Central Tx wildfires

[Eric Shuman]

I'm sure some of you have seen it on the news but central TX has been devastated by wildfires this week. I know you folks in California are accustomed to wildfires but this fire outside of Austin is truly horrendous and unprecedented in Texas. The burn area as of last night is about 18 miles long and about 6 miles wide - about 36,000 acres. That is the large fire near Bastrop. That fire has claimed more than 1300 homes in five days and displaced thousands of people and killed at least two people.

There have also been several other fires on all sides of the Austin metro area destroying about 100+ other homes and lots of acrerage. We have close friends who have lost a lot to this fire, many have lost all.

If you find it in you to make a donation to help the displaced and those in need, you can make a donation to the Central Texas Red Cross. Here is their website: American Red Cross of Central Texas (http://www.centex.redcross.org/index.asp?IDCapitulo=F9ZLZNZ3KD)

There are a lot of good folks in need right now.

There are a lot of amazing images of this fire but to give you an idea of how huge this fire is see the photo below. Keep in mind that this fire is burning about 40-50 miles away from where this photo was taken. The photo was taken a couple of days ago and this fire was still only 30% contained as of last night.

Your prayers and help in any way are truly appreciated!

[Rick Hurst]

Here are a couple more pics.

rick

[Matt Shapiro]

On monday I already had client use the insurance money( Travellers insurance..i asked!) from his destroyed home to buy another in Bastrop. I spent an additonal 45 minutes sitting at the table listening him talk. Here is this 70 year old guy crying in front of me and I realize that the home inspection is the least I am doing. Of course, it was great to tell him that the house was in fine shape and only minor items would be on the report.