AUSTIN | Photos & Videos Thread

[BevoLJ]

Here are some pictures I just took off my back deck of Austin with some of the fires behind it. These are looking east from my home in west Austin. There are many more fires out around the lake west (behind me taking pictures) but I am unable to get them very well as shooting into the west sun the smoke really doesn't work in the pictures. It is still kinda hard to see much of the smoke in some of the fires in these pictures. The ones on the opposite side of the city is easy, but the fires south of Bastrop are much harder to see from my pictures. Look to the right of the city on some of the zoomed out ones and you can see those fires down in Bastrop County.

I have a farm out on the other side of Bastrop near Smithville and I tried going out there this morning but Highway 71 which goes from Austin to Houston was shut down and they wouldn't let me go. Which was probably a good thing.

[nixcity]

amazing, thanks for sharing

[BevoLJ]

Here are some more I just took a few mins ago of the fires.

[hookem]

Those are great pics. Having seen almost the same view in person just a little while ago (from Lost Creek & 360), it's hard to do it justice in pics. Earlier, there was not a single could in the sky -- you only saw the smoke with the skyline in the foreground.

This is one of those things where I believe the true devastation will not be known for a couple of days. A little like Katrina. I'm very worried about what they'll find when they can actually go into those miles of burning area.

They've already been reporting close to 600 homes destroyed. That's easily got to be the worst wildfire in Texas in modern history. The previous fires in West Texas this year I think totaled 240 or so homes destroyed, over a period of weeks or months. This hasn't even been 2 days yet.

[KevinFromTexas]

My cousin and his wife live in Cedar Creek just a mile south of 71. They were told to evacuate, but of course my stubborn German cousin wouldn't leave. I talked to his sister and she said she got a hold of them and that he at least packed their 4-Runner. Right now they're sitting it out.

[Armybrat]

A friend of mine on the east side of town took this pic from his second floor window a little after 7pm:

[BevoLJ]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

My cousin and his wife live in Cedar Creek just a mile south of 71. They were told to evacuate, but of course my stubborn German cousin wouldn't leave. I talked to his sister and she said she got a hold of them and that he at least packed their 4-Runner. Right now they're sitting it out.

I saw you mentioned something about that earlier on the weather thread. I hope it all turns out alright for them.

My friend who lost her house today lives in Bastrop. She hasn't seen her house yet but her brother-in-law is one of the fire fighters and he said that while they can't get back to where her house is, every house between where they can get to and where her house is, is gone. He also said that the fires in Ceder Creek are doing much much better. The wind calming down really helped those fighting the Ceder Creek fires. But the Bastrop fires were still way out of control, and not looking any better. That was this afternoon, so hopefully it is a bit better by now.

Also I called some neighbors about my farm near Smithville, and they said there were some fires going on nearby but on the north side of the river. They said now that the wind is down some, they don't think it can jump the river. I tried to go out there, but because of the fires they aren't letting people out of Austin that way.

[Mopacs]

Found this pic off the Facebook page "Does you 'member when? Austin, Texas Version" ... also appears to be from the Westlake area. Looks downright apocalyptic:



http://www.facebook.com/pages/Does-y...=wall&filter=1

[JAM]

Wow, pretty crazy. We were coming back from Houston up 71 and was diverted back over to 290. Grabbed a few shots along the way:

[TXAlex]

[BevoLJ]

Originally Posted by Mopacs

Found this pic off the Facebook page "Does you 'member when? Austin, Texas Version" ... also appears to be from the Westlake area. Looks downright apocalyptic:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Does-y...=wall&filter=1

Wow, what a picture.

[KevinFromTexas]

Here's the original version of that.

Central Texas wildfires. We saw this shot from Loop 360, showing the Bastrop fires behind the Austin skyline. Every direction we drove had smoke in the distance. Nine-year-old Elizabeth said, "It needs to rain or the whole world will be on fire." Indeed.

http://deannaroy.com/


http://deannaroy.com/2011/09/surroun...xas-wildfires/

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Here's the original version of that.

Central Texas wildfires. We saw this shot from Loop 360, showing the Bastrop fires behind the Austin skyline. Every direction we drove had smoke in the distance. Nine-year-old Elizabeth said, "It needs to rain or the whole world will be on fire." Indeed.

http://deannaroy.com/


http://deannaroy.com/2011/09/surroun...xas-wildfires/

Absolutely stunning...and frightening all at the same time. Hopefully there will be progress today now that the winds having significantly died down.

Thanks for posting the source image.

[KevinFromTexas]

Well my cousin's house is ok...for now at least. They stayed there over night against the pleas of his sister and wife. The fire was just 2 miles from them with the wind blowing in their direction. That fire is reported as 10 percent contained. At least a few houses were destroyed from that one in a neighborhood just a few blocks from 71. This is in Cedar Creek.

[austin242]

Im sorry I don't have pictures but from acc pinnacle 9th floor you could see that the smoke basically completeley wraps around the city it surreal

[KevinFromTexas]

This big guy from California just landed at ABIA tonight. They'll start flying on Friday. By law, they have to take a break before they can fly again, and the fire retardant won't be here until Thursday.


http://www.10tanker.com/photos/

[hookem]

That's going to be cool to watch Friday, if you can. Seeing a DC-10 fly low was a highlight we used to enjoy as we traveled down I35 when the old Mueller airport was around. They are loud! In the 80s and early 90s, AA flew DC-10s from DFW-Austin in a kind of giant commuter flight. At least I think they were DC-10s; AA also had L-1011s trijets which kind of look similar.

[sammyk]

Originally Posted by hookem

That's going to be cool to watch Friday, if you can. Seeing a DC-10 fly low was a highlight we used to enjoy as we traveled down I35 when the old Mueller airport was around. They are loud! In the 80s and early 90s, AA flew DC-10s from DFW-Austin in a kind of giant commuter flight. At least I think they were DC-10s; AA also had L-1011s trijets which kind of look similar.

I don't think AA ever had any L-1011s but they certainly had DC-10s. You likely saw DC-10s. Besides, the L-1011 would have been quiet compared to the DC-10!

[KevinFromTexas]

I would really not want to be under that thing when it's dumping the retardant. Besides being loud, I read on their website it has a capacity of 11,600 gallons. On their website they said their typical operating altitude is 200 to 500 feet! They said the refill time is 10 to 20 minutes. ABIA is close to the fire, so they'll have a fast turn around time.

[KevinFromTexas]

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