Imminent Threat
After my encounter at the abandoned house, I figured the remainder of Sunday afternoon would be smooth sailing.
I set off deeper into the back hill country of south-central Eastern Washington State like the bear going over the mountain— to see what I could see. The narrow gravel roads meandered, curved back on themselves and took no readily predictable direction, as they followed the contours of the landscape. I passed one ranch house off in the distance; barely discernible where it squatted at the base of the browned-hill horizon. Other than that, no cars, no people, no civilization.
Drifting along in a pleasant frame of mind, I was suddenly shaken from my near meditative state by the unmistakable klaxon call of the Emergency Broadcast System. Force of habit turned my eye to the stereo, but immediately came to terms with the fact it wasn't even turned on, being as I enjoy the natural silence when I'm in places like this. My cell phone was stashed in the ashtray, and it was from there that the braying alarm had originated. Stopping the truck, I retrieved the phone and flipped it open— Kirk to Enterprise...yes, I still use a flip phone. :^D
My eyes were greeted to a flashy display of red, yellow and black— implying all the danger of an agitated coral snake ready to inject the venom. "IMMINENT THREAT, Extreme". The urgency of which was punctuated by a furious red exclamation point.
www.flickr.com/gp/73760601@N02/M221z0
And just when I thought the rest of the day was going to be all rainbows and unicorns. With a slight sighing exhalation, I tapped the button to display the message and read:
"From:Imminent Threat - Extreme (Jul 31) - Emergency Alerts
Fire danger in the area of Richards Rd residents in that
area to evacuate."
www.flickr.com/gp/73760601@N02/BF3Nv0
Okay, hmmm...where am I in relation to this...let's check the map...oh, that's nice— looks like it's...right over there...behind that line of hills that the cloud of smoke is boiling up from.
The road was heading at a 90 degree angle from the smoke, but these roads change direction on a dime; so at this point, it wasn't clear if the road was going to lead me directly into the fire.
Now here was the quandary I faced. There are no services in areas like this for 50+ miles and I had planned to have enough fuel to make it to the next place gas was available— which was ahead, on down the road about another 40 miles. What I didn't have, was the luxury of enough gas to backtrack the way I had come from and make it to the nearest fuel-stop in that direction.
The unknown was whether I was going to encounter a raging wildfire over those hills. Well, here goes— you only live once. LOL!
Now this last leg doesn't warrant a play-by-play; suffice it to say there were a lot of u-turns and changed roads, as I tried to avoid what was a dangerously close wildfire. So close in fact, that I kept encountering flame-razed areas where the stench of charred wood overpowered the air and the ground still smoked in places.
www.flickr.com/photos/18092121@N00/28136445763
Fortunately for me, I managed to remain where the fire had been, versus where it was headed— which was in the direction of the Hanford nuclear power plant. So after some circuitous driving, I rolled into Mabton, WA with gas to spare and nary a singed whisker.
I came away with a few shots and a story to tell, heading home at this point— which took six hours for what should have been a three hour drive, due to three separate car crashes and some poorly planned road construction Sunday night, coupled with everyone heading back to Seattle after the weekend. That's okay, I'll take that over being another shrimp on the barbie any time!
Imminent Threat
After my encounter at the abandoned house, I figured the remainder of Sunday afternoon would be smooth sailing.
I set off deeper into the back hill country of south-central Eastern Washington State like the bear going over the mountain— to see what I could see. The narrow gravel roads meandered, curved back on themselves and took no readily predictable direction, as they followed the contours of the landscape. I passed one ranch house off in the distance; barely discernible where it squatted at the base of the browned-hill horizon. Other than that, no cars, no people, no civilization.
Drifting along in a pleasant frame of mind, I was suddenly shaken from my near meditative state by the unmistakable klaxon call of the Emergency Broadcast System. Force of habit turned my eye to the stereo, but immediately came to terms with the fact it wasn't even turned on, being as I enjoy the natural silence when I'm in places like this. My cell phone was stashed in the ashtray, and it was from there that the braying alarm had originated. Stopping the truck, I retrieved the phone and flipped it open— Kirk to Enterprise...yes, I still use a flip phone. :^D
My eyes were greeted to a flashy display of red, yellow and black— implying all the danger of an agitated coral snake ready to inject the venom. "IMMINENT THREAT, Extreme". The urgency of which was punctuated by a furious red exclamation point.
www.flickr.com/gp/73760601@N02/M221z0
And just when I thought the rest of the day was going to be all rainbows and unicorns. With a slight sighing exhalation, I tapped the button to display the message and read:
"From:Imminent Threat - Extreme (Jul 31) - Emergency Alerts
Fire danger in the area of Richards Rd residents in that
area to evacuate."
www.flickr.com/gp/73760601@N02/BF3Nv0
Okay, hmmm...where am I in relation to this...let's check the map...oh, that's nice— looks like it's...right over there...behind that line of hills that the cloud of smoke is boiling up from.
The road was heading at a 90 degree angle from the smoke, but these roads change direction on a dime; so at this point, it wasn't clear if the road was going to lead me directly into the fire.
Now here was the quandary I faced. There are no services in areas like this for 50+ miles and I had planned to have enough fuel to make it to the next place gas was available— which was ahead, on down the road about another 40 miles. What I didn't have, was the luxury of enough gas to backtrack the way I had come from and make it to the nearest fuel-stop in that direction.
The unknown was whether I was going to encounter a raging wildfire over those hills. Well, here goes— you only live once. LOL!
Now this last leg doesn't warrant a play-by-play; suffice it to say there were a lot of u-turns and changed roads, as I tried to avoid what was a dangerously close wildfire. So close in fact, that I kept encountering flame-razed areas where the stench of charred wood overpowered the air and the ground still smoked in places.
www.flickr.com/photos/18092121@N00/28136445763
Fortunately for me, I managed to remain where the fire had been, versus where it was headed— which was in the direction of the Hanford nuclear power plant. So after some circuitous driving, I rolled into Mabton, WA with gas to spare and nary a singed whisker.
I came away with a few shots and a story to tell, heading home at this point— which took six hours for what should have been a three hour drive, due to three separate car crashes and some poorly planned road construction Sunday night, coupled with everyone heading back to Seattle after the weekend. That's okay, I'll take that over being another shrimp on the barbie any time!