WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2020 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
After the fire, poetry and pottery are changed
Eleanor Berry
Special to Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
“To arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic / while
it’s sinking, … would it be so foolish after all?” asks the
first poem in my chapbook “Only So Far” (Main Street
Rag Publishing Co., 2019). Imagining the ruin that
would follow a Cascadia Zone earthquake, the poem’s
speaker confesses:
Still I spend hours arranging pictures on the walls of
bedroom, guest room, living room, study.
Then, in the poem’s final lines, she defends this ap-
parently foolish activity:
I want these imperiled walls to sing in the face of
threat complex harmonies eyes can receive and mind
hold close.
As it turned out, it was not earthquake but fire that
destroyed those walls and the pictures so carefully ar-
ranged on them. And as it happened, the six months of
sheltering at home to avoid exposure to the novel coro-
navirus gave an exceptional opportunity to take in
deeply the “complex harmonies” of those arrange-
ments. Now, even though the actual walls and pictures
have been reduced to ash, my mind still holds close the
pictures arrayed on them and the way they resonated
together.
Of course, it wasn’t only pictures that I sought to
arrange harmoniously, but small objects like vases and
bowls, including some few made by local potter Mark
Hebing, whose studio, attached to his Santiam Canyon
home, my husband and I had visited.
“The Potter’s Studio,” a poem in my book “No Con-
stant Hues” (Turnstone Books of Oregon, 2015), at-
tempts to evoke Hebing’s studio as it was when we vis-
ited it. Then mountain-forest colors filtered into the
studio, settling “on the white clay sides of the vases, /
planters, and bowls that the potter lift[ed] / from the
wheel.” The poem envisions those colors of Douglas fir
needles and bark, of salal and sword fern, as inspiring
the hues of Hebing’s glazes.
Like our home, Hebing’s pottery studio was de-
stroyed in the Beachie Creek fire. In the rubble of our
house, we found a few pieces of pottery that had sur-
vived flames hot enough to melt aluminum. One of
them was a vase by Mark Hebing. It was uncracked
and retained its shape, but the deep teal of its glaze
had darkened nearly to black, as much changed as the
fir forest that may have inspired it.
Another piece of pottery that survived the fire but
was transformed by it is the focus of an earlier poem of
mine, “To a Great-Aunt,” in my book “Green Novem-
See POETRY, Page 3A
ELECTIONS
2020
Incumbent
Schrader
faces upstarts
Three candidates vie
for District 5 seat
Bill Poehler Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Nellie Taylor with FEMA’s Applicant Services assists Santiam Canyon residents with the wildfire recovery
process on Monday at the Community Center in Stayton. PHOTOS BY ABIGAIL DOLLINS / STATESMAN JOURNAL
FEMA has paid $17 million
to Oregonians so far
Bill Poehler
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
A major concern of Santiam Canyon residents im-
pacted by the Labor Day wildfires is assistance: would
they get it, and when.
In the month since historic wildfires decimated re-
gions of Oregon including Santiam Canyon cities such
as Detroit and Gates, FEMA has paid out $17 million to
people impacted in the state, FEMA spokesperson
Jann Tracey said.
“We can’t put things back together. We can give
them a jump start, and that’s what our mission is,”
Tracey said.
Tracey said in the past month, FEMA has received
10,849 applications in the state and has paid out
$17,359,946 for individual assistance and housing.
That includes 1,340 applicants in Marion County
who have received $963,893 and 467 applicants in
Linn County who have received $391,966.
Those impacted by the wildfires have until Nov. 13
to register for assistance from FEMA.
FEMA individual assistance housing crew lead
Anabel Quinones said most people who have sought
assistance from the agency have insurance, but the
agency may cover things insurance doesn’t.
“So we can provide rental assistance,” she said.
“We can also cover lodging reimbursement if they
were evacuated. They just need to bring in their re-
ceipts. We can cover that if the insurance doesn’t.”
The agency opened its external outreach center for
the Santiam Canyon area at the Stayton Community
Center at 400 West Virginia Street in Stayton on Fri-
day, and Tracey said it will be the central location for
FEMA’s efforts throughout the wildfire recovery ef-
forts.
The center will be open from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.
Monday through Saturday.
“People often have lost all of their documentation,
identity, everything,” Tracey said. “Here, they can not
only help in regards to getting help with whatever
documentation they need, it’s really a valuable re-
source to have people go to the external outreach cen-
ter, rather than having them do it by phone or online.”
FEMA approves temporary housing, but limits
exist
An estimated 4,100 homes in Oregon burned down
in the wildfires and thousands more sustained dam-
age.
FEMA has limits for how much money it can pay,
however.
“The max is $35,500. That’s for housing assis-
tance, for house repairs,” Quinones said. “And then
there’s another one for personal property, that’s an-
other $35,000.”
Last week, FEMA approved temporary housing for
those displaced by wildfires for those who’s primary
residence is in Marion, Linn and Jackson counties,
and that housing will be available for up to 18 months.
See FEMA, Page 3A
New maps show where
wildfires destroyed forest
Zach Urness
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Damage caused by the Labor Day wildfires on Ore-
gon’s forests and mountains became clearer Thurs-
day with the release of maps showing where the fires
burned hottest, and where they had little impact.
The maps show the burn severity for seven of the
largest wildfires in Oregon, including the Beachie
Creek, Lionshead and Riverside fires, the trio of blazes
that burned roughly 535,000 acres east of the Willam-
ette Valley.
The maps confirm what the Statesman Journal re-
ported previously — the Opal Creek area and Little
North Santiam Canyon were burned severely, at ei-
ther high or moderate intensity, and many of the an-
cient rainforest’s trees were likely killed.
On a somewhat more positive note, Jefferson Park,
the alpine meadow and lakes at the base of Mount
Jefferson, does not appear to have burned much at all.
In general, the Mount Jefferson Wilderness appears
to have burned at mixed to low severity.
The Olallie Lake area, home to popular mountain
lakes, appears to have burned at moderate intensity,
meaning a decent number of trees were likely killed
See MAPS, Page 2A
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Kurt Schrader has held Oregon’s Congressional
District 5 seat since 2008, winning six terms by wide
margins, usually without serious op-
position.
Amy Ryan Courser and Matthew
Rix identify as long shots.
Ryan Courser defeated two more
highly funded candidates in the Re-
publican primary and Rix, who has
raised no money, has never run for any
Courser
public office.
The three are candidates for the
seat in the Nov. 3 general election.
Oregon’s fifth congressional district
represents Salem, a swath north to
parts of Portland, east to Stayton and
Detroit and west to the central coast,
including Lincoln City, Tillamook and
Rix
Newport and includes parts of Marion,
Clackamas, Yamhill, Lincoln and Till-
amook counties.
Multiple analyzations including
from The Cook Political Report rate the
district as “Solid Democratic.”
Schrader has a huge advantage in
fundraising, with $1.4 million raised as
Shrader
of June 30, the latest date reported by
the Federal Elections Committee, and
$2.5 million cash on hand. Courser had under $4,000
on hand as of June 30 and Rix said he hasn’t raised
any money.
Democrat Kurt Schrader
Schrader, 68, was a state representative and sena-
tor before moving on to the United States House of
Representatives and has won every election he has
been in since 1996.
He handily defeated opponents Mark Gamba and
Blair Reynolds in this year’s primary election.
The former veterinarian from Canby sits on the
House Committee on Energy and Commerce as well
as the Blue Dog Coalition for moderate Democrats.
The district includes wildfire-impacted areas like
Santiam Canyon cities including Mill City, areas of
Clackamas County and Otis.
Schrader said the government needs to use sci-
ence and the knowledge of experts to better manage
forests with methods like prescribed burns and thin-
ning to prevent fuels from building up in vulnerable
areas.
“Again, where a lot of folks like to paint this as all
or none approach, there’s as usual a happy medium,”
Schrader said. “I would enjoy having a rational dis-
cussion for a change.”
He was part of the push to get the major disaster
declaration for the wildfires approved in the days af-
ter the fire, which allowed for federal help for victims
of the fire.
Schrader said a key to wildfire recovery for many
of the communities will be continued pressure on
federal agencies to help those impacted.
“It’s going to be bird-dogging these things,”
Schrader said. “It’s going to be making sure people
get help as soon as they can. At the same time, it’s
going to be moving people into permanent transi-
tional housing.”
Schrader said Oregon needs to take further steps
towards reopening from its COVID-19 restrictions.
He said the state did well in stemming the spread
of the disease in the state, but it needs to get busi-
nesses and schools back operating as a vaccine and
treatments may be a long way off.
“I’m afraid many people are acting way out of pro-
portion on what the impact of this is,” Schrader said.
The House of Representatives on Thursday
See ELECTION, Page 3A