permaculture

["wildedges@gmail.com" <wildedges@gmail.com>]

This is an excerpt from today's blog entry atwww.urbansurvival.com

http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm

~Hope


Texas Fire Follow-Up

Got this from a reader down in the area of the Bastrop (TX) wildfire...bit
long, but good insight into the disaster and what it's like to live
through....

Hi George,

My little town of Smithville (12 miles east of Bastrop, the fire was burning
between the two towns) survived relatively unscathed. Many thousands are
homeless now in Bastrop County, a number of which were part of the
Smithville community. We all know multiple people who lost everything. I'm
proud to say that even though we were mostly ignored and cut off from Austin
and had nearly zip for support (except the church groups that showed up and
started feeding everybody in sight) We housed and took care of our evacuees
and our little 3000 pop. town filled a warehouse with supplies for them.

(I lived on the coast after Ike and again I will say the church groups are
the first to arrive and they offer meaningful help. They beat Fema and the
National Guard into our area by DAYS.)

Hello Austin media, we are sick and tired of hearing about the 23
millionaires that lost their homes in Steiner Ranch, 2 days after their fire
was out and we were fully aflame. Really, 35,000 acres of Bastrop County and
1400 homes are GONE out here. I'm sure Buffy made it out of her exclusive
enclave with her tea cup chihuahua and her blackberry in tact.

The areas that were hit the hardest were typically subdivisions in wooded
areas with rough terrain. All identified before 2008 as really hazardous for
fire. (Counties have little or no control over developments like this.)
Smithville is not cursed with this type of development and since we are
still fairly agricultural, the areas south of Hwy 71 to the Colorado River
were mostly cleared pasture. Smithville is almost entirely located on the
south side of the river as it is the high side and does not flood. All of
that was between us and the fire. I've seen pictures of similar areas that
burned with minimal damage. The fire got to 71 a couple of miles outside of
town on Labor Day but it was stopped at the highway.

The toll in human life was minimal, but it was armageddon for the animals,
domestic and wild. Heres a tip folks, open your gates or cut your fences.
Hell, drive through them if you have to. There are pictures you don't want
to see after breakfast of large animals (like cows and horses!) dead trying
to climb trees and fences to escape the flames. There were heroic efforts
made to rescue animals. One old bird out here went back for her animals and
was clearing the fallen burning trees off the road with a tow chain to get
out. Another reported incident had someone running through the flames to cut
fences to let frantic horses escape. The horses made it out of the pasture
and then expired from smoke inhalation. Ugly, ugly stuff.

I left on Monday while I could still get to a place where my animals would
be safe. (5 goats, 3 dogs and a cat. Big fun in suburbia.) It would have
killed me to lose my critters. Many people showed up from out of the area
with stock trailers and offers to transport and house animals came pouring
in. My daughter and her boyfriend came out from Austin and helped evacuate
one friend's mom who was alone with animals in the path of the fire. They
got out just as the flames were encrouching on the road and the road was
closed behind them. Then they came and helped me with the goats. One guy
showed up at my neighbor's house who rode his horse overnight to get it out.
I gave him water and hay. People were frantic to get into the burn area to
check on their animals and to provide with them with care, feed, and water.
One of our local boys got busted trying to run a road block with feed and
water. (I'm guessing that it's standard for looters to show up with a pickup
full of hay and water.) He's kind of a local bad boy but he's everybodies
hero now.

Our volunteer firemen were simply overwhelmed by the scope and speed of the
fire. It was estimated that in some areas the fire was moving at 50 mph. How
fast can you run? The first 2 or 3 days they were on their own. At one local
fire station 20 out of 24 volunteer fire fighters had their homes either
detroyed or heavily damaged. They did what they could to evacuate people and
stopped the fire when it crossed the river. Two volunteer fire fighters
showed up where the fire jumped the river. 2. One was an old guy and the
other an 18 year old girl. They held on till help arrived. Even our girls
have balls! When 150 volunteer firefighters came in answer to our call for
help they were told to stand down and let the big boys (that would be the
feds) handle it (and the fire raged on.). Volunteer Fire Departments around
the state were standing and waiting for a call to deploy that never came.
(Shades of Katrina, anyone?) There was NO fire department in Smithville as
all our firefighters and equipment were out at the wildfire. Of course this
was when some demento decided to commit a little arson in an area we call
"the hill." My friend's grandparents live there and ignored the order to
evacuate to guard the area. (That would be with his and hers shotguns.) Note
to arsonists and looters: We are armed and cranky. Lots of fire equipment
damaged or destroyed. I guess we'll be having a bake sale for a new fire
truck. And the safety equipment that lots of our guys and gals out there
fighting the fire didn't have because, well, it wasn't in the budget.

The park employees at Bastrop State Park (that would include the guys who
scrub the potties and pick up trash) saved the CCC historic structures at
the park with heroic effort and heavy equipment donated by private parties.
I heard they carved a 1/4 mile fire break around the structures and just
kept pouring on the water. 5,900 acres "blackened". 100 acres still
standing. They held the line in the heart of the inferno. That's a story I
want to here more about.

Oh, Rick Perry. Our governor ("I care about the people of Texas") went MIA
and left the lieutenant (SP?) governor in charge so he could hit the
campaign trail and skipped the press conference to tour the smoking slag
heap that is the heart of Bastrop County ( a mere 35 miles from his office.)
I guess he was too busy getting his hair styled for an appearance on
national TV. Maybe he didn't want to explain the logic of cutting the budget
for volunteer fire departments statewide by 75% or why the big jet with the
capacity to drop 12,000 gallons of water sat on the runway for 4 days while
Bastrop County burned and was sent on to fight another fire when we were at
best 30% contained. I guess he can brag about all the jobs he "created" by
letting Bastrop County burn. (Hello Governor, how much money have you got
just lying around in the slush fund for business you call an economic
development fund? Enough for a couple of drops of water on our fire, I bet.)

Lots of things went into the making of this tragedy. The drought and the
high winds. Ill conceived development. But the economy played it's part via
underfunding our local fire departments and the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department ( donated equipment?) and the reluctance to deploy equipment
(like the jet) was a decision made at least in part due to the expense of
said deployment. This is what happens when economies and governments
devolve. It aint going to get better.

Alive and well in Bastrop County,

...and one more thng.... 2 of the three main power lines providing power to
Smithville were lost in the fire and the power plant we get our electricity
from was threatened. It was close but we kept power and never went under a
boil water notice like most of the County."