So I awoke this morning to a lot of smoke in our garage and of course outside of our house. We already knew the wind would shift our direction, so it was expected. What was not expected was a ring of our doorbell at 10am.
Having checked the social media this morning, I knew there was a press conference at 10am. I also know that depending on the weather, we may have to evacuate if the fire moves fast. So when the doorbell rang a little after 10am, my heart went into my chest. I hadn’t fully prepared for evacuation yet!
Little did I know, when I got to the door expecting to see a police officer, I saw a very nice UPS worker!!! I actually giggled out loud at myself! Thankfully, my Mary Kay order had come in. I wasn’t expecting it until next week! Just a little funny for the morning!
Turns out that the officials believe today to be a pivotal day. The fire will start to get under their control or it will burn out of control. Those are our options. Nice to know that those options are on the day that the fire is turning toward my house.
So, we wait. We seem to be doing a lot of that. And the great communication I spoke of in my last post, has dissipated. Something happened. All at once, all the reporting agencies just stopped updating. Possibly because of the negative comments that were coming from a few (you can’t ever seem to make everyone happy). This is very unfortunate as most were getting their information here. Now there is silence. All I can do is periodically take drives to see if the fire has reached the highway. Although I continually check for news, I am preparing as if we will receive no notice from them and no help. Not being from the area makes it difficult. We don’t know the inner workings of anything. We also don’t know how the emergency services work. Believe it or not, every area operates differently. So vigilance is the key today.
P.S. – The FedEx guy came as well today. Seriously, we don’t get packages for months and all of a sudden everyone is ringing my doorbell on the day that I am begging it not to ring!
In total, there were 4 black hawks, 2 Chinooks, 2-4 fixed wing, 1-2 DC-10s in the air dropping retardant and water. In addition there were around 300 firefighters. Other TX cities and other states contributed to the fight. Including FL and GA. TN sent the DC-10.
So, we are safe unless the weather turns against us. It is still pushing the smoke toward us. So, our entire house smells like a campfire and our eyes are red and our lungs burn. But we still have a house! Albeit, a smelly one! :p
