Post by mom on Feb 27, 2024 23:31:03 GMT
Please pray for the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. We have wildfires that are burning out of control. At the time I write this, there are over 200,000+ acres burning and there is zero containment. Fires have begun to burn in towns and entire counties are being evacuated. The fires are coming so quickly that some cannot get out of their way and are being told to just find an empty parking lot that has nothing that can burn (like cars or buildings) around it, and to wait it out there. I honestly cannot imagine how scary this is for them.
One of the towns that was hit with a massive tornado this past year is now being threatened to burn.
Our winds are blowing 40-45mph sustained wind with gusts expected over 65mph. One fire alone is over 90 miles wide.
This is all so very, very bad for our area.
______
Edited: one fire is over 250,000 acres now. Zero containment. One tiny town about 25 miles from me is said to have lost 40 homes so far.
Edit #2: So now a new worry is that the fire is on the outskirts of Pantex -- a national nuclear facility. They wont say *exactly* how close the fire is, but they've quit evacuating people and are now preparing as much as they can for the fire. That particular fire is 0% contained.
Here's the Wednesday AM update:
We are still ok. There are several fires going, but the biggest one today has burned almost 800,000. acres and is now 3% contained. This particular fire is the 2nd largest fire in Texas history but should be the largest fire in Texas history by tomorrow am. It is burning the equivalency of two entire full length football fields, PER SECOND or 150 football fields per MINUET. I saw one online article that said this fire (the Smokehouse Creek fire) is larger than the city of Houston. If I can find the article again, I will link it. Thankfully, today the winds have been calm and that's helped a lot. Tomorrow am we have some snow/rain in the morning, so fingers crossed we get it.
The biggest fire is still burning. 500,000 acres and still zero containment. Evacuations got within 5 miles of my oldest son's house but then they were able to keep it from hitting the city. I live across town and another fire had our neighborhood filled with smoke that I would have sworn it was in our neighborhood, but nope. It turned a little and went to another area of open fields. Yay. They did end up evacuating a bunch of my city's residents but last I heard they were clear to go home. Today we should see some improvement --- the temps will only be in the 50s vs 80s that we had yesterday and the winds should be calmer. I also saw that someone is sending in huge fire planes to dump water so Im hopeful.
No word on Pantex - which is good, I suppose. It's never a great feeling thinking a nuclear plant is in spitting distance of a fire.
It was a long night at my house. Because of DH's job, they were called to open up one of their recently closed rehab/nursing home to help nursing home evacuees have somewhere to go. Im just so thankful they were able to get it online and up and running (and still safe) to help, even if it meant DH came home around 3am. And poor Scouty --- he is just an anxious mess. He was pacing all night and he kept going to the front door and pawing at the door, while crying. I think he knew something was wrong and wanted us to leave. I finally gave him CBD doggy treats and got him to bed.
Of course, I am so thankful that that's all we had to deal with. Others have lost homes (no word on how many, but some are thinking north of 100 homes), ranchers have lost their livestock, etc. They don't think anyone has died though so that's a big relief.
_____________
Well the fire has been going 8 days now. And it's still burning.
The largest of the fires is only 32% contained and has burned over 1,059,570 acres so far. 3 deaths. The fire itself has burned the opposite direction than towards my house, so I am thankful for that. I read that on any given day -- depending on what other fires have started --- there are 75-100 engines from all over fighting the fires, as well as planes dumping water from our lake.
The damage is horrific. The small town that is directly in its path has lost most of their homes or atleast most have had some sort of damage. Apparently many didnt have any sort of insurance either. A news article was saying that they are predicting around 60-75% of local cattle have died -- which is bad on its own. But my area provides about 85% of the state of Texas beef. So it's a huge loss for so many.
Anyway, just thought I would update everyone.
_______________________________
Update 3/10/24
We are going on 2 weeks of fires. The largest fire is now 88% contained and the smaller (but still big) fires are almost contained as well. We are looking at high winds on Monday and Wednesday so hopefully they all will be completely contained by then.
This link says the biggest is at 87% contained now. So yay!
www.newschannel10.com/2024/03/08/smokehouse-creek-fire-now-87-contained-windy-deuce-fire-now-92-contained/
Update 3/17 - after 20 days of fires, they are 100% contained. Yaaay!!
One of the towns that was hit with a massive tornado this past year is now being threatened to burn.
Our winds are blowing 40-45mph sustained wind with gusts expected over 65mph. One fire alone is over 90 miles wide.
This is all so very, very bad for our area.
______
Edited: one fire is over 250,000 acres now. Zero containment. One tiny town about 25 miles from me is said to have lost 40 homes so far.
Edit #2: So now a new worry is that the fire is on the outskirts of Pantex -- a national nuclear facility. They wont say *exactly* how close the fire is, but they've quit evacuating people and are now preparing as much as they can for the fire. That particular fire is 0% contained.
Here's the Wednesday AM update:
We are still ok. There are several fires going, but the biggest one today has burned almost 800,000. acres and is now 3% contained. This particular fire is the 2nd largest fire in Texas history but should be the largest fire in Texas history by tomorrow am. It is burning the equivalency of two entire full length football fields, PER SECOND or 150 football fields per MINUET. I saw one online article that said this fire (the Smokehouse Creek fire) is larger than the city of Houston. If I can find the article again, I will link it. Thankfully, today the winds have been calm and that's helped a lot. Tomorrow am we have some snow/rain in the morning, so fingers crossed we get it.
The biggest fire is still burning. 500,000 acres and still zero containment. Evacuations got within 5 miles of my oldest son's house but then they were able to keep it from hitting the city. I live across town and another fire had our neighborhood filled with smoke that I would have sworn it was in our neighborhood, but nope. It turned a little and went to another area of open fields. Yay. They did end up evacuating a bunch of my city's residents but last I heard they were clear to go home. Today we should see some improvement --- the temps will only be in the 50s vs 80s that we had yesterday and the winds should be calmer. I also saw that someone is sending in huge fire planes to dump water so Im hopeful.
No word on Pantex - which is good, I suppose. It's never a great feeling thinking a nuclear plant is in spitting distance of a fire.
It was a long night at my house. Because of DH's job, they were called to open up one of their recently closed rehab/nursing home to help nursing home evacuees have somewhere to go. Im just so thankful they were able to get it online and up and running (and still safe) to help, even if it meant DH came home around 3am. And poor Scouty --- he is just an anxious mess. He was pacing all night and he kept going to the front door and pawing at the door, while crying. I think he knew something was wrong and wanted us to leave. I finally gave him CBD doggy treats and got him to bed.
Of course, I am so thankful that that's all we had to deal with. Others have lost homes (no word on how many, but some are thinking north of 100 homes), ranchers have lost their livestock, etc. They don't think anyone has died though so that's a big relief.
_____________
Well the fire has been going 8 days now. And it's still burning.
The largest of the fires is only 32% contained and has burned over 1,059,570 acres so far. 3 deaths. The fire itself has burned the opposite direction than towards my house, so I am thankful for that. I read that on any given day -- depending on what other fires have started --- there are 75-100 engines from all over fighting the fires, as well as planes dumping water from our lake.
The damage is horrific. The small town that is directly in its path has lost most of their homes or atleast most have had some sort of damage. Apparently many didnt have any sort of insurance either. A news article was saying that they are predicting around 60-75% of local cattle have died -- which is bad on its own. But my area provides about 85% of the state of Texas beef. So it's a huge loss for so many.
Anyway, just thought I would update everyone.
_______________________________
Update 3/10/24
We are going on 2 weeks of fires. The largest fire is now 88% contained and the smaller (but still big) fires are almost contained as well. We are looking at high winds on Monday and Wednesday so hopefully they all will be completely contained by then.
This link says the biggest is at 87% contained now. So yay!
www.newschannel10.com/2024/03/08/smokehouse-creek-fire-now-87-contained-windy-deuce-fire-now-92-contained/
Update 3/17 - after 20 days of fires, they are 100% contained. Yaaay!!
