More from @AprilEhrlich

April Ehrlich

@AprilEhrlich

8 Sep

https://twitter.com/AprilEhrlich/status/1303436453775577089

Exactly a year ago today I walked outside to see a towering plume of smoke 6mi from my house. I thought I could report on it like any other fire. But what became the Almeda Fire spread rapidly, detroying thousands of my neighbors' homes and barely sparing mine. [thread]

https://twitter.com/AprilEhrlich/status/1303436453775577089

My husband & I packed our small car with 2 dogs & 2 cats and headed to a friend's house in South Medford. Then I hit the road to do some reporting.

I saw flames billowing from the freeway. No one on the ground seemed to know what was going on. Later I had to evacuate again as the fire tore through the towns of Talent and Phoenix. We didn't know where to go. North seemed safe, so we went to Grants Pass.

Read 11 tweets

April Ehrlich

@AprilEhrlich

7 Sep

The smoke is forecasted to stick around the rest of this week. We can't breathe anywhere outside our homes, if we have homes. Can't go anywhere. Can't see anyone. I hold my breath to take out the trash. This is absolutely brutal.

You're lucky if your home is well insulated. Mine isn't. Even with multiple filters running I feel sick.

I'm going to keep reminding people of how bad the smoke is because it's easy to forget if you're not in it. This is miserable. It'd be a bit better if a pandemic didn't keep us from gathering indoors, but we can't even do that this year.

Read 4 tweets

April Ehrlich

@AprilEhrlich

4 Aug

https://twitter.com/OPBTOL/status/1422997263316488194

Almost all photos of fires in those climate change articles you read are from California because that's basically the only state that allows journalists into wildfire zones.

As a result, our views are skewed to believe CA is the only one with devastating wildfires. /1

https://twitter.com/OPBTOL/status/1422997263316488194

For several weeks this year Oregon had the biggest wildfire in the country with the Bootleg Fire. Last year we lost thousands of homes to Labor Day fires. But people were left in the dark beyond what was released from firefighting agencies because journalists didnt have access./3

@SPJOregon

Media access is crucial to keep people informed. If you support this, keep an eye on the 2022 legislature, when @SPJOregon will be supporting a bill that grants media access to disaster situations. /4

Read 4 tweets

April Ehrlich

@AprilEhrlich

12 Sep 20

https://twitter.com/MultCoSO/status/1304631505314930688

About a week before the fires I went to a militia meeting where people were preparing to do exactly this in Southern Oregon. They planned on blockading the highways in case of civil unrest following the elections.

https://twitter.com/MultCoSO/status/1304631505314930688

They expected caravans of refugees from big cities like Seattle and Portland to come fleeing to rural towns, escaping violent protests that'd result from the elections. They feared not having enough resources for them. Food & water shortages, etc

They had a strict "no talking to the media" policy but they let me listen. At the time it seemed more like disaster preparedness to me. They wanted to know how to take care of people in their community in case ~stuff~ hit the fan. No long guns or being "billy bad asses."

Read 8 tweets