KWSO News Mon., Aug. 9, 2021

The Warm Springs community COVID-19 Update on Friday (8/6/21) reported no new cases of COVID-19 from 21 tests conducted Thursday, August 5, 2021 at the Health & Wellness Center.  There are currently 3 people with active COVID-19 and 1 close contact receiving daily monitoring.

Cooler weather helped firefighting efforts Sunday as crews increased containment on all three major fires in Central Oregon.

A local Central Oregon Fire Management Service (COFMS) Type 3 team has taken command of the Bean Creek Fire and Monty Fire burning on the Deschutes National Forest east of the Monty Campground near Lake Billy Chinook, with additional resources arriving on the two fires yesterday. Crews mopped up heat around the perimeter to continue securing containment lines and tonight the Bean Creek Fire remains 138 acres and is now 25% contained and the Monty Fire remains 23 acres and is now 20% contained. A Level 1 evacuation notice (Get Ready) issued by Jefferson County Sheriff’s Officer remains in place for houses on Montgomery Shores on the Metolius Arm. The public is asked to stay out of the area. Monty Campground on the Sisters Ranger District remains closed.

The Hole in the Ground Fire near Hole in the Ground on the Deschutes National Forest and burning on Lakeview District BLM managed lands is now 100% contained at 310 acres.

The most important thing members of the public can do to help firefighters right now is to do their part to prevent human-caused fires. With an increasing number of acres on fire in the Pacific Northwest, fire and aviation resources are stretched thin. The public is reminded that we remain in EXTREME fire danger and public use restrictions are in place on all federally managed public lands. Do your part to prevent one more spark.

Throughout the country Sunday, there were 107 large wildfires burning in 15 states, while more than 2.2 million acres have burned, according to an update by the National Interagency Fire Center.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — As coronavirus cases continue to spike in Oregon, health officials describe the dire situation they are seeing play out in hospitals — especially among unvaccinated people. Officials say they are seeing younger and sicker people be hospitalized due to COVID-19 than during previous surges. Currently, 496 people are hospitalized in Oregon due to COVID-19. Based on data from the health authority, the state’s record of people hospitalized was 622 during November’s surge when vaccine doses were not yet available. As COVID-19 cases continue to climb in Oregon, some counties — most where less than half of the area’s adult population is vaccinated — are experiencing their highest hospitalization numbers during the pandemic.

Warm Springs Sanitation says its garbage trucks are still not down and so normal garbage pickup routes will continue to be halted until further notice. Residents can bring their bagged garbage to the landfill bins until the trucks are operational again. Please remember to check on your elder or disabled family members to help them out too.

Pandemic-related temporary federal unemployment benefit programs expire the first week in September. In late August, the department will notify more than 600,000 people who received unemployment benefits at some point during the pandemic that these programs will expire on Sept. 4, 2021. The expiring benefit programs are Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), and the Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation (MEUC) program. Information on assistance available now and when temporary federal benefits end is at www.unemployment.oregon.gov/resources. This includes links to 211info.org, rental and housing assistance, health care, food assistance, and more.

Created in 1944, the Smokey Bear Wildfire Prevention campaign is the longest-running public service advertising campaign in U.S. history, educating generations of Americans about their role in preventing wildfires.  Today is Smokey’s birthday. Warm Springs Fire Management will celebrate Smokey Bear’s Birthday today with a parade around the community. They’ll be at the K-8 Academy at 9:20, go through Greeley Heights at 9:30, Trailer Courts at 9:45, the Tenino Apartments at 10am, Upper Dry Creek around 10:20 and Sunnyside at 10:35. You can also catch Smokey Bear in the Hot Summer Night’s Parade in Simnasho this evening. They’ll be lining up at 5:45 and parade starting at 6:15 from the Simnasho Longhouse parking lot down to the powwow grounds.

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) last week announced a final extension of the pause on student loan repayment, interest, and collections until January 31, 2022. The Department believes this additional time and a definitive end date will allow borrowers to plan for the resumption of payments and reduce the risk of delinquency and defaults after restart. The Department will continue its work to transition borrowers smoothly back into repayment, including by improving student loan servicing.  The Department says it will release resources and information about how to plan for payment restart as the end of the pause approaches.