Beautiful Lake Tahoe Still Burning
Gusty winds have caused the ongoing Lake Tahoe fire to jump barrier lines today. 2000 more residents are literally running from their homes. The fire is facing winds that are much greater than those that caused the fire to spread. It seems incredible doesn’t it, that a Lake area can actually burn? It’s a scary thought for Michigan residents, especially when it’s been dry around here.
Monday I was in a shopping area at Allen and West Rds., and passed a median in a parking lot, covered with what apparently was some pretty dry mulch that was smoking and on fire. Someone may have innocently flicked a cigarette butt out his or her window. I think we need to watch where we use any type of fire on hot, dry days like this, especially since we know that lake areas can burn.
I caught a little bit of an interview with a person who lost his home in one of the fires that admitted he used to think and practice what many of us still think and practice; it isn’t me, isn’t going to happen to me, or it doesn’t concern me. And then it happens. He said the reality is numbing. There is absolutely nothing left of a lifetime. Everything is in cinders or melted. He and his family are displaced. They are going through any savings they had, waiting for insurance benefits to kick in. They have pets and need to find housing. They have very little in clothing. The reality is devastating.
I think we need to concentrate on important things in the news. There are fellow citizens everywhere whose lives are being ripped out from under them because of natural disasters. Texas is flooding; the Missouri area has been flooding. Fires in Florida really took a toll in the Lake Okeechobee area. The news reports these things of course, but immediately following new clips like this, is the latest news about Paris Hilton. With all the important things going on in the world, when a 16 year old married her 40-year-old coach from high school, abcnews.com got 80,000 hits on that one piece. What’s wrong with this picture? Everyone’s got an opinion about a 16 and 40 year old marrying, but nothing about all the cuts being made in the federal budget that affects our lives and our environment? Or maybe it’s because government news isn’t being reported as readily as it should be. What is reported appears to be watered down. Does anyone else think we’re getting selective news in the media these days?
June 27th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Your point about what’s important in the news is very real and even more scary. We’ve been real lucky here in Michigan when it comes to natural disasters (and I use that term of “natural” loosely). We’ve had some tornadoes but those were very isolated and impacted small areas. People aren’t going to sit up and take heed until something completely unbelievable happens to them and unfortunately, that usually means a live altering event. Now that is a headline grabber!
Keep the information coming because some of us are listening!
June 28th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Thanks. And you would know only too well the devastation from the weather. Your friends, the Landry’s lost everything to Katrina. How are they doing?
You know I just got a really great e-mail from someone who reads my blogs. It’s kind of tough when we don’t know who is actually reading our stuff. There are so few comments. She said there is a farm on the way to Dundee, on Dixon Rd, near where you used to live where the cows are surrounded by pastures but are always confined in the same pen, in their own filth. It’s a beef farm of all things. Cows eating their own waste is a pretty good source of e-coli in my book. I hope someone alerts the farmer that people are noticing the conditions of his farm. It’s been there awhile. Know anything about it?