Anticipating the Worst and Praying for the Best!
As I sit here at my computer this morning checking the Navajo County Emergency Notification website every fifteen minutes, I truly contemplate what is really important in life.
You see we are less than 15 miles from another Type 1 Forest Fire. Yes, there is another ugly big nasty fire in the White Mountains of Arizona. It is something we live with every year when it is hot and dry between Spring and the Summer rainy season. There have already been several big fires in our State this year, one in an area where 19 fire fighters lost their lives just a few years ago.
As I sit here looking around my house trying to decide what to try and take with us if the order comes in, I begin to realize that there isn’t all that much that is worth taking the time to pack up. Dishes, furniture, Television Sets, Stereo systems are all just things. What really matters are the people, the pets, the medications, a few clothes, a few treasured pictures from my walls, my Dad’s antique clock, my computer and printer (my life in a box), and papers.
We are not greenhorns to this process. We did it in 2002 when another monster fire raged out of control and took out almost half a million acres of forest, many homes, and outbuildings. This is the third such fire in the years we have lived in our little piece of paradise in Northeastern Arizona. The first drove us away for over two weeks. The second didn’t directly impact our hometown but it did one just east of us and we became the evacuation center for those displaced residents. Now we are on pre-evacuation status again. The plan is in place and we are getting things together in anticipation of the worst. Everyone is praying for the best.
All I ask is that anyone reading this keep the White Mountain residents in your prayers because we need them.
Sandra Paulow
That look you get when you are just waiting........
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