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A Plea for Help for Boulder County, CO
3 years ago
As those of you tuned into national or international headlines this morning may have realized, my home state of Colorado's enduring probably the worst possible end to 2021. Yesterday, December 30th, hurricane-force winds with gusts over 100 miles an hour knocked down overhead power lines in the unincorporated town of Marshall, Colorado, igniting a small blaze in the drought-dried shrubs near the town -- within minutes, the winds had turned the small fire into an inferno that rapidly engulfed the town and raced east toward the town of Superior, fast enough that residents had little advance warning and little time to escape.
Now, a day later, the true scope of the devastation is coming into focus: 6,000 acres burned, at least 500 homes reduced to cinders, tens of thousands displaced by the evacuation still underway... we won't have a full accounting of the damage until the fires are finally extinguished, but the Marshall Fire has already become the most destructive in Colorado's history, a record that's been broken several times just in recent memory.
My family was outside of the pre-evacuation zone last night, but only just -- the neighborhoods that were advised to prepare to evacuate were within walking distance, and I knew that if they were told to evacuate, my own neighborhood would be told to prep to leave shortly afterward... and seeing how quickly the fire spread through the neighborhoods near Superior, I know that the fire would've ravaged our community if it got this far south. Mercifully, it never came to that, but... it's still a sobering thought.
My family and I got lucky, but I know that so many others were less fortunate -- thousands have lost their homes and businesses, and thousands more have been robbed of their peace of mind, and until the fire crews manage to bring the flames to heel, those numbers will only increase; the year's already been a nightmare for so many people, but adding this on top of it... it's unbearable even to think about.
So I'm doing what I can to get some help headed their way, which for the time being means rallying people via every means of communication I've got to lend whatever aid they can: the Boulder County Office of Emergency Management is coordinating the relief effort, including donations of money and supplies and applications to volunteer or host displaced families. I know that most of the people likely to read this aren't local and can't provide a lot of direct material support, but anything you can give to help the families impacted by this tragedy is going to help in a big way; even if you yourself can't help, there may be people you know who can lend their aid, so even a signal boost could be beneficial.
2021's been a year of kicking people while they're down, a nightmare from start to finish -- and I, for one, feel like giving it a good hard kick back right now.
Thank you for your time, and for any help you can offer.
Resource links:
Boulder County OEM (current information): https://www.boulderoem.com/emergency-status/
Volunteer and Donation resources:
https://bouldercounty.wufoo.com/forms/donations/
https://www.commfound.org/grants/ge.....-Wildfire-Fund
https://coloradoresponds.communityos.org/
Now, a day later, the true scope of the devastation is coming into focus: 6,000 acres burned, at least 500 homes reduced to cinders, tens of thousands displaced by the evacuation still underway... we won't have a full accounting of the damage until the fires are finally extinguished, but the Marshall Fire has already become the most destructive in Colorado's history, a record that's been broken several times just in recent memory.
My family was outside of the pre-evacuation zone last night, but only just -- the neighborhoods that were advised to prepare to evacuate were within walking distance, and I knew that if they were told to evacuate, my own neighborhood would be told to prep to leave shortly afterward... and seeing how quickly the fire spread through the neighborhoods near Superior, I know that the fire would've ravaged our community if it got this far south. Mercifully, it never came to that, but... it's still a sobering thought.
My family and I got lucky, but I know that so many others were less fortunate -- thousands have lost their homes and businesses, and thousands more have been robbed of their peace of mind, and until the fire crews manage to bring the flames to heel, those numbers will only increase; the year's already been a nightmare for so many people, but adding this on top of it... it's unbearable even to think about.
So I'm doing what I can to get some help headed their way, which for the time being means rallying people via every means of communication I've got to lend whatever aid they can: the Boulder County Office of Emergency Management is coordinating the relief effort, including donations of money and supplies and applications to volunteer or host displaced families. I know that most of the people likely to read this aren't local and can't provide a lot of direct material support, but anything you can give to help the families impacted by this tragedy is going to help in a big way; even if you yourself can't help, there may be people you know who can lend their aid, so even a signal boost could be beneficial.
2021's been a year of kicking people while they're down, a nightmare from start to finish -- and I, for one, feel like giving it a good hard kick back right now.
Thank you for your time, and for any help you can offer.
Resource links:
Boulder County OEM (current information): https://www.boulderoem.com/emergency-status/
Volunteer and Donation resources:
https://bouldercounty.wufoo.com/forms/donations/
https://www.commfound.org/grants/ge.....-Wildfire-Fund
https://coloradoresponds.communityos.org/
