Central Texas Wildfires

This might be really bad. Central Texas is in the middle of the worst drought since 1854 and there are uncontrolled fires everywhere right now. 300+ homes and hundreds if not thousands of acres have been destroyed.

My Dad apparently stepped outside this evening and it was hard to breathe due to the fire in Steiner Ranch. Steiner Ranch is a beautiful part of Austin where the hill country meets the lake :(

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...2011-09-04.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...011-09-04b.jpg

http://media.kvue.com/images/use+this.JPG

http://media.kvue.com/images/wildfires09041112.jpg


Fairly sure this is a view of the Steiner Ranch fire from west side of the Lake Travis dam.
http://media.kvue.com/images/wildfires09041130.jpg


Here we see it approaching the Pedernales River, which would be good, however thanks to the drought, it's dry. As of now the increased humidity and reduced wind of the night is allowing the flame front to be contained at the river bed.
http://media.kvue.com/images/wildfires09041121.jpg

The most severe damage is in Bastrop (string of fires East of Austin), where 3+ fires simultaneously burned and 2 converged...
http://media.kvue.com/images/wildfires09041133.jpg

:(

Dammit, I'm such a newbie. Can someone move this to work safe discussions please?

holy crap that is insane!

:( That is sad to see.

Apparently an area the size of Connecticut has been destroyed. 500 homes in Bastrop, 30 in Steiner Ranch, a few more in Leander, etc, etc...

That is just crazy!

Hope everyone stays safe. And I know this sounds selfish, but I really hope the same does not happen in the DFW area.

-john

wow nuts! :( reminds me a lot of the fires we had! :(

We've been keeping an eye on it on the news...were so hopeful that the hurricanes would bring rain. Still a chance, so hopefully a really good rain will head that way. For those in TX, please keep us posted on your welfare and that of family nearby.
Thanks for posting this, Adam. It hurts to see, but folks need to know. I wish there were more we could do.

Ha... Yeah, we would have been celebrating if Irene hit Texas.

I'm just glad I visited the Bastrop state park before it was entirely burned to the ground!

We have family near there and on the south side in Buda. The smoke is really bad. Thankfully their home is safe. They are worried though... With the drought fires like this can spark up anywhere.