Hurricane-force winds fan wildfires in Southwest

Source: cnn

(CNN) -- Numerous wildfires were roaring Thursday through parts of Oklahoma and Texas, searing whole neighborhoods, including some in Oklahoma City, as hurricane-force winds continued to kick the flames even higher.

The fires had engulfed so many miles of turf, and flying embers had sparked in so many different places, that hours after the first blazes were reported Thursday morning, safety officials still weren't sure how many fires they were facing.

Feeding the flames were strong winds that were gusting as high as 76 mph, the strength of a Category 1 hurricane, and grounding many emergency aircraft that can't fly safely in those conditions.

On the southwest side of Oklahoma City, fires had engulfed eight homes, and were believed to be destroying many more.

In Choctaw, Oklahoma, dozens of homes had been destroyed, and the high school was on the verge of burning, police dispatcher Silva Schneider said just before 8 p.m. Aerial video footage of the central Oklahoma city of about 9,000 people showed row after row of houses in several different neighborhoods engulfed in flames.

The Oklahoma towns of Velma, Sparks, Wellston, Healdton and Midwest City, a suburb of Oklahoma City, had all been ordered into mandatory evacuations because of the fires, which officials say are finding plenty of easy fuel because of dry conditions throughout the Southwest.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/04/09/southwest.wildfires/

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for where they are in Texas:

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/localnews/news8/stories/wfaa090409_mo_grassfire.bb8634eb.html

:kick:

My cousin died today...hate to thing of all the relatives planning a funeral and maybe having to evacuate amidst everything else.

The winds were just insane. I feel bad for the people who lost their homes...and equally happy that Norman wasn't affected. There's a building in town on the verge of collapse and wind like we had yesterday could have caused it to go down.

:shrug:

Or stuck in the 1850's.

Due east of OKC.

:shrug:

And I live in AZ - everything east of New Mexico is back east to me:rofl: