STORM2K

Governor declares state of emergency

Posted: Feb 10, 2008 07:54 PM EST

Updated: Feb 10, 2008 07:56 PM EST




RICHMOND (wavy) - Governor Timothy M. Kaine today declared a state of emergency in the Commonwealth of Virginia, directing state agencies to take all necessary actions to aid in the response to multiple wildfires that have broken out in numerous areas across the Commonwealth.

A declaration of emergency allows the Governor to immediately deploy state personnel, equipment, and other emergency response resources, and to coordinate state and local response to the event.

In addition, the Governor has authorized the activation of Virginia National Guard personnel and equipment to assist with fighting wildfires.

Virginia Department of Forestry personnel have been working throughout the day. Also, personnel from the Virginia Department of Transportation and Virginia State Police have been dealing with roads closed due to debris and smoke. The Virginia Department of Emergency Management continues to coordinate requests for assistance from local governments.

There's wildfires all over the place, I have heard of wildfires in Hanover, Henrico (where I live), Chesterfield, and Louisa. Some very bad wildfires in Dinwiddie - they won't even let the news reporters into the area because it's too dangerous!

I have also just heard that wind blew over a tractor-trailer on I-295 on the Varina-Enon Bridge.

WTVR has a bit of a newswire going on this:

http://www.wtvr.com/Global/story.asp?S=7850800

Here's a photo I took:

I saw this on MSNBC during lunch today. When did the fire start?

At least the winds are dying down now.

My sister and her family were evacuated out of their house in Hanover because of this. They just bought it a few months ago.

Stephanie wrote:I saw this on MSNBC during lunch today. When did the fire start?

At least the winds are dying down now.

The fires started mid-day on Sunday. They were apparently caused by downed power lines; the rains did much to help get the remaining fires under control, but there was still a very noticeable brown tinge to the sky today as residual smoke mixed in with the clouds.

The winds uprooted lots of trees and snapped some large branches the other day; I'll have to get pictures of those.

Here's some pictures I got. I plan to go out and take more, I found three uprooted large trees the other day, but it was too dark to take pictures.