Hurricane Irene

[Mommabear]

Mommabear, i looked up the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge...wonderful place. i can't believe the fire is still burning after all that rain! what's happening with the animals? the fire has had little or no publicity, how bad has it been? losses?

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatdismalswamp/


The swamp supports a variety of mammals including otter, bats, raccoon, mink, grey and red foxes, and grey squirrels. White-tailed deer are common throughout the refuge and, although rarely observed, black bear and bobcat inhabit the area.

I woke up one morning and ran around the house looking for a fire because all I could smell was smoke and my smoke detectors were not going off. I then went outside to find what was burning and I couldn't tell where the fire was coming from but I knew it was big. I ended up calling my husband at work to find out what was happening because I couldn't find anything about it.

A lighting strike started the fire on Aug.4, I think. Over 6000 acres have been destroyed. There is damage to roadways and ditches. There are signs on some of the roadways warning of dense smoke and I believe there have been heath issues and traffic accidents because of it.

As far as the animals, there are moving anywhere they can. I am hearing from a person that works at the U.S Training Center that the compound is being over run with Black bears. There was even a momma and her cub spotted by the main office building.



There is part of this article http://hamptonroads.com/2011/08/hurrican...swamp-fire

Fire officials took to the air Sunday afternoon to assess conditions. They spotted at least 30 areas where smoke was still billowing from the 6,000-plus-acre fire, which is not unusual, said John Bearer, a spokesman for the Southern Area Type 2 Incident Team, in charge of the fire.

But there was good news to come out of Irene, too.

No visible flames were spotted, and the fire - which was considered 35 percent contained on Friday before the storm - did not appear to have spread, Bearer said.

Also, between 10 and 15 inches of rain from the hurricane were recorded at the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, he said.

"We have puddles all over the place," Bearer said. "There's time to get water into that soil."

He likened it to water hitting a sponge. For the rain to help, it needs to soak into the deep organic peat, where the fire has been smoldering.