Month: April 2022

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Thousands of firefighters battled destructive wildfires in the Southwest as more residents prepared to evacuate Friday into the weekend in northern New Mexico where strong winds and dangerously dry conditions have made the blazes hard to contain. The biggest fire in the U.S. grew to more than 117 square miles (303 square kilometers) through the afternoon northeast of Santa Fe. Gusty winds prevented any aerial attacks by midmorning and crews…

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Thousands of firefighters labored to slow the advance of destructive wildfires in the Southwestern U.S. as residents braced for dangerously dry, warm and windy conditions in northern New Mexico and adjacent areas that have made the blazes hard to contain. At least 166 homes have been destroyed in one rural county in northeast New Mexico since the biggest fire burning in the U.S. started racing through small towns east and…

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — More of the dry, windy weather that helped fan rare spring wildfires from New Mexico to Nebraska is expected to threaten the progress that firefighters have made in controlling some of the fires, officials said Thursday. A swath of the country stretching from Arizona to the Texas panhandle is expected to be hit the hardest by the return of the bad firefighting weather that has generated unusually hot and fast-moving fires…

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Firefighters have been making significant progress Wednesday on the biggest wildfires burning unusually hot and fast for this time of year in the western United States. But forecasters from the Southwest to the southern High Plains warned of the return the next two days of the same gusty winds and critical fire conditions that sent wildland blazes racing across the landscape last week. Some of the nearly 1,000 firefighters battling the…

CrowdSource Rescue was born as Hurricane Harvey hit Houston. Now they’re applying those lessons learned to the war in Ukraine. KYIV, Ukraine — A Houston-based disaster non-profit is currently on the ground in Ukraine. CrowdSource Rescue is helping Ukrainians on the ground thanks to lessons they learned during Hurricane Harvey. They say the same spirit that helped Houston rally together during a natural disaster is fueling Ukraine today. According to its website, CrowdSource Rescue was born…

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Firefighters across the country are battling growing wildfires as tinder-dry conditions and high winds whip up flames from Arizona to Florida — including a wildfire in rural southwestern Nebraska that has killed one person, injured at least 15 firefighters and destroyed at least six homes, an official said. Nearly a dozen new large fires were reported over the weekend across the nation — four in New Mexico, three in Colorado and…

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Bulldozers were busy Monday scraping through New Mexico’s high country as firefighters scouted more rugged terrain, looking for places where they could wield tools to dig lines that stop what has grown into the largest wildfire burning in the U.S. Nearly a dozen new large fires were reported over the weekend across the nation — four in New Mexico, three in Colorado and one each in Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota and…

This weekend in Texas, residents can get tax-free supplies on things like portable generators, hurricane shutters and batteries. CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Hurricane season begins Wednesday, June 1, and now is the time to start preparing in case of an emergency. This weekend in Texas, residents can get tax-free supplies on things like portable generators, hurricane shutters and batteries. The 2022 Emergency Preparation Supplies Sales Tax Holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, April 23,…

The congregation of a Salado, Texas church held Easter services where their church once stood and promised to rebuild. SALADO, Texas — Reduced to a little more than the cement slab upon which it once stood, the First Cedar Valley Baptist Church still played host to Sunday services in Salado. And on Easter Sunday, the 200 worshipers, bringing their own lawn chairs to serve as pews, received a promise that their tornado-ravaged building will have…

Douglas Siddens’ mother was among those who made it out with just the clothes on her back when a deadly, wind-fueled wildfire ripped through a mountain community in southern New Mexico. The RV park where she lived was reduced to “metal frame rails and steel wheels,” said Siddens, who managed the site “I had like 10 people displaced. They lost their homes and everything, including my mom,” he said. The fire has destroyed more than…

Firefighters took advantage of a brief break in the weather but gusty winds were expected to return Friday to southern New Mexico where a wildfire has claimed two lives and charred more than 200 homes. The fire has forced the evacuation of about 5,000 people in the mountain community of Ruidoso, where the remains of a couple were found near a burned home as they tried to flee. New Mexico State Police confirmed the blaze…

Firefighters scouted the drought-stricken mountainsides around a New Mexico village as they looked for opportunities to slow a wind-driven wildfire that a day earlier had burned at least 150 homes and other structures while displacing thousands of residents and forcing the evacuation of two schools. Homes were among the structures that had burned, but officials on Wednesday did not have a count of how many were destroyed in the blaze that torched at least 6.4…

Dobby was sucked away by the tornado on Tuesday. The Califano family said he made his way back home on his own Wednesday. SALADO, Texas — On Tuesday evening, a tornado swept through a Salado neighborhood. The Dallas/Forth Worth National Weather Service confirmed a high-end EF-3 twister with max winds around 165 mph had moved through the area. One Salado family’s cat got whisked away in a matter of seconds. Knealie Califano heard there was…

Firefighters scouted the drought-stricken mountainsides around a New Mexico village on Wednesday as they looked for opportunities to slow a wind-driven wildfire that a day earlier had burned at least 150 homes and other structures while displacing thousands of residents and forcing the evacuation of two schools. Homes were among the structures that burned Tuesday, but officials did not have a count of how many were destroyed in the blaze that torched at least 6.4…