Thanks Cousin - see SRJ: From: Donna Mariner [mailto:oldsalty99@att.net] Sent: Friday, June 29, 2012 11:49 AM To: ilfrankl@rootsweb.com; Sheldon Jones; ilhamilt@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [ILFRANKL] COS Waldo Canyon fire - SRJ Update Sheldon - when you have as many cousins as you do who are members of this list, then this fire tragedy is NOT off topic. In addition to the anxiety we feel about your fire threat, we feel helpless to do much more than feel heartache about the losses your community is suffering. So, Initially, please give us a name that we can send cash donations (checks), to give to people for the immediate help they need so they don't have to wait for processing. SRJ: Care and Share of Colorado Springs, Red Cross, Salvation Army have all set up special donations sections for the area. Second, this enormous fire will not be off topic in future years as our descendants are asking about this huge major disaster and searching for information of what happened and its affect on their ancestors. Similar to the 1925 tornado, this is truly "history" in the making. The stories of death and loss that we will be hearing in the near future will make us all cry. Sadly, so much of that part of ancestral collections has gone up in the fires that consumed the valuable treasures of photos and memories that had to be left behind to be charred by that conflagration you described. The news stories tell of people grabbing as much as they could as they hurried to leave, but so much will be gone. Hopefully, a local historian will be on top of their stories now, "in the moment", as raw as it is, in order to leave a public record of the horrors and tragedies as it is happening. Do you have a suggestion of a webpage that we can access to see your local reports? SRJ: www.springsgov.com is the official city access point, all of the media here: kktv.com, koaa.com, krdo.com, gazette.com - even all the Denver media have coverage as well. The future generations will value it, in the same way that we value the stories on other "natural disasters". Perhaps someone can find a way to provide small underground, easy-to-access, personal repositories for irreplaceable items. Now that's an idea.... SRJ: the Mormons (LDS) already have a mountain repository for such in Utah - of course, a good earthquake will be a problem for this. So, we really do appreciate your reports of this news and feel your pain and its emotional toll on you and your family and friends. The physical property lost is unbelievable, and you will be a rock for your friends and community to lean on. Hang in there. Let us know what we can do to help. SRJ: Thanks - really appreciate it :-) Trust me, there has been much worse "off topic" items posted, without apology, that does not make our hearts ache like this news does. Please, please keep us posted. Donna Mariner, McLeansboro, IL Researching: BRADEN, BROYLES, SPILLER, FLANNIGAN, STERNS, CRABTREE, CHAPLAIN, JOHNSON, WALLER, MCCLUSKEY, HILL, PARSONS REED, PAGE, EVANS, BENSON, HEARD, OGLESBY, WEBB, ODLE, WILCOX, TANNER, LESSLEY, THOMPSON, KNIGHT, LEWIS, SMITH, CREEK, FINKS, MCCUNE, CARTER, LOGAN, ETC. Most of these ancestors wound up in Hamilton County and Franklin County, Illinois, some in White, Williamson, and Saline Counties in Illinois. They traveled west from Virginia, North and South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland...the way most of our ancestors came. They were Scot-Irish, English, German with a mix of other nationalities SRJ: Some bad news - apparently 22 homes have been burglarized in the burn area - why do idiots have to do this @#^%^%@ ? We've had people impersonating fire fighters and police officers as well - argh.. I guess in a population of ~500,000, statistics say you have x number of idiots. (some problem people we know were on meth.) Latest good news: Fire officially at 45% containment this afternoon; they are working hard on lifting mandatory evacuation zones and part of this is to re-instate electricity and gas (most difficult) in severely affected areas. There are still about 10,000 people under mandatory evacuation orders - down from a peak of about 35,000 and decreasing daily :-) Woodland Park no longer has any part under evac, areas just West of I-25 are no longer under evac orders. The coordination efforts between Colorado Springs/Woodland Park/Cascade/Green Mountain Falls/Manitou Springs/Crystal Park/ and others: Police & Fire Fighters, El Paso & Teller County Sheriff's, National Forest Service personnel, Military (Air Force Academy & Ft Carson Army Base), Nationally Deployed Hot Shot crews (we have at least 4 - perhaps 6? - active here), Nationally Deployed Fire Management Crews (we still have some 1,300 fire fighters on the lines), etc. has been phenomenal. We get two briefings a day that are packed with good info etc. Let me tell you some of the awesome things that have happened: a) Despite the very large number of evacuations, we have not had anyone injured during the evacs - all went very smoothly. (We have had people get irate about them not letting them return despite the real risk of a wind shift inducing another insane firestorm.) I don't believe any of the firefighters have had any injuries either. b) Everyone who lost homes and people who still have homes are being allowed to come in to the burned area tomorrow to visit - still evac'd for a while. There has been consistently good information being disseminated - everyone has multiple ways of accessing the information. They continue to send out reverse-911 calls to west parts of Monument and other regions who are still on pre-evacuation notice. c) The fire has cost $8.8M as of this afternoon - city/county/and national resources are being committed to pay for this. I'm sure the total cost of the fire will be well over $200M - it may approach $500M . who knows yet. (Pres. Obama was here yesterday, and we were all pleased they didn't shut down the city - it was a simple motorcade into the area and out - he was here for 3 hours. d) The National Forest is giving a special package from Smoky the Bear to everyone child whose home was burned - this is something you wouldn't normally even think about. They have a special e-mail site setup because they could not handle the phone call traffic. Take Care, Thanks, SRJ