This Great State

Our great state is on fire. Literally...nearly the whole entire state. Even in my little bitty town, there have been grass fires, structure fires, and more pop up. Luckily, not near my house and fortunately they have been contained sort of quickly...for the most part. I mean, considering. Considering what these fires are doing to the rest of the state. Literally 100's of 1,000's of acres being burnt. I've heard numbers of 600-1000 houses being lost, just in one county. Bastrop area seems to be taking the worst of it right now. And the damage there is unfathomable with no end in sight. From what I hear, nearly the entire down is charred and gone. And the fire is still (after 3 days, 25,000+ acres being burned, up to 600 homes destroyed, and Bastrop State Park burned up) at 0% containment. Last I heard anyway. I think they were trying to save some of the historical sites or structures within the State Park, but I'm not sure how. This is a picture I copied from a Facebook site (Texas Storm Chasers), taken by Charles Kohlmyer, coming into Bastrop....

Scary looking isn't it? Something you might envision the end of the world looking like? Yea, me too. :(

I've joined a few Facebook pages, an Austin area news station, a "we are okay in Bastrop" site set up to connect with missing family members, and a couple of others. All to be able to keep up with the reports, the news, the damage, and the heart-wrenching stories. I have friends in those areas. Friends that have lost their homes, friends that have had to be evacuated and lots of people have lost their animals. Texas is literally burning up. I pray for rain for this great State. I pray for some relief. But mostly I pray for these people who have lost everything and for the firefighters and volunteers and workers that are going non-stop to try to stop this.

The whole situation here is scary. I have talked with others and it is the general consensus is everyone is a bit (or a lot!) on pins and needles around here, wondering when the next fire will start up...where it will be. We've been left talking about our own plan, if we had to leave our house, discussing it with the kids, explaining the situation. Its scary stuff. And definitely not out of the realm of possibility. Yesterday as I dropped Brooke off at school, there was a house on fire 2 streets over. I'm not going to lie....it made me a little nervous, leaving her there, as a house nearby was engulfed in flames (and I later learned was completely lost). As I sit here and type, I hear through my window, yet another fire truck rushing down the street and I wonder whose house is on fire, where the grass fire is now and how bad is it? Its uneasy, its unsettling. And its sad. :(

Unfortunately, I've also been hearing lots of stories (made up or not) about the lack of assistance (financial or otherwise) from the federal government. Or the government refusing to send aid or aircrafts to assist in putting out the fires. I don't know. I'm not going to get all political. However, I am slightly bothered by the lack of coverage of all of these horrific stories. In fact, the only way I can GET information is through those above mentioned Facebook sites and tribute pages. It makes me sad. As my air is filled with smoke (and trust me...that smoke smell is just everywhere right now), I am only slightly bothered by the smell, knowing that there are thousands of others not so far away that have nothing. So, join me, in continuing to pray for our State.