Traffic would be escorted along Redwood Highway to and from California twice a day, if plan moves ahead
By Shaun Hall, Rogue Valley Times
Walloped by wildfires that have shut down power and closed an important highway link, the residents of Crescent City and Del Norte County got a bit of good news Wednesday.
At a well-attended community meeting at the county fairgrounds, Pacific Power CEO Stefan Bird told audience members that the company expects to have power restored to the county by this weekend, mainly by using massive generators the size of semi trailers to power substations.
And Lt. Pete Roach of the California Highway Patrol in Crescent City announced a tentative plan to partly reopen Highway 199 Monday by using a “way out of the box” idea to escort big caravans of vehicles twice daily through the fire area — although events Thursday in Oregon already were throwing doubt on the plan.
Late on Thursday, Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel ordered a “Level 3 – GO NOW” evacuation for an area that the highway passes through for about four miles immediately north of the California-Oregon state line. If the area remains Level 3 Monday, reopening plans probably would be put on hold, CHP Sgt. Thomas Cantrell said Friday morning.
“If they’re on a Level 3, we’re probably not going to be opening the road, but I wouldn’t say it’s a hard no,” Cantrell said.
Also at the community meeting, Del Norte County Sheriff Garrett Scott told the crowd of about 260 people, plus nearly 700 more online, that he knew of as many as 10 homes damaged by fire, although he had not visited or viewed all areas.
And Pacific Power announced that it expects to have power restored this weekend to the county of about 28,500 people by using massive generators the size of semi trailers to power substations.
Meanwhile, county Sheriff Garrett Scott told the crowd of about 260 people, plus nearly 700 more online, that he knew of as many as 10 homes damaged by fire, although he had not visited or viewed all areas.
“This fire is evil,” he said.
And a fire official said the leader of an experienced hotshot crew of firefighters broke an ankle that day out in the field in steep terrain.
“It took hours to get him to an ambulance,” said Tom Clemo, incident commander for the team fighting the fire.
Bill Steven, a sheriff’s deputy and public information officer for the county’s emergency management department, said it would be tough enough if just the highway was closed or if power alone went out, but both of them being taken out at the same time “is kind of a double gut-punch.”
The highway closed Aug. 16 due to fire, falling rock and debris, while power was shut off Aug. 18 when fire threatened miles of a transmission line serving the county and then damaged some of the line. The Smith River Complex of fires began Aug. 15 when lightning swept through the area.
Pacific Power has been restoring power neighborhood-by-neighborhood using the generators. By Thursday, about 2,259 locations were still without power, down from more than 10,000 locations without power last weekend.
“Saturday is when the last customers are supposed to come back online,” Steven said.
The fuel-powered generators are not a long-term solution but can serve customers until the transmission line is restored.
Stefan Bird, president and CEO of Pacific Power, addressed the crowd, which gave him a polite round of applause, well short of the rousing applause given firefighting efforts.
“This has never been done before,” Bird said about the efforts to power a county with generators, some of them obtained from out of state. “We’re renting everything we can.”
The company also has delivered small generators to medically needy people and helped stand up two help centers where people could charge phones and get water and ice.
Lt. Pete Roach of the California Highway Patrol announced the plan to partly reopen the highway: Motorists should line up at 7 a.m. daily on the south side of the fire near Gasquet and be escorted to the California-Oregon border, where waiting motorists headed south would then be escorted through in the opposite direction.
The same routine would then be repeated at 5 p.m. daily. At all other times, the highway would remain closed south of the border, until further notice.
On Thursday, the road was closed for a 30-mile stretch from Hiouchi to the border. About 12 miles of the roadway has had fire burn near it.
“This is a vital artery to this community,” Roach said. “This is a service for you to get this place back to some normalcy. This is a train going to the Oregon border and back.”
One reason for the 7 a.m. start time is because firefighters typically are attending a briefing at that time and would generally be off the road, so the caravans might avoid them.
“We’re hoping this goes smooth and we’ll miss them,” Roach said.
He referred to the plan as “way out of the box.”
Before the road opens, there’s tree work to do, he said. Changes in the fire could change the plan.
“We have to watch what this fire is going to do,” Roach said. “If for some reason this is unsafe, I’m not going to take motorists through.”
Motorists in the caravan won’t be allowed to leave it during the procession. The area is under a mandatory evacuation order from the sheriff’s office.
Details about the plan were published Thursday via social media by CHP-Crescent City and Caltrans District 1.
“US-199 is a vital necessity to our county for resources, medical supplies and everyday commerce,” it read. “We are eager to open US-199 and bring this valued resource back to our community.”
“The Smith River Complex Fire is very unpredictable, and these plans are subject to change if there is a safety risk to our motoring public and/or personnel.”
The highway is the main route from the Rogue Valley to Crescent City and Brookings. The trip from Grants Pass to Crescent City usually is 83 miles by vehicle, but the closure has forced motorists to use a 241-mile alternate route via Highway 101 and Highway 42 through Bandon and the Winston area to Interstate 5 and Grants Pass.
The Smith River Complex, which has pushed into Oregon southwest of Cave Junction, was listed Friday at 57,225 acres, with 1,655 personnel assigned to it and containment at 0%.
Reach Rogue Valley Times outdoors and environmental reporter Shaun Hall at 458-225-7179 or shall@rv-times.com. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.
