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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 2015)
A10 News Blue Mountain Eagle NEXT Continued from Page A1 Ferguson recently viewed tKe damage and said tKe Àooding concern is real. “Those who understand the potential oI Àooding are certainly concerned,” he said. “The county wants to stay close to this issue.” Much of the damaged area are steep slopes now ¿lled with debris. Add in the lack of vege- tation and the potential for cata- strophic Àooding increases. In the worst-case scenario, Ferguson said, “the silt and ash and debris that could come down that creek could be devastating. Everybody is still pretty focused on ¿ghting the ¿re. But I am worried about the possibility of imminent Àooding problems. We just don’t have anything left to hold back a Àood.” The county has asked Fergu- son to get ahead of the issue and work with the various agencies to coordinate the restoration and Àood-mitigation work that will take place. RECALL Continued from Page A1 The countywide call went out at 12:30 p.m. “On the initial call, I end- ed up with 11 engines and 32 volunteer ¿re¿ghters from Canyon City, John Day, Prai- rie City, Monument, Dayville, Long Creek and Monument ± every ¿re department in the county – everybody sent me what they could,” Turner said. The CCFD became the in- cident command center with Ferguson met with of¿cials from the U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service and other agencies Sept. 2 and the different entities began hashing out a plan to address the issue. Malheur National Forest Su- pervisor Steve Beverlin told peo- ple attending the Grant County Court’s regular meeting Wednes- day that restoration efforts to help control Àooding, including soil stabilization and erosion control projects, will be conducted as quickly as possible. “We’re moving as fast as we can,” he said. “My directions to my team are: Let’s have those in- vestments down before the snow Àies.” In an Aug. 26 report to Grant County Court, Ferguson said the “post-¿re condition of the Can- yon Creek drainage is a poten- tially catastrophic situation. Giv- en a good rain, the Àood, silt and debris which may come down Canyon Creek is hard to predict or imagine at this point.” In the report, Ferguson said the original Àood mitigation fo- cus was on Canyon Creek “but as the ¿re continues to increase in size, other areas and watersheds will probably also need atten- tion.” Ferguson has already touched base with multiple agencies that will be involved in the restoration effort and said one of his tasks will be to try to ensure there are no gaps or overlap. “What I’m trying to do is coordinate the efforts of all the agencies so we get the most bang for our buck,” he said. Britton said the county is hop- ing to cut through the red tape that will be involved with such large restoration efforts and get the work done quickly. “We have to get out ahead of this,” he said. “Let’s be proactive to keep this thing from being worse than it already is.” Grant County Court Judge Scott Myers said the Àooding concern is legitimate. “If we were to have a gully washer or sudden downpour, with all the vegetation upstream of Canyon City virtually gone, we could get an inÀu[ of mud and debris … rushing into Can- yon City,” he said. staging at the nearby post of- ¿ce. Mt. Vernon Fire Chief Bill Cearns and his depart- ment’s three engines were sent to the J Bar L Ranch. Caughlin and Bremner were sent to protect Gordon and Julie Larson’s Berry Creek Ranch home. From there, “we watched this thing blow up,” Caughlin said. Wind speeds were 40-50 mph on the ridges and picked up to 60-70 mph in the canyon, Turner said. “I was really worried as the ¿re started coming down,” he said. “The firefighters had to abandon the homes they were protecting – that’s when it turned into a firestorm.” Possibly the last one’s to leave the canyon, Caugh- lin and Bremner left the scene between 3 and 4 p.m. At Sheriff’s deputy Scott Moore’s urging, they picked up a Forest Service firefight- er, leaving his truck behind. “There was burning de- bris flying across the road, fire blowing across the road, and the smoke was so thick, we used a spotlight to see the white line,” Caughlin said. “It was a hairy situation – when we got back on the highway, there was a 40-foot In the Market for Something Organic? Check out our incredible variety of fresh, local and organic foods. Grant County Farmers Market SW Brent St., John Day 541-932-2725. Every Saturday , now through mid-October 8am-noon. See you there! • Fresh fruit • Baked goods • Lotions & soaps • Fresh cut flowers • Jewelry & other handcrafted items Wednesday, September 9, 2015 VISIT Continued from Page A1 we’re not necessarily making a pro¿t,” he said. “It’s a tragedy that all of this happened,” said Rick RunningHawk, manager of Prairie Hardware and Gifts in Prairie City. “But the fact of the matter is ... it has posi- tively impacted the store.” RunningHawk said the store has sold a lot of gar- den hoses, batteries, lanterns, Àashlights, propane and “anything and everything that people can utilize in or- der to make it through this bad period.” Mountain View Mini Mart owner-manager Chelsey McDaniel said sales at her business are about even com- pared with the same time a year ago. The store has seen fewer hunters and tour- ists, but the ¿re¿ghters have made up for that business, she said. “I would say we’ve bal- wall of fire coming down the canyon.” A request was sent to fed- eral and state forestry offi- cials for retardant drops. “I was told they’d been trying to get air drops,” Turner said. “Close to that time the fire was close to Whiskey Gulch on the south side. I told them that if I didn’t have an air drop in 20 minutes, the fire was going to be in Canyon City, and we were going to have a bigger problem.” Finally, the needed help arrived. “I would say about 20 minutes had gone by, and a DC-10 came through and anced out from what we’ve lost and gained,” McDaniel added. “It takes one van or bus full of ¿re¿ghters to stop in and make up for” the busi- ness lost. Restaurants, however, re- ported a decrease in sales. Sean Kelley, a server at The Outpost in John Day, said the restaurant hasn’t seen too much business from ¿re¿ghters because a local caterer is providing food, and tourist visits have been down because of the damage the ¿re has caused. “Both this month and last month have been some of our slowest months when normally they would be our busiest,” he said. Squeeze-In owner Shawn Duncan reported a similar scenario. “Caterers are feeding a lot of the ¿re¿ghters, so we don’t see a lot of that business,” she said. “Tourist-wise, yes, we have de¿nitely seen less business.” Wanda Winegar, owner of the Bar WB western appar- painted the back side of that hill red – they just kept com- ing and coming and com- ing,” Turner said. “It was a coordinated effort, and they put it right where I wanted it. That’s the only thing that stopped it from coming into town.” The fire slowed and halt- ed at the mouth of the can- yon. Turner said he and Caughlin have been at fire- fighting for a long time, and have never seen anything as destructive as the Canyon Creek Comple[. “There wasn’t even ash- es,” Turner said. “It was dust – all just dust.” Turner and Caughlin said they have lost a lot of sleep and work over the past couple weeks, but the most challenging part of fighting the fire was seeing residents’ losing their homes. “It’s hard anytime that happens,” Caughlin said. “We knew a lot of people.” Turner added that most were friends and neighbors, and several who lost every- thing had no insurance. He said he’s grateful for the community support, and el, footwear and gifts store in Prairie City, also reported business being slower than normal during the ¿re. “We’ve been down a lit- tle bit for about the last two weeks,” she said. “We’re not getting the spin-off from the ¿re¿ghters that maybe the businesses in John Day are.” Great Basin Incident Management Team ¿re in- formation of¿cers said their logistics people buy a lot of supplies locally and are conscious about spreading the wealth among local busi- nesses as much as possible. Some of the items the team purchases locally in- clude medical and of¿ce supplies and local fuel and lumber, said Laurel Simos, the logistics section chief. The team has hired a lo- cal caterer and also rents a grange hall and uses a local porta potty vendor and local emergency medical techni- cians. “We have an impact on a whole lot of stuff,” Simos said. *UDQW&RXQW\ÀUHÀJKWHUVUHVSRQG- LQJWRWKH$XJÀUHLQFOXGH 'D\YLOOH Brandon Thompson Tim Briggs Brian Smith Simon Graves Cody Claussen 0W9HUQRQ Bill Cearns Terry Coalwell Dan Komning Andrew Moly- neaux Larry Palmer Dave Dorschner 0RQXPHQW Earl Pettit Mike Schafer Darrin Dailey /RQJ&UHHN Don Porter Denise Porter 3UDLULH&LW\ Eddy Hicks Chris Camarena Ethan Camare- na -RKQ'D\ Carl Metler Ronda Metler Canyon City Matt Turner Charlie Caughlin Garth Leighton Greg Bremner Adrian Reed Lee Turner Jason Leighton Brian Thompson Rich Tirico Cindy Tirico the state, federal and other counties that stayed to fight Grant County’s fire. “There’s no way that just our local resources could put this out. Even with all the help, its been a tough time,” he said. “We know we did everything we could possibly do, but Mother Na- ture won. We can try to fight Mother Nature, but that’s a battle we will never win – she started it, and she put it out.” Surveyors survey damage By Tim Trainor Blue Mountain Eagle Add county survey mark- ers to the list of things dam- aged and destroyed by the Canyon Creek Comple[ ¿re. The section markers are vital pieces of information g n i h s i F t s e B CONTEST C O T in ! w o t s e P HO c n a h c W ith two kly or grand prize wee G o fishing in G rant C ounty, and send in photos from your experience. You Could WIN $10 WEEKLY OR $100 GRAND PRIZE Open to all amateur photographers. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has stocked some big ones in local lakes and waterways this summer. This is your chance to catch supper and maybe win a prize, in the 2015 Best Fishing Photo Contest sponsored by the Blue Mountain Eagle, Boyd Britton Welding and Prairie Springs Fish Farm. • Photos will be judged for quality, content, viewer appeal. Remember, it’s not the biggest fish – but the best fishing photo that takes the prize! • Photos must be taken this summer in Grant County. • Digital format is best - e-mail to kristina@bmeagle.com or bring in a disc to the Eagle office, 195 N. Canyon Blvd., John Day. • Deadline for submissions: Sep. 21, 2015 for the grand prize. Fisherman’s Name:__________________________________________ Where the fish was caught:____________________Date taken: _________ Fish Species:____________________Weight & Length________________ Contact phone number:_______________________ Contact e-mail address:________________________________ For more info, call the Eagle, 541-575-0710 – and happy fishing! that keep county surveys up to date, and the two-person Grant County surveyor’s of¿ce is tasked with maintaining those public land survey corners. If they don’t reach the damaged markers quickly, before evi- dence of their e[act location has been lost, property owners may have to pay be forced to pay a private out¿t to re-sur- vey their land. So Grant County surveyor Mike Springer is asking own- ers of property damaged by the ¿re to contact his of¿ce imme- diately so as much information as possible can be salvaged. Before 1910, Springer said stones were placed to mark every mile through much of Grant County. Since then capped iron, brass and alumi- num pipes have mostly been used to note both section cor- ners and quarter-section cor- ners. Often, large trees were used as accessories to help surveyors locate section cor- ner locations. Springer said markers in the burned area may have been placed anytime from 1870 to 2015. “A pretty big range there,” he laughed. Many were destroyed and melted by the scorching Can- yon Creek ¿re, and plenty more were bulldozed out of place by ¿re crews or knocked off kilter by falling rocks and trees. Springer’s of¿ce is now working e[clusively on lands affected by recent burns. If you have a section, quarter-section or a bearing tree on your prop- erty that you think may have been damaged due to the re- cent ¿res, call the Grant Coun- ty surveyor’s of¿ce at 541- 575-1251 or Springer’s cell phone at 541-620-0676. — Interim editor Tim Trainor can be reached at 541- 575-0710.