Wildfires in Eastern Bastrop County - Part 1

Sunday evening around 6 PM from Schlotsky's in Bastrop

 At 2 PM on Sunday I decided to mop my kitchen floor (you know sticky stuff) and then swept some dry grass from our garage that had blown in because of the high winds kicked up from the north as a result of the backlash of Hurricane Lee that was 500 miles east in Louisiana. I walked outside and saw dark clouds to the south of us over the river. Wow! That looks like serious rain clouds.

Hmmm, I thought, it's either going to rain (highly unlikely) or smoke is coming from somewhere. As I panned from south to north I could see where smoke was originating. My neighbors were outside & on the phone. I checked with them but we were still uncertain as to where it was.

I immediately went inside and emailed the person who alerts our "Village" of happenings.

Hi Jeffery,
Do you know where and in what direction the fire north of Hwy 71 is headed? Will there be a notice sent out on Tahitian email keeping us informed? The wind today is horrendous. Please let us know if you know anything.

 Immediate response at 4:01:14 PM:

The fire is at HWY 21 and 1441.
It is bad.
No evacuation for Tahitian yet.
But we are packing bags. I advise you to be ready in case we have to evacuate.

Inside I tell the G-man who is watching an exciting golf match that we may have to evacuate.



At 4:05:37 PM another email from Jeffery:

FROM TVPOA - EVACUATE TAHITIAN VILLAGE NOW!

On the way into Bastrop I called my friend Betty with whom I taught school for 10 years and we retired the same year. She lives just west of Bastrop in the Cedar Creek area. I called just to let her know what is going on, but she immediately offered for us to stay with her. I thanked her and said I'd call back if it appeared we needed to do that.

By 5 PM we were on our way into Bastrop to wait word on when we could return home.

We had a sandwich at Schlotskey's, shared a coke, gave Gertie her dinner and by 7 PM the G-man said, "Let's go back home." 

 

Oddly enough the sheriff's department representatives let us into the area. We drove through to our street. An officer was there at the entrance to Alele & said we could go on down to the house which is about 1/4 mile to our home. As we drove down two houses on the right and two on the left were intact, but the house across the street from one was fully engulfed in flames and to the right another neighbor's home was an inferno. All the trees (tall pines, old oaks, and underbrush) was on fire. Just around the curve is a cul de sac on which our house and three others sit. 

We turned around to leave, told the officer what was happening and the number of our house. We drove up the hill & down the street behind our house. Five homes were still standing but just to the right of the fifth house the woods directly behind our house were completely on fire and we could see our neighbor's home at the top of the cul de sac was fully engulfed in flames. Again we turned around to leave and met another neighbor who is a Park Ranger. He said his house and our house were the only ones still standing. 

All that was at 7:30 PM on Sunday. 

From what we saw behind our house and the inferno on Monday I sincerely doubt we have anything left. The G-man said if it is still there it will be partly due to the fact that a neighbor's son and I cleared the underbrush from the pines last spring. 

 

Truthfully, even if our house survived it will no longer be home. We would have no neighbors, no beautiful tall pines, no birds. There would only be charred woods and ruins of our neighbors' houses. We now have begun to think of where we would like to live and have gotten into the groove of thinking about reinventing our lives. 

This is my first installment. Today we may get in to see what is left. 25,000 acres have burned, 5000 people displaces, and 500+ homes lost plus many ranches in the area and the beautiful Bastrop State Park. We are fine and are planning on surviving this and moving on to a somewhat different life. We have each other and our sweet Gertie Girl. Not only do we have each other, but we have had incredible support from friends in blog land, FaceBook, family, friends (especially Betty for opening her home to us), and all the people from the school where I taught in Austin (Josephine Houston Elementary).

More tomorrow or later tonight...