Letter: Rain came at right time for wildfires

Posted on by Letters
Steven Hawkins

The recent wildfires in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee have all caused tremendous damage to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Smoky Mountains areas. And on Nov. 8, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper issued a state of emergency for the Western North Carolina area. These fires in the regional area have now since been contained after some bad and serious drought conditions we have had in the Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina area that made matters worse for these wildfires.

Before we had that needed rain, the wildfires in Western North Carolina were very hard for the N.C. Forest Service to control. And burn bans from the N.C. Forest Service were even issued.

The majority of the damage brought on by this long drought to the area with these wildfires in Western North Carolina was in Henderson County and Cherokee County. Thank God, Western North Carolina received much-needed rain showers. These much-needed rain showers came truly at the right time.

It is very much good news that the awful wildfires in Tennessee that happened in a short amount of time got contained really fast. And I am glad the wildfires that happened in Western North Carolina that were out of control because of the drought conditions got contained because of the needed rain showers we had that made most of the wildfire damage disappear for the good of the residents of Western North Carolina.

— Steven Hawkins
Greenville, S.C.

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