Bastrop, Texas

I know that many of you have heard about the Bastrop fires.  I am about to tell you the story from my point of view.

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Sunday, September 4, 2011

Dave and I woke up like we always do.  We had our big Sunday breakfast and talked about going to WalMart.  We did a few things and went to WalMart to get a few things about 10:00am.  Came back home Dave took a nap and I cleaned my kitchen.  You know one of those really good scrubbing cleans.  The things that women do when we can't stand it anymore.  Dave woke up and went to the store to get a soda and cigarettes.  When he got back he said I think that there is a fire.  Really?  Wow I hope that they get it under control.  I did not think more my daughter came in and said that her and Christina her friend were going swimming in the river to cool off and that she would be back later.

Thirty minuets later she is calling me stating that Thitian Village is being evacuated.  The fire is on its way to Thitian and her and Christina are coming here with Christina's dogs.  I go outside to something that looks like this over in the area of the Thitian sub division.

Only the smoke was closer as Thitian is only five miles from my home.  Lora gets here with Christina and they are really upset.  Dave and I try to calm them down.

I continue with my day.  I am making enchilada casserole for my son who wanted it for his birthday.  Our friends Juan and Michele call.  They are being evacuated.  Dave told them that they can come here that we are in a safe area.  They have to leave their subdivision and drive up 21 to 290 go to Elgin then come down 95 to get to our house.  We have dinner when Michele and their daughter Sugar get here.  This was one of the longest nights that we have ever spent in our lives.

Out over the trees where the fire is we watch the glow of the fire and listen as the propane tanks explode.  The explosions just keep getting closer.

All of us adults sit up until 2am worrying if the fire is going to get here and about all of our friends who may or may not be homeless at this time.

The next morning arrives and Juan goes into town to get money from the bank so he can go to Bryan to get his travel trailer from his moms house.  They are going to hole up here until it is over.  I am cooking breakfast for all.  Juan gets back from town and he comes saying that the fire has kicked back up and the fire is headed this way.  The electricity goes out. (The power company was turning out the electricity ahead of the fire.)

The word comes that we need to evacuate our home.  David and I grab everything that we can that means anything to us and clothes, bedding, the cat and her kittens and our three dogs.  We head to mom's house.  We are headed down 21 to San Marcus to her house in Dale and we pass through smoke.  Thick smoke.  Okay we are about 12 miles from the Bastrop fire now why is the smoke so thick?

There is another fire.  The Union Chapel Fire.  This one threatens to run us out of my moms house.  Where will we go after that?  Dads?  Houston with my sister?  As the sun goes down on Monday with us not able to get back into our house at least until noon on Tuesday.  Is our house still there even?  There are many Bastropians who are still going through the thoughts and emotions that my husband and I were going throught Monday night.

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David gets back into our subdivision at noon on Tuesday and calls me..................Our home is still there, there is no power, but it is still there!  We will take no power!

The house smells like smoke and we happily lived until Thursday at 10:30pm with out power.  We were lucky.

So many homes gone.  Allot of my friends homeless.  Allot of quilters have not only lost their homes but their stash.  I have talked to quite a few of them.  They are happy that they have their lives.  There is so much destroyed here.  I know that we have not lost as much as some of the flooding up north.  You have to think just like them we have lost part of our town.

The people of Bastrop have been on an emotional roller coaster since Sunday, September the 4th.  We are watching the Texas government and the National government play "pass the buck" with our lives and emotions.

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The world has to know that Bastrop is still here.  We will rebuild!  Any day that you are standing on this side of the ground you are doing okay!

I would like to share more pictures with my readers:

If any quilter out there wants to donate to help the Bastrop quilters rebuild their stash please stay tuned to my blog.  I will set up with our local quilt shop a donation station.  I will give more details in a later post.  If you want to contact me please email me at glynpg@yahoo.com .


I would like to thank BENOLINE.com, Holly B. photography and all the others who took the above pictures.

TTFN

The Lion