Views from Portland smoke: September 10
Our business manager, Xander Levine, took photos of the smoke in Downtown Portland with a drone Thursday. Here are some of his shots.
At least 900,000 acres have burned across the state, according to The Oregonian.
An Oregonian article published Friday morning claims that Portland’s Air Quality Index (AQI) is now the worst in the world of any large city, with San Francisco in second and Seattle in third.
“We have never seen this amount of uncontained fire across our state,” Brown said Thursday in a press conference.
Parts of Clackamas County have already been evacuated. Areas South of Portland like Canby, Mt. Hood and Sandy are on Level 2 evacuation notice.
President Trump declared a federal emergency in Oregon and ordered Federal aid to the state in hopes to contain the wildfires. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has declared a state of emergency in the city due to levels of smoke in the air, though there have been no evacuation orders in Multnomah County. Wheeler closed all Portland parks and outdoor spaces on Thursday.
In Oregon, four people are dead so far and over 500,000 people have been evacuated (almost an eighth of the state’s population).
“We are feeling the acute impacts of climate change,” said Brown.
The Ashland, OR Police Department has opened an arson investigation for the deadly Almeda Fire that killed two people, according to CNBC.
In California, more than 3 million acres have burned, a state record.
For live updates on the blazes, visit https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2020/09/oregon-wildfires-clackamas-marion-county-blazes-remain-separate-evacuation-orders-persist-live-updates.html.
