Community | September 05, 2011 | 102 comments

Fierce Texas wildfire destroys 300 homes - CNN.com

source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/05/texas.fires/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

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kennymotown
Hell on Earth, I guess when I say Global Warming deniers won't wake up till the water is up to their necks I should have also mentioned or when their houses burn to the ground!


Bastrop, Texas (CNN) -- An unchecked wildfire southeast of Austin, Texas, destroyed 300 homes, scorched thousands of acres and stretched across a 16-mile area Monday, authorities said.
Another blaze in eastern Texas killed a mother and her 18-month-old child when flames engulfed their mobile home Sunday near Gladewater, the Gregg County Sheriff's Department said.
"The wildfire situation in Texas is severe and all necessary state resources are being made available to protect lives and property," Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement. "I urge Texans to take extreme caution as we continue to see the devastating effects of sweeping wildfires impacting both rural and urban areas of the state."
There are more than 35 fires burning across the state, the Texas Forest Service said Monday. Officials said low relative humidity and strong winds from Lee, which made landfall as a tropical storm but has weakened to a tropical depression, fanned the flames.
'There's nothing left of these houses' Winds whip up Texas wildfires
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The outbreak of wildfires prompted Perry to head back to Texas from South Carolina, where he was scheduled to participate in a forum for Republican presidential candidates.
Meanwhile, the massive, uncontained fire in Bastrop County, near Austin, was the state's largest on Monday. In less than a day, it had destroyed 300 homes and threatened about 1,000 others, officials with the forest service's incident management team reported. About 5,000 residents evacuated as flames approached, officials said.

Dark clouds of smoke billowing across the sky could be seen miles away from the fire Monday.
"Today is expected to be as bad, if not worse, than yesterday," Bastrop City Manager Mike Talbot told reporters.
Satellite images Monday showed the fire stretching over about 25,000 acres, jumping the Colorado River and a highway, the Forest Service said.
More evacuations are likely as the fire spreads, officials said. Already, hundreds of people are in shelters as dangerous flames keep them from finding out whether their homes survived.
"It was like a storm coming through. You could smell the earth burning," said Julian Ochoa, who was evacuated from a Bastrop subdivision Sunday afternoon.
The 23-year-old grabbed his dog, a toothbrush, his birth certificate and a few pictures as he left. He didn't know Sunday what happened to his home.
"All of Bastrop is a giant smoke cloud," he said.
Firefighters planned to use Black Hawk helicopters to douse flames with a mixture of water and fire retardant Monday morning, the incident management team said. Tanker trucks will also be used to battle the blaze.
The fire forced parts of state highways 71 and 21 to shut and additional road closures were expected, fire officials said Sunday.
At least 56 new fires across Texas on Sunday burned about 30,000 acres, the state's fire service said. Fires were reported in at least 17 counties.

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102 comments // Fierce Texas wildfire destroys 300 homes - CNN.com

  • IceKat
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • And the cruel thing about this is that Texas got the winds from Lee that added to these fires but not the rain. We got that up here and the East is flooded already.

    • 9 months ago
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  

    • As of this morning, the director of the Texas Forest Service tells CBS News "there's no containment right now" and that "no one on the face of this Earth has ever fought fires in these extreme conditions."

      Thanks Misti for your post near the bottom.

      NO ONE ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH HAS EVER FOUGHT FIRES IN THESE EXTREME CONDITIONS???

      WOW!!!

    • 9 months ago
  • CalgarC
  • letsliveinpeace
  • coolplanet
  • maasanova
  • JanforGore
    • +4
      JanforGore  

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orAXWA18cRA&feature=relmfu

      People of Texas, your Governor is an idiot. Sorry, no other way to say it and you have my sympathy on that. And notice in all the time he talked he never mentioned once what he was doing about this. I feel for those who lost everything. Stay strong and help each other. It is sad to see the land and the species that live here suffering as well.The media needs to say those two words now in concert with this: Climate Change.

      And on edit, I don't know the words to say to express how I feel for the tremendous losses your state and other states in that area are suffering. But please be safe. I don't care who you voted for as politics should not be primary during disasters like this, but I will say this as delicately as I can: You must work now to get through this and then understand the urgency of what is happening to make these events more severe and see the machinations of those in government and work to change it. We are all in this together.

      And to those who say he did not cause this drought, he and his kind led us to this point with their political and ideological pablum that has stopped us for THIRTY &*&**years from having the policy necessary to address global warming as the urgent crisis it is. And now his people suffer more because of it. So don't try to intimiate he should not be held responsible in some part for this. Now let's see what he does to help them apart from using this for his own political benefit.

    • 9 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • bailey78
  • JanforGore
  • bailey78
  • Fishinflick
    • +2
      Fishinflick  
    • JanforGore:

      Jan I'm trying to get coverage on the Texas fires on The Weather Channel, had it on for hours now while I paint, they just informed me that it's not true that the country's major companies are climate change deniers! Everyone from Walmart to Exxon had something chipper to say about it according to TWC talking heads. In fact the Ford Motor Company strongly recommends getting a handle on emissions by 2050! Now I feel a whole lot better! What crack journalism! I tried like hell to find the astonishing claims on TWC site - but it's not there, or I would have provided a link.

      TWC features storm "cowboys" non-stop, chasing killer weather like it's some damn thrill ride. WTF?? I better turn off the tube before I lose it...

    • 9 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • JanforGore
  • alexandrek
  • bailey78
  • Fishinflick
    • +2
      Fishinflick  

    • You Don't Miss Your Water (Byrd's version)
      (W. Bell)
      In the beginning you really loved me
      But I was blind and I could not see
      But when you left me oh, how I cried
      You don't miss your water till your well runs dry

      I was a playboy I could not be true
      I couldn't believe I really loved you
      But when you left me oh, how I cried
      You don't miss your water till your well runs dry

      In the beginning you really loved me
      But I was blind and I could not see
      But when you left me oh, how I cried
      You don't miss your water till your well runs dry
      You don't miss your water till your well runs dry

      A love song for a lost woman - or for our Mother Earth...
      When will we learn to "be true"?

    • 9 months ago
  • bailey78
  • Fishinflick
    • +2
      Fishinflick  
    • bailey78:

      Sweetheart of the Rodeo by the Byrds is the most underrated C&W album of all time, done outside Nashville the establishment (which accused the Byrds of trying to subvert country music) by Californian hippies under Gram Parson's tutelage. It still sounds truer to the roots of C&W and it's everyday man's message then what passes for C&W these days... I hope the younger generation rediscovers it and passes it around, it's an American Classic and the album is just plain beautiful. Hard to believe it was so controversial when it was released. Then as now we just can't seem to bridge gaps - it's the never ending challenge.

    • 9 months ago
  • bailey78
  • Misti
  • JanforGore
  • bailey78
  • bailey78
  • MDBard
    • +3
      MDBard  

    • Well after reading comments below let me start with Texans as a stereotype deserving what is happening don't deserve it any more then the folks in New Orleans deserved Katrina or the babies in Somalia deserve the famine. The people that Deserve this kind of punishment our never the ones that deal with a lost home of no food its always the poor with no money to fall back on. I know its easy to jump to conclusions when you don't have to deal with the actual tragedy yourself and easier still to point fingers then it is to say People are dying they need our help I don't give a damn who they voted into office people are people no matter how different my views are from theirs. To those who simply jumped on the Hate Texas because of Rick Perry or the Pro Corp politics that run my Red State its no better then the People that jumped on the F*ck those ......... New Orlens is a sinnful Place BS Wagon. All of us are in this together so Stop, Think, and then Love before you say something your going to regret. Yes the Drought is devestating us becuase of the Oil barons both on land and in the Gulf, Yes Rick Perry is one of the Diabolical bastards that needs to be Blamed, but Texans as a whole are not evil nor completly ignorant. Those that have died and continue to die deserve our respect and those that fight so others may live deserve our praise. As for the bastards that have made our state a Right Wing Facists dictatorship with Bush Sr. as the power behind the throne. We know who you are, we know where you live and you will be delicious.
      Love Peace People
      MD Bard

    • 9 months ago
  • GRC54
    • +3
      GRC54  
    • MDBard:

      The people of Texas are the ones suffering with these fires. The rich don't care as long as it's not effecting them directly and nobody deserves to suffer.
      Rick (Brill Cream) Perry can get his religious base together all he wants and pray all year for rain. His prayers will go unanswered as there is nobody listening to him or his religious base.
      Until people admit that there is a major problem with the climate then and only then can there be something done. It's never too late to turn what has been done to Mother Earth around then we are all doomed.

    • 9 months ago
  • Misti
  • MDBard
    • +2
      MDBard  
    • Misti:

      My Rant was in no way direct at one person just People in general, most of the people here at current follow the thoughts of Love first but some of them forget to practice it.

    • 9 months ago
  • MDBard
    • +2
      MDBard  
    • GRC54:

      Its not to late here yet but we are going to need the support of the nation and help from people that are more informed then are mass media. With all the drought and evidence of global warming I've yet to see any news outlets on a local level say anything about the true cause of the fires.

    • 9 months ago
  • Fishinflick
    • +2
      Fishinflick  
    • MDBard:

      Clearly we can't vilify people from entire regions because of their politicians. Here in upstate NY we lost a progressive Democrat Scott Murphy in 2010, who was replaced by a Republican climate change denier - Chris Gibson, a total corporate stooge. As a New Yorker living in a schizophrenic district which swings from blue to red I can sympathize with the good people in Texas who feel surrounded by loonies. We are also in shambles up here and are seeing funding and aid go first to the wealthier parts of the state while the hardest hit are the poorer districts and some are still without power and necessities. They way it appears to me, from the top down the gov't doesn't see us all as valued citizens, that assessment seems to be reserved for corporations and the 1%ers.

    • 9 months ago
  • FoosMaster
  • Misti
  • kennymotown
  • Misti
  • kennymotown
  • Misti
  • kennymotown
  • bailey78
  • coolplanet
  • oldbanjo
    • +1
      oldbanjo  
    • Misti:

      Perry is saying whatever it takes to get votes. They all say different things to different groups, if anyone is listening they should see that they think the general pubic is stupid.

    • 9 months ago
  • oldbanjo
  • lazloman
  • Littlewolf
    • +1
      Littlewolf  
    • lazloman:

      If the Dems were smart, they would hold up the money while running clips and quotes of both Cantor & Perry - When it comes to these Republicons, Dems should ask themselves "What would Karl Rove do?" and play accordingly. Not to withhold the money, just to delay it so their electoral base is uncomfortable enough to think about what it means to have put these people with their whacked out agendas in positions of power.

      Make them whine about how states with Democratic governors are getting relief and they are not - play their anti-government speech clips with their demand for government assistance -make them beg for it - that should undermine their "credibility" with the voters.

    • 9 months ago
  • oldbanjo
  • suckatash
  • EarnestT
    • +4
      EarnestT  

    • I thought Rick"the Wack-A-Doodle from Waco"Perry prayed away the drought? Or was that to cause it? Oh well,he held a three day prayer vigil for rain and all he got was FIRE! Either he needs to pray for FIRE and hope he gets rain or somebody needs to take his Bible and beat him to death with it! Praise the Heebus,and bless the Spahgetti Monster!

    • 9 months ago
  • warman1138
  • notsure
  • kennymotown
  • Leen61
  • tverdell
  • Leen61
  • Littlewolf
  • JanforGore
  • Persecuted
    • +5
      Persecuted  

    • its amazing that so many people on this thread are taking the "thats what they get" stance... is that what i get? i was born and raised in texas and i'm a card carrying liberal, women's rights activist, gay and lesbian supporter, intelligent, thinking person... and i know a lot of texans just like me... so is this what we get?
      is this what 4 year old elijah gets?
      is this what 3 year old sierra gets?
      is this what my grandma gets?
      for being from texas?
      we deserve this... dont we...
      shame on you...
      my whole state is engulfed in flames, people i know are being evacuated from their homes with only the items they can fit into a bag.. and this is what we get huh...
      almost half of us are democrats.... but i guess we are to the point of pettiness that our political views determine whether we deserve for our lives to be destroyed, our homes to burn, our children to die.
      i like to think that i'm on the right side, but when i look at people like HarukoHaruhara, i start to wonder.

    • 9 months ago
  • HarukoHaruhara
    • +5
      HarukoHaruhara  
    • Persecuted:

      I think that's unfair.

      I never said Texans deserves it. I would never say that. If you notice, I said, "I would never wish calamity on anyone." I get annoyed when people post "yee-haw, Burn, Texas, burn." (And yes, I have seen several comments to that effect.) I have friends in Austin and I like Austin. I was relating a story about one crazy right-winger I was talking to.

      Sorry you think so little of me when you don't even know me. I apologize if I offended you.

      I took the comment down. I didn't realize it would offend. That wasn't my intent.

    • 9 months ago
  • remanns
  • Littlewolf
    • 0
      Littlewolf  
    • Persecuted:

      Heartfelt sympathy to you and yours (& our cousins in Texas) but it's Rick Perry you should rail against, not HarukoHaruhara. The one thing that's clear through all the smoke & fire is that if the majority of Texans put people like Perry in power there's price to pay for all that Texan bravado of secession, trashing relief programs and denial of climate change. Texas is hardly a State of Awareness - other than Willie Nelson -perhaps this will change that.

    • 9 months ago
  • Tuppy54
    • +4
      Tuppy54  
    • Image

    • PRick Perry suddenly skipped a moderated forum/debate today, because he said he had to deal with these wildfires in Texas. Never mind he cut state funds to local fire departments. If texas needed him so bad, then maybe this asshole will strap on firefighter gear and put fires out, instead of eating corndogs and cheerleading from the side lines.

    • 9 months ago
  • HarukoHaruhara
    • +5
      HarukoHaruhara  

    • I talked to a Texan today who insisted that volunteers can fight the fires and that help from the Feds or tax-supported firefighters isn't needed.

      I hate to politicize this tragedy, but, so far this year, 3.6 MILLION acres have burned up in Texas and 720 homes have been destroyed by wildlfires.

      I would say if Texas is really relying solely on volunteers (and I *seriously* doubt that), than those volunteers appear to be terribly overwhelmed. People's dogma continues to taint their view of reality, even when it is their own state they are talking about.

    • 9 months ago
  • Persecuted
  • HarukoHaruhara
  • artemis6
  • Arizona_Huey
  • kennymotown
  • joeredford
  • Littlewolf
  • Littlewolf
    • +1
      Littlewolf  
    • Arizona_Huey:

      I think his showmanship "prayers" WERE answered - the answer was "No - you'll reap what you have sown." I feel bad for the "good" Texans who are suffering because of the leader the majority of Texans chose - like the "good" Germans who suffered because of the leader their majority once chose. It really does matter who is elected, & this brings that into pretty clear focus.

    • 9 months ago
  • bailey78
  • Jennifer_Guinn
  • remanns
    • +5
      remanns  
    • Image

    • I just want to be sure Michael Moorcock is alive and well,.....I think we just have him temporarily on loan fron England -could be an international literary incident !

    • 9 months ago
  • kennymotown
  • Misti
  • remanns
  • remanns
  • kennymotown
  • kennymotown
  • kennymotown
  • artemis6
  • artemis6
  • Persecuted
  • Persecuted
  • remanns
    • +2
      remanns  
    • kennymotown:

      It may sound weird,......but I actually don't have a a video feed- I am a graphic artist/writer,...........it has just never come up ! I send documents n images.

      Will think about it.

    • 9 months ago
  • kennymotown
  • bailey78
  • bailey78
  • bailey78
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  
    • bailey78:

      Everyone is alive and well,.....but I have some friends with a hose in the middle of the burn zone, they don't know yet the status of their house, but it may well be gone. Its a bitch.

    • 9 months ago
  • bailey78
  • HarukoHaruhara
  • kennymotown
  • remanns
  • remanns
  • HarukoHaruhara
  • Persecuted
    • +2
      Persecuted  
    • HarukoHaruhara:

      the irony is... people who judge millions of people within a state line based on asshole politicians and what the media makes us out to be... but dont realize that they are being just as stupid and closed minded as those they judge... now THATS a heaping helping of irony

    • 9 months ago
  • Persecuted
    • 0
      Persecuted  
    • HarukoHaruhara:

      actually... washington dc and new york are where you will find the most ardent global warming deniers... i am from texas and i know that global warming is a very real thing... but droughts and fires have always occured in the history of earth and will do so until the end of it. so while you're pointing and laughing at the thousands of americans who are losing everything they have on this labor day, i applaud your audacity.

    • 9 months ago
  • remanns
  • HarukoHaruhara
  • remanns
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