BEND, OR -- Cultus Lake Resort says it's under a Level 3 (Go Now!) evacuation order due to the Cedar Creek Fire. The Lane County Sheriff's Office increased evacuation levels Tuesday night. Click HERE for a full map of the evacuation area. Wednesday morning, resort managers sent this letter to guests:

Yes, unfortunately we are on a level 3 evacuation at Cultus Lake Resort. We were notified in the evening last night that we would be moving to a Level 2 evacuation, and within another few hours they had upgraded us to a level 3. We spent the next several hours making sure that staff and guests were able to move off-site. Our phone is still currently at the resort and the power is off (which means our internet and cell boosters are off), so we had very limited means of communication late into the evening.

We worked late into the night making sure that guests and staff were safely off property, and we removed many of our rental boats as well. As of about midnight last night, everything was still fine at the resort, albeit smokey. We realize that very few of you were able to drop everything and retrieve your boats last night. Upon speaking to a fire manager last night, we were told that as long as the fire wasn't an immediate danger to the resort OR the road in, that we would be allowed up this morning to continue moving more property off-site. We warned the fire manager that we have MANY boat owners that would also be up there trying to retrieve boats. We were told that you would be allowed up there to retrieve your boats, unless the fire was an immediate danger in which case law enforcement would turn everyone away.

The fire manager did not anticipate this situation improving anytime soon, but only continuing to deteriorate. Your best opportunity to retrieve your boat is going to be today, the earlier the better. Our zodiac is already out of the water but our aluminum fishing boat is still on the dock. We will likely not be available to give rides to buoys but please use our fishing boat and put it back when you're done.

We will be headed up to the resort shortly to check on conditions and continue removing resort property. If for some reason they aren't allowing us back on the property, we will respond to this email and let everyone know as soon as we can.

Please please please be safe!!

 

Image: Map of evacuation area, as of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday