescue good-guys held at bay by the intensity of the
mortar stonk ("stonk" - a Gen. S.L.A. Marshall term (Marshall was a
military historian(Col. David Hackworth worked for SLAM(Faulkner loved
to do this with parentheses)))). The good news was that the fire teams
found no fires on the way up; the bad new is they encountered a
possible cougar (mountain lion) near the lookout tower.

I chatted on USFS TAC-1 frequency with my buds. Lightning was still
popping around. I had invited them up for a lemonade. I knew they
didn't want to leave the safety of their rigs, and I - for sure - did
not want to leave the tower in lightning. It is now two hours later
and the rain and lightning continue. It's cold too - 47 degrees.

That's it. Save the rest until tomorrow. Storm hitting again at 11:10
pm PDT. Here is a spoiler pic:




BTW: The lookout tower is being buffetted by 50+ winds right now. Shaking worse than a cat scratchin' shit on pavement! It is 11:28 pm PDT. Something just ripped off the roof.

[enlightenment]

1. Stay safe!

Let us know you're okay, okay?

Wow.

(and very cool picture, too)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Sounds scary...

Where are you?

Someplace in the Pacific Time Zone, I gather...

Please keep us informed.

And stay safe.

[DemoTex]

10. East Butte Lookout

Deschutes NF, Central Oregon

[roguevalley]

12. that is some country for storms. Oregon has had some of the worst

forest fires in the history of this country. Take care out there. :(

[KoKo]

73. How is Nick dealing with all of this? Us animal folks...who adventure with them

want to know! Where does Nick take a "Pee" when these damned storms go on. I've seen your TOILET...what about NICK?

This comes from someone who travels up and down east coast from "Pet Friendly" to "Pet Friendly" with two Siamese Cats ...and I wonder about the Stress of it ALL! Since they are essentially neutered to our desires...how can we justify putting our "Pets" through what "WE" want to do in our own selfishness?

:shrug:

But, maybe Nick hasn't had his "jewels" destroyed...and maybe he's okay in that department......and not "strictly" a "Pet," in the way I'm speaking.

Glad you are safe after that "thing flew off roof." So many of us were worried..it was good you answered that.

Stay Safe...and a doggie veggie bone and hug to Nick.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. Jesus God, man stay safe.

You probably get asked this all the time, but how does one go about getting this sort of assignment? Is experience required? I'm unemployed, single, and financially stable, and not averse to sitting in an overgrown treehouse for a number of months.

Also, Faulkner would have make a great C programmer.

[DemoTex]

14. PM me so I will remember

2 many lightnings now

[hootinholler]

22. LISP not C

There's an old joke that Russia stole our missile code written in LISP but didn't get the last page. It was ok for them because it was only close parens.

-Hoot

[orleans]

4. hey--stay safe. if you're in that look out tower maybe you should

get onto ground level?

[DemoTex]

11. Safer here

Wind and fire are my fears

[aquart]

18. And reasonable fears they are.

Nasty, mean, natural forces.

[stevedeshazer]

5. I could see that coming.

Good news is that it's supposed to cool down and there should be an invasion of marine air in a couple of days, which will raise the humidity a bit.

Hang in and enjoy the show.

[stevedeshazer]

6. And yeah, it's on the news

http://kohd.com/news/local/136400

[DemoTex]

9. Great coverage.

Would you mind feeding me that kind of news on a regular basis, Steve? PM me and I'll respond (maybe tomorrow) with another gmail address.

mac

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Where are you?

Alaska has had a bad fire year, too. Over 1.5 million acres have burned so far. Here they just let the fires go if they're not near a population center. I can't imagine the stress of having to fight fires in heavily populated areas.

Please be safe.

[DemoTex]

13. Central Oregon Wilderness

I'm staffing a fire lookout tower in the Deschutes NF.

[Liberation Angel]

60. kerouac country!

be safe - prayers with you

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Stay safe! k+r, n/t

[Suich]

15. It's scary to read about this!

Can only imagine what it's like to be in the middle of it!

You and Nick take care, Mac.

[TahitiNut]

16. Shit, bro ... please stay safe!

Hug Nick for me. :scared:

I'm looking at the weather over Bend, OR, and they've got flood warnings up.Issued by The National Weather Service

Pendleton, OR
10:38 pm PDT, Sun., Aug. 2, 2009

... THE FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 145 AM PDT FOR URBAN AREAS AND SMALL STREAMS IN NORTH CENTRAL DESCHUTES COUNTY...

AT 1031 PM PDT... THE THUNDERSTORMS THAT BROUGHT TORRENTIAL RAIN TO THE REDMOND AREA ARE DECREASING... BUT SOME LIGHT RAIN IS EXPECTED FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF HOURS.

NEARLY 3 INCHES OF RAINFALL WAS ESTIMATED BY RADAR OVER THE REDMOND AREA... WHILE OVER ONE-HALF INCH OF RAIN WAS REPORTED AT THE REDMOND AIRPORT IN ABOUT 20 MINUTES. ALTHOUGH THE RAIN IS LETTING UP..IT MAY TAKE A COUPLE OF HOURS FOR THE WATER COVERING ROADS TO SUBSIDE.

A FLOOD WARNING MEANS THAT FLOODING IS IMMINENT OR HAS BEEN REPORTED. STREAM RISES WILL BE SLOW AND FLASH FLOODING IS NOT EXPECTED. HOWEVER... ALL INTERESTED PARTIES SHOULD TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS IMMEDIATELY.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

EXCESSIVE RUNOFF FROM HEAVY RAINFALL WILL CAUSE ELEVATED LEVELS ON SMALL CREEKS AND STREAMS... AND PONDING OF WATER ON COUNTRY ROADS AND FARMLAND ALONG THE BANKS OF CREEKS AND STREAMS.

BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER TO RECOGNIZE THE DANGERS OF FLOODING. IF FLOODING IS OBSERVED ACT QUICKLY. MOVE UP TO HIGHER GROUND TO ESCAPE FLOOD WATERS. DO NOT STAY IN AREAS SUBJECT TO FLOODING WHEN WATER BEGINS RISING.

It's looking grim ... and I'm seeing large, isolated thunderstorms passing over that area. One is over the area between the Three Sister Wilderness and the Wickiup Reservoir as I type.

[aquart]

17. Keep checking in. We want to know you're safe.

Roof or no roof.

[DarthDem]

19. Wow

Fantastic picture, informative post. You're pretty damn brave. Stay safe!! Please post an update when you have time.

[malaise]

20. Whatever ese you do

Stay safe!! :grouphug:

[sarge43]

21. Jesus man, stay down and stay frosty n/t

[ThomWV]

23. Let it burn.

[DemoTex]

66. Bwaa haa haa haa! Eggsactly what my batallion commander said!

Let the MoFo burn if it doesn't endanger anyone. It's a triage system. Has to be with this many fires.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

24. just wow.

stay safe :hug:

[lunatica]

25. You're doing a great job but keep you and Nick safe!

Boy! Talk about whether a single person can make a difference! You're a hero you know...

[spanone]

26. i haven't seen any reporting on it, the President's birth certificate has the country entrhralled

be careful

[merh]

27. Oh please stay safe

prayers for you and nick and the fire fighters.

I hope today is better than yesterday and things have calmed. :hug:

[classof56]

28. Oh, my! Did I read this right--your tower roof is gone?

Good grief! And I thought the storm that roared over us last night for far too long here in Redmond was bad. Haven't been through one like it in a long, long time--stalled out right overhead, or so it seemed. Shook the house and strikes very nearby. Things calmed down around 10, kept raining for awhile, a welcome respite from the heat. Had a T-storm, wind and rain Sat. evening, last night was far worse. Glad the FS is looking out for you and Nick. Take care and keep in touch.

Again--wow! Love your photo, BTW. Lots of good ones on KTVZ sent in by viewers. More storms on the way, they're saying. Worried about ya! Stay safe!

Blessings.

[AtheistCrusader]

51. I think he meant something tore loose from the roof.

A section of tiles/shake, whatever it's made of, or maybe an antenna. (Hopefully not the lightning rod) Not the whole roof but some part of it, or something that was attached to it.


if that clarifies.

[classof56]

54. Thanks--I feel better!

The storm we had last night was so severe, nothing would have surprised me. But I should have known the entire roof would not have gone away. Have been in those towers and they're pretty well put together, ready for almost anything, but now that I think about it, you're right, of course. Thanks again!

More storms headed this way tonight--hope things are calmer up your way!

Blessings.

[DemoTex]

68. No leaks. I think it was flying debris.

The weather people I've talked with today estimate that I had 80+ KNOT wind gusts last night.

[TahitiNut]

71. I'm sometimes amused that wind speed is measured in knots.

I picture two parasailors, one throwing a taffrail kite aloft and then counting the knots on the string as the wind dragged the taffrail kite away and the other parasailor calling "Time!" when the sand runs out in a 28-second sandglass.

(It'd only be amusing to another nut with marlinspike seamanship experience, I guess. Yes, I was trained in dead reckoning with 18th century instruments.)

[DemoTex]

75. The flag was shredded in the 80 knot winds.

I took a picture before I took it down to properly retire it. I requisitioned a new flag from the USFS.

[Blue_Tires]

29. stay safe up there...

i really wish you took a video camera up with you...

[here_is_to_hope]

30. Its not on the news because this is typical Central Oregon

weather.
You did research the area first, right?
What you are seeing is typical in any year.
Don't freak, as August comes on, it will mellow.

[UTUSN]

31. Weather manipulation? Radio waves being aimed up?

I'm sure everybody but me had heard of this, that the U.S. has THREE of these targets up there, the focus of radio waves from (76?) towers, that these things drag the jet stream and push the ionosphere, and therefore affect the weather... And France has one of these things and Russia 1 or 2? Able to influence hurricanes in strength and direction (and earthquakes?)... Rain or drought (& therefore fires)...

This is scary. Is it true or a conspiracy thing?

[hay rick]

53. Sounds like Sky Block.

Think I have the title right. It was a novel about the Russians manipulating our weather- back in the 50s or 60s.

[SheilaT]

61. The amount of energy

locked up in even a small storm, let alone an earthquake is of a magnitude far greater than can be affected by radio waves, or underground explosions, or any of that.

The problem is that most people really don't understand how phenomenally violent weather can be. We mostly live inside and don't experience much in the way of normal weather events, let alone severe ones. And most weather events do not get a lot of coverage, except for hurricanes, and so we can be blissfully unaware of terrible weather not very far away.

[Liberation Angel]

63. Weather manipulation is for real. There is a treaty on it

learned about it when I worked on the Hill in DC.

Forbids weather manipulation for weapons or war purposes.

so it is dead real

not saying that
s what's happening there though. Might be all the rdionucleides in the atmosphere chaeging things up ;)

or just global charging/heating from how fucked up everything is.

[National Steel 27]

32. Damn, man....

aren't you kinda old for this sort of s++t?

What's the ceiling on that crap?

[havocmom]

33. Smokey here in eastern MT, no fires on the charts, so I know YOU'RE having a bad day.

Keep safe and we will keep you and the crews in our thoughts

[drm604]

34. Be careful man.

Hang in there. It sounds like you've got a good team looking out for you.

[XemaSab]

35. I think the California fires last year have you beat

1000+ fires started in about 12 hours.

But seriously, stay safe. :pals:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

36. I could see the tops of those cells from over here in the Willamette valley.

Long line of classic anvil shapes. Bottoms lost behind the cascades. Tops? Seven miles high if they're an inch.

[freebrew]

37. As a midwesterner..

lightning is a fact of life. Problems arise when under drought conditions and folks aren't used to the phenomenon.
When I was on the west coast, I found it odd that there really wasn't much lightning. Still can't figure out why...

Stay safe and inside if you can. Cars(not convertibles) are the safest place in a lightning storm.
It's hard to stay there for 24 - 48 hrs though.
I guess that's why we here in MO don't ever get too upset about it. Some lightning storms here last for days without as much as 10 seconds of quiet between thunder.

[myrna minx]

38. Wow. K&R. Stay safe.

:hug:

[mimitabby]

39. wunderground

wunderground.com's weather map has the entire state of Oregon yellow = fire weather

[Bluenorthwest]

40. Thanks from Eugene for doing what you are doing for Oregon

and the forests. Stay safe.

[Blue_Tires]

41. ttt

[rucky]

42. Still a local story right now, but will probably hit the feeds today:

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_080309_news_lightning_strikes.a3d116a6.html

[grantcart]

43. stay safe - and inorder to get this news out please have your birth certificate ready

[midnight]

44. Wow. 47 degrees, and over 600 fires.

What is the average for fires at this time of year?

[handmade34]

45. I so love reading your posts - but be safe

and keep writing when you can - thanks for the updates!

[Beacool]

46. Shaking worse than a cat scratchin' shit on pavement!

I never heard that one, too funny!!!

:rofl:

[Robb]

47. I know, I'm writing that one down!

:D

[Beacool]

49. Yep, it's a winner.

:D

[BlooInBloo]

48. Who needs a roof?

:rofl:

[Canuckistanian]

50. Stay safe, DT

I imagine you're spending a lot of time on the lightning chair.

Keep us informed!

:hi:

[proud patriot]

52. stay safe up there

:hi:

[Bluzmann57]

55. A true American hero

You appear to be a firefighter and are going against difficult odds. Stay safe and thank you for your heroism.

[Captain Hilts]

56. Hang tough!

[shellgame26]

57. Continental flight 128

had to do an emergency landing due to severe turbulence

[Seldona]

58. Stay safe.

You are to be commended for your amazing dedication and courage in doing your job.

If I were a praying man, I would. But I am keeping you in my thoughts, for what it's worth. It has to be a hell of a show though!

[BobTheSubgenius]

59. Wow. Just........wow.

Best of luck to you and all your compatriots. Hats off to every one of you.

[jimlup]

62. Damn! This is troubling since I'm headed up Mt. Rainier in 2 days.

Unstable weather in Oregon means instability anywhere on the West Coast. Yikes - We'll watch carefully. Being up at 14,000 feet surrounded by Crevasses is no time to be in monster storm.

[Liberation Angel]

64. desolaton angels by Jack Kerouac (True story/novel of his experience as fire watcher in Cascades

desolaton angels

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desolation_Angels_(novel)

(you may have to cut and paste this or follow the link


My DU name is partially based on this name

[TahitiNut]

67. Yup. Mac has that book with him. It's part of what inspired him to do this.

Our DemoTex is nothing if not a full-fledged mensch with an adventuring spirit.

[Liberation Angel]

69. cool a great book nt

nt

[DemoTex]

70. Desolation Angels and Dharma Bums both deal with lookouts

I have to make short posts. Post. Come back and edit. Verizon BB goes dormant on me tonight after about three minutes.

I got Kerouac's Letters and Neal (Dean Moriarty) Cassady's Letters with me. Also, Kerouac's buddies Snyder and Whalen did lookouts (all three were at the Six Galley reading 10/1955 - Ginsberg read "Howl"). Gary Snyder is still alive and writes excellent essays on wildfire issues.

The great TahitiNut knows me better than I know myself. But he also knows the truth about who runs the show out here .. Nick-Nick!

[Liberation Angel]

72. be safe!

nt

[BooBluePotion]

65. Kind of Looks like War of the Worlds

I hope this storm passes over quickly for you all and the atmosphere calms down.


Stay safe Dems are Priceless

[MrSlayer]

74. That is a cool picture.

Sounds intense.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

76. Man that's beautiful. Stay safe.