| Author | Message | ||
     Etennuly |
The city of Gatlinburg Tn burned last night. There have been nearby fires in the Smokey Mountain NF for weeks with the droughts we have been having in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina and North Georgia. Several of you saw and smelled the smoke when you went to Buellvemberfest. Well it got worse. It was the perfect storm of super dry ground, no wind for weeks leaving dry leaves on the trees, and spotty wild fires. The rains were finally coming from the South West but ahead of that was a day of high winds. The fire near Chimney Tops hiking trail, about ten miles from Gatlinburg had been burning for a couple of weeks. With no wind it hadn't moved or grown much. Then came the winds yesterday that blew the fire around with seventy mile per hour gusts. It jumped from mountain to mountain spreading like WILDFIRE! Lsst night over 100 homes had burned and the fires spread into the down town. Thirty inside the city business buildings burned including stores, motels, restaurants and a 16 story hotel. There are probably several more. They are still burning today. There are only about 100 available fire fighters working on it. National Guard is on the way. My place is about 30 miles North of Gatlinburg in the direct path of the smoke, and the fire itself, if the rains had not dampened things. The smoke cloud was chokingly thick here. The fires are not out, just dampened for now. Supposed to be more rain coming tonite. With that will be high winds again and lightning which may spark more fires. Gives us a taste of California's Santa Anna wind fires. This was not the only location burning. There are several entire mountains burning in the region. Wild Fires IMHO are worse than hurricanes and tornado that we faced on a regular basis when we lived in Florida. Many people were trapped in their mountain retreat cabin homes because they were miles from any fires that had been burning for days. But guess what they learned.....seventy mile per hour winds carry the fire at seventy miles per hour! DOH! Several of them had phone camera footage of driving through fires on both sides of the road as they fled down the narrow twisty mountain roads. | ||
| 86129squids |
We're watching the 12pm news right now, they said that the mountains saw 87MPH winds! We were standing outside yesterday afternoon on my deck, and a tin roof section on the back of my neighbor's house almost peeled off... I ran over and threw a few bricks on top to secure it. A news story last week said that it's estimated that 70% of these fires were arson... Governor Haslam has vowed to chase and prosecute any arsonist. The core of downtown is OK, but the spur is gone, hundreds of buildings, homes, cabins, homes are gone. Pictures online are just amazing... this is a disaster. The National Guard has been called in, fire crews from all over the state are coming in. Edit: The mayor of Gatlinburg says he probably lost his home, family's OK. No one except fire, emergency, National Guard and LEO's are allowed into Gatlinburg at this time... I'm fearing that there will be loss of life. Three severe burn victims were flown to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville... Prayers up for these folks. (Message edited by 86129squids on November 29, 2016) | ||
| Etennuly |
Hats off to those firemen. Still fighting 13 structure fires in Gatlinburg. So many homes and businesses around Gatlinburg are just gone. | ||
| Hughlysses |
It's crazy that they think most of it was caused by arson. What the hell is wrong with people? | ||
| Pwnzor |
To me, throwing a cigarette butt out the car window is arson. These FVC|<iNG A55H0LES who throw their stupid cancer sticks everywhere should be held down and have them ground into their eye sockets. | ||
| Etennuly |
Three dead so far eleven injured in hospitals. | ||
| Fb1 |
Language warning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGhTegzVi-M | ||
| Glitch |
 This is at the property. The fire is about 5 miles away. | ||
| 86129squids |
Dave- you should be getting good rain very soon. But- LOTS of it, there is a good chance of mudslides and flooding now, through late morning and afternoon here... Craptastic. | ||
| Glitch |
We got rain today for the first time in months! Thank goodness! Tomorrow too it seems. Supposed to be an inch or two. | ||
| Etennuly |
Day two of some rain. Now we have tornado and hail warnings!! Wholly shitballs! Got to pay the price for all of that nice weather we have had for months. | ||
| Glitch |
Dry weather for months. The creek dried up a couple weeks ago. Our neighbors well did too. Our spring is/was still going though. The rains will help. I'm more worried about the mud slides than tornadoes. Looks bad to the north. spell check makes me look regarded (Message edited by glitch on November 30, 2016) | ||
| Pwnzor |
We're getting a taste of what California gets almost every other year. Step 1: Burn Step 2: Rain Step 3: Flood / Mudslide The only part we're missing now is the earthquakes. That was a crazy video... I remember as a child in California, my parents took me out to Lake Elsinore and all the hills around Corona were on fire. It was so windy, the flaming debris was flying over 8 lanes of highway while we were being escorted through by Highway Patrol. It was scary, but it wasn't as close to us as this guy escaping from Gatlinburg, literally driving through fire. | ||
| Etennuly |
Two people killed in the storms that came through during the night. Some amazing stories of survival coming out from the fire areas. One in particular was a legless man who called for help to evacuate. No one was available to get to him. Being surrounded by flames he escaped by riding his battery powered handycapped cart three miles through the fires like the guys in the truck did. Amazing. Now the issue will be flooding. Not a good week for the good folks of the area. | ||
| Ltbuell |
..was living in the East Bay of California when they had that fire in the Oakland hill...just over the hill from where we lived.Less than 3 miles away. Man, couldn't breath the air ..it was really thick with smoke and you could see all of the ash particles and stuff all over anything that didn't move.....pretty bad when i went up on top of the Oakland Hill after it was all out to survey the carnage....WOW the destruction...burnt out vehicles,homes and all the mess.....Etennuly, positive thoughts and prayers your way and to all those there as well....expecially the fire fighters.....LT | ||
| 86129squids |
Rain gauge shows 3+ inches so far, rain still coming down HARD, thunder and lightning too... after months of drought, we have all this in less than a week. Yesterday was actually beautiful weather here, I had the day off. After watching all the news, I took off on the Beemer into Walland- they had suffered for the past few weeks with wildfires there. There's a great little backroad that leads from Blount to Sevier counties- East Miller's Cove/Walden's Creek road, depending which county you're in- I took it all the way into Pigeon forge, where it meets with Wear's Valley road (TN321). Decided to roll on up to mile marker 8 on the Parkway then turn around... Wow.   By that time the smoke was getting to where I didn't want to be there, I was glad to head home. Saw fire trucks from all over... and STILL hundreds of vehicles heading into town! Surely many of these were folks trying to get to loved ones... Prayers up, continually. I had a great day in the saddle, but I was preoccupied with thought of the poor folks in Sevier county who have lost so much. And... then there's the kid who found the burnt page from a Bible. Joel 19-20. Wow, again. | ||
| 86129squids |
..."To me, throwing a cigarette butt out the car window is arson. These FVC|<iNG A55H0LES who throw their stupid cancer sticks everywhere should be held down and have them ground into their eye sockets." +1000. When Marcia and her buddy head over the mountain on TN441 to Cherokee, invariably they'll see some @sshat flick a ciggy butt out the car window. IDIOTS. Forgot to mention- RIGHT after I'd turned around, I got behind an old lady, with a Sevier county handicapped tag... as she yakked away on her cell phone, she'd puff her ciggy, then flick ashes out the car window. Puff/yak/flick, puff/yak/flick. I REALLY wanted to kick her door in.  | ||
| Fb1 |
It's crazy that they think most of it was caused by arson. Hugh, any new news in this regard? | ||
| Pwnzor |
I know a guy... not ME, you understand... but a GUY that I know... who keeps a dollar's worth of pennies in his left jacket pocket when riding. Dipshit cagers get a fistful across the windshield. This is not ME. It's SOMEBODY ELSE... I would never do ANYTHING like that.  | ||
| Mtnmason |
I know a guy... not ME, you understand... but a GUY that I know... who keeps a dollar's worth of pennies in his left jacket pocket when riding. Dipshit cagers get a fistful across the windshield. This is not ME. It's SOMEBODY ELSE... I would never do ANYTHING like that. I'm not morally opposed to that. I did hear somewhere that steel ball bearings send a much clearer message. We've been getting smoke all the way over here in the Durham / Chapel Hill area. Nov. 18th in particular was very hazy. I lived in Boone way back when. Miss the hell outta that area. You folks out there be safe! | ||
| Crusty |
I know a guy... not ME, you understand... but a GUY that I know... who keeps a dollar's worth of pennies in his left jacket pocket when riding. Dipshit cagers get a fistful across the windshield. This is not ME. It's SOMEBODY ELSE... I would never do ANYTHING like that. I know a guy who carries used spark plugs in his jacket. He claims that the ceramic insulator of the spark plug causes windshields to shatter explosively when hit at highway speeds. I have no way of either proving or disproving this claim, but if it's true, it would be a pretty spectacular sight. | ||
| Pwnzor |
I've heard of the spark plugs breaking windows, and a guy I know might have some experience in that area... However... The other guy I know, with the pennies, told me himself that he's not trying to break windows, just scare the shyte out of an idiot who isn't paying attention while driving. And if, by some miraculous secondary benefit, the car were to crash off the road or over the side of a bridge, then a few pennies on the ground might never be traced back to him. Neither, I suppose, would a spark plug. | ||
| 86129squids |
... my $.02:  I've always laughed at the dumptrucks painted with "KEEP BACK 500 FEET"...  | ||
| 86129squids |
A bit of levity... http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/30/ 503881528/swedish-revelers-get-their-goat-again-as -holiday-tradition-meets-annual-arson | ||
| Torquehd |
ceramic insulator of the spark plug It only works with broken pieces of ceramic. But it is VERY effective. Don't ask how I know. | ||
| Tootal |
OK, so what does a goat have to do with Christmas? Do the Swedes enjoy goat as the Christmas dinner like we do ham and turkey? Maybe some folks consider it an idol that takes away from the true meaning of Christmas, so they burn it down. I have a friend in Norway, I'm going to ask her if she knows of this tradition. You have enticed my curiosity! | ||
| Ratbuell |
A single 9v battery also works. Square. Bounces funny. Has spinning corners if it hits something after it bounces. Simply drop onto the road. "Huh. That must be what I ran over. Whoops. " I've heard. | ||
| Etennuly |
BACK to the serious topic for a minute..... So far 7 confirmed dead. 70 reports of missing which could include overlapping reporting. 74 injured in hospitals most with severe burns and lung problems. An amazing thing from a great person..... Dolly Parton is fronting $1000 per month to each displaced family until they get back to something near normal. | ||
| 86129squids |
Dolly Parton, a TRUE lady and class act! She's got a new recording out, what I've heard of it is very good! WDVX will play tracks from it from time to time... her collaboration with Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstat (sp?) is awesome too. She's always been seriously involved in the Sevier county communities. Despite the gaudy, touristy aspects of Dollywood and her other concerns, can't help but love that woman. | ||
| Tootal |
My mother told me that this morning. She has always been a class act and she's proving it again. Hat's off to Dolly! |
