Texas Wildfires (Sept 2011)

[r0xikat]

On my way home from a weekend at Lake Travis, I was admiring a huge cloudline on 71 as I drove east back to Houston. I didn't realize it was huge billows of smoke stacking from a fire that had started in Bastrop. 71 was closed through the county, and we were rerouted on a detour through 95N to 290E (ugh).

Here's an article that's being updated: Statesman.com - Fires raging throughout Central Texas

Earlier today before I had left the lakehouse, it smelled like.. well, burning. I checked later on and found there had been fire in Cedar Park, a few miles away, around lunchtime. The hills were smoky and hazy and the air still acrid as I drove out in the evening.

There is a mandatory evacuation for certain areas of Bastrop County and reports of other fires north of here. I hope y'all are taking the warnings seriously and are safe. I think the fires will only get worse as long as these conditions hold fast.

[lfmerrell]

Fire Activity

Texas active fires site TAMU, just happened upon.

[r0xikat]

thanks for the link! (whoop TAMU )

.. and yikes. I'm betting most of that is from yesterday :(

[studiocygnet]

Yep, i could see the fires in Steiner Ranch last night when I got home, across Lake Austin from Steiner. They're still not letting anyone back in this morning, and my friend couldn't get home to his dogs and guitars last night. We're working on getting a boat down to his house, since he's right on Lake Austin, to get to his dogs.

[r0xikat]

Originally Posted by studiocygnet

Yep, i could see the fires in Steiner Ranch last night when I got home, across Lake Austin from Steiner. They're still not letting anyone back in this morning, and my friend couldn't get home to his dogs and guitars last night. We're working on getting a boat down to his house, since he's right on Lake Austin, to get to his dogs.

That's terrible. I hope they're okay. Let us know how it goes.

More updates at this link: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...e_updates.html

[iCe]

This was shot from my house a few minutes ago. I'm about 45 miles away as the crow flies. We had over 50 fires in a 4 county area yesterday. Most of them "pole" fires. It was so windy, hot, dry, and dusty that the power lines arc over and set everything around them on fire. They had a lot of these over in Kenedy county earlier in the summer.

Wide crop on a 24mm lens

[Nocturnus]

Yeah, we could see the Bastrop fire from my work close to 183/McNeil. I live ~5 miles east on 620 from Stiener Ranch. I started smelling some of the smoke from the Leander/CP fires not too long ago. Maybe a little ash also. Really sucks. I didn't know there was a fire down the road till this AM when I was looking at FaceBook.

[Shelby Lane]

I was just wondering about y'all, Mike. One of my friends in Smithville sent me pictures from I-10 yesterday and it looked bad up there.

Our radio has been squawking with brushfire calls and all of Victoria smells like smoke. We had one yesterday that was so hot it bent the railroad tracks.

[dmcantrell]

This is a screenshot from that TAMU site just now



:/

[iCe]

Hey Shel, I forgot y'all were in Victoria. I was looking at the map earlier and wondering how you and Laura were doing. We are fine here but it's ominous to be downwind of all of that stuff. 45 miles isn't much "downwind" so I'm keeping an eye to the north

[iCe]

Someone just put a post on FB that said the State Park in Bastrop is "gone" I hope they over stated but I'm afraid that they weren't. The piney woods there are like gasoline...

[revjvegas]

Originally Posted by iCe

Someone just put a post on FB that said the State Park in Bastrop is "gone" I hope they over stated but I'm afraid that they weren't. The piney woods there are like gasoline...

Now that really sux.

I use that park as a layover on Friday nights when I take my weekend backpacking trips out to the hill country. I'm gonna hate seeing what it looks like after the fires.

Power to the firemen who are helping to try and get these under control.

[Shelby Lane]

Oh, I hope that's not true. I'm shocked by how much smoke is in the air here, and we're not even close.

My sister's home is very near where the fires were at Stone Oak today but she says they're contained now, too.

[r0xikat]

The Bastrop fire is one of, if not THE worst of the fires. If any of you know any firemen, active or retired who can help out, PLEASE please please contact the county offices and let them know! Here is one number you can call: 512-978-1187

I got some crazy pics from a friend near Tomball and got word there's one north of the Woodlands as well. Magnolia has cancelled classes for tomorrow, following Bastrop.

yoinked from the #centralTXfires twitter feed. The Austin skyline from the west side of Town Lake. The cloud of smoke is visible from Houston:

[lhdvies]

Unbelieveable!! Keep those folks in your prayers!!!