I haven’t been following the various Mayo discussion groups…I’ve been working fire relief almost every day since last September’s forest fire just outside our town. After we returned from having been evacuated, I stopped getting any notices from any of the Mayo groups and was so busy trying to get basic stuff to people that I didn’t notice for a couple of months. Good news is that some of the people who lost their homes in an area where everything had been lost banded together and started to clear their own land. The effort attracted the attention of volunteers (like me) who helped them. Eighty-six people did the work themselves, saving each family $20,000 to $50,000, and most of the 86 families who participated are back living on their own land, either in temporary travel trailers while waiting for a home to be delivered or a new manufactured home. This had never been done anywhere before and has become an example for other fire victims. Some outside the area where the effort took place followed suit, too. Cascade Relief has taken the program to other areas of Oregon hit by wildfires last fall.

Now, we’re preparing for another evacuation, which is highly likely, given drought conditions. Who would have thought that the eternally damp Oregon coast would have been on fire alert since early April?