Among Friends

[Kachina624]

@On It   There is a fire in Ruidoso, not sure if you're aware.  They are evacuating the area North of the high school.  You might want to go to an Albuquerque TV station online at 10pm mdt for updates.

(she and dh have a vacation home there)

Fires all over our state.  Terribly windy and dry.

[4kitties]

@Kachina624 

Goodness!  Please stay safe!

I am Central Illinois and the wind sounds like a freight train here.  Tomorrow we have a tornado risk and possible severe thunderstorms.  🌪🌪🌪⛈⛈⛈

[Kachina624]

@4kitties    Just heard about your weather on the national news.  Stay away from those tornadoes.

[4kitties]

Thankfully we have a basement.  If and when the sirens go off we will be down there!

I cannot imagine those terrible fires.  Hope they are able to contain them with no damage!

[Kachina624]

@On It   It's called the McBride Fire and involves 15,000 acres since it stated at1pm today.  Wind whipping.

This is very concerning.  I hope she is aware but not much she can do.  Embers are blowing up to 5 miles.  Whole town is at risk.

[On It]

@Kachina624 Thank you for thinking of me. We have been following the situation as it developed all day. There was a fire in the Nogal Canyon area south of Ruidoso towards Tularosa. That fire endangered the transmission line that brings power up the mountain to Ruidoso, so PNM cut off the power. I received an email from PNM that our power was lost at 11:20 am.

When power is lost in that remote area, cell phone service is affected. The Village Emergency Operations Center has no phone lines for communication. 911 is operational. Because the power was off for such an extended period of time, the Village could not keep the water production going at an adequate pace. They were asking residents to conserve water and expected areas to have low to no pressure.

Then the fire started on McBride Drive, the street where we lived in the '80s. It is on the crest of a mountain and has panoramic views of the tallest mountain in the area to the west and of the Gavilon Canyon which is a valley behind. The high school and middle school are just down the mountain on the Gavilon Canyon side. We have watched the videos my son is finding online. We think it went below our former home, but we watched houses up the street from it burn. 

Our current property is west of there.  So far it is safe. I am sick and so sad. The last I heard 50 structures have burned. KOB seemed to have a good account of what was happening. I will watch again later. They were told it is not safe for news crews to come into the area. They are being staged in Alamogordo.

News out of Ruidoso is slow coming. They have no power, no cell service, no internet, and a low water supply. There is a front coming through later that is going to shift the winds back toward the west and southwest. That could mean back toward the Village. The water tanker aircraft can't fly because of the strong winds. It went from 0 to 15,000 acres in two hours. I am so worried about the people in the path of this thing.

[Kachina624]

@On It    I'm so relieved you're not in the area.  It sound bad.  Such a pretty little town and area. Yes, KOB seemed to have the best coverage as I, too, was watching them.  So many Texans own property there, its almost like a Texas annex.

The cold front has come through here and its quite chilly.  The wind has died down some and the humidity is up a bit which is good.  We're expecting 28° tonight. 

Will hope and pray for the best for you.

[On It]

@Kachina624 PNM is still sending emails every couple of hours pushing back the time power will be restored. A 5:35 am said power would be restored by 10:00 am. I am not holding out hope that is the case. Having no power, no internet, and limited cell service in this kind of situation is so dangerous. Casino Apache was trying to set up a hot spot for public use on Highway 70. If I were in Ruidoso I would know none of this.

The size has been reduced to 4,100+ acres which is good news compared to 15,000 acres. The bad news is 150 structures have been destroyed.

Update: New email says power at 3:00 pm.

[Kachina624]

@On It    KOAT reported this morning that the hot spot has been established but, as you say, how would people know about it?  Wind is still blowing hard this morning; it just doesn't seem to let up.  Smoke from the fire is drifting over to West Texas so you may get a whiff of it without leaving home.

Any clue as to whether your place is okay?  Fingers crossed.

[On It]

@Kachina624 We are certain it is clear of the fire now that I have seen the incident maps. There has been a Facebook page established by the Village "McBride Fire 2022." There is a video on that page showing a large plane dropping slurry on the top of Moon Mountain. It was shot from the parking lot of the Community Senior Center on Sudderth Drive. That clearly shows how close it has begun burning toward one of the main commercial areas of town. If they had panned down the street you would have seen gas stations, banks, KFC, motels. It has to be held below the crest of that mountain.