Wednesday, October 14, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Preparedness is critical
in Sisters Country
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer9s name, address and
phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions
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To the Editor:
Hey, it isn9t easy to come up with some-
thing everyone can agree on these days, but I
think I have one: Inasmuch as Jim Anderson
(The Sisters Naturalist) has probably had
more to do with the edification of the entire
population of this region than anybody ever
has, the next time a name is needed for a new
school here it should be the Jim Anderson
Elementary, Middle School or whatever, right?
Go golden eagles! Or horned owls! Or bats!
Don Wilt
s
s
s
To the Editor:
Since I was awakened very early yet again
(4:54 a.m.!) by tractor engines, banging dump
trucks, and beepers from the nearby rock and
gravel yard, it got me thinking about the cur-
rent 4 and coming 4 conflicts over zoning
and development here in Sisters.
Perhaps it9s time to address a different
angle of the <this is not our town= sentiments
4 that being the issue that current zoning
laws, building codes, and city codes are not
consistently enforced, thus creating issues in
our current reality.
When we built our new home in the
ClearPine development (off of Northwest Pine
Street north of Barclay Avenue) we knew that
there would be home construction noise here
for several years to come. We knew that the
development abutted a <light industrial= zone
along Barclay. We also knew that this sort of
mixed-use zoning arrangement could work
next to residential areas if, and only if, every-
body obeyed the rules.
Well, we were simply not prepared for
the pre-dawn roar of tractor engines, back-up
beepers, and loud banging of dump trucks (in
the sand and gravel yard at the end of North
Curtis Street), nor were we prepared for the
ceaseless drone of diesel generators of mul-
tiple refrigerator trailers (parked at Laird
Superfoods on Lundgren Mill Drive).
We have a pretty good working relationship
See LETTERS on page 17
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
Thursday
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Saturday
Monday
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Partly Cloudy
Sunny
Mostly Sunny
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Partly Cloudy
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57/34
62/40
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The Nugget Newspaper,
P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759.
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Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius
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If 2020 has shown us any-
thing, it9s that unexpected 4
even unthinkable 4 things
can, do, and will happen.
It9s a pretty safe assump-
tion that none of us had a
global pandemic, lockdowns,
economic dislocation, and
serious, widespread civil
unrest on our dance card
on New Year9s Day. Who
among us predicted that peo-
ple would be fighting in store
aisles over packages of toilet
paper?
Folks in Sisters know
from bitter experience that
wildfire is always a threat,
but the scope and scale and
human tragedy of the mas-
sive 2020 conflagrations
exceeded anything we9ve
come to accept as <normal.=
Suddenly, preparedness
has climbed to the top of
the list of personal and civic
virtues.
A few years back, a friend
of mine opened a store for
<preppers,= carrying all kinds
of supplies and gear for peo-
ple who prioritize prepared-
ness and resilience. Freeze-
dried food, hand-crank
radios, water purification
filters and the like. Another
friend looked askance at all
that, thinking it was a symp-
tom of paranoia. <What is he
preparing for?= he asked.
I thought it was a strange
question.
<Well& anything,= I
responded.
It took a minute to recog-
nize that my skeptical friend
had been conditioned to think
of <prepping= as a fringe
activity indulged in by <sur-
vivalist= types who couldn9t
wait for a doomsday scenario
to unfold, sitting in their bun-
ker loaded up for the zom-
bie apocalypse. He9d also
been conditioned to think the
water always runs when you
turn the faucet and grocery
store shelves are always full.
I think he knows better
now, on both counts.
The pandemic 4 and
consumers9 responses to it 4
have shown us first3hand that
the store shelves can empty
out in a hurry 4 and maybe
they won9t get restocked
right away. That point was
reinforced by the fire-related
closures of Highway 22 and
Highway 126, which made it
harder to ship goods from the
Willamette Valley to Sisters.
It doesn9t take much imagi-
nation to consider what hap-
pens if such closures are even
more widespread, due to
damage from, say, a Cascadia
Subduction Zone Earthquake.
Given the events of this
terrible year, that abstract
threat doesn9t seem quite so
abstract. Getting hit with the
<full rip= shaker would be so
2020&
The catastrophic wildfires
of September should make us
all reflect on how prepared
we are. Sisters neighbor-
hoods have evacuated under
threat of wildfire many times
over the past two decades
or so. But those evacua-
tions are almost always well
in advance of the threat.
There have been exceptions.
Residents were forced to flee
from a fast-moving blaze in
the sagebrush east of town in
August of 2018, and it was
only quick action by fire-
fighters, supported by fortu-
itously available air power,
that prevented a dire situation
from turning catastrophic.
Evacuation was immediate.
Nothing could save the
communities in Santiam
Canyon and in the McKenzie
River canyon last month.
The firestorm that destroyed
whole towns gave people
virtually no time to prepare.
It was go now or die. Some
people did not make it.
The City of Sisters and
the Sisters-Camp Sherman
Fire District are working to
<harden= the community9s
infrastructure and enhance
response capabilities in the
event of disaster 4 be it fire,
winter storm, flooding or
earthquake. Or pandemic.
But it really is up to us to
make ourselves ready.
It9s on us to create defen-
sible space around our homes
to give firefighters a fighting
chance to save them. It9s on
us to have a stock of food,
water and essential supplies
in the event that the trucks
can9t get to Bi-Mart and
Ray9s and the other shops
in town. It9s on us to have
a plan to shelter in place 4
and a plan to evacuate at a
moment9s notice.
As Jack McGowan notes
in the centerfold piece you9ll
find in this week9s Nugget,
preparedness is a journey
of many steps. Most of us
couldn9t afford to stock a
bunker, even if we wanted
to. But we can all lay in some
extra food, some potable
water, and first aid supplies;
keep the gas tank topped up
and find ourselves an alter-
native way to heat the house
and cook our food. A lot of
our <preparedness= gear can
double as camping gear.
And we can all benefit
from learning skills from first
aid to camp cooking.
There9s nothing onerous
about being prepared. In fact,
it can be fun and gratify-
ing. And capacity to be just
a little bit more self-reliant
brings a lot of peace of mind
4 a commodity we could all
use a lot more of in 2020.