My heart is heavy...

[pharmseller]

I drove to Bend today for the first time since the fires. I took 126 up the McKenzie. I can't tell you how many trips I've made over the pass in my 57 years but I almost cried at the destruction. Foundations everywhere with lonely chimneys to mark where the house once stood. Burned out cars, disfigured mailboxes, twisted and tortured guardrails. The town of Blue River, gone. The Christmas store, gone. The little houses perched on stilts over the water, gone. The empty shell of Mom's Pies, gone. The mechanic's shop in Nimrod, gone. Ageless sentinels that marked the seasons with their colors, and watched the swift progress of the river for centuries, now charred wrecks.

What a crappy day.


P

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[kmk1012]

Similar sentiments here, we drove up to Detroit a couple weeks ago and it was a sad sight.

 

[Jasonanddeonna]

I drove to Bend today for the first time since the fires. I took 126 up the McKenzie. I can't tell you how many trips I've made over the pass in my 57 years but I almost cried at the destruction. Foundations everywhere with lonely chimneys to mark where the house once stood. Burned out cars, disfigured mailboxes, twisted and tortured guardrails. The town of Blue River, gone. The Christmas store, gone. The little houses perched on stilts over the water, gone. The empty shell of Mom's Pies, gone. The mechanic's shop in Nimrod, gone. Ageless sentinels that marked the seasons with their colors, and watched the swift progress of the river for centuries, now charred wrecks.

What a crappy day.


P

We have driven this twice including through Blue River by the high school, along with Camp Creek Rd., Deerhorn, Booth Kelly, and McKenzie Crossing behind Blue Sky. It is devastating and heartwrenching. So many businesses, homes, vacation spots, fishing, etc. wiped out. The Blue River loop is particulalry tragic as it is completely wiped out except for the high school and few houses; a microcosm of the area. If Aufderheide Rd opens to Cougar dam you can see the destruction through the hills where it started.

 

[pharmseller]

This says it all.

 

[Hawaiian]

Sad.

 

[4Freedom]

I use to live in Vida and I am sure the house I lived on the McKenzie is now completely ash.. It's heartbreaking and would make it hard for me to go back to Oregon to see such devastation.. I guess one thing I like about being in the South is it rains in the Summer and we don't usually get the bad fires..

It's hard seeing the forests and towns you grew up with as a kid get burned to pieces..

I am just miserable .. The whole year has been one of worst of my life.

 

[jayR]

Testament to the safety of propane.

 

[JackFrost]

And to realize that a VAST majority of the devastation could have been prevented if the forest's were managed by competent individuals, instead of ignorant asses bent on a fake agenda known as global warming!
Drove through santiam canyon yesterday on my way home and it was incredibly heartbreaking. Absolutely tragic.

 

[arakboss]

And to realize that a VAST majority of the devastation could have been prevented if the forest's were managed by competent individuals, instead of ignorant asses bent on a fake agenda known as global warming!
Drove through santiam canyon yesterday on my way home and it was incredibly heartbreaking. Absolutely tragic.

I have a place next to the Fremont/Winema National Forest and I can tell you that no amount of forest managment, short of clear cutting all the forest miles around my property, will prevent my place from succumbing to a wildfire if one rolls through my area. A lot can be done by the home/property owner but I realized the wildfire risk was high when I bought the cabin in a heavily forested area. If you want to be really saddened watch the Paradise, CA documentary. Those people had homes in regular neighborhoods with no forest in sight and many of the neighborhoods burnt to the ground.