-
Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.
Hope all our Boulder area Divas are safe!
- Thread starter ski diva
- Start date
@Kimmyt had to evacuate but luckily her house is safe this morning. @Robyn voluntarily evacuated last night as well because things weren't unfolding great for her neighborhood, but thankfully her home is fine this morning as well. The fire started just east of our place and blew east, so we are also thankfully fine. It's been a really emotionally exhausting 24 hours and it's heartbreaking to see the damage today.
MissySki
Angel Diva
Well, I imagine it’s still very dry there? Meanwhile the past few nights in Maine have been ~90% humidity. I often complain about our humidity in New England, but when this topic comes up I realize it’s pretty great in some ways too.
Thanks for checking in, @RachelV, and glad to hear you're safe out there. Yes, positively heartbreaking, and amazing that this would happen in December!
marzNC
Angel Diva
The high winds made it impossible to do much to contain the fire. Some gusts were over 100 mph. Best guess seems to be the fire was started by downed power lines. Very scary! Feel very bad for those who lost everything.
December 30, 2021
December 30, 2021
'Absolutely devastating': Wind-driven Colorado wildfires burn hundreds of homes near Boulder
About 600 homes, a Target shopping complex and a hotel have been destroyed by fire in the area, according to Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle.
www.usatoday.com
Little Lightning
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
It's been a tough week here. It started on Monday with the shootings in Denver/Lakewood (Belmar) with 5 people being killed (2 in Lakewood). An extremely brave and focused Lakewood Police Agent (woman) killed the shooter after he shot her in the stomach. I drove by the scene of one of the shootings a couple of hours before it took place. In fact, I drive by that location 2-3x's a week. Belmar is my local shopping area. Last week I was considering stopping at a store there after my workout on Monday which would have put me in the area after 4pm. The shooter went to Belmar around 5:30 - 6 pm after he shot the person at the shop I drive by. Fortunately, I decided to order online and avoid the after work shoppers.
On Thursday afternoon I was driving north. It was pretty windy, my car was rocking when I stopped at stop lights. I saw a brown haze in the distance but thought the wind was kicking up dust. It wasn't until I got home and saw the video of people evacuating Costco that I realized I had seen smoke not dust. Before sunset the smoke could be seen from my house. I'm approx 25 miles south of Boulder. Also, earlier in the week there was a grass fire that threatened homes and apt buildings south of us. Fortunately, the fire was put out. It was determined to be arson and the person was caught.
These kind of events are becoming the new normal here. Fires are becoming a year round event. Last Feb. there was a grass fire 6 miles from us. It was in a green space, homes were threatened but the wind died and the fire was put out before it could spread. It was very scary realizing how close we were to losing our home. We're located just above part of the greenspace that didn't burn. I had already experienced the uncertainty 3 years ago when the Buffalo Mtn fire came close to burning our condo building in Silverthorne. Now my condo is my safe haven in winter and my home my safe haven in summer.
This spring was a very wet season. Vegetation grew more than normal. Then the rains stopped. The vegetation dried up. In my area we haven't had any moisture since June. We didn't get the normal snows in Oct. I'm still watering my trees and grass. Yesterday we got 6" of snow but it won't be enough unless we continue to get moisture. The sad reality of global warming and El Nina.
On Thursday afternoon I was driving north. It was pretty windy, my car was rocking when I stopped at stop lights. I saw a brown haze in the distance but thought the wind was kicking up dust. It wasn't until I got home and saw the video of people evacuating Costco that I realized I had seen smoke not dust. Before sunset the smoke could be seen from my house. I'm approx 25 miles south of Boulder. Also, earlier in the week there was a grass fire that threatened homes and apt buildings south of us. Fortunately, the fire was put out. It was determined to be arson and the person was caught.
These kind of events are becoming the new normal here. Fires are becoming a year round event. Last Feb. there was a grass fire 6 miles from us. It was in a green space, homes were threatened but the wind died and the fire was put out before it could spread. It was very scary realizing how close we were to losing our home. We're located just above part of the greenspace that didn't burn. I had already experienced the uncertainty 3 years ago when the Buffalo Mtn fire came close to burning our condo building in Silverthorne. Now my condo is my safe haven in winter and my home my safe haven in summer.
This spring was a very wet season. Vegetation grew more than normal. Then the rains stopped. The vegetation dried up. In my area we haven't had any moisture since June. We didn't get the normal snows in Oct. I'm still watering my trees and grass. Yesterday we got 6" of snow but it won't be enough unless we continue to get moisture. The sad reality of global warming and El Nina.
marzNC
Angel Diva
For an urban fire, the area involved is immense. The estimate as of yesterday was 6000 acres.
December 31, 2021
www.npr.org
December 31, 2021
Urban wildfires burned 6,000 acres and hundreds of homes near Denver
Officials call it a miracle that there've been no reports of deaths in the blazes, which destroyed at least 500 homes — and perhaps twice that number. In some cases families had just minutes to flee.
www.npr.org
Robyn
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Sorry I haven't been by to check in but thanks to Rachel for updating. I evacuated because I knew that I was next in line to be evacuated and I had covid plus a dog so I didn't want to be trying to do it all in the middle of the night. The recovery is just beginning around here and I have at least 7 friends who lost their homes with more not habitable right now due to smoke damage. It's so sad to drive around the area, seeing these beautiful neighborhoods just decimated. There are also many lost animals that are feared dead which is just heartbreaking.
However, the amount of community support has been incredible. The Boulder Community Foundation has raised over $12M in less than a week. Nobody can take any more physical item donations because they are overloaded. It will be a long road back but it's getting started.
However, the amount of community support has been incredible. The Boulder Community Foundation has raised over $12M in less than a week. Nobody can take any more physical item donations because they are overloaded. It will be a long road back but it's getting started.
