Updated at 4:34 p.m. ET
AUSTIN, Texas - More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed in at least 57 wildfires across rain-starved Texas, most of them in one devastating blaze close to Austin that is still raging out of control, officials said Tuesday.
Gov. Rick Perry, who cut short a presidential campaign trip to South Carolina on Monday to return to help oversee firefighting efforts in Texas, toured a blackened area near Bastrop, about 25 miles from Austin, where a fast-moving blaze destroyed nearly 600 homes on Monday.
Perry told CBS' "The Early Show" Tuesday that he doesn't know whether he will participate in the first Republican debate since he entered the raced for president while his state continues to battle persistent wildfires. ............(more)
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/06/national/main20102115.shtml