Storms and wildfires

Mt. Pleasant, Texas sits on a ridge between two small river systems that flow west to east and severe storms seem to split up and flow along these river bottoms/flood plains most of the time. There is only about 100 feet, maybe a little more difference in elevation but it DOES save us from the worst tornados and most of the hail stones in this region.
Although the recent tornado’s stayed north and south of Mt. Pleasant MANY homes in this area have trees that fell into them from winds that were clocked at 70 MPH straight line during the storm front on two different days back to back.
We got three inches of much needed rain and pea sized hail/sleet at our house but north and south along those river systems just 15 miles away they got between 6<10 inches (15<25 CM) of rain with moderate flooding as the rain fell mostly within a couple of 2 hour periods. Hail up to golf ball sized was reported at different locations in our small county.
The biggest issue still in West Texas are the massive wildfires. Very little of this is still making the news but as of this morning there are still 15 MAJOR fires burning out of control. Just these 15 have and are currently burning over 660,000 acres or 300,000 hectares. So far a little over one and a half million acres have burned just since January here in Texas.
A wildfire is kind of like a massive hurricane. These are spreading about 25 miles an hour at times then slow down to 5 to 10 miles per hour, they shift course with the winds sometimes heading back where they came from!
Normally this gives ranchers time to plow up fields and pastures, they also use bull dozers but prefer road graders and then the local fire departments burn off fields and pastures around people houses and farm buildings. Farmers and ranchers tend to wait too long as burning their land to create a fire break will destroy the pastures they need to feed their livestock!
Folks take their extra cars, trucks, boats, campers ETC. anything with wheels and they park these out in local farmers fields that have irrigated crops as wildfires burn around green crops…They then abandon their houses in the path of the fires, leaving behind a couple of fire fighters with a water truck to save their buildings.
After the fires burn past these rural homes the fire trucks fill back up with water and race back up the roads to save the next set of buildings! They do this 24 hours a day working in shifts for a couple of weeks now on some of these fires.
Tens of thousands of miles of barbed wire fences have been burned already. Thousands of cattle and other livestock have been killed so far.
Those tornadoes have been horrific this whole last month with several wiping out a full one mile wide swath of trees, homes basically everything in their path, a person only has a few minutes of warning normally before one of these hit you! They hop up and down sometimes as if towns are a checker board. Capturing one house and skipping another, then wiping out everything for several miles.
IF you pictured the damage caused by the West Texas wildfires it would equal a strip of land that was one mile wide and 2,400 miles long. Instead of a massive storm front approaching, you watch a wall of white smoke day after day, week after week slowly creeping your way. When you see black smoke in the wall of white then you know that a house was lost or lots of tires are burning on farm equipment.
Earthquakes, fires and storms all have similar devastation on the environment and wildlife. The effects they have on people and their lives is similar also. Not sure you ever look at life the same way if you survive a close encounter with ANY of these.
My prayers go out to all that have suffered through any of these events. May they some day once again, find peace and joy in their hearts and more importantly come to terms with the memories and images of these tragic events. I especially feel so sorry for the children who have seen these events, they lack the sense of time in their memories to be able to cope with these images and the chaos that engulfs them after the initial shock. Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas