Fires In Central Texas
In the drought stricken areas of Texas the threat of fires is ever present: [News 8, Austin] One of Bastrop’s worst wildfires scorches 1,250 acres
Residents woke up to find more than 1,250 acres of land charred and 25 homes lost in a blaze that officials call one of the worst fires ever in Bastrop County.
The blaze, which began around 12:30 p.m. Saturday, continued well into Sunday, and though conditions have improved, the situation remains precarious, and anxious residents are discouraged from returning home.
“It’s going to be a hard thing to get through, and I know that a few of my neighbors have already lost their homes,” evacuee Robert Graham said.
They think it was started by a downed power line, but just about anything will touch one off as dry as the vegetation is in the area. Obviously, obtaining the water to fight a fire is also a problem. This was the worse of several wild fires in the region.
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That is a real tragedy. The drive between Bastrop State Park and Buescher State Park and on through to the east side of Buescher State Park is one of the most beautiful in central Texas. I gather some people were allowed to go home today, though at least one home burned. I can only hope that beautiful stretch of parkland is healed before long.
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Unless the jet streams resume their “normal” patterns, they just won’t get enough rain to heal anything.
We have had 30 times as much rain as is normal in February, while agricultural areas in the northern half of the county have had a less than normal month. These storms are tracking at least a hundred miles South of their normal path.
The rain is worthless down here, you can’t grow anything in our sugar-white quartz sand. If you want a lawn you have to install sod with its own dirt and water like crazy, or haul in real dirt from somewhere else.
It looks like we are going to get all of the worst parts of the 1930s, including the Dust Bowl.
A meteorologist on an currant affairs program a couple days ago was asked if he could think of a single natural event that might cause all the crazy weather all over the World. He thought for a bit and said ‘Imagine that the Earth tilted on it’s axis.’ And the interviewer said in a surprised voice “Really?” And the meteorologist smiled and said “Oh. don’t worry. That hasn’t happened, and if it did the global earthquakes and erupting volcano’s would be a bigger problem than the change in weather. We call that type of event a Dinosaur killer. And we are the current Dinosaurs.”
Meteorologist have a strange sense of humor. I like it. 😉 LOL
Sorry to hear about the loss, Steve. Same as loosing the forests around Marysville and the Black Spur here. Will take hundreds of years to replace what was lost. *sigh*
The change in tilt is about what it looks like down here. That jet stream is in the wrong place. The weather it is moving is generally normal, but it is going to the wrong destinations. The Arctic warming has pushed it South of where it normally sits, and it has been South for a couple of years.
I fear that this is the new “normal” and settlement patterns based on the “old normal” aren’t going to work. We are still getting wildfire warnings, when there is currently no way in hell anything will burn in the pine forests as we are soggy.
Kryten, thanks. I’ve been reading about the fires in Aus, and it makes my heart ache to think that all of you are losing so much. Stay safe, my friend!
I regret that I agree about one thing: we’re going to see more of this in the coming years.
(Now it’s back to filling boxes with years of accumulated stuff…)
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The only real use I have ever found for a garage is as a storage point for boxes when packing or unpacking.
True that, about garages. 😉 And yeah… It’s amazing how much *stuff* accumulates! No matter how careful one is not to accumulate lot’s of stuff! 🙂
The sad thing for me Steve, is that the loss is *everyone’s* loss. But sadly, most people don’t see it that way. LadyMin has seen the beauty and majesty of the area around Marysvill, and has commented that she’s never seen another place like it. Every place is unique in some way, has it’s own *magic*. People she tells about it will never be able to experience it for themselves now. And I and others won’t be able to see the parkland that you say was beautiful, and I assume had it’s own *magic*. And that’s our loss as well as yours. Of course, some of these disasters are not really preventable and are part of the continuing evolution of the Earth. And they will create other places of beauty and magic for future generations. But we humans have made things much worse and have much to answer for.
I just saw the 2008 remake of “The Day The Earth Stood Still”, I’ve been putting off watching it because I really liked the original 1951 classic. 🙂 Thankfully, they didn’t try to make this a clone, but a modern day equivalent. One memorable (for me) line is when Klaatu says “If the Earth dies, you die. If the human race dies, the Earth survives.” Still, the movie was disappointing somewhat. It could have been better, it seemed rushed and incomplete in parts and trying to please everyone.
I read somewhere that the musical score (which was good I thought) was by ‘Tyler Bates’. Any relation Steve? 😉
Actually when I returned to Florida in the 1990s I felt bad for the people who live here now because they never got to see what the area was like when I was growing up and things weren’t polluted. They may think they like the lawns better than the pine forest that had been here, but they would certainly have liked the crystal clear bayou much better than the murky mess it has become.
We can’t seem to figure out that you should mess in your own nest.
I was very lucky in the 2nd job I landed after Uni was with a Managing Director that took me under his wing and mentored me in the mysterious universe of corporate business and internal politics (my first job was with DEC and they just wanted me to exist in the pigeon hole they put me in). Hmmmm. Thinking about it, that’s possibly not a completely true statement for the reason that it was the springboard for things I did and things that happened to me over the course of the next few decades or so. Anyway, to get back to the point… one of the very first rules he taught me was “Don’t sh*t on your own doorstep.” I had reason to discover not long after what he meant and it stuck with me from that point on.
Another rule he taught me was “Cover your own ass first!” A wise man… I discovered that the company wasn’t quite what it seemed at the time, and he wasn’t simply an MD of a company… These discoveries eventually led me to war and working in the Intel biz. I learned what was very probably my most valuable lesson: Very little is what it seems, especially on the surface. Especially where the World of big biz and the Intel biz and even the Military are concerned, it’s more akin to an onion. Many layered, and once you’ve peeled away the layers, which is the real one? Or are they all real in a way? When you peel an onion, all you are left with are onion layers. 🙂 I’ve been called a cynic many times because I refuse to take things at face value. And I’ve been right more often than not. 😉 I am sure you know this also Bryan. 🙂
I was reminded of something a few days ago with a comment that was made to me I’ve heard before. When I walk down streets, I always take in the surrounding area and my eyes dart everywhere. Some people notice and ask why I do that. They also notice sometimes that I avoid walking close to walls, especially past a dark doorway or alley, and always check the *high ground* first. Truth is, I’m not actually aware that I am doing it until it’s pointed out. I was trained in *situational awareness*, and it’s stuck with me. It’s helped me a few times. Old habits ARE hard to break, especially when they have saved your life once or twice, or so. 🙂
If you suspect the worst, you are open to being pleasantly surprised.
I still walk like I’m wearing a sidearm, i.e. very little motion in my right arm which is always further away from my body, and I still open doors with my left hand. Old habits are hard to break.
I assume that people tell me what they want me to believe, not necessarily what they believe to be the truth. With a little effort I find out the truth which will tell me what is being hidden. Then you have to find out why. Normally it’s a petty reason, but occasionally it can be interesting.
“Situational awareness” is the only way to safely drive a car in the US. I’m always scanning for an exit path because I know the other drivers aren’t paying any attention at all to what they are doing. Nature’s way of thinning the herd.