Good morning,
To say that I’m upset is about as mildly as I can phrase it. It seems that the flow of information has dried up since the folks in Eagar and Springerville have been able to return. So . . . this is about how my morning has gone.
- Call to 928.333.3412 yields a tape from last night. No updates and no live person to talk to.
- Call to Forest Service in Springerville provides little or no information. The last she had heard was from Monday and that was that folks could return to Alpine in 2-5 days. She did, however tell me that the fire was now in the hands of “Area Command” and she seemed pissed about it. She told me that if I wanted to talk to them I had to call Hon-Dah Casino (800.929.8744) and ask for them.
- Much to my surprise, when I did exactly that it worked. They connected me right away to someone named Steve that walked to phone over to Don Ferguson. He was very apologetic and polite. He said he couldn’t answer all of my questions, but that he would all me back and he soon did.
- When Don called back he gave me the name of the PIO for Zone 2 (Trish Hergervorst (sp) in Reserve) and said that she was in a meeting but would soon call.
- Trish called to related this:
- It’s unofficial but the are working for a 10AM Saturday return for folks that are residents of Alpine. No media, no gawkers.
- High winds today threaten that schedule, but they are working their butts off to make it happen.
- While Alpine is in Zone 1 and Trish is in Zone 2, she acknowledged the fact that the Zone 1 folks have pretty well shut down the communications pipeline. She, and the rest of folks in Zone 2, will do their best to provide us with up-to-date info. For that we can call the Zone 2 information line at 575.533.6928.
I will relay more info as I get it.
For those that know him, Terry Kilmer was able to return to Nutrioso yesterday and called me last night. He was ecstatic about the way the firefighters had treated his property. He says, he has some work to do, but all is OK.
Take care,
Steve Malcolm