Packed up and ready to go

Monday September 7 we had a major wind storm hit about 6 PM. Our power went out about 7 PM. An hour later we decided to fire up the generator. Pretty sweet, we had refrigeration, air conditioning, running water and lights! At 10 PM we heard a huge BANG! We went outside to find a gigantic limb had blown off the Ponderosa Pine and crashed into the pump house. 

Oh well, pump house was getting old!

Next morning we try to clean up as much debris as we can. What can happen now? The storm sparked several wildfires, one in our area was the Dowty Fire, located about 5-6 miles away and the larger fire 20 miles from Estacada, Riverside Fire.

Tuesday afternoon we started to get evacuation alarms on our cell phones and land line. By the evening, we were in the "red" zone - evacuate immediately. Neighbors left, we stayed. Wednesday, it got a little scary. The fire moved to only two miles from Estacada. We packed go bags for ourselves and the cats.

Wednesday night about 10:30 we had a visit from the police. They wanted to be sure we knew we were in the evacuation zone. On Thursday we talked about leaving. Fortunately Regina's neighbor and good friend Robyn had offered to let us stay at her home.

Cats are good to go!

We stayed with Robyn until Saturday and figured the fire hadn't advanced further and the weather outlook looked promising. I learned two things: fire or storm evacuation is scary and stressful AND there's no place like home!