As the wildfires in Texas rage on, recent updates on Reuters.com show there is some progress in stopping the blaze. According to the report, the increases in the number of firefighters, as well as lighter winds, have helped to beat back the flames. The fires have already taken 1,600 homes and scorched 154,000 acres of land. The worst of the damage was the Bastrop complex fire, which destroyed 1,376 homes and killed two people.
Even though Texas is on the other side of the country, it is still having an effect on a select few Longwood Students. Zach Mahone is a senior on the men's varsity soccer team and a Texas native. Luckily, Mahone and his family are located northwest of San Antonio, Texas where the fires have not affected land. He explained if the fire in Bastrop were to change direction due to high winds, there would be a problem for San Antonio. He further explained the drought has been the real problem. "I think the last substantial rain we had was in February," he added.
Mahone said the fire did not affect his day-to-day life too much over the summer; it only made it so he had to train either in the morning or in night, but even then, the temperatures are still very high. He compared Virginia to Texas, saying "In Virginia, it gets cold at night, but in Texas, at 7 or 8 at night, it's still close to 100 degrees." When asked if he predicted anything would change soon that might deter the fire, Mahone said, "I don't know, to be honest. Eventually it will rain."
While the fires did not affect Mahone's family too much, Elena Dixon, a sophomore at Longwood, kept in close contact with her family as they were evacuated from their neighborhood about 15 minutes outside of Austin, Texas. Just recently has the family been allowed to move back in, but Dixon conveyed they were all a bit nervous, saying her parents "had no idea if we were going to have a house or not." Dixon said that over the summer, water restrictions had the biggest effect on the people and even some business.
At her work, a restaurant near Lake Travis, which provides outdoor dining forcustomers, suffered a bit as temperatures soared, making a pleasant dining experience outside difficult. Dixon said hearing about the fires and being away at college has not been too bad, as she has only worried about her family and done her best to keep up with the news. "I tweet a lot," she explained as one of the ways she keeps up-to-date with the events. "So when I was on my account one of the trends was about my neighborhood."
Firefighters are still hard at work to contain the fires that have sprung up all over Texas. The drought continues to be a problem as well; however, many families have managed to escape the fires and find refuge.
