Looking Out for Each Other During Hard Times
It’s been a hard summer, and I think a lot of us are ready for it to be over. The Grasshopper Fire and others across Wasco County and the rest of the state have taken a real toll. Homes were lost. Neighbors had to leave in a hurry, some with only minutes to decide what to grab. Even the county fair, which so much of August usually revolves around, couldn’t go ahead as planned.
When you live in a place like ours, that kind of loss is felt by everyone, not just the families who were closest to the flames.
But I’ve watched this community do what it does best. Folks opened spare rooms and pastures for evacuated neighbors and their animals, and people who didn’t have a lot to give gave anyway. When the fair couldn’t proceed, our neighbors in Hood River offered their fairgrounds so our 4-H kids could still show and sell the animals they’d spent all year raising.
That instinct to look after one another is what gets a community through a season like this one, and it’s what will carry us forward as we start to recover.
I want to thank the crews who fought these fires, many of whom came a long way from home to do it. Sheriff’s deputies drove back roads at all hours, making sure people got out in time. We owe them more than a few sentences here can say.
One thing we can all do is be ready ourselves. September’s as good a time as any to think about it, because it’s National Preparedness Month. I know none of us love being told, one more time, to pack a go-bag and make a plan. It’s the kind of reminder that’s easy to tune out, right up until the year it isn’t.
But this is the world we live in now, and a quiet evening spent getting ready is a whole lot easier than trying to think straight when there’s smoke on the horizon and no time to spare. If you’ve been meaning to sort out your plan or sign up for Wasco County alerts, let this be the nudge to finally do it. And when you can, look in on the neighbors who would have the hardest time getting out on their own.
We’ve come through hard stretches before, and we’ve always done it together. This one won’t be any different.
Roger Kline
General Manager and CEO