As wildfires continue to trigger evacuations across Oregon, residents of a small community along the Columbia River are assessing what remains of their homes after the Rowena Fire.

Last week, the fire destroyed 56 homes in the unincorporated community of Rowena, outside The Dalles. The flames skipped and jumped between homes, leaving some untouched while reducing others to rubble.

That all happened in just a few days.

About 130 people live in Rowena, a cluster of residential neighborhoods off the Historic Columbia River Highway running along the river. Half of those residents are over 60 years old, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. More than half are living below the poverty level.

There’s a long road ahead as they recover from the fire — clearing debris, processing insurance claims, deciding whether to rebuild or to cut losses and sell what’s left.

“Most of those impacted communities are elderly people that have owned their homes for a very long time,” said Wasco County spokesperson, Stephanie Krell. “Their mortgage is paid off, so they haven’t had insurance on their homes. Probably about 50% of the people don’t have insurance.”

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Homeowners aren’t required to get insurance if they don’t have a mortgage. Some choose not to get insurance because of the cost. It can be especially expensive in rural areas like Rowena, where there may be a greater threat of floods or fires.

Krell supposes many wildfire survivors will cut their losses and leave.

“People are tired,” Krell said. “They don’t feel like they have it in them to rebuild.”

Some Rowena residents are still in the early stages of figuring out where they’ll sleep, and where they can find meals and toiletries. They received some relief at a resource fair on Wednesday, where nonprofits and local agencies set up tables with snacks, pet food, shampoo, deodorant — things that people couldn’t grab in time before escaping oncoming flames.

“A lot of families left really rapidly and had to evacuate with maybe just an article of clothing and very limited resources,” said Julie Zapien Becker, referral coordinator for Bridges to Health, a local nonprofit.

Local organizations like this and the American Red Cross are where most people are finding help. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided firefighting assistance to Wasco County, as well as other counties hit by wildfire.

That FEMA aid is only for firefighting and other boots-on-the-ground emergency response, not funding or resources to individuals and families.

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FEMA only makes individual assistance funds available during widespread disasters, like the 2020 Labor Day Fires or last year’s Eastern Oregon fires. The Rowena Fire and others burning in the state haven’t collectively met that threshold.

Many Rowena residents are staying with family members or friends, while others have booked hotel rooms.

But tourism season and multiple weekend events have strained hotel availability. Two sports events, including a swim meet and a little league tournament, are expected to attract hundreds of other people to The Dalles this weekend. A cycling event called the Gorge Ride was set to bring another 500 people, but it has been canceled due to the fire.

The nonprofit Mid-Columbia Community Action Council has opened over a dozen pallet shelters — a small housing unit the size of a storage shed — and a shower trailer for wildfire survivors through the weekend, when people may lose hotel rooms that have been reserved by tourists.

“A lot of people are also getting kicked out of their hotels, so it’s not just people who are going to need shelter that haven’t found it yet, but it’s also people who are going to be losing their shelter,” the nonprofit’s interim executive director, Leslie Naramore, said.

Like much of Oregon, Wasco County is struggling with a housing shortage. While there might be enough shelters for wildfire survivors during the immediate aftermath of the fire, Naramore worries about long-term solutions.

“We are already a community that has very low housing stock. We are already having trouble placing clients into housing,” Naramore said.

“So, to lose 56 additional homes is really heartbreaking. I don’t know how we’re going to fix that.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/06/20/rowena-fire-whats-next/