The wildfire has killed one person and destroyed 185 structures
A Wildfire in Eastern Washington Has Killed One and Destroyed 185 Structures, State Deputy Attorney General Susan Zappone reportedly told the Associated Press
“They were driving into Spokane when they got alerts on their phone that there were … evacuations at their house,” Zappone told The Associated Press in a phone interview Saturday. They went back to get their dogs. My stepmom said it was so big that there was a cloud of smoke. Embers were falling from the sky. She had trouble breathing.
MEDICAL LAKE, Wash. — A wind-driven wildfire in eastern Washington state has destroyed at least 185 structures, closed a major highway and left one person dead, authorities said Saturday.
A fire started on the west side of Medical Lake and then spread, according to a Washington State Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman.
Source: A wildfire in eastern Washington has killed one and destroyed 185 structures
Ablaze in Tyler, Texas, caused by a 2009 fire that left 15 square miles (38 square kilometers) uncontained on Saturday night
It grew to nearly 15 square miles (38 square kilometers) by Saturday morning, with zero containment. That remained the case Saturday evening. She said officials did not expect to have new size estimates on Sunday.
Evacuations were ordered for the town as winds blew the flames southward, Hoygaard said. The residents of the town of Tyler were evacuated Saturday evening.
The family home was destroyed by fire after they left, and two other houses were damaged in the same area. Zappone said his parents had lived there since 2003 and had just paid it off last year.
The blaze burned through the south side of the town before forcing the closed of I-90 on Friday night. The major east-west thoroughfare was closed in both directions.
Staff, patients and residents at Eastern State Hospital, one of the state’s two psychiatric facilities, and those living at the Lakeland Village Residential Habilitation Center, both in Medical Lake, were sheltering in place Saturday, said Norah West, a spokesman for the Department of Social and Health Services.
The loss of a friend in a fire: How much do we need? A mental health counselor’s advice to a child living in Maui’s community health clinic
But the scale of the inner damage can be seen in the 5-year-old girl that Maui’s chief mental health administrator John Oliver saw the other day. The girl and her mother walked into the community health clinic, next to the burn zone, with a stuffed animal. She was frightened and withdrawn.
“I got down to her level and I asked her name and how she was doing, asked about her stuffed animal. She said that she was sad. I apologized and asked why he was sad. And she said ‘I’m sad because I saw a lot of dead bodies.'”
The mother told Oliver that when her daughter says she misses her friend, it’s her best friend. She died in the fire.
Disaster mental health treatment is a kind of psychological first aid for anguish, that runs the spectrum of symptoms from deep sadness to exhaustion to even breakdowns, according to counselors here.
They’ve lost a lot of family and pets. They’ve lost everything,” says south Maui clinical social worker Debbie Scott. She says for some who had to flee the flames, the initial shock is now giving way to wrenching anxiety, nightmares, anxiety, depression and sometimes anger, as the depth of the trauma settles in.
Scott, a social worker, says that we are destroyed in the air. “We’re not going to have all the answers right now.” She paused her private practice to help the people who lost their homes in the fire at a South Maui community center. “We’re coping.”
Scott and other evacuees were offered the opportunity to stay in a hotel room or apartment if they chose to leave the south Maui shelter. Scott says an older man who felt safer in the shelter did not want to go. Both of his hands were fully bandaged from serious burns. Scott sat with him.
I called his name and said “Listen, let’s see what we can do to make you feel safe enough to get on that bus.”
“It took some work but I did get him on that bus. And he was thankful to have his bags and he sure was thankful to have his flip flops. He needed his slippers, that was his need.”
Mental health toll in Maui wildfires: ‘They’ve lost everything‘ — a veteran American Red Cross disaster mental health manager
Compounding the grief here, hundreds are still listed as unaccounted for. People can’t identify lost loved ones. Only a few remains have been ID-ed so far. Some may never be found.
“If you break it down to one word we are trying to give people hope,” says 17-year veteran American Red Cross disaster mental health manager Stu Coulson. ” Right now, it’s all about active listening, empathizing, and connecting people with services.”
Coulson has helped survivors navigate mental health needs in multiple, large disasters including the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif., which until recently was the deadliest wildfire in modern history with at least 85 killed. The volunteer mobilized to Maui from Iowa as soon as scope of this disaster became apparent. “It’s the most devastating trauma I’ve experienced let alone that the clients I’m working with have experienced,” he says.
A fresh influx of mental health clinicians is being worked on by the state and federal officials. Hawaii’s governor made that easier by issuing an emergency order waiving the state licensing requirement for counseling.
“Whether that is breathing, whether that is progressive muscle relaxation, whether that is mindfulness and meditative practices, just sitting, stretching, or talking story, making jokes,” she says.
Source: Massive mental health toll in Maui wildfires: ‘They’ve lost everything’
A Mental Health Professional Who Lost Their Home in the Lahaina Wildfire, Tells Her Parents: ‘I Just Wanna Go Home’
“This is my handsome boy and his name is Rio. I say he’s smart, smart and stubborn, he’s my best friend,” Vance says, introducing her nine-year-old dog. Vance lost her home in Lahaina in the wildfire. She and Rio are now volunteering at shelters and counseling Maui hotel employees affected by the fire.
“I’ve taken him to my sessions and people just love him. “We got talking about the dog and we got talking about what happened to you”, she said, “and it gives a nice entrance into the conversations that need to be had.”
But who counsels the counselors who’ve had to flee a deadly wildfire and lost their home? Vance admits both she and Rio are weary. Vance and these other mental health professionals underscore that the fire survivors will be reckoning with their wounds for a very long time.
“I ran out of the house with the dress I had on and one other and Rio got back into the car and he gave me this look like ‘mom I just want to go home. Are we going to stay in this country? I told him I wanted to go home but we don’t have a home anymore. We will make the best of what we have.
