So Texas is on fire, I guess

Rinder

Cue the Cheers theme.

Caveman Paws

dbrock270 wrote:

Grey Ghost wrote:

Oh somebody mentioned Alex Jones!

That means I can post this

Is he the pride of Texas?

I hope he leaves his body to science. We need to find a fix for whatever the heck he has incase it spreads.

KalTorak

Rolo wrote:

The volunteers can just smother the fires with their bodies.

Do wildfires have a preset kill-limit?

Uriel

That video...

I laughed till I cried.

captaink

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/09/the-area-of-the-texas-wildfires-versus-americas-10-biggest-us-cities/244706/#slide1

LTM

captaink wrote:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/09/the-area-of-the-texas-wildfires-versus-americas-10-biggest-us-cities/244706/#slide1

The LA/SD ones are kind of funny, since that's usually what happens every summer anyways.

Daric

In case anyone is wondering, I am still alive. I can see smoke way off in the distance but I have a bucket full of water ready to fight these flames.

Henroid

That Alex Jones video made my night.

Darmak

Hahaha, I'm the worst. I live in Texas and I haven't even bothered to see where the fires are at in relation to me.

alternatingAberration

Was at work today selln' electronics. A firefighter came in with his son looking to buy a cheap DVD player they could use while they stayed at a hotel figuring what to do after their house burned down.

Marth

Dead Legend wrote:

wonder if marth's family has been affected by these fires

Yeah unfortunately my aunt and uncle in Bastrop had to evacuate on Sunday, I think. I haven't heard if they've gotten to go back yet. The fire started spreading pretty close to their house. It'd be a damn shame if they lost it. Real nice place. The contractor who worked on my parents' property the last few weeks also lives there.

Marth

Some of you might have heard about the fire last April in southwest Austin. My now-passed grandma's house was in that neighborhood, and it was really fucking close to the edge of the fire. That fire was really sad and that was just 12 homes destroyed. This is over 700 homes in Bastrop alone. Half of the state park in Bastrop is gone.

Dead Legend

ahh that sucks marth glad to hear they're okay though

.

Tam wrote:

apparently one of my friends went to volunteer with the fire depts nearby
that stupid altruistic motherfucker

Yeah, my brother did the same.
Just when we were thinking, "Well, we're lucky it's not down here.", he decides to tell us he's off to help.
Great. I hope "Love you. Don't die." aren't the last things I say to him. How awkward.

Antimatter

http://www.bilerico.com/2011/09/arizona_cant_repeal_same-sex_benefits.php

putin' this here

woo

Henroid

I found an interactive map built on top of Google Maps that tracks where fires are.
http://www.kltv.com/link/510293/active-fire-map-tamu

There's a couple near me in Tyler, one of which is practically on top of me according to the map but I don't see any fucking smoke (and it's inside the municipal airport?). Just woke up.

Scudo

wait, I just remembered I have to go to Dallas for work on the 21st

is Dallas close to the fires

I do not want to be ablaze or otherwise on fire

Galy

Nope. Dallas is not close to the fires.

For now...

Henroid

The fires seem to be east of Dallas for the most part, as of late from what I can tell. But I mean, I am kinda biased on where I'm tracking the burnings.

I just had to get on the phone with my mother to try to explain to her that the evac orders my town was under (on the east side, I'm on the west) were lifted an hour ago. She's convinced I'm gonna burn up anyway.

Scudo

whew!

also, I've realized that I literally have no concept of Texas geography

Henroid

Dallas is over here, Austin is over thur, Houston is way down thur...

One of my friends from work (my boss) just spoke to me and if fire evac orders go up again, we're allowed to leave work. Even if I'm teasing my mom's ability to hyperventilate about things, even I'm a little nervous at this point.

rhylith

There was an extremely thick cloud of smoke over Houston today.

Well, thicker than the usual smog at least.

monsterror

I just woke up. What's the news with the Austin fires?

Mysst

vermiculture wrote:

i didn't volunteer thanks for making me look like a jerk! Also it freaks me out to be able to see smoke for two days now.

I did, however, ask my boss what our plan was in case the fire comes close to the zoo. Her response? 'get an extinguisher'.
You gotta take fire safety seriously. If there is a fire, I will be putting nine monkeys, three dillos, three sloths, and 4 chickens in my car and I am driving straight to austin to be mysst's wingman.

oh man panties be droppin for some sloths

Yukira

I figured you'd be all about the monkeys.

Henroid

Apparently there's a dude throwing burning socks out of his car to start some of the fires.

LTM

One time a friend was fucking with a lighter and set my sock on fire.

The fire crawled up the sock to the toes and never actually burned through to my foot. Wooo, textile chemicals.

Centipede Damascus

Henroid wrote:

Apparently there's a dude throwing burning socks out of his car to start some of the fires.

wait, what?

Darmak

Look, I'm not doing it to start the fires, it's just that my feet get so goddamn hot in these shoes okay?

ThreadbareSock

So, San Diego lost power. Is this a thread to mention that? There is some word that there was an explosion at a power plant way out in the desert I guess.

Henroid

ThreadbareSock wrote:

So, San Diego lost power. Is this a thread to mention that? There is some word that there was an explosion at a power plant way out in the desert I guess.

Works for me. That said, what kinda power plant is it?

Centipede Damascus wrote:

Henroid wrote:

Apparently there's a dude throwing burning socks out of his car to start some of the fires.

wait, what?

Just read about it on the local news. It's only a suspicion at the moment but witnesses have given a description of the vehicle and such so we'll see what happens.

The goddamn evac on the other side of my town is back in effect because of a new fire by the way. I'm getting nervous.

Yukira

There's a fire that started in South Bexar county near IH37 south of San Antonio, that's fun.

vermiculture

Yukira wrote:

There's a fire that started in South Bexar county near IH37 south of San Antonio, that's fun.

edit nevermind i can't read

Rolo

http://gizmodo.com/5838584/millions-in-california-arizona-and-mexico-without-power

Millions in California, Arizona and Mexico Without Power
Millions of residents in California, Arizona and Mexico are without power right now. There's no word on the cause yet, but officials say that the lights may not be back on until Friday.

A California nuclear plant has been shut down as a precaution, and the cities of Phoenix and San Diego are, essentially, a giant mess. While we don't know what caused this yet (weather and a downed line are both being put forward as possibilities) that an outage could affect such a large area is yet another argument that our nation's grid is in serious need of improvement.

Good luck, folks! I hope your lights come back on soon! [L.A. Times and Arizona Star]

huh

Yukira

vermiculture wrote:

Yukira wrote:

There's a fire that started in South Bexar county near IH37 south of San Antonio, that's fun.

edit nevermind i can't read

Put tha booze down.

Henroid

Rolo wrote:

http://gizmodo.com/5838584/millions-in-california-arizona-and-mexico-without-power

Millions in California, Arizona and Mexico Without Power
Millions of residents in California, Arizona and Mexico are without power right now. There's no word on the cause yet, but officials say that the lights may not be back on until Friday.

A California nuclear plant has been shut down as a precaution, and the cities of Phoenix and San Diego are, essentially, a giant mess. While we don't know what caused this yet (weather and a downed line are both being put forward as possibilities) that an outage could affect such a large area is yet another argument that our nation's grid is in serious need of improvement.

Good luck, folks! I hope your lights come back on soon! [L.A. Times and Arizona Star]

huh

It's unfortunate that instead of "Let's look at how the nation's power grid" this is gonna become another "OH NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS" issue.

Hopefully the shutdown wasn't over anything severe.

HallowedFaith

I'm 20 min from the falls, I don't think anything will catch here, but I am loading my vehicle up with supplies in case it gets out of control and will head down to do what I can.

If there is anyone near me and is in need of any kind of help, let me know. (I promise I am not a crazy killer, just ask my dead wife)

Mr. Buttons

Henroid wrote:

Centipede Damascus wrote:

Henroid wrote:

Apparently there's a dude throwing burning socks out of his car to start some of the fires.

wait, what?

Just read about it on the local news. It's only a suspicion at the moment but witnesses have given a description of the vehicle and such so we'll see what happens.

The goddamn evac on the other side of my town is back in effect because of a new fire by the way. I'm getting nervous.

They've brought in a suspect in Smith County, I'm assuming this is the sock guy you're talking about

Zonugal

ThreadbareSock wrote:

So, San Diego lost power. Is this a thread to mention that? There is some word that there was an explosion at a power plant way out in the desert I guess.

Big surprise, another awful thing happening in America.

Man... When we get to 2012 this shit is going to get super-worse.

Jephery

If it makes you feel better, Europe and Japan were ground to dust during WWII and they're doing pretty cool now.

To make you feel worse, 3/4's of the population around the area of modern day Iran was killed by the Mongol Hordes in the 13th century and they only recovered their pre-invasion levels around the 20th century.

I imagine we'll be ok, even if everything goes into the shitter.