Kudos to those who were savvy enough to figure out that I've been AFK for about three weeks - with the blog rolling merrily along on autopilot. Three things conspired to produce what readers saw: My blog service expired (my credit card number had changed and I hadn't updated the info for TypePad), I was very, very, very busy with volunteer work (my butt and sciatic joint are giving me fits from sitting, pounding on the keyboard so much), and it is Women's History Month. Thus, I left a slew of "wise" quotes of women.
We held a disaster training institute in Salina KS. Originally, we had 150 people signed up to take from 1 to 11 of the 34 sessions that were offered. Unfortunately, Kansas was hit with multiple wildfires a few days before the institute started. The fires included the largest, single wildfire in the history of the state. Translation: many of the people who had signed up to teach or take classes at the institute had to withdraw in order to serve on the disaster relief operation. That did not keep me from being busy. I spent much time preparing for the institute. Having taken my laptop with me, I spent 12-hour days sitting over it for three days - not to mention the time spent sitting in my car driving up and back. (Hunky Husband was to have taught a two-day class, but so many of his students had to drop out that we cancelled the class; thus, he did not go.) Back at home, I had to finish crediting everyone with the training they had taken and get a report put together on our event.
In the end, we had 24 instructors, 110 students (filling a total of 493 seats in classes), and a handful of support staff in attendance.
From the Wichita Eagle:
2017 March 8 - 4:29 PM
The Latest: 2-county Kansas wildfire sets new state record
As I recall, winds gusted into the 70s (miles/hour) during a couple of days of the fires. It was reported that about 2000 firefighters worked the blazes in about 23 counties (Kansas comprises 105 counties). In Kansas (Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado had wildfires at the same time) thousands of cattle were lost, somewhat fewer than 100 structures were destroyed, and one person died as a result of the fires. The one death in Kansas was a semi-trailer truck driver who drove into smoke that covered a highway, tried to back out of the smoke, jack-knifed the tractor/trailer, and was overcome by the smoke when he exited his cab. A few cars plowed into the jack-knifed tractor/trailer, but occupants received minor injuries. Five died in Texas.
WOW, that was some big fire! Amazing that there were few human casualties or structures lost. The loss of the cattle will hit the farmers hard though.
Posted by: bogie | March 19, 2017 at 10:02 AM
Yes, Bogie, it was some fire! Lots of evacuations saved lives. A friend (with a huge farm operation and processing company) told us of a neighbor who, after the fires had moved on, went out to the cattle pastures with his rifle and 60 bullets: He ran out of bullets. Poor critters and poor ranchers. Devastating!
Beyond the fire, today's paper had a large spread concerning the plights of Kansas farmers. It seems there may be a large re-po/sell-off coming up - much as took place in the 1980s. You recall how tough it was in Kansas in those days - not just for farmers. That's when you went to New Hampshire, after all.
Posted by: Cop Car | March 19, 2017 at 01:03 PM
Farmers helping farmers - check out these videos about hay relief provided by the upper Midwest.:
https://www.facebook.com/SoDakPB/videos/10155131353348874/
https://www.facebook.com/mike.case.9/videos/1226366680817479/
Posted by: bogie | March 21, 2017 at 02:55 AM
I don't remember all these fires, do you?
Posted by: Marianna | March 21, 2017 at 02:00 PM
Bogie--Beautiful videos, Sweetheart. Thank you! Video 1: The hay from SD got a big play in local media; but, I had failed to mention it. BTW: I don't know how they (on the video) could have been surprised by the generosity. People are that way! Video 2: What a convoy. I hadn't seen anything like that. Of course, as tied up as I was at the time, I didn't watch any TV at all (don't know if the set in my room worked) while in Salina. I may have missed their showing it.
Marianna--The fires probably didn't get big play where you were. I drove through one of the counties with major fires on my way to/from Salina. Didn't get close to the wildfires, though. The redness of our sunsets attested to the ash in the air.
Posted by: Cop Car | March 21, 2017 at 06:48 PM
I heard about the fires on the news and thought you were likely affected in some way, but from what you've described here, not in the manner in which I had thought.
Posted by: Joared | March 22, 2017 at 03:35 AM
I feel so bad for the rancher and his cattle - both had to have suffered horribly!
Posted by: bogie | March 25, 2017 at 06:31 PM