Aha! I think I have to put them in Google Archive or something like that. I hope you have heard about the horrible fires that swept over Gatlinburg recently. It was what they called a "Firestorm", because it started as some small brush fires on the North Carolina side of the Smokey Mountains, but later the next night there were high winds (70 mph) on the mountains, and the fires spread rapidly over the tree tops into the mountains surrounding Gatlinburg, which is in Tennessee, on the Monday night right after Thanksgiving. The town and surrounding vacation resorts were just taken over with this fire in a matter of a couple of hours. Most of the vacation cabins were made of logs, and they caught fire like matchsticks up high on the mountains. People were given very little warning because of the speed of the approach of the fire, so they had to flee for their lives. Some had to drive down burning mountain roads in their cars, while others had to actually run down the mountainsides to escape. All this we were watching at home on TV while things were burning. It was horrible! Fortunately only 14 people died, but 500 buildings and cabins were burned - including a cabin we had built on the other side of the mountain from the main fire. Apparently, huge embers from the fire would fly through the air because of the strong winds, and the far side of the mountain burned in a couple of places where other vacation log cabins were built. Our cabin, Shadow Wood was one that burned. We didn't own it anymore, but we sure had a lot of fond memories of good times spent there!
Hundreds of people lost everything in the fire, while others were there for the Thanksgiving holiday and lost all the clothes and things they brought with them. One couple and their three teenage sons were vacationing in one of the cabins and both parents died in the fire, and their three sons all ended up in Vanderbilt Hospital burn unit. There were so many sad stories like this, it just broke our hearts! Dolly Parton, who is from this area of Tennessee had a Telethon in Nashville that raised $10,0000 dollars for the people who lost their homes. Plus, she's giving $1,000/mo. For each family who lost their home for the next 6 months to help them get back on their feet. She's quite a lady! Now here are a Photo of the front page of our newspaper:
The building you can see right in front is Dolly's Dreamworks Hotel, which was evacuated, but suffered little damage.
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