Texas on Fire

When you hear the word "drought" you think...well I guess I should shower less, right? I never thought that we would ever get this close to being evacuated. I kept hearing reports while in Utah about serious water restrictions and 100 degree days with no signs of rain. I heard about some towns just turning their water off for a couple of days just to replenish supply. I was worried when I heard these things and would call Chase to make sure he purchased more water at Costco next time he went.

However, I had no idea how bad this parched land was until we returned to a completely yellow landscape. With 85+ days over a 100 degrees and no water the land was completely barren and vulnerable to any type of fire hazard. A few weeks after school started it seemed fires had started and weren't stopping all around us.
People in our stake were being evacuated. Our friends the Kings from Virginia who live in Leander had a really close scare as they were evacuated and the street below them lost 11 homes. Steiner Ranch just 10 miles north of us lost 25 homes. We almost rented a home there last year!! One night we had a really hard time sleeping. I thought with the thick smell of smoke in the air and orange moon, we were going to get a knock on our door at any minute telling us we had to be evacuated.

There is still a pile at the door of all the things we would take with us if we had a short time to evacuate. Pictures, back up discs, and Chase's cello all seemed irreplaceable. I sat around looking at all our "stuff" and thinking that even though it's just ordinary belongings, I still needed and used them every day. These poor people in the fire East of us in Bastrop lost everything. 1500 homes were destroyed in this fire and huge relief efforts have been made on their behalf. Imagine having to buy everything all over again. Simple things like a curling iron or a spray bottle. Friends in the ward mentioned video taping all our belonging for insurance reasons to make claims easier. I couldn't believe we were to this point of worry.

We prayed earnestly for rain. Stakes were fasting and still for two weeks the fires kept blazing and more homes continued to be destroyed with out a drop of rain in the forecast. It all seemed ridiculous that New Jersey was flooding with water and we were on fire. Every time we heard a fire engine we were alarmed and got ready but were never actually evacuated. Our little neighborhood made it through with out any damage and a great deal of sorrow for those who had lost their homes.

It finally rained yesterday. It wasn't a lot but after two weeks God finally answered our prayers. I still can't seem to put that pile away at the front door. It hit too close to home this time around.