Furious Wildfire in Colorado Leaves Destruction in Its Wake – NYTimes.com

Posted by Chaos Sweeps Away the World We Know! The Disaster, current events & Catastrophe Blog. Forecasts for 2012 to 2020. Read tomorrows news today! Plus current economic, commodities, stock indices and financial news.

June 28, 2012 - Furious Wildfires Rage On in Colorado and the West:  With wind and heat giving it new strength, the furious wildfire that has been burning in the foothills around Colorado’s second-largest city doubled in size by Wednesday, first roaring past containment lines and forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee, chased by billowing smoke, blowing ash and the fear that their homes might be burned to the ground.  Pictured above, wildfires in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The Waldo Canyon fire, though, remained the most worrisome, and Tuesday’s blowup sent residents scrambling — choking roads with traffic and briefly closing a section of Interstate 25. About 32,000 people have been evacuated, including from the United States Air Force Academy, which is set to welcome a new class of cadets this week. By Wednesday afternoon, heavy wind spit gusts of ash around the city.

The Colorado fires reflect the dire situation in many Western States as a long-standing drought continuous to manifest itself.  Your editor lives in the Southwestern United States.  Fires all across the west are an annual occurrence, however, this year they are particularly troublesome.  Click on the link below for the full story.

The Master of Disaster

Furious Wildfire in Colorado Leaves Destruction in Its Wake – NYTimes.com.

‘Epic dryness’ feeding Western wildfires – USATODAY.com

Posted by Chaos Sweeps Away the World We Know! The Disaster, current events & Catastrophe Blog. Forecasts for 2012 to 2020. Read tomorrows news today! Plus current economic, commodities, stock indices and financial news.

June 28, 2012 - Western Wildfires Rage Out-of-Control:  Colorado isn’t the only state affected by an exceptionally severe fire season, with crews battling blazes in Alaska, Arizona, California, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

“The whole Central Rocky Mountain range is a tinderbox,” says Ron Roth, of the Rocky Mountain Area Coordinating Center in Lakewood, Colo.

A light winter snow pack, dry spring, more people living in what was once wilderness and the long-term effects of climate change have all conspired to make this an especially bad fire season, Roth says. “We’ve got trees torching, tornadoes of fire — this is extreme fire behavior,” he says.

The exceptional danger is a combination of very dry vegetation and waves of lightning storms, says Lee Bently, a public information officer for the incident management team responsible for the High Park Fire. “It’s just instant ignition.”  Follow the link below for the complete story on the western U.S. wildfires.

The Master of Disaster

‘Epic dryness’ feeding Western wildfires – USATODAY.com.

Banks ready contingency plans for potential Greek exit of Euro in Sunday’s vote

Posted by The Extinction Protocol: 2012 and beyond

June 16, 2012 – FINANCE – The banks are on high alert. Hundreds of employees at big firms, some part of special teams, will be on standby this Sunday, awaiting the results of Greece’s pivotal election. They are preparing for the worst case. The fear is that the vote will heighten the chances of Greece exiting the euro and the global financial system will be shaken when the markets open on Monday. After being largely unprepared for the extreme stress of the 2008 crisis, large banks in the United States are determined to be ready this time. They have been taking measures to deal with instability in Europe for over a year. In recent months, they have stepped up their contingency planning, especially after it became clear that Greece was struggling to comply with the terms of a March bailout that was intended to keep the country in the euro. In New York and London, banks have set up dedicated crisis teams, and rehearsed elaborate responses. As clients get nervous, banks have been guiding clients on how to react to a range of situations, from just one country leaving the euro zone to the dissolution of the euro itself. Ordinary investors, for example, are demanding more information on Europe from their brokers. David Darst, chief investment strategist at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, said the crisis had consumed his regular Monday morning call with the firm’s financial advisers, and has been the focus of the monthly video he does for clients and brokers. Mr. Darst says he hears two main questions: “What is your thought on Greece pulling out of the euro and it leading to contagion?” and “What impact will this have on my portfolio?” –CNBC

Hundreds flee wildfires raging in U.S. southwest

Posted By The Extinction Protocol: 2012 and beyond

June 11 2012 – COLORADO – Firefighters battled wildfires that spread quickly in parched forests in Colorado and New Mexico, forcing hundreds of people from their homes and the evacuation of wolves from a sanctuary. The Colorado fire, burning in a mountainous area about 15 miles west of Fort Collins, grew to 22 square miles within about a day of being reported and has destroyed or damaged 18 structures. Strong winds meanwhile, grounded aircraft fighting a 40-square-mile fire near the mountain community of Ruidoso in southern New Mexico. Crews were still working to build a fire line around the blaze, which started on Friday and has damaged or destroyed 36 structures. It was not immediately clear how many of the structures lost were homes. In Colorado, the fire sent up heavy smoke, obscuring the sun and creating an eerie, orange dusk in the middle of the day. The smell of smoke drifted into the Denver area and smoke from the fires spread as far away as parts of central Nebraska, western Kansas and Texas. The latest New Mexico fire is smaller than the Whitewater-Baldy fire – the largest in the state’s history – but more concerning to authorities because it started closer to homes, said Dan Ware, a spokesman for the New Mexico State Forestry Division. He said the number of Ruidoso evacuees was in the hundreds, but he did not have an exact figure. Elsewhere, firefighters were battling a wildfire that blackened six square miles in Wyoming’s Guernsey State Park and forced the evacuation of campers and visitors. Cooler weather was helping firefighters in their battle against two other wildfires in southern Utah. In Colorado, authorities sent nearly 1,800 evacuation notices to phone numbers. About 500 people had checked in at Red Cross shelters. Larimer County sheriff Justin Smith said. Authorities say it is the worst fire seen in Larimer County in about 25 years. It spread as fast as one and a half miles an hour on Saturday, skipping and jumping over some areas but burning intensely in trees in others. Flames were coming dangerously close to deputies who were telling some residents to evacuate, Sheriff Smith said. –Independent

Record wildfire in New Mexico only 15% contained

Posted by The Extinction Protocol: 2012 and beyond

June 2, 2012 – NEW MEXICO – The largest wildfire in New Mexico’s history continued to burn almost uncontrollably Saturday in the remote Gila Wilderness, belching enough smoke to prompt officials to caution that children, adults with heart disease and other sensitive groups should not go outdoors. Since lightning ignited the Whitewater-Baldy Fire Complex wildfire on May 9, flames have devoured 227,000 acres — more than 354 square miles — in the southwest portion of the state. Even though 1,257 personnel have been fighting the conflagration, only 15% of it was contained Saturday, U.S. Forest Service officials said. For purposes of comparison, the burn area of 354 square miles is more than one and a half times bigger than the city of Chicago’s 227 square miles. Two separate strikes of lightning caused the mountainous fire: the Baldy Fire started May 9 in an inaccessible area of the rugged wilderness, and the Whitewater Fire was reported on May 16 several miles west of the Baldy Fire, Forest Service officials said. The two fires in the Gila National Forest combined May 23, enhanced by drought and sustained winds of 40 mph to 50 mph, authorities said. It was the May 16 event that led crews to try to suppress the entirety of the fire but “the extreme fire activity, coupled with incredibly rugged terrain and large boulders falling down the steep canyons forced fire crews to pull out of the area after the first day of fighting the fire,” the Forest Service said. The fire began 15 miles east of Glenwood, New Mexico, and has been fueled by conifers, ponderosa pines, pinons, junipers and grass, Forest Service officials said. Continuing growth potential for the history-making wildfire was “high” Saturday, the Forest Service said. -CNN