Posted: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 03:43 PM - 9,853 Readers
By: J.R. Duren
There are two sides to the aftermath of Tropical Storm Lee.
The storm’s wake of high winds to the west has fanned wildfires in the Austin, Texas, area. Its trail of wet weather to the east soaked The Villages this past Labor Day weekend. Nature’s stark contrasts have stunned Villagers from the Austin area.
“You know what it’s like?” asked Sherri Anderson of the Village of Santo Domingo.
“I pray, ‘Lord, I don’t want all this rain for me. Please send some west to Texas.’”
Anderson spent 20 years in Round Rock, a city north of Austin and east of Bastrop County, where wildfires have burned at least 30,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of homes. Texas’ 2011 wildfire season has, to date, burned more than 3 million acres of land.
Dry, strong winds originating from a high-pressure system from Canada mixing with Lee caused Labor Day winds of up to 30 mph and rock-bottom humidity levels of 10 percent, said AccuWeather expert senior meteorologist Dan Kottlowski.
Anderson’s son owns a 7-acre ranch in south Austin, she said. A fire crew battled a blaze that approached his land earlier this week, she said.
“I told my son that, if I had any way, I’d send our rain his way because we need to share it. I have a beautiful lawn and flowers. I feel selfish even though I have no control,” she said.
Village of Hemingway resident Bob Markham watched in disbelief Tuesday morning as images of burning homes and buildings flashed across his television screen.
“I see a lot of familiar sites, and it’s not too pleasant,” Markham said.
He lived in Austin for 40 years before moving to The Villages. The fire, he said, is burning through hill country outside Austin. In dire situations like this, he said, cattle ranchers will cut their herds loose and run them ahead of the fire until the danger has passed.
“It’s heartbreaking to see things that you grew up with go up in flames and exist no more,” Markham said.
While final counts of homes, acres and lives lost are not yet fully known, Texas Forestry Department communications specialist April Saginor foresees the 2011 fire season as the worst in Texas history. Sunday’s and Monday’s fires brought record numbers for property damage to Texas, she said.
“More than 700 homes have been destroyed in the past 48 hours,” she said in an interview Tuesday. “That’s pretty devastating for 700 families that don’t have a place to go home to.”
Markham and his son Harry have been in contact with friends and family in the Austin area. Harry’s brothers live in Austin and in Elgin, a community in northern Bastrop County.
His brother Jeff Markham, who lives in Austin, said that while fires are not unusual in Texas, to have the blazes burning so close to Austin is surprising.
“It’s a very weird feeling to know that, within a few miles, there are acres of fires burning and people losing their homes,” he said.
From his home atop an elevated area in the middle of Austin, he can see smoke in several directions. Austiners, however, remain unfazed, he said.
“We have a certain level of calm,” Jeff said.
Rain is about the only thing that can quench the fires, Harry said.
Kottlowski predicts that the chance of rain in the Austin area is next to nil. The good news, he said, is that the high winds that fueled fires earlier in the week significantly decreased Tuesday and will remain mild for the next few days.
Meanwhile, The Villages will see rain this morning, he said, but for the rest of the day most of the precipitation will remain to the south of the area.
“Anyone complaining about rain in The Villages shouldn’t complain. It could be a lot worse,” he said.
