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F6

07/05/11 4:43 AM

#146265 RE: tinner #145683

tinner -- a lot of that is just wooden fenceposts driven in the dirt with some barbed wire strung -- when it gets this dry the ground, beyond the parched surface blowing away when it's windy, goes bone-dry well down from the surface, and as a result shrinks and cracks -- and one by one, here and there over the countless miles of fencing, fenceposts lose their support and go over, well beyond the usual maintenance for such fencing, and thus well beyond the capacity of the ranchers to keep up

and there have also been a few wildfires in those areas you might have heard about

not to mention the localized flash flooding, badly aggravated by parched earth, that has occurred in certain locations from the all too occasional thunderstorms that have punctuated the drought (and started a whole bunch of fires, their lightning strike footprints well larger than their rain footprints)