Prairie fires

11 years ago

For the last week grass fires have been burning in the sand hills. Ovr 65,000 acres have been burned. Original cause was dry lightning strikes. It was thought that the Niobrara river would stop it from advancing north but it managd to jump the river. There are over 3.000 firefighters there now and 4 heliopters working on it but it is only about30% contained. It may make it in to South Dakota unlwesss the get some help with rain. The entire town of Norden was burned, of course Norden wasn't much of a town but all the home were burned.

Comments (8)

lilosophie
11 years ago
That sound quite serious, George, doesn't really matter how big a town is, if it gets burned down a lot of people lost homes and property.
Are you in any danger?
Since the 2008 wild-fires in Northern California I have a bag packed with "important documents, some valuables and some keep-sakes" items, I can just grab that if I get into a situation when I've got to go.
We came close in early June, the day I had eye surgery, wildfire hot spots came to 1/4 mile from my place. scary!
Hope you stay safe!
anneliese_32
11 years ago
Wildfires scare me more than anything else, since they are completely unpredictable. Hope it rains soon.
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pamven
11 years ago
Are the cranes in the areas of the fires?
lindac
11 years ago
Stay safe George....there are supposed to be rain storms moving over the northern part of the midwest....
I don't think the cranes are in the area now....
gandle
Original Author
11 years ago
No cranes. Trumpeter swans breed in the sandhill lakes but the young ones should be O.K. the lakes are large and if they stay in the middle parts all should be well. Actually, prairie fires really don't hurt the sandhills, the hills and prairie fires evolved together over the eons and they will regrow. It is the structures that they are trying to save. The trees burned along the Dismal and Niobrara rivers where the fire went. They will too recover but slowly.
gmatx zone 6
11 years ago
Praying for rain to douse the fires enough that firefighters can get 100% containment. We can certainly empathize with people in your part of the country - we are once again living with the fear of wildfires due to continuation of the drought. Had some good rain early in the Spring but nothing since then, and pastures are looking like they did last year.

Stay prepared and safe.
meldy_nva
11 years ago
Wildfires are fourth on my list of natural events that scare me. Hurricanes, tornados and floods are far more likely in my area, although it wasn't long ago that we all could smell the smoke from wildfires in the national forest. I know that wildfires have their necessary place in nature, and man-made structures are the intruders, but we humans will still try to stop the fire and save the structure.

Keep your bags packed, and take care of yourselves.
User
11 years ago
Take care of each other you two.