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Let’s hear it for the 14 members of the Oregon National Guard who volunteered their time Saturday to drive up to Meacham and dig out some of the folks who have been buried by this winter’s overwhelming snowfall.
The plight of Charlene Davis — a.k.a. Grandma Chipmunk — was chronicled in The Observer two times last week, first in her own words and then in a followup story.
Davis voiced frustration that she couldn’t get anyone to help keep their roads and houses accessible — not Umatilla County and not the state. The 274 inches (at that time) of snow that had fallen this winter was more than the Davises and their neighbors had ever bargained for.
With no one else riding to the rescue, Sgt. Tim Vandervlugt and some of his fellow Guardsmen decided they’d try to help — simply as volunteers, not as a Guard project. Through a ham radio connection, they tracked down Davis, who by Saturday had had her road plowed by a neighbor with whom they’d contracted. Davis directed the volunteers from the Guard to a neighbor whose situation was more dire. The volunteers cleared the neighbor’s roof of about four feet of snow. Vandervlugt said the house’s walls, windows and doors were stressed and bowed from the snow. Then they set out to dig out the Davises.
Good job, Guardsmen. These men know what service means. They went because they cared. A big thank you to Vandervlugt and the others: James Mowery, Thomas White, Nathan Thompson, David Morris, Charles Schumacher, Nate Riggs, Chris Burk, Matt Shepard, Chris Peck, Tomas Zayas, Eric Bergey, Allen Iverson and Michael Hasel.
Sadly, though, there are others in the Meacham area who need help, too. The fact they live in an unincorporated area, more than 20 miles from population centers, means that services are sparse. Umatilla County told the Davises their hands were tied. The state said the same thing.
The Observer has received comments from some folks who say that the people who seek out their quasi-wilderness experience in a place like Meacham know what to expect. That they know services on private or Forest Service roads are non-existent. They seek out such places because of the remoteness.
All of that is well and good until one realizes that these are still people — people who have found themselves in a situation that has grown well beyond what anyone would have expected.
The Davises and their neighbor can take heart that some caring Guardsmen found them and offered a hand. But are there others? Umatilla County and the state should make an effort to find out — and then help.
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Opinion 
