Cooperator’s Update Friday 16th October

Following the fires that have devastated so much of the McKenzie Valley since Labor day, a lot has happened to meet the emergency needs of victims and start supporting residents as they look towards the intermediate clean-up, building resilience as winter approaches, and looking forward towards the long-term efforts of rebuilding property and livelihoods.

A large group of collaborators have come together to support these efforts so far, and although that group is constantly evolving, their meetings usually contain a lot of useful information, answering the questions and addressing the needs of the community.

We’re going to be bringing you updates from these meetings (which currently take place at the Upper McKenzie Community Center on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) on a regular basis, so be sure to check back on the site often or like the CDC page on Facebook to see the latest news, and also reach out to contact@mckenziecommunity.org with any questions

Al Artero – Blue River Water District Superintendent

There has been a lot of work going on to restore water infrastructure and supply to the fire affected areas, and we are expecting a comprehensive update from Al and the Blue River Water District Board which will follow soon, watch this space!

Margaret Beilharz – Upper McKenzie Community Center

Margaret was pleased to report that the leak on the UMCC roof seems to have been addressed, and that the Blue River Bottle Boys have been very busy in their collection efforts for both the community center and the Blue River Library rebuilding efforts. She is also continuing to liaise with the CDC to build a system to help not-for-profits register with FEMA to ensure they claim any reimbursements to which they may be entitled.

Shane Kamarath – Forest Service

There have been quite a few requests for burn damage maps, here are the latest ones showing soil burn severity and vegetation mortality – see below. And although it might seem strange given that we’re dealing with the aftermath of fire on such a large scale, “backyward burn season”, has started, so we are likely to see more controlled burns around and if you smell smoke it is not necessarily cause for alarm.

Doug Farrington – Living Waters Church

Doug shared some guidance (see below) from Lane County on Debris Management Guidelines which he has found very useful in navigating the clean up for his Church properties. He also talked about his personal experience making sense of the right of entry forms on clean-up. For those unsure on how to proceed, these FAQ’s we recently published here on the CDC website might come in handy:

Alan Gearing – One Hope Church Group

One Hope is a group of 45 churches, which Alan explained has been involved in projects such as “Ash Outs” where volunteer teams go into properties which have been determined not to contain hazardous waste to help families search and retrieve treasured belongings. Alan and Doug also talked about how going forward they would like to help out with the initiative that to build free sheds for returning residents, providing them with secure storage through the winter months as they look towards rebuilding.

Laural O’Rourke – Social Services Liaison at Lane County Government

Laural is looking to help the community navigate through what is now an intermediary phase between emergency and long-term responses. Her main goal is to provide a system that gives residents more personalized case management so that they don’t have to go to multiple agencies and people for the different types of help they need.

John Carlile – Rainbow Relief Center

John says that going forward they will be working with Food for Lane County, which will supply additional resources for the Relief Center. This means that they will be asking for some additional information from people accessing the services at Rainbow, but he stresses that if people don’t want to give their details for personal reasons that is still fine, and that this absolutely does not mean that anyone will be denied access to the resources in the center. Everyone in th3e community is welcome.

Another update from John was that they were going to move forward with installing supply boxes at strategic points along the McKenzie Highway to enhance the community’s winter resilience plans, in case adverse weather conditions cut off sections of the population at any point. John said they also welcome suggestions for what should be included in these so-called “oh crap boxes.”

Daniel Casey – Green Cross

Daniel described how the Green Cross recently provided a debriefing session for emergency workers, where they could share their experiences and get emotional support for what has undoubtedly been an incredibly traumatic few weeks to say the least. The Green Cross team stressed how it has been “an absolute delight” to work with this diverse and strong McKenzie community.

Kelly Davis – Orchid Health

Kelly (and her wild-haired assistant Bombur, who is in training to become a therapy dog) told the group that for the next week or so, the clinic will still be operating out of the Quilt Shop across from Takoda’s, but are looking to move into (potentially) the basketball academy and setting up a mobile unit. Watch this space for updates, but in the meantime you will continue to see Kelly’s tireless outreach work in the community.

She will also be liaising with Laural from lane county to help all the most vulnerable residents of the valley to stay safe and healthy in the weeks and months to come.

Sean Davis

Although Sean is no longer working directly on behalf of the CDC, he emphasized that he will be working on various community initiatives going forward. He is currently focusing on providing RV winterizing services to vulnerable community members. There is a list available at the Blue River Community Relief Center where people can sign up for those services, so make sure that if you have an RV in need of some TLC, get your name in there!

Tyee Burwell

The prize for the most joy I’ve seen someone get out of chainsaw outside of a horror movie, definitely goes to Mr Burwell…

As Sean Davis says, Tyee has worked tirelessly since the fire, helping hundreds of people to get back on their feet. So a group of churches came together to buy him a Stihl 661 chainsaw with a 36” bar. Look at the pure joy! Please give Tyee an excuse to use that chainsaw by letting him know if you need any hazard trees removing on your property!