Thoughts and prayers to our CA friends

Thoughts and prayers to our CA friends. I guess we all knew this could happen with almost no rainfall this year. It's bad enough to lose your home. I just hope for no injuries or loss of life.

Agree, those fires are horrible, and apparently getting worse. Also the drought in Southeast....Atlanta has 60 days of water left with no backup plan?

Amen to that. I'm hoping the Santa Anna winds will die down and give the firefighters a chance to get an upper hand.

My favorite mountain biking area is burned. I was just there riding on Saturday. Santiago Canyon is just down the road about 5 miles.

In case you guys didn't hear the details, the fire at Santiago Canyon was caused by a stolen car being abandoned and set ablaze. Low lifes.

Supernam said:

In case you guys didn't hear the details, the fire at Santiago Canyon was caused by a stolen car being abandoned and set ablaze. Low lifes.

Click to expand...

That's horrible. No regard as to the consequences of their actions.

Thats a real bummer to hear how that particular fire was started, I just hope the men in neon yellow can get the fires contained soon. good luck guys


Mayo

LuxLuthor said:

Agree, those fires are horrible, and apparently getting worse. Also the drought in Southeast....Atlanta has 60 days of water left with no backup plan?

Click to expand...

I hope we can get a break and get some rain along with the people in California.

Just horrible. I have over 100 friends that live in CA and MANY of them have been evacuated. I thought the 2003 Cedar fire was bad (and it was!) but this looks to be much worse. Very sad.

My car Is covered In ash and smoke lingering above.
I live in the longbeach are too. :shakehead

I just caught the news coverage of the fires in Ca., I really feel for you guys. I pray that you will get some much needed steady rain with no winds.

Be safe!

Yesterday (Monday 10/22) there wasn't any smoke where I live. On my drive to work I pass through downtown L.A., which is approximately 29 miles east of the Malibu fires. Downtown was LAYERED in smoke. It was 5:45 am, so still dark, and the sky search lights were still running at Staples Center. You could see their beams cutting the smoke like light sabers.

I work about 50 miles from the nearest fire, and by the end of the day, the entire city was covered in ash. I was really glad for the air filtration in my car; it was "snowing" on my entire drive home. The wife's allergies have been killing her.

This morning on the radio they said about 500,000 people have been displaced. Unbelievable!!

I spent the night in my car with binoculars watching the flames a few miles away (after getting home from working all night). I didn't evacuate, but there is voluntary evacs several miles south now. Looks like the major suburbs of San Diego/Chula Vista are holding for the moment.

I saw a few neighbors evacuate, but most never even woke up. Sleeping within sight of huge flames--not something I felt comfortable doing.

My sister, who lives in the SD/La Jolla area, had to evacuate a few days ago. Fortunately, she had already packed some things just in case and she is staying at a family friend's house. It'll probably be a day or two until she can find out whether her apartment is still standing.

I hope she packed the flashlight and knives I've given her over the years, as she might actually have use for them. :candle:

Lightraven said:

I saw a few neighbors evacuate, but most never even woke up. Sleeping within sight of huge flames--not something I felt comfortable doing.

Click to expand...

I would have done the same thing. No way I would go to sleep with big fires in sight. If you need to react, you want as much lead time as possible. If you are sleeping, you just don't know. What you don't know can not only hurt you, it can kill you.

My MIL is currently about 1 mile from the flames (the Harris fire) in Southern San Diego. She has a reservoir between her house and the flames, and she's many blocks from the nearest wooded area, so she should be OK. I hope. She's not under evacuation orders.

Dan

Air quality Isn't too good either.

The fires made NOAA's OSEI Image of the Day page
http://www.osei.noaa.gov/OSEIiod.html
(caption: The MODIS satellite image taken at 22/2205 UTC shows dense
plumes of smoke from multiple wildfires in Southern California continue
to spread over the Pacific Ocean and now extend over 500 nmi offshore)

(OSEI = Operational Significant Event Imagery)
Eight more images at http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Fires/

At work in Pasadena I see tan smoke above, East, West, and South.
North is blue just a little over the San Gabriel mountains, but I can
clearly see the mountains. If the smoke would drop to ground level
then I think it would look more like the air pollution looked in the early '70's.

Chula Vista and Bonita are no longer threatened. All evac orders are lifted for this area. The fire did burn down to the Sweetwater reservoir, right down a line of electrical towers, which is the flames I saw from my place, but not past it.

As far as I know, La Jolla is totally safe from current fires.

From reports at Qualcomm stadium, the main SD evac point, refugees are having to fight off constant attempts to give them food, water, blankets, massages, Yoga classes and Starbucks venti mocha frappucinos (just kidding on that last one. . .I think).

Lightraven said:

From reports at Qualcomm stadium, the main SD evac point, refugees are having to fight off constant attempts to give them food, water, blankets, massages, Yoga classes and Starbucks venti mocha frappucinos (just kidding on that last one. . .I think).

Click to expand...

It looks like California has done it right. Nothing is perfect, but this operation appears to be head and shoulders above what we have seen in some other areas in the country. I think much of this has come from lessons learned in previous disasters. Simulations, tabletops, and workshops cannot compare with actual human experience. Unfortunately, California has had more experience than most.

It looks like my sister will lose her home in the Rancho Bernardo area. It might be okay, but probably not.