Florida on Fire

[JackL]

Down here in Broward, taking my son and neighbor to school.  The neighbor kid says, "wow, look at the moon, way cool", and I looked and said no, that's the sun.  They were like whoa....  It did look pretty wild, like a big red ball in the sky. 

I know what you mean about those maps, let's see before we were known as the hurricane state, now we are known as the red planet. 

All we can do is pray for a God's miracle of a lot of rain.  They just put us in phase 3 water restrictions, us and PB I believe.  Can only water on Sat for odd number homes, and Sun for even number homes.  They are talking about phase 4, which I have no idea what that is.  If you ask me, if they are so concerned about the water usage, they need to enforcing the ones that they have.  I constantly see so many people just ignoring the water restrictions, and usually it is a business.  If the don't enforce it, what is the sense of having them.

Bring on the rain......

The sunset was truly incredible last evening. I could only stand in awe of it as it slipped down the western horizon.

Weird thing about all this, not a lick of smoke was seen out at Macs yesterday.

Phase4 means you can water one day out of the week, but I ask you all to refrain because all the gators are piling up in the last remaining waterholes and it is making riding more scary than ever.
The grass will green up when it starts raining in only three more weeks....crossfingers

Yea but they just put us (including you) on Phase 3, effective May 16th, can only water one day a week.  Now they are talking about possibly phase 4.  So I guess phase 4 is that you can only have rock gardens, because there will be zero watering? 

Yikes, I guess you are right. Personally, I don't have sprinklers and have never needed them. I just got 1.5" rain the other day, my plants are all green and smiling again. It was getting bad though.
Two or three weeks from now we will be crying about the daily rainstorms, :crossfingers

I wonder if code enforcement will be running around citing people for brown lawns...? LOL

[FoxHondaRider]

I saw that this morning I was like that sun is looking real weird.  Its stil so smokey here everywhere you look its like fog.

[Palmettobay_recon]

It's driving me crazy WHERE'S THE MUD?!! lol. The hump is like a dust bowl.

[gearhead400]

So i feel like i've been smoking for 20 years. This sucks.

[mrbones]

I just spent 4 hours in my garage in this smoke trying to get my '73 ST90 running. I got a massive headache and can't seem to think anymore. I thought it was going to get better later in the day, but it looks worse here in north Tampa. Time to stay inside!!

[americanhighlander]

Wildfires in our area even north of lake city FL area!!

I took a day off today from vocational school in Lake city
and this morning around 10:30am I took some two photos
showing how bad the smoke here at house here.http://uploadingit.com/files/497/picsmoke.JPG
I know it was pretty bad you can even smell the smoke in the house
and went to pick up my sister in Branford and they evacuate all schools in Suwwanee County today.

I'll talk my friend on the phone while ago in Lake city he's about 5 or 6 miles from where the wildfire is outby
I10 and that wildfire is going to hit the whole entire Lake City in the next few days my friend told me on the phone while ago
he was watching the local news in Gainesville channel 20 plus I'm watching it right now to get an idea what the heck going on here.

I know they were saying on the news today the smoke from North of Lake city can be seen
all the way down Miami and Tampa Bay areas. Today I left the house today to go to perry which is about 40 to 50 miles
almost right near Keaton beach area and how to stay over there for three or four hours to shop at a local Wal-Mart and walked around in a Kmart
to relief from the smoke it was killing me over here in McAlpin, Florida area and
over there by the Gulf the air was pretty cleaner over there today. Around 12 o'clock this afternoon, my friend from Lake city called me
earlier today on mom's cell phone he was telling me the smoke was pretty bad and pitch black outside and he saw falling ashes leaves
and parsley weeds sticks this morning. Last night here at the house I could see small tiny and ashes landing on my mom's car
look like little snowflakes, but I haven't seen this kind a wildfire with falling ashes like this since back in 1998.

They were talking about this Sunday is going to rain, but probably possibly not because every time the rain has been trying do this for the last three months
has been drying off the Gulf. Before I came home today from Perry here at house, I saw a cnn news helicopter heading east from McAlpin to Lake City looks like,
I guess we are going hit national news tonight the way it looks like the way the wildfires going on over Lake City.

I was listening to the local radio all day today and the guy from big 98 from the kicking Kevin guy
and one of his friends saying on the radio this afternoon telling other friends we need Gatorade rain
to do some rain dances, I heard people all over live Oak on the radio station was donating some Gatorade
to the Columbia County firefighters the ones are fighting the wildfires over in northern Columbia County today
and I was watching the news while ago the whole entire northern Columbia County is burned up complete gone
North Interstate 10. There are alot of people are having alot side effects from the smoke today such as alot of headaches and
choking out there lungs today.


Thanks,
Richard

Right now, it's pretty less  smoke here since early today.
You  guys should goto  the tates hell
this weekend bescuase the air is cleaner over there.
Yeah the air was pretty darn toxic today the way it smells..



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http://www.lakecityreporter.com/
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FIRE BULLETIN, 6:18 P.M., FRIDAY: Winds remained calm in Columbia County between the hours of 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., the timeframe officials feared might spark the fires with gusty breezes. That didn't happen and officials said the fires remained slow-burning with about 82,500 acres involved. Officials said firefighters were holding their own with the blaze and hoping for continued good weather.

UPDATE, 6:07 P.M., FRIDAY: The U.S. Forestry Service closed all areas of the Osceola National Forest north of Interstate 10 to public use. A federal mandate was set issuing the order on Friday afternoon. The order remains in effect until further notice. The mandate was issued because of the extreme fire danger in the forest. The Osceola National Forest covers 142,000 acres in several counties in North Florida. Law enforcement personnel and firefighters performing their job duties are exempt from the mandate.

UPDATE, 4:59 P.M., FRIDAY: An automated calling system at the sheriff's office has inadvertently instructed many residents in Columbia County to evacuate their homes. Many random residents received calls in the middle of the night from the computer recording. The system malfunctioned and has been repaired. The mandatory evacuation area continues to be north of Interstate 10 in the vicinity of U.S. 441.

This satellite photo of Florida taken Friday afternoon shows smoke bleeding into the state from Georgia and from fires in Columbia County. Nearly 300 square miles in Florida and Georgia have been charred and the blazes continue. Sub-tropical depression Andrea, which was recently downgraded, spins in the Atlantic, but did not provide any significant rain to Florida. NASA/Associated Press
Look at pic We are in smoke..
http://www.lakecityreporter.com/content/articles/2007/05/11/news/top_story/news01.jpg

[americanhighlander]

I just came from Live Oak about an hour ago it was pretty dang bad
you couldn't  see the high school and whole entire Live Oak is cover with intense white smoke
and people wearing cover masks and all the crazy teenagers are playing out in streets in  this kind of stuff. 
The news media is not showing very much on TV
it's only the local news stations in Florida are  showing alot of it, especially on Gainesville Station channel 20
and I haven't seen this bad here before here on the farm since back in 1998 when they had that wildfire down there in mayo florida near the Mallory Swamp area back manys years ago.

Last night, the smoke was here in house again
and I couldn't sleep last night very much here because I was   having so much headaches
from breathing smoke last night and I watch my show around like 11 o'clock last night
and took a shower and went to bed and cover the covers over my face and around seven o'clock this morning I woke up again
I saw orange flare skies to the east of here on the horizon and I went back to bed I didn't got up until 10 o'clock this morning.
I was watching the weather Channel this morning the Florida Highway Patrol was on TV this morning in Columbia County
that's over in Lake city area and I'll I was talking with my friend yesterday about wildfires he has a camper in case the wildfires get worse over his house
but I invited him to stay if he gets evacuated in case the worst scenario that happens.

But right now, about 25 minutes ago my weather radio went off and they were saying
they  shut down I10 and I75 between and they said the wildfires in that area from the smoke was so bad
from dense fog and same here in  Live Oak too you couldn't see 3 miles of it.

But, if smoke gets pretty bad here again  if i can't breathe again like what happened last night.  Then i'll
evacuated ASAP stay somewhere else like a hotel or storm shelter to relief the smoke.

Right now, I'm leaving the air vents on for the rest of the day to air out the smoke,
but it ain't so bad right now from last night's smoke was pretty bad you can breathing in house.
Yeah, the stores here in Live Oak you can see the smoke coming through the the air-conditioned vents
here at Winn-Dixie grocery store and that's how bad smoke outside but the way it looks like they probably will shut down whole entire live Oak soon
they shut down whole entire stores here in Lake City today due to the smoke from the wildfires to the north of them.

Well, here's a video to give you an idea how bad the smoke is here in McAlpin during 1pm et this afternoon
here at the house so it's all over youtube right now.


(Video1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww9USzTKxmM

(Video 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NooCY-FJji4

[americanhighlander]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070513/ap_on_re_us/wildfires

Fla. highways remain closed due to fires 22 minutes ago
 


LAKE CITY, Fla. - Authorities briefly reopened two highways crossing north Florida into Georgia on Sunday before dense wildfire smoke forced them to again halt traffic, while hundreds of Florida residents waited to return to their threatened homes.

   
 
 
Officials said Sunday that the wildfire that had raced through the Okefenokee Swamp in southeast Georgia and into Florida had charred more than 233,700 acres — or about 365 square miles — since it was started by lightning a week ago.

Officials warned that storms in the forecast Sunday could bring either much-needed rain or lightning.

Authorities reopened 90 miles of Interstates 75 and 10 for a couple of hours Sunday morning after wind helped push the heavy smoke away from the highways. But they were later forced to close 35 miles of I-75 from the Florida-Georgia state line to Lake City, Fla., as well as a 40-mile stretch of I-10 in Florida, from Live Oak to Sanderson.

A 15-mile stretch of I-75 from Valdosta, Ga., to the Florida state line remained open Sunday.

About 570 residents were not being allowed to return to 150 homes evacuated between I-10 and the Florida-Georgia state line.

Firefighters working Saturday and through the night to control the blaze got help from previous prescribed burns near Lake City, Florida officials said.

"The fire burned into an area of the Osceola National Forest that had done a prescribed burn in the winter, so there was less fuel to burn," said C.J. Norvell, part of a joint federal-state forestry management team.

The fire started May 5 in the middle of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. It took just six days to grow larger than another wildfire that has burned nearly 121,000 acres of Georgia forest and swampland over more than three weeks. The small fire was started by a tree falling on a power line.

The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Georgia's Steven C. Foster State Park inside it remained closed.

Haze from the fires had traveled as far south as the Miami area, about 340 miles away.

Elsewhere, a blaze feeding on drought-stricken forest in northern Minnesota was only 15 percent contained as of Sunday. Meteorologists said there was a 40 percent of thunderstorms Sunday. They could produce the first significant rainfall in the parched area in almost a week, but the hope of rain was outweighed by the threat of wind gusting to 25 mph.

"We don't think the rain is going to help us a whole lot," said Mark Van Every, a spokesman for the firefighting effort.

The fire had closed about half of the 57-mile-long Gunflint Trail, a key route from Grand Marais into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness that is dotted with resorts and lake homes.

Officials said Sunday the fire had destroyed 133 buildings, including 61 residences. They estimated the value of buildings lost at $3.7 million.

Off the coast of Southern California, continued cool weather Sunday helped firefighters on Santa Catalina Island maintain control of a blaze that had threatened the resort community of Avalon.

The 4,200-acre or 6.5-square-mile fire was 69 percent contained Sunday and was expected to be encircled by Tuesday evening, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Scott Ross said. One home and six businesses burned Thursday but no one was seriously injured.

Businesses were open again in the seaside resort town of Avalon as most of the 4,000 evacuated residents had returned to the island, where damage was estimated at $2.1 million.
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Well the rain isn't happing here today yeah the weather is all a lied,plus smoke
is start to building up here again it was alot less smoke this morning.Now it's getting worst
with smoke here.