19th June 2008

Arrival In Outer Banks Again - Smoky Horizons Persist

As I left Ocracoke today around 1 p.m., and headed back to the much dreaded smoky environment in the Outer Banks, I was thankful of my excursion to see the wild ponies.  I have seen a good portion of the Core Banks area, and was now going from Ocracoke to Hatteras.  I met a nice woman who chatted with me on the car ferry.  Always interesting to talk to people about where they’re from, their vacation plans, etc. 


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I could see the smoke haze over Hatteras, compared to the blue skies in Ocracoke.  I drove towards Waves, which is about an hour or so drive from Hatteras Landing where the ferries arrive and depart. 


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If you are wondering where to get good information on the status of the Pocosin Wildlife Refuge wildfires, which is less than 50 miles from the Outer Banks depending on which section you’re staying in, it’s not easy but there are a few good sources available.

I’ve compiled some links that helped me find out daily updates, which are otherwise hard to find anywhere, offline or online.

The wildfire started from a lightning strike on June 1st in the Pocosin Wildlife Refuge.  There have been numerous dense smoke advisories since then, as well as Code Orange and Code Purple air quality alerts.

The first site is really good it gets updated daily and throughout the day:

http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=MHX&wwa=all

Second link is a PDF article - sorry - but good.

http://www.fws.gov/alligatorriver/images/ERF%20Fact%20Sheet%20AM%2006_17_2008.pdf

North Carolina Refuge Wildfire News Links:

http://www.fireengineering.com/news/newsArticleDisplay.html?id=163113

http://www.charlotte.com/breaking_news/story/673270.html

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/state&id=6210576

Here’s a quick summary of the North Carolina wildfire news as of June 19, 2008:

There is a dense smoke advisory in several surrounding counties of the Pocosin Wildlife Refuge today.

The wildfire is 70% contained, however, that means that 28,700 acres are “contained, but 12,300 are not yet contained.  They are pulling out firefighters due to the organic peat soil burning or smoldering and creating hotspots that can be life-threatening (imagine the animals situation).

If the wildlife refuge is 110,000 acres - this means that nearly half of the wildlife refuge has burned - or over 10% continues to burn and is not yet under control.  A new wildfire started a couple of days ago and is already over 2,500 acres burning.

I’d hate to see the animal situation in this refuge - what type of rescue efforts are there for wild animals, black bears, birds, etc.?

I’ll have to research that one and get back to you on that.  If you want to comment on this blog post, click on the blog title link - you can see the blog comment field there.

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