Texas and Oklahoma Fires - Summer of 2011

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fran

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Are any of our Websleuthers in the path of any of the fires being reported in Texas and Oklahoma?

I got online real quick, because I have to admit I haven't been seeing to much about them. I just realized that some of the fires are in Oklahoma City. Since I have a sis who lives in Edmond and works in OKC, I thought I better check to be sure she's ok. She works, so I can't get in touch with her until later tonite or early tomorrow, so I thought I'd check online. Wow!

I see a fire is approaching a HS and they're having to evacuate the students.

Blessings to all and stay safe!
fran
:grouphug:


OK Fire Videos
http://www.kfor.com/news/okfires/


Grass fire threatening Noble High School
3:59 p.m. CDT, September 1, 2011
http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor...ng-noble-high-school-20110901,0,4374778.story
 
Oh, this doesn't look good. NOT just for Texas and OK, but many other gulf states too! IF I knew how, I'd put the map here. It's at the below link.

Stay safe!
fran



http://wildfiretoday.com/

Wildfire potential, September through December, 2011
 
We have all been praying for some rain here in Texas but no luck yet. The crops here have suffered so much from this drought and now the fires. Pretty scary stuff. Please pray for some rain for us.
 
Fire near Austin has burned 300 homes (Austin Statesman)
Fires still burning throughout Central Texas, including Bastrop, Steiner Ranch

Bastrop
As of about 10:30 a.m, the fire in Bastrop has burned nearly 14,000 acres, officials said at a press conference this morning. It started in the Lost Pines area, has jumped the Colorado River twice and is not contained, Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Jan Amen said.

About 5,000 residents have been evacuated and at least 300 homes have burned, Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald said at a press conference. There has been no damage to the area west of Tahitian Drive, Bastrop County Emergency Coordinator Mike Fisher said.
---
Click to expand...
much more at link above
 
I live in this area and it is just devastating. 25,000 acres, 400 homes and 0% contained. We have things packed and by the door ready to go if we get the evacuation order. Please pray for all that has lost homes and the brave firefighters who have been fighting this fire for more than 24 hrs now.
 
cbanning said:
I live in this area and it is just devastating. 25,000 acres, 400 homes and 0% contained. We have things packed and by the door ready to go if we get the evacuation order. Please pray for all that has lost homes and the brave firefighters who have been fighting this fire for more than 24 hrs now.
Click to expand...

Good luck cbanning and you're in my prayers.
 
I had found this website last night.

http://tx.dtswildfire.com/

I posted it on my facebook for my friends back in Texas. It isn't pulling up correctly for me today so I don't know if it's my server (could very well be) or if their server is real busy.

But, when I pulled it up last night it showed an icon for where the fires are located. You can also zoom into areas. To see exactly where the fires are. If you click on the icon for the fire on the map it tells you how many acres burned and the percentage of containment.

I know a lot of people here know what a brush fire is, but if you haven't lived through one it is scarier to me than a tornado or hurricane. (I've lived through all three). It's a wall of fire racing towards you and your home at incrediable speeds (the one I was running from was backed by sustained winds of 40-60MPH).

Not only that, it doesn't come at you in a straight line. It can come at you from 3 sides and there is so much smoke that you can't see which way to go. You don't know if you're driving into the fire or away from it if you hesitate too long to leave.

Prayers for everyone in Texas!
 
After years ago reading Norman Maclean's "Young Men and Fire," about the 1949 Mann Gulch blaze, I have eternal respect for those who fight them.
 
Just got this on facebook.
ATTENTION TEXAS AND SURROUNDING AREAS.. WE NEED FIREMEN!!!! Begging for retired and any fireman to call number to help. We were short 25 fireman last night. Cannot contain town of Bastrop, 35 miles away...fir e is 16 miles long, 6 miles wide jumped Colorado river, evacuated entire town and also neighborhood called Steiner ranch of 5500* PLEASE EVERYONE RE-POST EVEN IF NOT IN TEXAS.. SOME OF YOUR FRIENDS MAY BE.
HELP!! Call 512-978-1187
 
Anyone know anything about Tyler, Texas?
 
i have very close family who USED to live in bastrop and fortunately they recently have moved back to austin, where i'm at. they do however still have a lot of close friends there since they did live there all their lives pretty much. my nieces still have friends who they have known since they were in kindergarten and they are now 16 and 21. one of my nieces told me a new school is now gone and even though i did not hear this on the news, she said the fireman cannot contain the fire so they will let it burn through the week. but i do know from the news that they still are dumping water. we haven't heard of any injuries or deaths on the news but someone else did tell my husband that a mother and her baby did not make it out of a building or home. yesterday was very windy and helped it spread. i hear the fire is now covering 25,000 acres and is 14 miles wide. i don't have cable but my sis said it was on cnn. we can even see the smoke from where i'm at and we're in south west austin and the news said the smoke has reached victoria. there was at least five fires in austin alone yesterday. i'm still in a little shock about it all. almost all of bastrop is on fire. my grandma and aunt still live there as well. i need to call my dad to find out what's going on with them.
 
...actually, the news even said there was a fire somewhere on my street yesterday, which is a loooong street but was contained in about an hour. we were out yesterday though with my niece and her boyfriend getting baptized. i'm happy for them. it's a shame there was such a horrible thing going on at the same time. we didn't even know until we were at the church having dinner and a good time. her boyfriend's mother called to let him know she had to evacuate her home so we prayed for her and all the others.
 
We got a scare yesterday. Driving to inlaws yesterday afternoon and there was a hugh smoke cloud (or 3, actually) in the direction of where we're having a house built. So, Mr. DD (a city firefighter) and I started up that direction. I can't tell you how my heart was pounding. It turns out it was farther away than we thought, and is the one mentioned in Bosque/Northern McLennan County. Last I heard, about 2000 acres and 85% contained as of last night. We'll have to find an update this morning. It was going towards our house, but was too far away yesterday. Hopefully they got it contained overnight, haven't heard yet.

My heart just aches for those in the Bastrop fire area. Unreal. Unbelievable.

In my former CA sheriff days, I worked 3 wildfires in Placer County, near Auburn. Scary times, probably one of the scariest nights of my life was driving down dirt/fire break lines on the side of one mountain area, watching flames on the other side of the ravine...and no directions and no radio transmission to our dispatch. Truly alone in the dark, with raging fires. Yep, prayed a lot that night for my family.

Prayers to Texans all over the state...this drought has been sooooo bad for so many reasons...and we're just not getting a break with the weather. It finally cooled down this weekend, but the winds were up - hurting the fire fighting activities.
 
Last I heard the Bastrop fire was too dangerous to be fought on the ground. Still at 0% containment. I'm in Austin and I see aid coming and going overhead, they're still dumping retardant and water from the air. It's less than two miles away from the city limits of Bastrop now, the wind has died down but this doesn't look good. Here's a pretty wild photo taken of the fire behind the Austin skyline (not by me):

austin-fire.jpg
 
i am 35 miles just south of the fires burning in Magnolia/grimes/waller county tx. Had 2 behind my subdivision over the weekend due to arcing powerlines....had another pretty big one off I10 and GrandParkway near my house saturday....it's very scary, you walk outside and can smell it burn....crazy, it's so dry here
 
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