Texas Grassfires Burn Over 600,000 Acres: 100,000 Acres Burn In NM

[hatrack]

GROOM, Texas (AP) — Firefighters battled wind-driven wildfires Monday that raced across hundreds of thousands of acres of the dry southern Plains, forced the evacuation of several small towns and killed at least seven people. More than 660,000 acres had been blackened in Texas, and 100,000 more had been scorched in New Mexico.

One of the most intense fires was about 10 miles north of Pampa in the Texas Panhandle, and the wind was blowing it toward the town Monday morning, said Donny Hooper, a spokesman for Gray County Emergency Operations. North of Pampa along Texas 70, land on both sides of the highway was ablaze, producing billowing clouds of white, black and brown smoke.

Fields near Interstate 40 in Gray and Donley counties also were ablaze, and blackened, rolling hills stretched for miles.

The burned acreage — more than 1,000 square miles or about two-thirds the size of Rhode Island — far eclipsed the deadly wildfires in December and January that prompted Gov. Rick Perry to declare a statewide drought disaster. Those blazes charred more than 455,000 acres, destroyed more than 340 homes and killed three people.

EDIT

http://www.syracuse.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/base/national-61/114225299451100.xml&storylist=national

[sui generis]

1. yeah, soon to be followed by billowing clouds of dust

as south central Texas continues to turn back into Mexican desert.

[5X]

2. We have a burn ban in Oklahoma, Bush needs to be....

kept out of Texas, his pants are on fire.