Don’t Forget About Montana

I'll be honest... The devastation from Hurricane Harvey is terrible. People have died, homes and businesses have been lost, a whole entire area of Texas just completely under water and I am at loss for words, really. It seems that the entire nation is focused its relief efforts and money on Texas and Louisiana but I'm sitting over here in Billings, Montana on the 23rd floor of the Double Tree Hotel looking out my studio windows into smoke filled skies for what seems like two months now.

Houses destroyed, hundreds of thousands of acres completely burnt to a crisp and we've got firefighters out there risking their lives to fight it.

Over a half million acres of Montana have been lost to wildfires this summer. KTVQ.com reports that about four thousand firefighters, 125 aircraft and 350 Montana National Guard troops battled 40 wildfires this summer that scorched 655,171 acres– with 23 still actively consuming land statewide. The most destructive of these was reportedly the Lolo Peak Fire which claimed two lives and burned nearly 40,000 acres.

The Lodgepole Complex Fire was the largest of the summer coming in at approximately 271,000 acres. The longest burning was the Tongue River Complex. It began in early July and burned just under 29,000 acres and is still listed as active on Inciweb, the federal website for fire information. This fire season has been compounded by a lack of rainfall. August 2017 was nearly the driest on record. Continued dry conditions compound the danger.

Don't forget that there are other parts of the country in need. I have already helped Houston how I know how and now I'm helping Montana. There is no reason that we need to pick between which one is better, etc because every human deserves help and aid but I just want to make sure that the rest of country understands that Montana is in need and not just the south.

The American Red Cross is great resource to help the Montana fires. Also this Saturday at Rimrock Mall is Safe Kids Day from 11am - 2pm. You can bring water, Gatorade, trail mix, socks, shirts, underwear, gas cards, etc to the event and it will all be donated to the firefighters fighting the fires here in Montana! Don't miss your chance to help!