Texas
Related: About this forumSwinney Switch fire ousts 150 people on Christmas — burns house, mobile home and 200 acres
SWINNEY SWITCH More than 150 people were evacuated from two Swinney Switch housing developments along Lake Corpus Christi on Christmas, as fire destroyed a house, mobile home, several boats, vehicles and more than 200 acres, fire officials said.
New Testament Fellowship Church members rallied to provide coffee, temporary shelter and comfort for reeling residents as they scrambled to find family, friends and neighbors to stay with, said Swinney Switch Volunteer Fire Department's Fire Chief Lonnie Messer.
About 120 firefighters with 13 area agencies used 28 trucks to track flames that swept from the dry lake bed into Hideaway Hills and the Marine housing additions.
"There's so much old timber out there, when the wind hit it yesterday it came alive," Messer said. "It hadn't been crossing those little sloughs, but with the wind Christmas it was like gasoline on brush."
More at http://www.caller.com/news/2012/dec/26/swinney-switch-fire-ousts-150-people-on-151-home/ .
[font color=green]My old stomping grounds. Fires started in what remains of Lake Corpus Christi back at Thanksgiving. The lake is only about 15% full. [/font]
ROBROX
(392 posts)This sounds like HELL. One match and the place just goes up in smoke. What type of place is this that has some much in it that the dry lake is a FIERY HELL?
Just another place made famous by the GOP
TexasTowelie
(112,237 posts)in order to provide fresh water to the shrimp estuaries downstream.
Corpus Christi obtains water from two sources: Choke Canyon (on the Frio river) and Lake Corpus Christi (on the Nueces river south of where the Frio and Atascosa rivers join with it). Since Choke Canyon is a deeper lake, during the summer water flow comes from Lake Corpus Christi in order to minimize surface evaporation.
In addition, some of the other communities besides Corpus Christi have water rights to Lake CC. While Corpus Christi has guaranteed to those cities that they will release enough water from Choke Canyon, Lake CC is essentially a pass-through lake. Those cities are now investigating whether to build new water intake structures as the water level declines.
Unfortunately, these factors are the primary reasons why Lake Corpus Christi is usually low. The state park in that area is also suffering from the effects of decreased tourism. Between the two lakes, the surface water supply for Corpus Christi is below the 40% mark and water restrictions are now coming to bear.