Today's headlines:
- Spokane community leaders will open a disaster relief center today to provide help for people displaced by the fires.
- We look at a few of the close races in Spokane area primary election races.
- Airway Heights city officials say they’re studying a data center proposal presented to them.
- Kyrsten Weber talks with a paramedic about what it’s like to work when the air outside is considered dangerous.
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Spokane County community leaders are opening a disaster assistance center today at Shadle Park High School.
The physical event is a complement to a new website developed by the city and county of Spokane, Innovia Foundation, Spokane Public Schools and the Red Cross.
That website offers links to a variety of services, from child care to where you can get water to places to entities that help remove wildfire debris from property.
Also there will be the Washington state Insurance Commissioner’s office, led by Commissioner Patty Kuderer.
“Last year we started partnering with the Emergency Management Division and going out to disaster assistance centers and helping people with claims processes. We've done it with the floods and now we're here doing it with the wildfire," she said.
Kuderer says her office will have a presence at the Shadle event through the weekend.
The center will be open at Shadle today from noon to six, then Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9 am to 6 pm.
You can learn more here.
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Wildfire-affected homeowners can get some help with their property taxes. Assessor Tom Konis says state law allows people to submit evidence of the damage to their property. That could lead to a reduce assessment and therefore a lower tax bill. Konis is steering people to the state Department of Revenue website to start that process.
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Thousands of Spokane residents who are still displaced or who lost their homes in Saturday’s fires have been without mail service. In addition, the Nine Mile and Mead offices are closed due to being in evacuation zones.
Nine Mile customers’ mail is currently being held at the Liberty Park Post Office at 1602 E. Sprague. The Mead Post Office mail is held and can be picked up at the Colbert Post Office at 19823 N. Yale Road.
Mail will be returned to both post offices once the facilities reopen. Normal delivery will resume, except for homes in routes with road closures.
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Washington Senate leaders say they plan to include money for Spokane wildfire disaster relief in the state’s next capital budget. Ritzville Republican Senator Mark Schoesler and Tacoma Democratic Senator Yasmin Trudeau announced they plan to work with budget leaders in the House. The goal is to provide money for homeowners affected by wildfire, not just in Spokane, but all around the state.
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Avista says its crews are getting better access to its infrastructure within the burned areas north, west and east of Spokane. The utility says it’s getting a look at damaged infrastructure and repairing it, especially in the Suncrest area. Those crews are also restoring power to areas that have been without since the fires started. This morning, Avista reports it’s down to 376 customers without electricity. Inland Power says it has no outages.
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Airway Heights officials say a private company wants to build a data center in their city. It proposes to buy reclaimed water from the city to use for cooling in the plant. City Manager Albert Tripp says his team met with the company to learn more about the proposal. He says the city proposes to hire an engineering company to study the proposal. The city council is expected to consider that when it meets this month. Tripp says the analysis would take about a year and be paid for by the company that wants to build the facility.
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A race for a 3rd District Spokane legislative seat tightened a bit as a result of yesterday's day-after-the-election ballot count.
Democrat Luc Jasmin gained ground in his attempt to squeeze onto the November ballot against Republican Natalie Poulson. Jasmin has pulled within a half percentage point of fellow Democrat Pam Kohlmeier. Both are a couple of points behind Poulson. The top votegetters advance.
4th District Republican Representative Rob Chase's lead over Democrat Rob Tupper also narrowed. Chase is up by seven-tenths of a point. That really doesn't matter because are going to advance to the November round.
Spokane County Prosecutor Preston McCollum's lead over challenger Danny Tarkenton also narrowed a bit. McCollum is up about eight-tenths. Both will advance regardless of the final count.
Spokane Transit's sales tax proposal gained a little ground after the second count. It moved from 50.4% yes to about 50.6%.
Ballots will continue to be counted for several more days as they trickle in. They have to have been postmarked by Tuesday. Roughly 24% of eligible voters cast ballots.
In southwest Washington, much attention has been given to the race in the 3rd Congressional District, which is considered to be one of the few races that could change hands. Erik Neumann from Oregon Public Brodacasting reports.
According to initial results, this November, Democratic Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez will continue her reelection campaign for Congress. The difference from past years will be her opponent. She will face off against Republican state Senator John Braun.
Braun and Gluesenkamp Perez were the two candidates who got the top two shares of votes on Tuesday night. According to Washington state’s primary system, that secures their spots in the general election, assuming those numbers hold.
Progressive Democrat Brent Hennrich came in third with just over 15% of the vote.
The 3rd District is one of only a handful of seats around the country that’s considered to be a toss-up. That means the winner will play a big role in which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.
The 3rd District race is expected to bring fierce campaigning between now and November.
I'm Erik Neumann reporting.
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First responders are in the thick of wildfire response. Paramedics are treating patients for smoke-related issues, as well as working in the problematic conditions themselves.
SPR’s Kyrsten Weber speaks with Kimberley Walker, a paramedic with American Medical Response.
KYRSTEN: What are you seeing as you're out in the field this week?
KIMBERLEY: We are seeing increased numbers in respiratory calls. In the first part of July we were sitting at about 50 total respiratory calls and then the first three days of August we were at a hundred. So basically over that short period of time our call numbers doubled.
What I've seen personally and I think what our crews are seeing as well is a lot of COPD exacerbations. You know our asthmatics as well but our elderly which are a more vulnerable population their lungs are tired. You know our patients who are on oxygen they're constantly in a state where it doesn't take a lot to turn towards a COPD exacerbation and unfortunately a lot of our patients who are elderly they wait. They don't call 9-1-1 until it's too late and then they require a lot more care.
KY: How is wildfire smoke affecting healthy people?
KIM: People have scratchy throats, some people are having sore throats, scratchy watery eyes, just an overall irritant to the respiratory system. They're not necessarily developing into an emergent respiratory illness like a COPD exacerbation of course. You know it is an irritant so just kind of a general almost like a cold-like symptom.
KY: When do those symptoms merit a call to a health care provider?
KIM: Essentially if you're experiencing any difficulty breathing you should call. That can also exacerbate our heart.
It can develop into this overall anxiety because people don't feel well and they need some support and reassurance that they're okay. Definitely if anybody is experiencing difficulty breathing they need to call and not wait until it becomes a significant or severe emergency. I think patients have a tendency to wait sometimes to see oh will this clear up and then they're in a position where they really need hospitalization versus just a medication management.
KY: Any other suggestions that you have for people coping with the wildfire smoke here in the coming days?
KIM: Of course there's the medical side of it. You know if our if our patients need to be outside wearing an N95 is going to help protect them. Unfortunately, just our surgical masks really with the smoke is not going to do much for them.
Really just staying indoors especially our vulnerable patients, our elderly population, our patients with significant lung disease. You know our younger patients you can also have COPD and or other lung disease. It's not exclusive to just our elderly population.
And the one other thing too is that just supporting each other. There's a lot of anxiety people out there. People are displaced.
We need to lean on each other and grant grace and just support one another until we can all get through this.
That was paramedic Kimberley Walker speaking with SPR’s Kyrsten Weber. Kimberley and her family had to evacuate due to the Spokane Complex Fire, and yet, like so many first responders, she shows up daily to help and care for patients.
You can track air quality in your area by going to AirNow.gov.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Erik Neumann, Steve Jackson, Kyrsten Weber and Doug Nadvornick, today’s host and producer. Web support is provided by Anna Gyure Havlek.
Thanks for listening. This is SPR News.
