We have a developing situation in Longview.
That's where this industrial fire has been
burning for hours and hours and hours.
How that could affect Portland's air quality?
And new public camping rules tae
effect in Washington County this Friday.
It is a first for the county,
but similar to many of the ordinances
already in effect in the metro .
And check out this live picturem
photographer Eric Patterson loog
out at Mount Adams. Yes, we're
in Hood River at the Hood River
Lavender Farm, one of the most
beautiful places on the planet.
We'll be checking in.
With all there is to see and do
up there throughout the morning,
what a way to start a Wednesday.
Loving that shot
from Eric. We'll be taking
another lookout at Hood River
at that lavender farm in a bit.
But first man, we got some air quality issues
in downtown Portland.
A lot of people smelling
the smoke in the air.
You'll notice that when you wak,
depending on where you live.
We begin with the fact the air quality.
In parts of Clark and Multnomah County
are being reported as unhealthy.
This is the red dots you see right here.
And this is all from the fire,
the fire up in Longview,
we have a north wind direction with this and
if you look at the little arrows that yeah,
that's coming down from the north, nothing.
That fire is not big enough to really
show up on our smoke tracking m.
I just wanted to show you
the north wind direction.
Which is the reason that
we are smelling the smoke.
Now if you look in the sky,
this is looking what,
north northeast from the top
of the Wells Fargo building?
A little orange glow right ther,
but you can't really visibly sey
noticeable smoke from that vantage point.
But again,
unhealthy air quality to start the day
in parts of Multnomah and Clark County,
you can smell the smoke out
there where it's 65 degrees.
Otherwise today is just a sunny
hot 180 at noon and we get up to
about 94 for a high temperature.
Back to you.
Thank you very much, Rod.
So now to our
top story. The Clackamas County Sheriff's
Office has lifted all evacuation
orders for a fire burning in Ma.
It is now under control.
It started as a grass fire aroud
3:30 yesterday afternoon.
It took firefighters about 3 hos
to get a handle on that fire.
No homes were damaged.
No one was hurt. The
cause of that fire is under investigation.
Now we have the latest on the
homeless crisis. Starting Frida,
there will be a new public campg
ordinance in effect in Washington County.
It complies with the new state w
clarifying when and where peopln
camp if there's no shelter available.
The intention is to spell out how police,
housing staff and outreach
workers can regulate camping.
Ordinance 896 applies to
unincorporated areas.
It prohibits camping on public property
and restricts people from staying in a
single location for more than five days.
Violators could be cited or
arrested for criminal trespass.
Again, these changes will start this Friday.
Washington County will check in
with the community in six months
to see how things are going,
and we have new information this
morning on the results of Portls
90 day reset on the Central East Side.
The reset started January 26th.
Since then, the city removed ney
75 total square feet of graffit.
More than 800 campsites were assessed.
A few 100 unsanctioned camps were removed.
The group solve removed almost 0
pounds of trash and the city wrd
more than 200 trees and lights.
Central East side businesses pud
the city for improved safety
during a forum in November,
one of our employees on his way into the.
Our central kitchen was held up
at gunpoint, gun in his face,
as he walked in to make ice cre.
Like everyone in this room,
we deal daily with feces,
human on our shoes,
we deal with breakins,
we deal with assaults.
So as you may recall, these 90 y
resets are part of the city's attempts
to revitalize each of Portland's
neighborhoods by improving safe.
Now to a side of Portland's
drug crisis we don't often see,
but this is definitely heartbreaking.
A mother from Arizona is in town this
morning looking for her daughteo
started abusing drugs and is now homeless.
This is Shannon Starr,
her 28 year old daughter.
Jade moved to Portland with
a friend four years ago.
She had her own apartment
and was a manager at her job.
But Shannon says Jade eventually
started using drugs in about
a year ago became homeless.
For the last 8 weeks,
Shannon has spent each and
every day looking for Jade.
She had to take a leave of
absence from work to do it,
and that leave ends this week.
KGW's Blair Best went with
Shannon to SE 4th and Harvey
Milk here in downtown Portland,
a spot her daughter off in camp.
It could be
packs. It is her. Sweetheart.
Oh, no, it's not my daughter.
Are you okay, you need some wat?
I thought it was her, but it's t
the same because she cut her ha.
I go like this and now it's
low so that it's like this
emotional up and down every day.
Blair actually did find Jade last week
while she was working on another story.
You can watch her full report oe
Mother's fight to break the cyc.
It's up right now on kgw.com
and our KGW YouTube page.
And you know what?
There are so many important perspectives
and stories that we would like to share.
If you know of a community we should talk
to or a story that needs to be ,
you can text us or call us at te
number right there on your scre,
503-226-5088.
We always love to hear from you.
You send the state police
to get me Hell's coming
to visit you personally?
The Oregon senator,
who made that statement to his colleagues
back in 2019 has just won a court case.
After that rant during a Republican walkout,
Brian Boquist was told he couldt
come to the Capitol without givg
lawmakers 12 hours notice.
Now The Oregonian is reporting a judge
has ruled that decision violated
Boquist First Amendment rights.
This all started during a GOP
walkout in Salem when lawmakerse
voting on a cap and trade bill.
At the time,
then Governor Kate Brown said se
might send in state police to
force Republicans back to work.
That's when Boquist doubled down
on his previous statement.
I'm quotable. So here's the quo.
This is what I told the
Superintendent. Send bachelors
and come heavily armed.
I'm not going to be a political
prisoner in the state of Oregon.
It's just that simple.
Boquist later sued,
which led to this week's decisi.
According to The Oregonian,
the judge said both sides were engaged
in quote performative politics.
Boquist was awarded $1.00 and the state
will now have to pay his legal .
Okay. We are headed live out to
Hood River. This is where our
Eric Patterson is this morning.
Ah lucky duck you.
So he is at the Hood River Lavender farm.
Beautiful. So gorgeous.
Love that purple.
This is located off Fletcher Dr.
It is a you pick all that you pk
action happening now and you can kind
of see I think Mount Hood the tp
of Mount Hood there in the dist.
So they also sell Lavender
products like soaps and lotions,
and they've got a Lavender Festival every
single Saturday and Sunday of this month.
The spot is locally owned
and operated since 2003.
We've got more live looks
throughout the morning.
Such a great way to start our
Wednesday and we'll be checking
back in with Eric soon.
We want to let you know that rit
after Rod does his forecast,
we will be giving you the very latest on
that warehouse or fire up in Longview.
You've been talking about the se
that we're seeing in the area.
Let's get back to air quality for a moment.
We started our show by telling
you it's unhealthy in spots of
Multnomah and parts of Clark Co.
This is a post from the National
Weather Service that came out ja
little bit ago on their Facebook page.
And this gives you a lot of reporting
sites you can see in downtown
Portland back into a much of.
Parts of Washington County,
I should say.
The yellow is moderate air qual.
You get out toward Troutdale on
these sites unhealthy and then h
of Clark County being reported s
unhealthy air quality at this t.
And the Weather Service,
now a lot of this is going to
depend on the fire activity and
how long it continues up in the
industrial site and Longview,
it's a timber fire in part and
the Weather Service estimating
that the smoke could be hanging
around throughout much of the d,
again dependent on that fire activity.
And we have our Tim Gordon on te
way up there to give us a live
report coming up here shortly.
All right,
here's a view from the Wells
Fargo camera and you can see.
It's clear up top,
minus the fact that we have the smoke,
and the smoke is definitely
something you will notice and ad
smell from Portland up to the
north as you begin your day.
It's 59 up in Kelso right now.
I haven't picked up any
camera and I've been looking.
That just says, wow,
that's definitely smoke in the .
From the vantage point that
I have like yesterday,
there are some cool spots.
It's 46 in Newport.
It's 44,
I'm Baker City and 48 in Burns
and like yesterday,
no storm chance anywhere and
everybody across our state willt
the sunshine including the coas.
Futurecast shows that 9:00
o'clock this morning is picking
up a little bit of a fog layer,
marine layer that's basically
offshore from Newport.
Otherwise nothing going on that
goes away and temperatures that
will be warming up.
Remember today we anticipate geg
back up into the 90s and we coud
still be in the 90s inland areas tomorrow.
Now tomorrow future guys does
pick up a noticeable marine lays
and fog up the coast.
This is Thursday at 8:30 in the morning,
but otherwise a lot of that
could go away as well.
So we're pretty quiet.
We're just dealing with the
return of hot temperatures.
So here we go for today,
it was 89 in Salem yesterday,
today 95 expected.
Remember Corvallis,
the model was saying could be a
90 degrees on Tuesday and it wa.
Today 91.
Sunny and hot.
Generally it's a light north northwest
wind 5 to 15 and it's that north
wind direction that has pulled e
smoke down from Callas County,
across Clark and in the Multnomh
parts of Washington counties.
At this hour up in Longview by
the way you are expected to
join the heat party 92 today.
Battleground about the same.
Vancouver 94 again N northwest s
at 5 to 15 mph across the rest f
our state 60s and 70s at the co.
The Dow is up to 100 degrees so
that's going to be something tht
the workers out in the fields wl
have to are out in the outdoors,
I should say we'll have to keep an eye on.
Could be 100 degrees in a three o'clock
hour out in Wasco County today.
All right for the Rose City we'll go 94
today, hottest of the bunch, 92 Thursday,
potentially still 90 on Friday.
I still think we're in the 80s for the
weekend and there is a push of marine
air coming in right now showing up on
the models Monday night into Tuesday.
That would knock us at least for
a day back down into the 70s and
that's your forecast for now.
OK. Thank you so much, Rod.