Area Residents Helping Farmers Hammered by Western Wildfires

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Published on March 24 2017 2:02 pm
Last Updated on March 24 2017 2:02 pm
Written by Greg Sapp

(ONE FIRE SCENE IN THE PRAIRIE STATES)

A group of farmers and truckers are working to provide aid to farmers in the prairie states hammered by wildfires.

The blazes have killed livestock and destroyed outbuildings through a four-state area: Colorado, Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma.

One local group is working to supply some relief to the area.

Nathan Cushman of Stewardson owns his own truck. He and five other truck drivers, four from the area and one from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, took loads of water, hay and other supplies to Ashland, Kansas last week. They are working to get together another load of supplies. The truckers bore the cost of the first trip on their own, but have now started some social media sites in case anyone else would like to help. 

Nathan Cushman has a Facebook page, and a Go Fund Me page has been established to accept donations, called Cushman Convoy.

Others are also helping; a group of pickup trucks came through Effingham Friday morning heading west hauling flatbeds bearing supplies.

The wildfires have forced evacuations and destroyed several buildings.

A pair of fires in the Texas Panhandle burned more than 100 square miles. One of the blazes near Amarillo threatened about 150 homes. 

In Colorado, a fire in rural Logan County burned more than 45 square miles, forced the evacuation of three schools and threatened as many as 900 homes. The Logan County Emergency Management Office said at least four structures, including three homes, were destroyed.

In Kansas, wind-blown fires, some originating in Oklahoma, forced the evacuations of several small towns and the closure of some roads, including a couple of short stretches of Interstate 70. Crews used two Black Hawk helicopters to dump water on some of the Kansas fires.