Smoked

RantWoman is freshly back from one of her semiannual weekends off the grid. By off the grid, RantWoman mainly means out of cellphone range. There is Wi-Fi if RantWoman were to take a device she wants to use with it. There is electricity, running water including lovely satisfying showers of a different configuration than RantWoman’s apartment. There is food service. Except for cellphone coverage, there are basic amenities common in the hospitality industry, along with options for doing many meeting activities out of doors and, usually, for rustic elements such as heating with wood.


RantWoman these days goes to this event to take minutes—longhand, to be typed later—for a meeting. Sometimes RantWoman goes on a hike, though not this time. RantWoman tends to sleep more than at home. RantWoman sees people she is fond of who live far away. RantWoman is touched that a couple people RantWoman, diplomatically, considers gadget heads sound so envious.

This time, RantWoman’s journey had whole new elements: smoke, disaster preparedness themes, frightening and somewhat overdone spreads all over Seattle papers. The venue for RantWoman’s journey is between Cle Elum and Ellensburg, in other words over by wildfire country. There was already a strict burn ban due to dry conditions and, RantWoman thinks, a state of emergency declaration by the governor; RantWoman is unclear as to the precise geography of the declaration. The site itself is up a canyon, with a creek running through and different wind patterns than other places even quite nearby.

The event is planned by volunteers. RantWoman is happy enough not having been in the loop for preparatory rounds of email the week preceding the event. There were some voices speaking of cancellation and emails about air quality at the venue. RantWoman has heard all this secondhand and wants to jot her own notes even though she does not expect to hear full after the fact debrief for several months. RantWoman knows of one couple who cancelled early in the week preceding the event because of asthma.

Things got really interesting Friday afternoon, the day the weekend event was to start! People come from all over WA and ID; some need to set out several hours ahead of time and were already on the road. One person in Seattle began to fret in the early afternoon and the fretting did not subside when she contacted another person who arrived early. So an email got sent out. There were already some last minute cancellations and more people cancelled as a result of email and phone calls. But people who left early were already arriving to much confusion and uncertainty as to whether people would be able and willing to go forward.

People with a small number of important business items for two meetings were definitely interested in getting the needed business done; luckily in both cases requirements about a quorum are squishy enough for highly variable numbers. Youth who like meeting in large enough clumps to be an actual group were eager to go forward. No one had any idea how many of those who registered would actually come. Registration was suspended and finally it was decided that people would at least stay Friday night, conditions permitting do needed business and then decide further. In the end about 1/3 of those originally registered stayed the whole weekend as originally planned.

Back up. RantWoman thinks there might have been several good questions, some of which did not enter the conversation until AFTER the event had not been cancelled.

--Which part of “the governor has declared a state of emergency” did anyone involved in the planning interact—or not interact-- with? RantWoman remembers advisories for people living in the area to stay indoors but remembers NO comments specifically about discretionary travel to the affected area. Then there would be the matter of interacting with such recommendations if they had occurred and of different people’s approaches to weighing risks.

--Has the venue ever had to be evacuated for any reason, fire or severe weather?

--Does the venue have any kind of evacuation plan? RantWoman has been around enough disaster preparedness topics to have formed the opinion that  there are lots of ways to frighten oneself, to spend a lot of money or both. RantWoman has in mind something more modest and adaptable to circumstances.
--One particular point: RantWoman heard a comment about there being only 1 way out of the canyon where the venue is located. How far a distance does this apply for and how important is the point for that distance?

--What do visiting groups need to know about any of a venue’s evacuation plans? Is there anything a group specifically need to think about? For example, someone who, guessing from where she lives, has more occasion than does RantWoman to think about wildfires suggested parking facing out of one's parking place in the event of evacuation. RantWoman remembers reading that somewhere as well, but at this event RantWoman did not even spend time thinking about all the people who get driven with their stuff to sleeping spaces and then everyone parks in the parking lot.

--After returning home, from the calm of RantWoman’s apartment in Seattle, RantWoman also remembers some list compiling and list checking practices adaptable for many emergency situations, but RantWoman will be curious what comes to mind for others.

--Did anyone involved in planning think to ask and did the venue staff have any way of knowing where the closest fires were and where they were in relation to prevailing winds? What about wind speeds and distance to the venue?

--RantWoman’s event ultimately took place after considerable hesitation, drama, and indecision. RantWoman assumes people were listening to radios or at least some of them read news on the internet. What was anyone thinking as far as sudden changes in conditions and possible responses / adjustments to plans? RantWoman assumes someone was paying at least some attention to this; to be honest, RantWoman found it less anxiety provoking NOT to have up to the second updates. So RantWoman expects there is someone to be thanked regarding this point.

--Does the venue have any previous experience with wind patterns and anything as smoky as those who gathered experienced over our weekend? Perhaps just collecting data about people's impressions and experiences would be on point.



RantWoman’s perspectives in the general case about gatherings and conditions:

-- People from our group used to meeting in large groups in Seattle probably underestimate how much it means for people from smaller communities to gather in larger numbers. RantWoman for one is extremely grateful to the youth who articulated this point on Friday evening amid much confusion and indecision.

--It is easy for people from Seattle to be frightened from afar about circumstances that people who live closer to natural phenomena are more accustomed to. For instance, even in very dry conditions, RantWoman personally is only slightly concerned about a 20% chance of lightning strikes. RantWoman also saw a sort of alarming presentation in the Seattle Times, something she had previously been spared because of doing very little print media. RantWoman is unclear whether the Times articles included a map but somehow had already figured out that the closest fires are downwind to the N and E of the venue. RantWoman is not sure how she figured this out because in modest efforts to search never found a map of the fires. The closest she came was some kind of air quality table that referenced Ellensburg but not Cle Elum.

--RantWoman’s experience of air quality over the weekend never seemed very much more difficult than times when people in her neighborhood in Seattle have a lot of woodstoves going. in fact, RantWoman sometimes voluntarily travels to places where lots of people heat with wood. The weekend made RantWoman glad that burning wood for heat is no longer the norm. RantWoman, though, was satisfied with her own preparation efforts. RantWoman prepared by bringing artificial tears, a cup to drink liquids regularly, and bandanas in case there was need to cover her face. The artificial tears were needed; a bandana never got used though some in RantWoman’s group did use masks on the smokiest day.

--RantWoman’s first ride had already canceled on Monday because one member of the couple has asthma. RantWoman was in “need to be at a meeting” mode and was just grateful to know this in time to find another ride.

RantWoman’s experience of the conditions:

Friday: as the person RantWoman rode with drove E over Snoqualmie Pass, things quickly seemed hazy, even for the fog and blur that is RantWoman’s level of vision. As we drove further east, the air also started smelling slightly smoky. The person RantWoman rode with said he has a poor sense of smell and could not smell anything. RantWoman could smell smoke lightly and not as obnoxious even as campfires sometimes are. Conditions got smokier as we got closer to our venue. RantWoman concurs with someone who spoke of  pea soup visibility until we were quite close to our venue. When we arrived, RantWoman immediately noticed a nice breeze.

RantWoman’s party got there somewhere around 5 and put our things in our sleeping spaces in plenty of time for potluck supper and a 7 pm meeting in the dining hall. The meeting broke up at 9 but several people from the meeting kept talking until almost 11. Walking back to RantWoman’s sleeping space, she noticed a slight smoky smell, much lighter than on I-90 when we were driving in.

Saturday: sunny, breezy, smoky breezes from time to time but again less smoky than on the freeway driving in on Friday.

Saturday evening and night: cooler than Friday night.

Sunday: cloudy, cooler than the other two days. Smoke definitely heavier. More people wearing masks. RantWoman awoke with her nose stuffed up but a lot drained when she sat up with her head vertical for awhile. Such is the nature of those RantWoman gathered with that others also were up early, reading or just being present in common space. Definitely still smoky as RantWoman’s group left, but not as acrid as if one were right near, say, a campfire.

RantWoman’s ride back to Seattle was completely uneventful except conversationally. No stop in Cle Elum so no interaction with a speed trap several in RantWoman’s group have previously encountered on the second westbound freeway onramp on the way out of Cle Elum. RantWoman’s driving companion has personal reasons to be interested in others’ vision issues and RantWoman had a wonderful conversation about what it means still to be able to see and mostly enjoy mountains. RantWoman got home, fed the Queen of Spades, dumped dirty laundry into the basket and only then sat down to read Friday’s last-minute email.



In spite of the smoke, RantWoman is REALLY glad to have gone. RantWoman expects low numbers will be very hard for the venue and has no information about contract terms with our group. RantWoman thanks the venue staff for all the ways she felt comfortable and relaxed. RantWoman thanks those in her group who stayed for lovely company. And no doubt there will be much chewing over of the week leading up to the event and the circumstances before the event and on Friday. Fun?



Post script: RantWoman realized quickly on Monday morning that washing smoky residue out of her hair would probably be a good idea. RantWoman frequently has trouble identifying which of several reasons for headaches is most salient at any given time but was definitely aware of her nose and sinuses clearing out a lot when no longer steadily bathed in smoke. Ummmm.