Earmark is the term many know, but technically it’s congressionally directed spending in the Senate, community project funding in the House, which is exactly what earmarks are: funding directed by members of Congress for projects in their community.

Fifth District Congresswoman Stephanie Bice visited the Edmond Water Treatment Plant on Tuesday to present city leaders with a symbolic check for $4 million.

The money is part of the Housing and Urban Development budget and is to be used to update the electrical grid in a city that, like all municipalities in Oklahoma, is funded predominantly through sales tax.

“Sometimes the revenue doesn’t meet the need, and this is one way that I can actually bring federal dollars back home to Oklahoma to help my communities across the 5th district,” said Bice.

Federal dollars like this have helped upgrade the 911 center in Logan County, the airport in Chandler, and the Forensic Science Institute at UCO.

Bice facilitated funding for 15 projects this way, and she’s certainly not alone. According to the nonpartisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation, Fiscal Year 26 appropriations contained just over 7600 earmarks, totaling about $14.3 billion, less than 1% of all discretionary. The Oklahoma delegation accounted for 66 of those earmarks, worth about $314 million.

“These are dollars that would have been spent by agencies, by federal agencies, and I think it’s incumbent upon me as an elected official representing this community to be able to secure those dollars and bring them back home for projects that are really vital,” said Bice.

By law, the projects are listed on each member’s website.

Multiple wildfires are burning in Oklahoma, prompting evacuations in a small town and injuring firefighters as extreme fire weather continues on Feb. 18, officials said.

The fire near Woodward, Oklahoma, a town of less than 12,000 about 150 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, has burned about 2,000 acres as of 8 p.m. local time on Feb. 17, according to the Oklahoma Forestry Service. The 43 Road Fire affecting Woodward was one of at least four fires in the state, including one that spread into parts of Kansas, totaling over 155,000 acres burned.

Officials in Woodward County issued an evacuation order for the southwest part of the town as crews battled flareups and hotspots.

“We’ve got quite a mess going on,” Matt Lehenbauer, the Woodward County emergency manager, told KOCO 5 News.

Lehenbauer told the outlet that 3,000 to 4,000 people live in the evacuation area, which is heavily wooded. He asked residents to stay away from the area, and said a big problem was the amount of traffic as people fled their homes.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said he has pledged state resources to help with response and recovery in Woodward.

“Oklahoma takes care of our own, and we will be there for recovery in the days ahead. We’re praying for the families affected and the brave first responders on the front lines,” he said.

The largest fire burning in the state, the Ranger Road Fire that started in Beaver County, has spread over 145,000 acres and reached into Kansas, where other fires were also burning amid the critical fire weather, the Forestry Service said the evening of Feb. 17.

4 firefighters injured in Oklahoma

Authorities said at least four firefighters have been injured while working to contain blazes in Beaver County, where the Ranger Road Fire was burning.

Three were injured when a fire truck with Rosston Fire overturned, according to Oklahoma Highway Patrol. They were taken to local hospitals.

Another firefighter was injured and taken to a hospital, the Forestry Service reported. The circumstances of that injury weren’t shared.

Evacuations ordered across multiple counties as buildings burn

Evacuations were ordered in parts of Woodward, Beaver and Texas counties, according to the Oklahoma Forestry Service.

Three structures were destroyed in Woodward County, including two at a U.S. Department of Agriculture facility, according to the Forestry Service. In Beaver County, “numerous outbuildings” were destroyed. In Texas County, five structures were destroyed.

As of 8 p.m. on Feb. 17, this is how much multiple wildfires had spread:

• Ranger Road Fire, Beaver County: 145,000 acres combined in Oklahoma and Kansas
• Stevens Fire, Texas County: 5,000 acres
• Side Road Fire, Texas County: 3,300 acres
• 43 Road Fire, Woodward County: 2,000 acres

The Side Road Fire started as the result of a seven-vehicle crash on U.S. Route 54, the Forestry Service said.

Wildfire weather continues as alerts blanket High Plains states

The National Weather Service said extremely dry conditions and gusty winds were continuing in the High Plains region on Feb. 18. Red flag warnings blanketed parts of western Oklahoma, northwest Texas, southwest Kansas, parts of Colorado and much of New Mexico.

Warm, dry and windy weather in Oklahoma has fueled multiple wildfires and prompted authorities to urge nearly one-third of the residents of the small city of Woodward to flee.

Matt Lehenbauer, director of emergency management for Woodward and its nearly 12,000 inhabitants, said the evacuation recommendation covers roughly 4,000 people. It is voluntary, he said, because Oklahoma prohibits mandatory evacuations.

The wildfire in Woodward, about 140 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, is approaching a “worst-case scenario,” Lehenbauer said, but it hasn’t moved into the most populated area of the city.

A blaze in Beaver County at the base of the Oklahoma Panhandle, about 217 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, has consumed an estimated 15,000 acres alone, Oklahoma Forestry Services said.The agency posted video of golden farmland set against the backdrop of roiling flames and dark smoke rising and sidestepping like a thunderstorm.

“The fire in Beaver County is continuing to spread,” Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement. “Winds are gusting over 65 mph.”

Stitt said he was being briefed at the State Emergency Operations Center, which was tracking the larger fires, including one in Texas County.

The fires consumed fuel along the western and northwestern areas of the state as unusually warm weather, predicted by the National Weather Service to reach as much as 25 degrees above normal during the day, was joined by gusting winds out of the southwest of more than 60 mph.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether anyone has been injured or structures have burned.

The Beaver County fire on Tuesday crossed into Kansas, that state’s forest service said. The focus of firefighting efforts is in the city of Englewood, the Kansas Forest Service said.

Gov. Laura Kelly had issued an emergency proclamation Sunday warning of dangerous fire weather through Thursday.

Kansas’ emergency operations center was staffed Tuesday with personnel from the State Fire Marshal Office, the Kansas Forest Service, the Kansas Highway Patrol and state Transportation Department, state officials said. Parts of Interstate 70 and U.S. 50 were closed as wind-driven dust creates poor visibility, Kansas officials said in a statement.

The Oklahoma Agriculture Department said temperatures along the western edge of the state could reach as high as 85 degrees Wednesday.

The weather service office in Norman, Oklahoma, said the fire weather could stick around until at least Friday. The state Agriculture Department said in a statement that conditions will start to weaken Thursday as winds shift from the southwest to the northwest, pulling in cooler air.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, new fires also erupted in Texas, New Mexico and Missouri as the warm, dry air settled into the Central Plains following a storm front over the weekend.

The National Weather Service said Tuesday that more than 21 million people were under fire weather watches, triggered when sustained high winds and dry weather are expected to create extreme fire danger. Another 11 million were under red flag warnings, which warn of imminent critical fire weather, according to the agency.