My heart is breaking!

[eldritchhobbit]

Beautiful Gatlinburg!

My heart is breaking for the people, the animals, and the mountains. I love this place.

We were just beginning to see an end to this nightmare here: the Party Rock fire is contained, Chestnut Knob is at 80%, and the Horton fire is at 85%. And now this.

Comments

[internet_sampo]

It's horrible!

[eldritchhobbit]

It truly is!

[shiny_elfriend]

It's a tragedy, I can hardly believe it is happening! If you hear of a good way to help other than the usual Red Cross and so forth, let me know!

[eldritchhobbit]

Will do!

Here's one option I've seen reported in several places.

Beyond that, I've seen the Red Cross and then very local opportunities for contributions -- for example, donation stations at churches and restaurants and other places right there in/around the area and as far as Knoxville. I'll keep my eyes open for more!

[eldritchhobbit]

Here's another list!

[whswhs]

We went through similar things in San Diego a decade or so ago, staying indoors while the air was filled with smoke. Two friends of ours lost their house and were less than an hour away from losing their lives; they got warned perilously late. (The second big set of fires saw a more effective warning system in operation.) That kind of thing is terrifying in terms of how little human beings can do to stop it even now.

[eldritchhobbit]

Oh, your poor friends! I'm so sorry to hear about this and about what you went through. You're right: it is terrifying.

What we've experienced in NC these past two weeks plus is unprecedented in the state's history, from all reports, and Gatlinburg's fire is the worst thing to hit TN in a century. The official word is that these are manmade. I'm having a difficult time wrapping my brain around that.

[whswhs]

Manmade as in "extreme stupidity" or manmade as in "someone intentionally caused a major disaster"? I find the latter hard to wrap my brain around, too.

[eldritchhobbit]

I know, right?

My understanding is that the jury's still out on most of the fires as to whether there was intent or not. There's been an arrest in NC, though, of a man who confessed to setting two of the fires in this state intentionally (reportedly because he was "bored" and, after his wife left him, he just "wanted to see something burn"), and apparently another arrested man in TN admitted to setting two intentionally in that state around Chattanooga. (I haven't seen any reports about his motive.) NC currently has a $10,000 reward offered for actionable information about who was responsible for the other fires.

[jan_u_wine]

just been watching on the news......so incredibly sad.

[eldritchhobbit]

We're still reeling. It's hard to comprehend.