Thanks for the response, This message is also a test
because suddenly I am not getting Flyrotary messages.
Bill,
Thanks for asking. Bobby Hughes also lives just a few
miles from me. And Bob Darrah lives up by the lake. He
was packing things just in case they had to evacuate.
They could see the smoke from their balcony.
So, yes, things are a bit tense, but we're all doing
fine.
A brief summary of this weekend's fires in/around
Austin: There is the Bastrop State Park fire that has
burned 476 homes and 25,000 acres. It is 0% contained at
this time. This is by far the worst fire burning at this
time. It is very sad, all the devastation and all. It is
quite a ways from where I live and also from where I keep
my airplane. Bastrop State Park has lots of very large
tall pine trees. It is next to impossible for the
firefighting equipment to get in to where they need to be
to fight the fire. They're using helicopters and tankers
to drop water on it. The smoke is very thick and can be
seen for many miles.
There's another fire burning in the other direction
that has burned 24 very expensive homes. Again, it is
nowhere near where I live. It is 25% contained. The news
said that it was caused by overloaded power lines.
However, there is a fire that was reported to be 2
miles wide by 5 miles long that is not far from where I
live, and high winds are blowing in the direction of our
home. A number of sub-divisions have been evacuated.
Fortunately, the firefighters now have it 100% contained.
So, I think we dodged another one.
There were two other fires in Pflugerville (N. Austin)
yesterday that are now out. Again, not close to where I
live. But all the fires have the state's resources
stretched paper thin.
The anxious part is that fires keep popping up all over
central Texas. Humidity is 4%, and there has been no rain
in months. So, everything is very very dry. The whole
area is a tenderbox.
The news anchors are asking, "If you had ten minutes to
grab whatever you could and leave your home, what would
you take?" That is a sobering thought. Fortunately, we
are OK.
Again, thanks for asking.
Thanks,
Mark
On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 6:37 PM,
Bill Schertz
<wschertz@comcast.net>
wrote:
mark,.
Is your home/plane safe from the wild fires
going on down there?
Bill Schertz
KIS Cruiser #4045
N343BS
Phase one testing Completed