The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office announced Level 3, or “Go Now,” evacuations late Friday night, and the Red Cross set up a shelter at Clackamas Community College. Two more shelters were also set up, one for people with animals at the Molalla Buckeroo at 815 Shirley Street in Molalla and another at Bohlander Park in Molalla for people with RVs. Officials caution that the park has no RV hookups. Another evacuation order, a Level 2 — “Be Set” — came early Saturday for residents from south of Fischers Mill, north of Upper Highland, east of Redland and Ridge Road, west of Mattoon and Fellows Road in Estacada. Public safety officials are warning that all area residents should be prepared for possible power outages to prevent winds from downing power lines and starting new fires.
Be alert for fire-related closures
The fires and firefighting efforts have led to road and park closures in many parts of Oregon and southwest Washington. Among the road closures, Oregon 58 is closed from milepost 13.2, at Lowell Bridge, to milepost 70, at Lake Crescent. For an up-to-date map of closures and delays, check TripCheck.com or call 511. Drivers should also be prepared for stoplights that are out as part of precautionary power outages. In Oregon, unpowered traffic lights should be treated as four-way stops. PacificCorp has closed all access to its properties in the Yale and Swift area of southwest Washington’s Lewis River Basin, including the Yale Day Use Area and Swift Campground, due to fire danger. Beaver Bay Campground, Cougar Campground and Saddle Dam Day Use Recreation Areas closed for the season on September 5th. Anyone planning to hike or camp this weekend should check conditions before leaving home.
More power outages as hazardous conditions continue
As of Saturday morning, Portland General Electric had cut power to 37,000 homes and businesses. This includes new shutdowns to reduce fire hazards at Southwest Scotts Mills, South Molalla, George, Colton and Sandy. Public safety power outages began early Friday morning for Pacific Power and Portland General Electric customers in high fire danger zones. Rural areas prone to strong winds saw the first power outages. The full list of PGE terminations is available here. So far, Pacific Power has cut service to about 12,000 customers. His full list is available here.
Smoke now blankets much of western Oregon, including the Portland area
People across much of western Oregon and southwest Washington woke up to gray and orange skies Saturday morning as shifting winds blew smoke from the wildfire into previously unaffected areas. Much of the smoke in the Portland area came from the Cedar Creek Fire, which was burning more than 51,000 acres Saturday morning and was only 12 percent contained, and the new fire near Milo McIver State Park. And wind conditions remain hazardous across much of northeastern and southwestern Oregon. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on Saturday extended air quality advisories for Curry, Deschutes, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, eastern Lane, Umatilla, Union and Wallowa counties. Malheur County was also added to the list of counties under an air quality warning. Although weather conditions are expected to improve on Sunday, air quality warnings will remain in place until at least Monday. People who are especially vulnerable include older Oregonians, young children, pregnant women and anyone with heart or lung disease. An advisory for Coos County ended Saturday.
