On My Mind

Margaret - interesting stories about your fire experience. I'm glad your animals were ok. Forest fires are another thing. They can "crown" meaning burn from tree top to tree top and that way travel very fast and "jump" a river. Northern Alberta is mainly forest and there are many resources such as the oil sands which are developed. The city of Fort Mc was developed to accommodate oil sands workers and the increased services for them. It was nothing to do with living in nature as such.

Firefighters have been taken off the fire lines as it is too dangerous there, so now they relying on whatever can be done by air. The northbound lanes on the highway are closed and the southbound open for evacuees. The fire has grown to over 20,000 ha since this morning (doubled). The wind is shifting to push the fire away from the city. That's the good news.

My dd and her hub are south of the fire now. Middle son and wife are still there and will wait until an evac order is given for their area, if it happens.

For sure tornados, floods, earthquakes and all can be terrifying and cause a lot of damage.

Thanks to all for prayers. I would hate to see a repeat of 2016.

Nacy,

Yeah, tough times for New Orleans residents.

Needs, thanks so much for sharing your story. A tour bus drove us through the hard hit area, showed us a house , with yellow spray paint markings, as for how many dead, and other things. It feels so unreal that , that all happened.

Way,

Yeah, your area is different than here, Alabama and Florida.

We are below sea level but if our levees hadn’t broken the damage would have been far less.

Nacy,

Things are different after Katrina. Before Katrina many people did what we refer to as vertical evacuation. Going to relatives or friends who have an upstairs and riding out the storm. Katrina wasn’t a storm to ride out.

I was swimming at a friend’s house when my godson called me on my cell phone and said. “Hey, they just did a special alert on television. Are you going to get your mom to evacuate? The storm is heading directly for us.”

I thanked him for calling me and I immediately went to Mom’s house to pick her up. We didn’t have a lot of time to pack up much.

Rooms were booking up quickly, but we were able to get a hotel suite in Texas. Since we were in Texas, I called a friend of mine that lived near me in New Orleans before she moved to Houston to have lunch.

She insisted that she wanted us to go and stay with her. She lives in a huge Texas mansion. She is a sweetheart. She had people before us staying with her and people after we left staying with her.

When we were watching the footage of the storm on television, we could see that Mom’s house was in a hard hit area. Mom was devastated but we were all glad to be alive. So many people died in Katrina.

It was strange when we were able to return to the city. New Orleans looked like a war zone. Nothing was in operation.

Seeing my childhood home completely destroyed was quite emotional for me.

The bizarre thing was that my graduation photograph was the only thing that was remaining on the wall! It was crooked but it was still on the wall.

My godson laughed and said that I was a survivor for sure when he saw my picture on the wall.

Need,

usually the hurricanes are weaker by the time they reach up north . But we have had some bad ones too . But we don’t live below sea level like your city , flooding isn’t usually as bad as it is by you . Winds bring down big trees and power lines . The closest I ever lived to the beach on Long Island was about 3 miles and my house was on a hill ,we never flooded .
I now live in a large valley in PA. Lots of creeks do flood often . I bought a house on a street that is up high on a hill about a half mile from frequent flooding , so I’m good .
However when it floods we do have to take other routes to get places .
Also water doesn’t burn you . Fire is the worst IMO .

Needs, I can't even imagine how scary hurricane season must be for all of you down there

Way,

After going through hurricane Katrina, I am not as willing as you are to take hurricanes that easily! 😝

Mom lost her home in Katrina. Nine feet of water in it after the levee broke.

I was almost 10 years old when hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans. We had water in the streets but not in our house. The power was out for a few weeks. My parents were the only ones that had a gas refrigerator and neighbors brought food to our house for us to store.

Betsy was a fierce storm but it was nothing compared to the destruction of hurricane Katrina.

Just saw a clip on the news about a scam that is going around about charging for a toll service. When people click on the link they are scammed.

Geeeeez, what next?

I have been getting repeated texts saying that I have a package that couldn’t be delivered and that they are holding it. A link is attached.

My husband gets these texts messages on his phone also. We aren’t waiting for any deliveries. It’s yet another scam.

I have had my gmail account hacked before and a loan was made in my name. I don’t click on anything! The scammers do the online overnight loans.

These overnight loan companies don’t verify information and they approve the loan. I have since blocked my credit with all three credit bureaus.

The detective that handled my case said that he had a room full of cops working on fraudulent cases.

It’s hard to keep up with all of these scams!

I’ll stick with my Northeast US hurricanes and snowstorms thank you . Not that brush fires don’t happen here , they do.
But it’s rare that they are so severe . I don’t like the occasional tornadoes . The occasional earthquakes here are mild so far .

Margaret, I was wondering about your animals, but didn't want to hear the answer. 🙂‍↕️ So glad it all worked out and your stock was all ok. Hope you never have to go through anything like that again!

Margaret,

Glad your stock did well. That’s an amazing story.

Interestingly, it wasn’t ‘incredibly scary’ at the time. We knew what we were doing, we were very calm about it. When the flames got too close (in the paddock about 30 feet away) it was time to go inside to avoid the radiant heat (which is a killer). Tony just said “inside now” quietly and in we went for 15 minutes while the front passed. Very very stressful afterwards, and everything stank for days. Fire kept breaking out in tree trunks and roots for a few days – smoke coming out of the ground, most disconcerting!

No-one asked about the stock!! That’s in spite of many site comments about me being a bit cold-blooded about dealing with ferals. It’s all relative, isn’t it? All our sheep ‘saved themselves’ and none had to be shot. We had also opened all the right gates in advance so that they had options to choose from – stony ground, bare tracks etc. But that was a bit of a miracle. A neighbor a couple of miles away had no feed but a fenced area, and we moved them down the road and fed out there for a few weeks, until we got some of the fences repaired. The roving police turned a blind eye to us, the sheep and the non-road-registered quad bikes we were using to move them, the morning after the fire.

Lots of issues to remember. Best wishes again, Margaret

Margaret, that's must of been incredibly scary!

I'm feeling a little guilty for complaining about are air quality last year, in NY

It was disturbing, seeing and tasting the smoke , knowing that things where burning up for are Canadian neighbors.

Well at least I know it's coming this year

Margaret,
So sorry about the fires in your area. It is devastating to endure these kinds of natural disasters.

Nacy,

They are delicious! 😋

We live with serious fire risk every summer, and have had two serious farm fires plus a burned down house, so we always check the internet regarding USA and Canada west coast fires. The differences between that and our experience in South Australia are very noticeable.

We are staggered to see internet pictures of houses surrounded by trees, access tracks with trees on both sides, built at the top of slopes - fires go faster up slopes, you won’t get a fire truck up a track burning on both sides, and a house surrounded by trees is undefendable. No wonder people are told to evacuate! We have instructions on how to survive if you don’t evacuate, and houses that are well prepared and actively defended are first priority for the firies to help. We saved our farmhouse, when the second house on the property burned down flat – we had decided in advance which one to save, and we knew exactly what to do. I was ‘showered’ by the water bomber that came to help at the end. Afterwards, every boundary and paddock fence was totalled – stock everywhere!

I can’t help but wonder about the planning rules for new west coast developments, and about the information that is freely available about fire risks. ‘Surrounded by nature’ sounds nice, until nature is on fire. It’s awful, but even more awful than it ought to be. The more places at serious risk, the thinner the resources are stretched. I sincerely hope that you cope as well as possible, and that everyone else involved also copes successfully. Very best wishes, Margaret

Oh a blast!!! Just made some beingnets 😃

Nacy,

New Orleans relies heavily on tourism. Yes, things are expensive for the most part and especially in tourist areas.

I hope that you had a good time while visiting.

Golden ,
sorry just saw this , I hope your family are safe and the fires subside . It seems like the fires just ended from last time . 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Needs, I was wondering if it is always that expensive in new Orleans. We where on vacation so we where not going to let it change what we wanted , but omg ate once on bourbon street, that was ridiculous. NY is high so I wasn't to shocked but 😲

Also I expect it in NY because are minimum wage is so high. Your is ridiculously low. Where's the money going to ?

Golden, sending more prayers. (((Hugs)))

Oh, Golden, this Californian so sympathizes. What a worry. I just heard how bad the fires are this a.m. I avoid news almost all the time, but this is one time I got it.

Fire is showing 13 km from the highway so they should be able to get through okay, it's good they are going early. You know very well waiting for an official evacuation order is not always the wisest choice.

Golden, I'm so sorry, that has to be so scary, I pray your family is ok , and everyone in Canada!

I can't imagine going through that. Please keep us posted

Golden,

Prayers sent for you and your family to remain safe.

My dd has just called to say they are packing up and leaving town. She can see red and it's getting scary, I'm glad they are and hope and pray the road stays open for them to get south as the fire is moving towards it. We know from past experience how quickly it can move. Middle son and fam are ready to go if it gets worse. They are further from the fire All prayers appreciated.

cw,

Lord, I proofread and somehow my stupid autocorrect plays tricks on me. I swear it is hexed! LOL 😝

I hope that you know that I typed mediate and not meditate. My autocorrect is DUMB!!! Why in the world would it be changed to meditate? LOL 😝

Golden,

Natural disasters are always a concern for many of us. It seems like every area has there issues. Ours is hurricanes, flooding and occasional tornadoes.

Wildfires are very frightening. Sending prayers for people in your area to be safe. I agree with evacuation when it becomes necessary.

I'm sorry for the fam dram, cw. It does seem to come out during illness and after someone passes. B@tsh%t crazy usually makes for trouble.

On my mind here, the Ft Mc wildfire grew from about 6500 hectares to over 9500 hectares yesterday. The winds are pushing it towards the city and they are expecting a difficult fire fighting day today. Not a good scenario. I wouldn't like to see the people of Ft Mc go through another evac.