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Rich Riddle
11-29-2016, 7:13 PM
Have any of you been following the fires in the Smoky Mountains? A friend owns a cabin just up the hill from Gatlinburg and it sounds like that area took a beating. Hope the Creekers from that area stay safe.

kevin st john
11-29-2016, 7:23 PM
Yes, I have been reading about it. Makes a guy think that always cutting down the trees for development is not such a good idea. Just my 2 cents.

Michael Weber
11-29-2016, 7:23 PM
Been watching it closely. We have reservations for a cabin for six days starting the day after Christmas for family. Not sure what to do except wait and see how bad it is. Hopefully if it's bad, I can get a refund. Who wants to have a family vacation in a burnt out area? May drive over in a week or so to assess.

Ronald Blue
11-29-2016, 7:34 PM
I fail to see what cutting down trees has to do with this. This is a heavily wooded region and at least some of this destruction was the result of arson as two men have been arrested.

Rich Riddle
11-30-2016, 8:06 AM
I am hoping it doesn't migrate toward Newport, Tennessee where they have all the stills in the woods. I can't imagine what would happen if the fire found all that liquor.

julian abram
11-30-2016, 11:34 AM
Too late for Gatlinburg and area but hopefully some heavy rains today will put the hurt on it (the fire).

John K Jordan
11-30-2016, 1:44 PM
Have any of you been following the fires in the Smoky Mountains? A friend owns a cabin just up the hill from Gatlinburg and it sounds like that area took a beating. Hope the Creekers from that area stay safe.

I live north and west of Gatlinburg. One member of our Knoxville turning club lives in Gatlinburg and cannot yet be reached, but that's not unusual since everyone was evacuated. Many people lost their houses and cabins and a number of businesses burned. Some are in shelters, some left the area to stay with others. Arrowmont craft school apparently lost two dormatories and perhaps a barn. Several people in the area died, some are missing.

Local organizations are collecting supplies and there is a call out for assistance with caring for displaced animals. The aquarium in Gatlinburg (with over 10,000) animals, is suspect to be OK the last I heard.

Electronic traffic signs in Knoxville this morning warn drivers headed that way of smoke and fire. Heavy rain here all night and so far today should help slow the fire spread.

One report said the high winds (40-60 mph) knocked down trees which started numerous fires when they hit electrical lines. In hindsight, it might have been better to kill the electrical power to the entire area when the first such fire started and for as long as the high winds continued. I'd much rather sit in the dark for hours than have to find a place to live while building a new house.

JKJ

Brent Cutshall
11-30-2016, 6:45 PM
I've got some cousins over in Gatlinburg. It looks bad over there from the pictures I've seen. I hate it when fires are east or west of me. That's the way the winds normally blow so if it's close, it's not good. Thankful for the rain. Lots o' rain!

John K Jordan
12-01-2016, 12:40 PM
The news this morning put the estimate of the number of buildings destroyed in Gatlinburg at about 400. Seven deaths so far, search not yet complete.

Update from Clay Foster on Arrowmont: "Wild Wing and Hughes Hall are gone. They were the two newest housing buildings on campus. A storage shed burned. The Red Barn still stands, as well as all other buildings on campus."

daryl moses
12-01-2016, 2:24 PM
I live less than two hours away from Gatlinburg and it saddens me to see the destruction and loss of life
We had three separate wildfires burning in my county the same time Gatlinburg was on fire but the tornados and torrential rain put them out lol.

John K Jordan
12-01-2016, 7:32 PM
The news tonight puts the dead in Gatlinburg at 10 and the buildings destroyed at 700. I just can't imagine.

Bill Bukovec
12-01-2016, 8:20 PM
We are 2 1/2 hours northeast of Gatlinburg. Spent the Day after Thanksgiving at Dollywood. (I would highly recommend Dollywood). We have been smelling smoke for a few weeks from fires around us. If your plans to stay at Gatlinburg don't work out, y'all can come up to Butler, TN. Cherokee Forrest Mountain Cabins is one place to stay that is beautiful and has great accomodations .

Rich Riddle
12-02-2016, 6:49 PM
A police officer took some pictures of my friends chalet in Gatlinburg as a favor (my friend is a retired police officer). Nothing left.

348659 348660

John K Jordan
12-02-2016, 11:15 PM
News this morning: 40-80 mph winds carried embers, starting other fires at least 8 miles away.

Death toll rising with the search, 13 so far.
News yesterday: the fire was so intense that bodies of people caught outside may never be found.

Someone posted this picture. The fire was so intense it melted the aluminum wheels and engine block:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=348667&d=1480738242

News yesterday: over 700 homes and commercial buildings up in smoke.


14,000 people displaced. 200 in shelters as of yesterday.
Pets and livestock being housed at the fairgrounds.


Besides the fire fighters, others such as electrical workers are there - my neighbor was sent there a couple of days ago.


Three of our turning club members live in the area and reported that they and their houses are OK.

JKJ

Brent Cutshall
12-03-2016, 5:11 PM
It's a worrying subject thinking about this. I've started to hum "fire on the mountain, run boys run!" from "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". Need some more rain.

Ronald Blue
12-03-2016, 5:43 PM
That means there was sustained temperatures over 1200 degrees to make this happen. Quite an inferno. How sad. I saw there are still more than 50 missing.

Stewie Simpson
12-03-2016, 7:18 PM
Those that made the decision to build their homes within heavily forested areas are taking on an unacceptable fire risk. I feel greater sadness for the loss of natural wildlife that were caught up in the fire.

Malcolm McLeod
12-03-2016, 8:11 PM
Those that made the decision to build their homes within heavily forested areas are taking on an unacceptable fire risk. I feel greater sadness for the loss of natural wildlife that were caught up in the fire.

People choose to build their homes in risky forested areas, riverine flood plains, coastal flood plains, tornado alleys, hurricane prone areas, tsunami zones, brush fire prone areas, grass fire prone plains, mud slide paths, on earthquake faults, in drought plagued regions, on hidden sink holes, in hail prone regions, on crocodile infested waterways, toad plagued states, and in cities that burn. I guess we should all live in Australia? Y'all are free from all this mayhem? Right?

I'd love to see your home built in this un-forested, non-brushy, anti-grassy, de-mountained, water-less but drought-free, animal-free, etc., etc.... paradise.

Condolences to the grieving and displaced.

daryl moses
12-03-2016, 8:48 PM
Those that made the decision to build their homes within heavily forested areas are taking on an unacceptable fire risk. I feel greater sadness for the loss of natural wildlife that were caught up in the fire.

I know of nowhere on earth that is completely safe. Hurricanes, tornados, mudslides, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc.
I'll take my chances in my heavily forested area.
unlike you I feel more sadness for the "people" that lost their lives and those that survived them than the wildlife.

Ronald Blue
12-04-2016, 4:53 PM
I know of nowhere on earth that is completely safe. Hurricanes, tornados, mudslides, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc.
I'll take my chances in my heavily forested area.
unlike you I feel more sadness for the "people" that lost their lives and those that survived them than the wildlife.

I agree Daryl. The wildlife never comes before human life. This is an unfortunate event and my sympathies to all those impacted by the fire.

John K Jordan
12-04-2016, 6:42 PM
I agree Daryl. The wildlife never comes before human life. This is an unfortunate event and my sympathies to all those impacted by the fire.

The emotional impact may be wide. I work every week with kids (5-8) and realized today how traumatized some kids are by hearing about this fire and thinking about how this could happen to them, their house, their family. Today one little girl's voice was shaking as she talked about this. Anyone with small kids might do well to talk to them since kids sometimes don't bring up things that scare them.

JKJ

Dok Yager
12-07-2016, 12:27 PM
A truly horrific catastrophe for anyone there. My neighbor is from there and just got back on Sunday with some unbelievable pictures from there. It just missed some folks and decimated others. They are saying it was arson. She has a raspy voice from inhaling so much smoke and she said all of Sever county is devastated. She and a couple of friends bought a pallet of dog food and a pallet of blankets, then cleaned out two drug stores of visine, clear eyes, etc and as many face and hand wipes as they could find and some masks as well and took them to two fire stations to be distributed.

Matt Meiser
12-13-2016, 8:26 PM
I was just looking at Sevier County's GIS system marking all the damage. The awesome cabin we rented 2 years ago apparently is OK, but two were lost just up the mountain and the fire apparently reached within 2 parcels.

The number of pins on the map representing damaged structures is astonishing.