Not Again!

There is nothing like feeling helpless in the face of a disaster. This year New Mexico and the entire Southwest has been under extreme drought conditions. Many areas of the state have reported little to no rainfall for 200+ days, extremely high winds, and extremely high temperatures. No less than 20 fires in NM alone have been started since January. I have watched footage of these fires with trepidation, some fascination, and a feeling of helplessness. Now, history seems to be repeating itself.

Eleven years ago, when I was a junior in high school, my family sat on the roof of our house in the Pojoaque Valley and watched as the town of Los Alamos was evacuated and then burned in the Cerro Grande Fire. We had evacuees and their pets staying with us and our schools were used as evacuation shelters. Much of that week was spent helping families who did not know whether or not they had a home to go to, helping them find other family members and friends who had evacuated, and just trying to keep their spirits up. And while we were doing this, we were warily keeping an eye on the fire and the possibility that WE might be evacuated. At one point, we DID make preliminary preparations to evacuate. More than 200 homes were eventually lost as the flames blazed through town.

I was born in Los Alamos and spent much of my childhood there visiting family and spending summers riding my bike around town. I have always enjoyed the beautiful Jemez mountains above the town and have many memories of picnics, hikes, and horseback rides up there. During the Cerro Grande Fire, much of those mountains were so badly burned it will take several hundred years for the lush pine forests to return to their former glory.

A few weeks ago in the first part of June, another wildfire started on the opposite side of the Pojoaque Valley in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains. The Pacheco Fire is less than 15 miles to the southeast from where my parents live. The winds have kept this fire away from structures and in the opposite direction from where my parents live but I was terrified to see this fire so close to home. I was able to relax a little bit as firefighters began to take control and keep it away from nearby towns.

Then, yesterday, at about 1:30 in the afternoon, my dad was outside working on building defensive space around their property and sent me a text picture of a new fire in the Jemez Mountains. He asked me to see if I could find out something about it online. Shortly after that, my cousin posted pictures on Facebook of a fire she and her family had driven by in the Jemez near a picnic place called Las Conchas.

In less than 24 hours, the Las Conchas Fire grew over 40,000 acres, is still growing, and is now threatening the town of Los Alamos yet again. The town began mandatory evacuations about 2:00 this afternoon. This just brings back so many memories, and not good ones. I feel even more helpless being 250 miles away, despite knowing that I wouldn't be able to do anything to help with the fire anyway. I know my parents are still safe where they are, and they are in fact housing some evacuees right now. They have a plan in place in case they have to leave. Yet I am still terrified for them. Mom reported ash and burned pine needles in their yard this morning. Those could easily be still-hot cinders.

I am terrified for my friends and family who have had to evacuate twice in less than 2 decades. I cannot fathom the terror of having less than 24 hours notice to pack up every precious belonging knowing you may not ever be coming home. And to do it all over again eleven years later. It's disheartening to see that the just barely new growth that has just begun to return in places damaged by the Cerro Grande fire is again at risk of being destroyed. When we were up in the Jemez Mountains with my parents earlier in May, I was heartened to see a momma bear and her baby cub playing on a recovering part of the mountain above Los Alamos. My heart aches for them that they may be in danger or at the very least their home is in danger. I just can't believe we have to go through this again. I may be far away now, but those memories of the Cerro Grande fire are just as fresh today as they were that long week in May 2000.

My prayers are with those in Los Alamos and White Rock. I pray for rain for the entire Southwest and some relief from this heat.

O God, in Whom we live and move, and have our being, grant us rain, in due abundance, that, being sufficiently helped with temporal, we may the more confidently seek after eternal gifts. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Prayer Source: Novena in Honor of St. Isidore: Patron of Farmers by National Catholic Rural Life Conference, National Catholic Rural Life Conference