Disaster in Texas

Think of an area nine miles by five miles, destroyed. That’s what’s happened in an around Bastrop, Texas, where 45 square miles and 800 homes have been wiped out by fire:

BASTROP, Texas (AP)—Dennis Silman was in line at the store when his wife’s urgent call came through: They needed to get out. Smoke was drifting up through the woods and the wildfire that just 30 minutes earlier wasn’t near enough to pose a problem was visible over the treetops by the time he got home.

In just 90 minutes, Silman was able to make four trips loading clothes and a few important possessions into his Mustang. He could feel the blaze’s heat and hear the crackling roar as he packed his car. Less than two hours after they drove away for the last time Sunday, the Bastrop Complex fire consumed his home and six other houses of relatives who all lived within about four square miles of each other.

“My house, my sister-in-law, her brother, my mother-in-law and three brothers-in-law houses are gone,” the 53-year-old bail bondsman said Wednesday outside the county convention center where he came to find out about federal assistance. “Everything’s gone now.”

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Buck O. writes:

As a comparison, Washington DC has a land mass of 61.4 square miles.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 08, 2011 07:25 AM | Send