combination to try to save homes and to try to get this under control, candy.l >> all right, jim spellmant, just west of dallas, we >>> everywhere you go it's this kind of dried-out grass everywhere.l the slightest spark sets it going.l you add wind to that and it just takes off.l with this fire the real problem is, it's not a huge fire at this point but it's right in a heavily-populated area around a resort lake.l so you have the wind, the drought in a populated area is the wrong combination to try to save homes and to try to get this under control, candy.l >> jim spellman tonight just west of dallas.l we appreciate it >>> next up, the return of gridlock.l tonight, congress and the president can't even agree on a date for president obama's big speech about jobs.l [ doorbell rings ] hello there. i'm here to pick up helen. ah. mom? he's here. nice wheels. oh, thanks. keeps me young. hello there, handsome. your dinner's in the microwave, dear. ♪ where do you want to go? just drive. [ engine revs, tires screech ] mom? ♪ or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just g

jim spellman with us from possum kingdom lake, texas.esterday the smoke was incredible behind you. tell me first about the conditions of the fir and then tell me what happened to you guys. >> reporter: sure, yeah. right now, as you said, about 50% contained. they have been at it all day today using helicopter drops to get the few remaining hot spots that were left in this fire to real get it under control before the winds might pick up again. brooke, yesterday had we spoke, we were standing right here, and behind us you can see flames, really all the trees just exploding it was moving so fast, and embers came across the reservoir to our side shortly after we spoke and were igniting spot fires on this side. had to evacuate the command center and had to immediately expand evacuation orders. you can see the devastation that the fire brought over here. it just leveled a part of this forest, and there are still hot spots in here for sure. they are trying to deal with it, but they have gotten it enough under control that they are able to lift

hold the planning department, -- we uphold the planning department, and to any to state the reason spellman -- do i need to stay the reasons hammond reaching the reasons? >> that is part of it. >> i wonder if before we call the roll on the motion, it looked like you had another comment to make. >> i guess part of my thoughts on this is that some of those mitigation measures do not really help, and that is the problem i had with the permit itself. some of those measures are not substantial. >> did you have any you wanted to recommend? >> there could have been solutions. it is not up to me. they were asked to examine it, and they chose not to. it is a question of one way or another. >> you want to call role then? >> would you like to make a motion? >> i am glad to make the motion. >> on the motion to uphold on the basis that it complies with the code. [calling votes] thank you. now the vote is 1-4 to uphold the permit. >> we need another motion. >> of least two votes are required to uphold the permit by default. >> we do not need another motion. >> if there is no other motion, the permit woul

jim spellman, thank you so much. as jim mentioned, people have fled the area, they're forced to escape. grab whatever they can. throw it in a car and leave. many are not sure what remains of their homes. if anything. sharon johnson evacuated in a hurry after friends called to warn her and her family. she joins me from bastrop, texas. let's begin your home. what's the word? >> the word is that our house is gone and i've received confirmation that our house is definitely burned. >> so your house gone. you're one of the 500 who lost your home on sunday. where are you staying right now in. >> right now, we're staying at a friend's house in town. and we -- we're fortunate enough to be able to get a rent house and we're going to be moving over to the rent house either this afternoon or maybe tomorrow. there's a lot of uncertainty because you see the smoke behind us. it's hard to nowhere to go. >> can you just elaborate on what that feels like. you've lost your home. you're trying to work out your tear shelter, rent house a

cnn's jim spellman joins us from the front lines.yesterday you were pushed back because it was seen as you were too dangerously close to the fire. and it does sound like now the firefighters are advancing on the fire as opposed to the other way around. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, candy. now they're saying it's 50% contained. we were right here yesterday as fire was coming across this ridge right here. and spot embers were coming across the reservoir. they were concerned a fire would break out on this side. they had to striekt command center, up with it. right now you can see the helicopter working all day dropping on this fire. they're going to keep at it. still only 50% contained. so they want to just keep at it until this fire is completely out. because all those factors still remain. extreme heat, high winds and drought, candy. >> can people go back at least to the areas that are not still on fire? can people go back to their homes or what's left of them? >> reporter: yeah. they're allowing some of the people back, the people

and so today, we launched a project there in atlanta at spellman college, i love spellman for comingon board with us with this -- we launched a quilting project to encourage people of color to come out and memorialize their family and friends who have not been included in this quilt. >> it's important, it's important, cheryl lee for awareness. >> absolutely. >> i know people have said it. you don't want to criticize people but this is reality. that african-americans, many african-americans i should say are in somewhat denial of hiv and aids and there needs to be more awareness. we need a reality check. >> absolutely. and you know, my fear for their disease is that this -- this disease is getting younger and younger. we talk so much about adults but i'm seeing 15-year-olds come in, get their tests and they are positive. and after 21 years of this work, i say, not on my watch as a mother of two, something has got to change. so we've got to break the stigma, break the silence so we're asking people to call names. come out. make that quilt so people can see that you are very much affecte

hello again to jim spellman in texas. same old stories, same old song in texas.s not too long ago. >> reporter: yes, you know, you touched on it, they could use water here. that's really what they need. this drought is so intense and going on for so long the conditions are ripe for the slightest spark to start a fire. this fire is not a huge fire but it happened in the middle of a populated area, the popular resort area, possum kingdom and the house this is fire hit about 39 now that we know are destroyed it just leveled them. these were big substantial brick houses and they were destroyed, flattened. it's that perfect combination of the high temperatures, drought conditions, the winds and populated areas. today firefighters are meeting trying to devise a plan for today. yesterday they hoped to get the fire under control. when the winds picked up it sent embers flying and started new fires and they had to pull back and expand the evacuation area. right now the winds are calm and they're hoping to get a handle on it. with conditions like this, new fires can break

jim spellman joining us live this morning from bastrop. jim, what's the latest there? right now the winds are calm and it's cooler. so firefighters here when the sun comes up will try to take advantage of that and get a handle on this blaze. these conditions here are so extreme that the slightest thing can set off a new fire. we learned that a separate fire a few miles away from here, did pop up yesterday destroyed 25 homes like that. it's so fast driven by the winds happening yesterday and the extreme drought conditions. they're going to have their work cut out for them today. this fire when we arrived yesterday just this massive wall of smoke. they were hitting it with everything they could from the air. helicopters and airplanes and ground crews trying to get a handle on it. they couldn't. with 90% of this huge state of texas under these drought conditions so even when they get this one under control, another one can pop up right away. it just happens so fast, very little time for people to evacuate. very little time for firefighters to restage and get in there. as

cnn's jim spellman joins me from the bastrop blaze.e wind and the smoke first. >> yeah. you know, the wind has been calm here today. that's a real godsend for firefighters. they need that kind of break with the cooler temperatures today and the low wind to try to get a handle on this fire. it was so aggressive. hearing you rattle off those numbers, it's staggering what this state has been going through. what's setting this fire apart in bastrop, it's happened in a populated area. amazing that in just about 24 hours time it was able to destroy almost 500 homes. it's a incredible. they want to get out there, while they have calm weather to get at it. that's why you see some smoke around us. the wind hasn't been blowing it away. that's a good sign. the people who had to evacuate and lost their homes, it's staggering. they're trying to contemplate what to do tonight and tomorrow. we caught up with the johnson family. fa take a listen. >> we just got a call from our neighbor that we needed to get out and claire also was getting calls from f

cnn's jim spellman live in possum kingdom lake, it texas. good morning. are they closer to getting this thing under control? >> yeah, they are, christine. the first thing we noticed this morning, we're no longer smelling smoke and seeing ash come down. that's definitely a good sign. yesterday all day they hit this fire with helicopter drops and plane drops of retardant, be helicopter drops of water, and plane drops of retardant to get any hot spots out and keep it from spreading and as contained as possible. little help from the winds, the fire blew back on to it itself earlier in the day and they were able to make a lot of progress. still 50% contained. we expect that to go up today. some residents are allowed to go back home, putting together plans to get the rest of the people to come back to the heavily damaged areas and this is a big tourist area, and the economy here relies on that to try to get tourists back for this weekend for the last labor day weekend here of the summer and try to get some help there. one thing people have been asking us all we

my colleague, jim spellman, watching the battle in bastrop.n't know whether their homes are burned are not may now be getting answers? >> just a few hours ago, randi, authorities posted the addresses of about half of the homes burned here in bastrop. for a lot of people, it was a relief to at least know that their home was burned. to at least know -- even though they sort of knew the result, they knew they were in the burn zone, to find out for sure, they could exhale and move towards the next thing. there's been a lot of anxiety about that, randi. we got to catch up with a couple of the people trying to find out. take a listen. >> not knowing what the end result is going to be, i'm pretty convinced in my mind that it's not going to be good. but then trying to figure out where we go from here. >> a house can be replaced. but i think all the memories is what really hurts. it hits the heart. i start thinking about my baby's pictures and the things they made in elementary and the things i put up to save as a gift to their kids. it's gone. it hurt

our cnn's jim spellman is covering the big fire west of dallas. that is where firefighters, jim, i understand are making progress better today. is there concern these winds are going to come back and spread this fire again? >> yeah. they made a lot of progress yesterday on the ground with hand crews out using hand tools and bulldozers, creating fire lines to separate the fire from the unburned fuel in the surrounding woods and from the air with helicopters and planes. now they are up to 60% contained. they feel good about where this fire is going. they are not going to let the last of the residents into the most heavily affected areas until they can mop up. with these severe drought conditions, it's easy for a new fire to get sparked off by a single amber picked up in the wind. they want this 100% mopped up before they let the final residents back into heavily burned-out areas. >> positive om kingdom lake, a big tourist area, is that going to be open for labor day weekend or is it too dangerous? >> i think it's important to realize these are big e

cnn's jim spellman is in bastrop, texas, near austin. that's where the biggest fire is burning. jim, i understand you talked with a woman who lost everything in that fire. >> reporter: yeah, fredricka. firefighters here are starting to make some progress. they've got the fire about 30% contained. too late, though, for over 500 homes here destroyed. and the families that live there are just starting to come to terms with it. we met a woman, linda, a little while ago. she showed us her iphone. >>> photographs on it. she was out running errands when the fire came. she never had a chance to go back home and grab anything. a friend of hers got into the fire, snapped a couple of pictures and sent her these. she's hoping to get in at least lay eyes on it. right now she's sort of trying to contemplate the future and come to grips with it. take a listen. >> and the house can be replaced, but i think all of the memories is what really hurts. i start thinking about my baby's pictures and the things they made in elementary and the things i put up to save to give to their kids. and it's gone

jim spellman is in bastrop, texas. what's the situation now, jim? kyra, this wall of smoke has dissipated. this morning they're getting a break. the winds are low and it's very cool, still probably only in the 60s here. that's what they need to get the aircraft up bleaks between the active fire and fuel of the forest. shift change right now. the day crews are coming in to take advantage of the work they have done overnight. crews are assessing what needs to be done at all the fires across the state. governor perry just got back from his own helicopter tour of a different fire. here's what he had to say. >> the magnitude of these losses are pretty stunning some thousand homes we have lost. weaver over 100,000 acres of new fir fires. even with this tragedy, the good news is that there are no lives lost in these neighborhoods. >> reporter: kyra, as soon as they get one fire knocked down, another one seems to spring up all across the state of texas. all it takes is spark and a little wind and they have another fire going. >> jim, we'll keep talking. >>>

jim spellman joins us from there. >> reporter: hey, kyra. we just got a stunning update here. homes destroyed was 576. this morning, they updated that. now 1,386 homes. hundreds more added. a lot of people who had looked at the fire map saw that number in the 500s and held out hope. it's going to be harder now for them to feel like that's the truth. they've been releasing, slowly, the addresses of homes that have been destroyed. like you said, sometimes just minutes to get out. now people are faced with trying to rebuild their lives. that's going to be months if not years long. really, to rebuild this town and the character of this town. ranches destroyed. farm animals killed. a lot of the stuff that makes up the character of a town like this is now gone. on the fire itself, they have been making good progress. they've been taking advantage of the low winds and lower temperatures. they hope to do more of that today from the air, on the ground. but with these draught conditions, 181 fires in the last week here in texas. these things can pop up any time and cause even more heart

our jim spellman is there right now. jim, what's the situation?crews did, of better conditions, lower winds, cooler temperatures. today the temperatures are going to be back up in the mid 90s, but the winds will stay low. that's so essential for fighting these fires. that means that the fire will spread less and they're able to get and create these fire lines with less fear that embers will pick up, blow in the wind and start a new fire on the other side of the fire lines. they're going to do their best to do that. as you mentioned two people dead in this fire here so far. as the possibility of more injury or death is out there now, governor perry deployed a search and rescue team to get into this fire into the damage to see if anybody needs help, needs rescue, might be trapped, any of these structures. these fires have just been breaking out all over. yesterday on the other side of austin, a fire got under control, residents able to go back in and see what the damage was. david mattingly caught up with one of the woman as she went back to her hom

jim spellman is still in bastrop near the largest fire in the state.ter: they are make something progress. they have this fire about 30% contained which really impressed me. this was such an active, dynamic fire that moved so fast in its first 48 hours. it's really remarkable they were able to do that. they really took advantage of the weather yesterday. calm winds and low temperatures. short of rain that's what firefighters need to get these fires under control. they're out there again giving it their all. when you were mentioning how long this drought has been going on and how many fires they've been fighting and for how long, they know they don't have the luxury of time when they are fighting these. they could have a dozen more fires break up today. that's what we've seen over the last few days. the day before yesterday, just within about 100 miles of here, five or six fires that claimed 20, 25 homes. any one of those fires would be big news on a regular day. in tex ait's become really just another day here in this epic drought and this horrific wil

was a member of the elite came to one of the great black universities whether it was more house or spellman whether it was howard university, et cetera. large parts of the elite have the option of going wherever they want to, and it seems clear to me that part of what the historically black institutions are going to have to do is be very competitive with these white institutions. and what's also very clear to me is they are going to compete in different ways. summer going to specialize and do various things well, whether it's medicine or sciences. summer going to try to be, except the fact it can't be elitist institutions and they will be competing with midrange universities as opposed to the harvard and the yells and some of these others. but clearly they are evolving and clearly an increasing part of the population i suspect it's also going to be non-us black people who would be uneducated and some will survive and someone not. >> host: atascosa.com is our

. >> cnn's jim spellman is reporting right near the fire lines.specially on this property destruction the governor talks about. >> reporter: sure, take a look, first, john at this. we're a couple miles from the front of the fire. just this massive wall of fire. governor perry saw it from the air. we saw it from the road driving in here today, and it was just staggering. right now up in the air, there's helicopters, planes dropping water. retardant, trying to get a handle on this. 475 homes already destroyed and many subdivisions notice way. this is really the worst possible combination of this almost year-long severe drought conditions here with the high winds that kick up in the afternoon and a fire near these populated areas. that's really a difference an that the governor stressed. i think that that's really what is going to make this stand out. already since last november, john, an area the size of connecticut has burned here in texas. it's just unbelievable what they've been dealing with. most of them though ha been away from populated areas.

jim spellman is live in bastrop, texas.is must be agonizing for people who left and are waiting to find out if their home is still there. >> reporter: it really is, christine. you know, they all know that even after this fire is out, the battle for the people here to rebuild their lives and their communities will continue. as firefighters begin to get control of a deadly texas wildfire just a mile away, a makeshift command center becomes the new town square. >> right here. >> bill ludwig's home is inside the fire zone. but he doesn't yet know for sure if it's been destroyed. >> shock i guess mostly. not knowing what the end result is going to be. i'm pretty convinced that i, in my mind that it's not going to be good. but you know, trying to figure out where we go from here. >> for linda, a single mom raising her three children here, the news came in the form of a picture sent to her iphone. >> when you see these pictures, it must be heartbreaking. >> it is extremely heartbreaking. >> her home and her van, gone. >> the house

jim spellman is joining us from 9 front lines. >> reporter: over here to the left, we watched the fire come down the and devastate this forest right here. right now is the dangerous part of the day for firefighting. they're trying to get these people back in their homes and tourists back to the resort area before the labor day weekend. >> jim, thank you. >>> katia isn't the only storm they're watching. yet another storm in the gulf of mexico could flood parts, get this, of new orleans. you'll find out how dangerous it could be. something happened in iraq last month that's never happened before. we're going to tell you what it is. that's coming up right here in "the situation room." [ doorbell rings ] hello there. i'm here to pick up helen. ah. mom? he's here. nice wheels. oh, thanks. keeps me young. hello there, handsome. your dinner's in the microwave, dear. ♪ where do you want to go? just drive. [ engine revs, tires screech ] mom? ♪ >>> new unemployment claims numbers are up. lisa sylvester is monitoring that. some other top stories. >> the labor department says first-time unemployme

cnn's jim spellman is live from possum kingdom lake, he and his crew had to pull back in a hurry from the front lines after the fire started spreading east. now they're back at the fire lines. what does that mean the fact you've been back and forth. is that good news? >> reporter: it is good news, they're telling us here is that this fire is now 50% contained largely because it burned out a lot of the areas all the way up to the lake. this is where we were yesterday, watching the fire burn, active fire, walls of flame on this crest of woods over here, and as it moved its way down it was thick, billowing smoke and embers coming across the lake to our spot and starting spot fires and they had to abandon the command center and pull us back and overnight the winds died down, they were able to get a handle on it. still a little bit of smoking area and the devastation of the fire coming through and wiping out what was a dense forest of trees here. now that's good news that this is coming, they have this portion of the fire together but the sheriff here told us a short time ago that all the

jim spellman is there. what are you hearing about containment today? are they made headwind? >> no containment at all. winds are good today, calm, much cooler, allow firefighters to try to get some containment. >> i want to introduce you to shara and her daughter. they were forced to evacuate. what was it like? >> we just got a call from our neighbor that we needed to get out, and claire also was getting calls from friends who live on the street, saying we had to get out. and we just threw kids and dog in the car and left. >> reporter: and your home? >> it's gone. we hear from a neighbor who snuck back in -- we're not allowed to go back, probably for a few more days to see, but a neighbor said that he saw our house and it was gone. >> claire, what's it like to go through that? what does it feel like? >> well, right now you just can't think anything about it. everybody else is in the same situations. there's no self-pity. we'll be better off than most, but the fact that half of our town is homeless, you can't really think of yourself right now. >> reporter: what are you going

was a member of the elite came to one of the great black universities whether it was more house or spellmanity, et cetera. large parts of the elite have the option of going wherever they want to, and it seems clear to me that part of what the historically black institutions are going to have to do is be very competitive with these white institutions. and what's also very clear to me is they are going to compete in different ways. summer going to specialize and do various things well, whether it's medicine or sciences. summer going to try to be, except the fact it can't be elitist institutions and they will be competing with midrange universities as opposed to the harvard and the yells and some of these others. but clearly they are evolving and clearly an increasing part of the population i suspect it's also going to be non-us black people who would be uneducated and some will survive and someone not. >> host: atascosa.com is our guest website. >> caller: this is my first meeting with you today. this is a great sunday for me. i tell you, your words, your poise, your clarity and description o