Resident Evacuation Experiences, Part 1

The following are first person write-ups submitted by residents.  Others will be added as they arrive, and new “articles” will be added as the threads become too long.  The pieces are unedited except for disguise of the names of people who have not given their permission to be identified.  Ed.

Content:  (scroll down)

Jan Hines
Connie Kent
Anita Sumariwalla

Photos by Eric Eisenberg

Evacuation

by  Jan Hines

This is the email that I sent to a few friends and family.

The fire that began as a grass fire In Ashland on Tuesday, September 8, 2020, erupted with frightening speed into a huge conflagration due to the excessive winds we’ve had over the past few days. It destroyed some of Ashland and most of Phoenix and Talent before advancing toward Medford and the Rogue Valley.  Our homes at Rogue Valley Manor were right in the path.   The entire community was evacuated to the Rogue Valley Country Club which closed all of its activities including the golf course to assist the Manor.  Everyone was evacuated from independent living, assisted living, the health center, skilled nursing and the the memory care unit.  This wasn’t an easy task, as you can imagine, having to transport and settle almost 1000 residents and a large group of staff. The kitchen staff and chefs stayed behind to prepare meals in the Manor kitchen. Meals, along with snacks, beverages, toiletries, bottled water and piles of bedding were brought to the Country Club in vans and small buses.  Our past director, Sarah Lynch, came on board to direct staff and problem solve at the Country Club while the current director, Stan Solmenson, remained at the Manor to aid in protection of the property and oversee whatever needed his immediate attention.  Residents were upbeat and resilient, taking the adventure in stride, but my heart went out to the old and frail and those on walkers and in wheelchairs.  Uncomplaining, they sat for hours and slept in chairs along with most everyone else. The RVM staff was simply incredible, working through the night with smiles on their faces although we later learned that several of them had lost their homes in the fire.  Caring people helping people was the overall feeling I came away with, including both residents and staff.

Jordy and I slept in the car with Annie, our Scottie, and this worked well for us.  The car faced the direction of the Manor and all through the night I could see the red glow and leaping flames just to the left of the Manor, knowing that a few miles away was my cottage, filled with those special things that make a house a home.  Understanding that the morning might find it gone was hard to imagine.  Fortunately, the wind began to ease and the fire didn’t jump I-5 which was the only thing keeping it from Rogue Valley Manor. At noon on Wednesday we were told that the evacuation orders were lifted and we could go home.

I am grateful to be well and safe and that my cottage was waiting for me just as I’d left it. I count my blessings.

Addendum , 9/10/20

Back to TopAn Evacuation Tale

by Connie Kent

We were evacuated to the Rogue River Country Club yesterday around 4 pm, not knowing how long we’d be there. We’d been having very strong winds and intermittent power outages during the earlier afternoon. We had only very short notice to evacuate, so people arrived with various degrees of preparation.

About five hundred of us were scattered among two floors and half a dozen or so rooms plus a patio overlooking the golf course. Among us were a significant number with mobility issues and cognitive issues. Some of the other 950+ Manor residents went to stay with family or friends. Medford hotels were all full, so some traveled to hotels as far away as Grants Pass. Health Center people went into various skilled nursing facilities, and I don’t know where the memory care folks went, but everyone from the campus was evacuated. The administration did an excellent job of accounting for everyone. XXXXXX, who had recently moved here from YYYYTY with her husband ZZZZZ, was out getting a haircut when the evacuation order came. Between being spatially challenged and not knowing her way around Medford well, she spent three hours wandering around in her car, lost. When we talked to ZZZZZ, he just said he didn’t know where she was. She eventually found her way to the country club. She doesn’t even know how. A good number of the cottage residents went to the Expo building at the county fairgrounds, the evacuation center for the general Medford population. Those folks, too, were redirected and eventually joined us.

Our room on the second floor housed about two dozen people. From the window, we could see a glow all across the southern sky and flames after it got fully dark. Not the worst emergency shelter, except there were no beds. A call went out to the country club members requesting bedding, so all during the evening, people came in with armloads of quilts, pillows, sheets, even some blow-up beds, perfect strangers, children among them, answering our need. By bedtime most everyone had been accommodated in one way or another. Some were draped across several chairs, others had layers of quilts on the floor, some few lucky got the blowup mattresses. Others sat up all night. Members of the RVM home health care department moved among us during the night helping people up from the floor so they could go to the bathroom or find their meds by flashlight. One lady in our room insisted on using the mylar emergency blanket she had brought. It went crinkle, crinkle, crinkle all night long.

None of us got much sleep, and, way too early, people started to move around and talk again. About six o’clock a lady came by with thermos jugs of hot coffee and paper cups and about an hour later, breakfast. During the morning, we waited. Fortunately, I had brought my knitting, and two friends and I took a little walk, but lots of folks just sat and visited. Throughout the morning, administrative type people came by with updates. We didn’t know but what we’d be staying another night – dreadful thought. Finally, a guy came and said our evacuation level had been reduced from three (Flee) to two (Be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice). Buses were gassed up and drivers were waiting, and we came home around noon. Sack lunches were waiting for us to pick up in the Manor lobby. All in all, we were well looked after.

But the towns of Talent and Phoenix, between here and Ashland, where the fire started, have been 80% destroyed – houses, businesses. No word yet on lives lost. But no damage to the 600 some odd acres of Manor property. As far as I know, we’re still under a Level Two advisory, but the winds have subsided a bit, so I think the danger for us is over. But we understand that a number of employees have lost their homes. The effects are not over.

Take care of yourselves. You never know.

Connie

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