Tuesday, June 26, 2012

From far (enough) away

We live about 10 miles from the Waldo Canyon fire, in Colorado Springs. 

Until now, we've been praying for rain and for our fire fighters, but all we'd really seen was massive plumes of smoke rising from the canyon, and the occasional nighttime shot of flames on the hills on the OTHER side of the canyon. 

Now... the smoke is thick across town, ash falling all over our neighborhood.  People without breathing problems are having trouble with it.  Fire topped the ridges and poured down the hills toward town this afternoon.  Neighborhoods west of I-25 and north of the Air Force Academy were evacuated.  A total of nearly 12,000 people have had to leave their homes.

Also until now, one of the great triumphant silver linings about this fire was that no structures had been lost.  That was a wonderful testament to the great work of our brave and dedicated emergency personnel.  The fire has overwhelmed even their valiant efforts now.  Flying W Ranch is burning, homes are burning, people's livelihoods and memories are burning.  Luckily, as yet there are no reports of life lost. 

Across town, life continues pretty much as normal, with more coughing and more checking the sky and the news reports.  My older boys are at Cub Scouts tonight.  Outdoor events are being cancelled because of the smoke.  Most of us are pretty lucky so far, but that will only hold for so long without rain.  We NEED the moisture, we NEED cooler temperatures (it's been 90s to 100s for about a week). 

In the mean time, even as far away as we are from the projected path of the fire at the moment, we are going through our evacuation bags, packing a change of clothes for everyone (harder to keep things like that "in storage" when the kids are growing so fast), and gathering documents that we don't have in the packs yet. 

Keep praying for rain, for the fire fighters and other emergency personnel, and for the people who have been forced from their homes by the fires.

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