As luck would have it, my latest dispatch has put me at Warm Springs, one of the hottest spots to view the coming eclipse. Warm Springs is a popular destination for the celestial event not only because it is smack dab in the center of the path of totality, but also because, historically speaking, it has the best chance of clear skies, and therefore a clear view of the upcoming celestial event. Every hippie, raver, astrologist, new age pagan and Burning Man participant is descending on this sparse area of a little-known Indian Reservation.
At first glance, this might seem like a welcome event that will provide a boom to the local economy. In reality, it is akin to running a thousand watt line through a 10-watt circuit. There is almost sure to be a blowout. Every emergency worker around here is on edge about what is upon us.
Yesterday we had a preparatory meeting, to make sure that all wildland fire resources are up to speed with what I about to happen, and what strategies will be used to deal with it. The introduction painted the picture. The population will increase ten to twenty fold, throwing cigarettes and joints, and lighting illegal camp fires. Highway 26 will be jam packed for hours, making response times of local resources untimely, and state and federal resources more or less unavailable. Cell towers will overload, shutting down communications, transformers will likely blow from the sudden demand for electricity, drones and planes will make air operations difficult to impossible. Even morgue services are predicted to be overwhelmed. With an estimated 9000 boats in Lake Billy Chinook, and 600 people trying to summit Mt Jefferson for the two-minute totality, the number of dead people is likely to rise in equal percentage to the number of live ones.
(Mt. Jefferson)
This would be a tenuous position under normal conditions, but in the middle of a hectic wildfire season, with resources across the nation already taxed, and fuels dangerously dry, it becomes a potential perfect storm. It’s not hard to imagine fires becoming large fast with the limited resources to battle them and these resources even more limited mobility--fire engines get stuck in traffic, too. It inspires a picture of a raging wall of flames heading towards highway 26 where ten thousand cars await in panicked gridlock.
But I should be more positive. Hey, I am getting a free pair of eclipse sun glasses for being here…
I’ll keep you all updated.