North Cascades hwy 20 closed

Expecting a bad fire day today. All fires expected to grow in size, so say the pro's.

My friends who have a house in Omak WA are evacuating as we speak. High winds are forecast.

My nephew is a doctor in charge of the clinic in Tonasket and that clinic is on alert for possible evacuation as per email from him about 8AM today.

Many of my friends in the area are either "bugged out" or told to get ready to run.
Fort Lewis is sending a Battalion to help later this week

We just got evacuated out of Winthrop about 3 hours ago. Hundreds of rv's and cars heading south on Hwy 153 since Hwy 20 was closed. Headed back to Chelan, Luckily, it wasn't as smoky as it was a couple of days ago.

There are fires at both ends. One closure is a the west end, Newhalem. That's apparently a small fire, but close to the highway. Inciweb is calling that the Goodell fire. It directly impacts North Cascades campgrounds and trails.

The other is in the east, with evacuations around Winthrop and Twisp. That's where the deaths occurred. That's a fast moving fire with wind in grass, brush and sparse forest. I don't even see a name for that yet on Inciweb.

Washington closures on InciWeb

Tragic year, and we're still early in the season.

Edit: Looking East across Similk Bay from my house in Anacortes just now, it looks like smoke coming from the Cascades blowing from the ESE toward us.

3 firefighters have died. 4 injured. Chevman

HERE is a news article. They say not to expect it to open anytime soon!