KWSO News for Thu.,Jul. 29, 2021

The National Weather Service is warning of dangerously hot weather across much of Oregon over the next three days. The heat wave starts this morning [Thursday] and lasts until Saturday evening. Temperatures could reach 103 degrees in the area Friday. In southern and eastern Oregon, it could get as hot as 108. If you’re worried about someone in the heat, check on them in person or request a public safety welfare check. To prevent heat illness, rely on air conditioning, rather than fans. Also, drink water and limit outdoor activity in the middle of the day. If you start to feel unwell, take a cool shower or bath, sip water, and call for help.

The Warm Springs community COVID-19 Update today reported no new cases of COVID-19 from 20 tests conducted, July 27, 2021 at the Health & Wellness Center.  There are currently 8 people with active COVID-19 and 3 close contacts receiving daily monitoring. There is an upswing in COVID-19 cases mostly for unvaccinated individuals.  The main thing you can do to protect from getting COVID-19 is to be vaccinated.   You can also continue to take other precautions:  Wear a Face Mask in public spaces, Maintain distance from unvaccinated people, & Wash your hands frequently.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is “examining” whether or not to mandate that state workers get vaccinated, as the highly transmissible delta variant continues to spread across the state and COVID-19 cases spike. In addition, following national updated mask guidance the Oregon Department of Education has not immediately required the state’s public schools to adopt indoor mask mandates, and it remains unclear whether it will do so at all. Under current guidelines from the state’s department of education, individual districts can decide whether to require students, staff and faculty to wear masks inside school building.

The 8.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off Alaska’s coast Wednesday night was the strongest one since 1964. The very strong quake was located about 56 miles (91 kilometers) southeast of Perryville, Alaska, and happened around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said. This event was felt throughout the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak,” according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.

St. Charles Health System is experiencing a severe nursing and staffing shortage, which has limited the scope of care they can provide for patients. Hospital officials said they are working on ways to accommodate for the influx of patients, but they may not be be able to serve all of them in the convenience of the communities where they live — or even in Central Oregon. Due to lack of bed availability, the hospital officials said Wednesday they are addressing their shortage of beds by utilizing the other hospital locations in Redmond, Madras and Prineville.

Dozens of domestic wells have gone dry in an area near the Oregon-California border where the American West’s worsening drought has taken a particularly dramatic toll. At least 120 — and probably several hundred — domestic wells have dried up in the past few weeks, leaving homes with no running water. The news comes just a few months after the U.S. government shut off federally controlled irrigation water to hundreds of farmers in the area for the first time ever. Farmers have drawn on wells to try to salvage some crops. That, plus a historic drought, has depleted shallower groundwater normally tapped by homes and hobby farms.

The confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is advertising open positions for boards and commissions. The open postions include: the Warm Springs Cannabis Regulatory Commission, the Warm Springs Composite Board of Directors, the Warm Springs Power & Water Enterprise Board of Directors, the Warm Springs Tribal Employment Rights Office Commission, the CTWS Court of Appeals, Tribal Member position on the Telco Board of Directors. You can Visit KWSO.org for more information, full duties and to apply. The deadline is august 27^th.