The latest and most comprehensive coverage of local News, Sports, Business, and Community News stories in the Klamath Basin, Southern Oregon and around the state of Oregon from Wynne Broadcasting’s KFLS News/Talk 1450AM / 102.5FM, The Herald & News, and BasinLife.com, and powered by Mick Insurance.
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Klamath Basin Weather
Today Widespread smoke. Sunny, with a high near 95. Overnight, mostly clear, with a low around 57
Friday Widespread smoke. Sunny, with a high near 94.
Saturday Sunny, with a high near 93.
Sunday Sunny, with a high near 92.
Monday Sunny, with a high near 88.
Today’s Headlines
Hot, gusty afternoon winds coupled with low humidity will make things difficult for fire crews as they try to battle the blazes that have combined to burn more than 81,000 acres in the Tulelake and Tionesta areas near Lava Beds National park.
Thursday and Friday are expected to bring more red flag conditions due to wind and humidity. There remains a mandatory evacuation for the Medicine Lake Recreation Area. The Lava Beds National Monument remains closed. According to fire managers, the Caldwell Fire that burned out of control Sunday and Monday was more manageable on Tuesday.
Crews now have 40% of the fire contained. On the east side, the fire is held by the held by the 120 road, and crews built control line all around the fire area that had crossed over the railroad tracks.
Smoke from the Caldwell Wildfire Complex descended into the Klamath Basin on Monday, tanking the area’s air quality.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued an air quality advisory for Klamath County on Tuesday morning and expects it to last until Friday at the earliest. Between 4 and 5 p.m. Monday afternoon, the ODEQ’s air monitoring station in Klamath Falls recorded an Air Quality Index increase from 63 to 183—from “moderate” to “unhealthy.”
AirNow, which pools together AQI data from various government agencies, reported a “hazardous” AQI of 313 at 7 p.m. Monday. Tulelake, which lies just north of Lava Beds National Monument where the fire is taking place, was covered in a fog-like smoke Tuesday. The DEQ station in Chiloquin recorded air quality that was “unhealthy for sensitive groups” for most of Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Through Tuesday afternoon, AQI in Klamath Falls continued to remain above 100, the national air quality standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency above which indexes are considered unhealthy.
Valeree Lane, public information officer for Klamath County Public Health, said weather and fire intensity caused the abrupt influx of smoke to the basin.
Klamath Falls City schools are preparing for on-site learning this fall, but it will look vastly different from what students are used to. Klamath Union High School will attend full in-person classes and middle and elementary schools will have split morning and afternoon groups according to the district’s plan presented at Monday night’s board meeting.
The effort to get students back into classrooms could still change as state guidelines change along with the spread of COVID-19. The school board also moved the first day of school to September 8 from August 31 to allow more time to get teachers and staff trained on new safety protocols. KU’s students will return full-time to high school, but classes will not follow the typical schedule.
Students will attend two classes a day for about two and a half to three hours each as opposed to the typical seven class periods for 50 minutes each. The grading period will last six weeks before students switch to new classes. Click here for more info
COVID-19 has claimed eight more lives in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 311. Oregon Health Authority reported 304 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of yesterday, bringing the state total to 17,721.
There were 13 new cases were reported yesterday in Jackson County, 2 here in Klamath County.
Jackson County Public Health on Wednesday reported the first death of a county resident due to coronavirus. According to the agency, the patient was a 65-year-old man who tested positive on June 29. He died on July 25 at Providence Portland Medical Center. Southern Oregon has had relatively few fatalities attributed to the virus, with the only previous cases in Josephine and Klamath counties.
Josephine County officials marked the first COVID-19 death in the region, an 81-year-old man, on April 10. On June 30, Klamath County officials said that a woman in her 70s passed away from the virus. Jackson County confirmed that the man had underlying health conditions.
For everyone, to protect yourself from Covid-19:
keep your distance by maintaining six feet of social or physical distancing between yourself and others. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, utilizing hand sanitizer when washing facilities are not available. Sanitize surfaces that are often touched. Avoid gatherings of any size where social or physical distancing is not possible. To protect others around you, cover coughs and sneezes. Stay home when sick. Wear a clean mask in public spaces, including outdoors when six feet of social distance cannot be maintained.
23 year old Jessica Criss of Bozeman was crowned Miss Montana 2020 on July 25 in Glendive. Jessica is the daughter of Charles and JoAnne Criss of Klamath Falls.
She graduated from Montana State University in equine science in 2019. Future plans are to get a masters degree so she can use horses as therapy animals. Criss spent last summer on an internship in the Netherlands with a professional showhorse jumper and toured Europe every free opportunity.
She is a black belt in karate, but said she will teach youth you don’t have to use violence to protect yourself. Her talent is classical vocal. For the fifth consecutive year, she was chosen by her peers as Miss Congeniality.
She wins a $5,100 scholarship and will advance to compete in the Miss America Pageant.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced Wednesday that it will be investing $1.2 million into a “new science initiative” for the Klamath Project.
This comes after Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman held a historic joint visit to tribal and agricultural leaders in the Klamath Basin earlier this month. Farmers and ranchers urged federal officials to overhaul the science that informs how much water the Klamath Project receives each year, arguing that it does not protect endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake and salmon species in the Lower Klamath River, while also harming the local agricultural economy. The scientific initiatives include:
- A new naturalized flow study of the Lower Klamath, which would update investigations done by the National Academy of Science in the early 2000s to analyze how much usable habitat is available to endangered coho salmon.
- Updating the study of water levels in Upper Klamath Lake done by the U.S. Geological Survey and Fish and Wildlife Service, which serve to assess the habitat quality of endangered suckers.
- Evaluating flow and habitat relationships in the Klamath River in order to support the needs of juvenile Chinook and endangered coho salmon.
- Updating a model that estimates the survival of juvenile salmon as they migrate from the river to the sea.
- Improving data collected about salmon diseases throughout the basin.
Gov. Brown and leaders from the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Department of Education shared new guidance about schools and how they might operate this fall saying there’s no simple, statewide answer for every school in Oregon.
It is important to get students back to class, but how that is done that depends on a number of important factors, such as: prevalence of the virus, availability of testing, the capacity of the local health care system to provide quality care and the readiness of the public health system to work with schools to contain any outbreaks. Oregon’s Ready Schools, Safe Learners guidance outlines three learning options for Oregon schools:
- On-site: Students attend in person full-time.
- Hybrid: Students attend in person part time and do distance learning part-time.
- Comprehensive Distance Learning: Students learn remotely, experiencing daily interaction with teachers who will guide the student’s full educational experience. This option will provide additional supports for mental, social and emotional health, as well as family engagement.
Oregon public health officials evidence-based metrics is to help school boards and school districts make local decisions based on local conditions, to determine how they can safely reopen school. The guidance offers some exceptions to address that communities across Oregon are dealing with a variety of circumstances and no one solution fits all. It also prioritizes in-person learning for kindergarten through third grade.
Schools need everyone in the community to help students safely return to the classroom and keep them in school. We can suppress COVID-19 and return to levels where we can safely reopen schools if we all do our part.
- Wear a mask or face-covering.
- Maintain physical distance.
- Avoid large group get-togethers.
Federal agents who have clashed with protesters in Portland, Oregon, will begin a “phased withdrawal” from the city, Gov. Kate Brown said Wednesday.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement the plan negotiated with Brown over the last 24 hours includes a “robust presence” of Oregon State Police in the downtown of the state’s largest city.
Federal agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will begin leaving the city’s downtown area on Thursday, Brown said. Federal Protective Service agents — who are always posted at the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse — will work alongside state police to guard the exterior of the courthouse and a limited number of other federal agents will remain inside the courthouse, she said.
The heat of summer is here across the state, and with extreme temperatures and dry conditions comes increased risks. Oregon’s Office of Emergency Management offers a few simple tips to help Oregonians keep cool, stay safe and prevent wildfires as we all navigate the continued impacts of COVID-19.
- Staying home to prevent the spread of COVID? Keep windows and blinds closed to stay cool indoors and make sure to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water.
- When you need to be outdoors, stay close to home, bring a water bottle with you and limit activity to early in the day or later in the evening when temperatures are cooler.
- Heading out to cool off in the water? Plan ahead, know the risks and don’t forget those life jackets.
- Be sure to wear face coverings when you cannot maintain a distance of at least six feet from others. Switch to a cotton bandana or scarf if your normal face covering is too heavy or thick to wear in the heat.
- Check on family members and neighbors, especially the elderly, those who live alone or who may need special assistance. Remember, you can visit in person as long as you stay at least six feet away, but a call, text or video-chat works as well and reduces the risk of COVID exposure.
- It’s everyone’s responsibility to help prevent human-caused wildfires. Know your local fire restrictions and always pack a water source and a shovel. If you make a campfire, be sure it’s dead out before leaving. To learn about restrictions and wildfire activities at home, at work and when you are out and about, visit www.KeepOregonGreen.org/prevent-wildfires.
Above all, know your risks and be prepared for them. OEM’s 2 Weeks Ready initiative offers a real way each of us can help ourselves and our communities prepare for the next emergency.
2 Weeks Ready encourages Oregonians to prepare to be on their own for a minimum of two weeks. This empowers individuals and communities to count on themselves and each other, especially in the aftermath of a major disaster such as a wildfire or earthquake. It’s also a great way to mitigate the effects of events such as heat waves, power outages, and even COVID-19 as people may need to isolate at home for as long as 14 days. “It’s all about knowing the risk so you can plan ahead to reduce that risk,” says OEM Director Andrew Phelps. “Disasters don’t wait for us to be ready, and they can be due to any number of hazards. Preparing for disaster can be overwhelming but 2 Weeks Ready is an achievable goal. You don’t have to get there today, but you do need to start now.”OEM has created a short video to show Oregonians the basics of a 2 Weeks Ready kit, including face coverings and hand sanitizer. Everyone’s kit will look different so be sure to customize for you and your family.For more information on preparedness resources, visit www.oregon.gov/oem.
The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service-Wildlife Services (APHIS-WS) today renewed their partnership for alleviating human-wildlife conflicts on BLM-administered public lands.
An updated Memorandum of Understanding clarifies respective roles and responsibilities for wildlife damage management and reducing predation on livestock across more than 245 million acres of public lands, mostly in the West and Alaska. The MOU will remain in effect for five years and replaces the previous agreement, signed in 2012.“Under the Trump Administration, the BLM has increased access to and recreational opportunities on public lands.
Reaffirming our partnership with APHIS-Wildlife Services allows us to take steps to protect the safety and the recreational experience of public land visitors and their pets while helping to ensure abundant wildlife,” said BLM Deputy Director for Policy and Programs William Perry Pendley.
“We also recognize the livestock community, as well as those with small children and pets in the urban-rural interface areas, must be protected from attacks by dangerous predators.”
…For complete details on these and other stories see today’s Herald & News. Wynne Broadcasting and the Herald and News…stronger together to keep you informed.
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