Colorado Springs lies 60 miles south of Denver and about 30 miles from Castle Rock. Home to the Air Force Academy, which has had major evacuations this past week, Colorado Springs has suffered the largest wildfire in Colorado history. While its cause is still not definitive, it is almost certain that the conditions which fuel and worsen it are the result of global warming.
The Waldo fire is 26 miles in area. Three hundred and fifty homes have burned to the ground. And it is just one of the major fires burning in Colorado. I can only imagine how frightening it must be to live in a state where one fourth of the citizens have had to worry about wildfires just this month and nearly all are likely rattled by the devastation.
Even now ten thousand people remain displaced due to the raging wildfires. Thirty thousand were evacuated earlier in the week. One resident filmed her own evacuation. Looking at the almost apocalyptic photo in the story and the video make one realize the emotional toll on people living there. And the Waldo fire, the largest in California history, is only 45% contained. That is definitely progress. Here’s more from the Denver Post.
President Obama traveled to Colorado Springs this week. And he used his weekly address to urge that Americans support the victims of the fires:
“I hope you guys remember the[se] folks during these times of need. I know this is a little bit unusual – we don’t usually do weekly addresses like this, but I thought it was a good opportunity for us to actually focus attention on a problem that’s going on here in Colorado Springs. We never know when it might be our community that’s threatened, and it’s important that we’re there for them,” the president said.
Amen. May we stand by all those suffering from fires, storms, natural disasters and emergencies.
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