Wildfires prompt long-distance worry

I've spent some time this morning looking at photos from the Myrtle Beach Sun-News of the wildfires in the Myrtle Beach, S.C., area. Friday's news reports alerted me to the extraordinary calamity and prompted me to worry about my first cousin, who lives in the Barefoot Resort development, where 69 houses have been destroyed. A family e-mail went out asking, "Has anyone heard from Paula?" That was followed by an e-mail from another cousin saying Paula and her husband had been evacuated but didn't know whether their home had been damaged.

For the past three years, the Tarleton Family Reunion had been held at Barefoot Resort. Three generations of the descendants of my grandparents, not including my father's generation (now all deceased), gathered for lunch at the resort clubhouse. The resort location attracted some cousins who had skipped the more traditional covered dish meals in church halls and civic clubhouses, and the beach attractions made this a great place to get together.

Our only worry about the location was the possibility of October hurricanes. Who could ever expect wildfires in a locale so dominated by water — the ocean, canals, creeks, inlets, ponds, waterways, etc.? Yet, as the pictures show, wildfires can sweep across the creeks and ponds to torch the golf courses and homes that sprawl across the marshes and wetlands. This kind of disaster is associated with the arid areas of Southern California and the Southwest, not with the water-drenched South Carolina Lowcountry.

Looking at the newspaper's pictures, I recognized a number of landmarks and marveled that an area so inviting could suddenly turn so hazardous. I have no doubt that Myrtle Beach's tourist mecca will recover from this setback, and the devastated homeowners will rebuild. But the trauma will stay with them, and evidence of the disaster will linger through the tourist season. I'll pray that Paula and other relatives in the area have been spared.

As for the Tarleton reunion, it had already been decided to move this year's event back to Anson County, where my grandparents lived, died and are buried.