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