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CALIFORNIA-SAN DIEGO WILDFIRE

 
 
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Oct, 2007 09:21 am
Gee, I was repetitive, how obnoxious. I really should read back more.

I worry about Yitwail. Not sure exactly where they live, but possibly in one of the fire areas.
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Oct, 2007 09:24 am
Osso, the yitwails are now living in Hawaii.
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ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Oct, 2007 09:36 am
Oh, good!
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hamburger
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Oct, 2007 12:01 pm
good to see that cj already posted on tuesday .
STAY SAFE !
hbg
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CalamityJane
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Oct, 2007 01:05 pm
Yes, thank you hamburger. The fires are all around us but we're safe.

It's heart breaking to see all thoses houses go up in flames, thousands
of them, and people have lost everything. Luckily, there are some
very generous people here, who donated tons of goods. Everyone in
the shelters, including the animals, have enough food and water.

Neighbors are taking in neighbors, helping out wherever it's needed and
just showing compassion and giving a lending hand where needed.

It's nice to see San Diegans pulling together and helping each
other.
0 Replies
 
Butrflynet
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Oct, 2007 01:40 pm
More updates from my friend's blog. We're using it as a check-in point to keep tabs on friends in the area. Thought the details might help others pinpoint locations of the fire and their friends:

Quote:
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urs53
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Oct, 2007 01:46 pm
Very frightening...
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wandeljw
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Oct, 2007 02:02 pm
I was concerned about my daughter who lives in Tarzana. She sent me this reply:
Quote:
Hey - yeah I'm safe thankfully :-) - San Diego is a couple hours away and Malibu is about an hour or so away. I don't know what I'd do if my house was being threatened by fires!


CJ, I hope you stay safe!
0 Replies
 
CalamityJane
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Oct, 2007 02:57 pm
Me too wandel!

I just came back from the inland areas where the fires are still strong.
Portion of I-15 was opened this afternoon, and we could bring grandma
home, as her house was spared. It's still incredibly windy, I hardly could
hold onto the car (and it's sturdy), broken branches and debris are just about everywhere.

Luckily, people stay home and don't unnecessarily congest the freeways,
all schools are closed for the remainder of the week, and many many
offices are closed as well.

The 500,000 plus evacuees are well taken care off, food supply is plenty
and blankets and other items are distributed as well.

Police presence is great. Just about on every corner stands a police car
who will give information, keep unauthorized people out of the neighborhoods (looting was a fear) and try to help where they can.
Everyone: police, fire fighters, Red Cross, National Guards the
military - even FEMA - is out in full force to help, and contain these ferocious fires. They're all very well organized and quick to help.
Kudos to them!!
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Butrflynet
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Oct, 2007 04:19 pm
from the October 24, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1024/p01s04-usgn.html
California's age of megafires
Drought, housing expansion, and oversupply of tinder make for bigger, hotter fires.
By Daniel B. Wood | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Los Angeles


There's a reason fire squads now battling more than a dozen blazes in southern California are having such difficulty containing the flames, despite better preparedness than ever and decades of experience fighting fires fanned by the notorious Santa Ana winds. The wildfires themselves, experts say, generally are hotter, move faster, and spread more erratically than in the past.

The short-term explanation is that the region, which usually has dry summers, has had nine inches less rain than normal this year.

Longer term, climate change across the West is leading to hotter days on average and longer fire seasons. Experts say this is likely to yield more megafires like the conflagrations that this week forced evacuations of at least 300,000 resident in California's southland and led President Bush to declare a disaster emergency in seven counties on Tuesday.

Megafires, also called "siege fires," are the increasingly frequent blazes that burn 500,000 acres or more - 10 times the size of the average forest fire of 20 years ago. One of the current wildfires is the sixth biggest in California ever, in terms of acreage burned, according to state figures and news reports.

The trend to more superhot fires, experts say, has been driven by a century-long policy of the US Forest Service to stop wildfires as quickly as possible. The unintentional consequence was to halt the natural eradication of underbrush, now the primary fuel for megafires.

Three other factors contribute to the trend, they add. First is climate change marked by a 1-degree F. rise in average yearly temperature across the West. Second is a fire season that on average is 78 days longer than in the late 1980s. Third is increased building of homes and other structures in wooded areas.

"We are increasingly building our homes ... in fire-prone ecosystems," says Dominik Kulakowski, adjunct professor of biology at Clark University Graduate School of Geography in Worcester, Mass. Doing that "in many of the forests of the Western US ... is like building homes on the side of an active volcano."

In California, where population growth has averaged more than 600,000 a year for at least a decade, housing has pushed into such areas.

"What once was open space is now residential homes providing fuel to make fires burn with greater intensity," says Terry McHale of the California Department of Forestry firefighters union. "With so much dryness, so many communities to catch fire, so many fronts to fight, it becomes an almost incredible job."

That said, many experts give California high marks for making progress on preparedness since 2003, when the largest fires in state history scorched 750,000 acres, burned 3,640 homes, and killed 22 people. Stung then by criticism of bungling that allowed fires to spread when they might have been contained, personnel are meeting the peculiar challenges of neighborhood- and canyon-hopping fires better than in recent years, observers say.

State promises to provide newer engines, planes, and helicopters have been fulfilled. Firefighters unions that then complained of dilapidated equipment, old fire engines, and insufficient blueprints for fire safety are now praising the state's commitment, noting that funding for firefighting has increased despite huge cuts in many other programs.

"We are pleased that the Schwarzenegger administration has been very proactive in its support of us and come through with budgetary support of the infrastructure needs we have long sought," says Mr. McHale with the firefighters union.

Besides providing money to upgrade the fire engines that must traverse the mammoth state and wind along serpentine canyon roads, the state has invested in better command-and-control facilities as well as the strategies to run them.

"In the fire sieges of earlier years, we found out that we had the willingness of mutual-aid help from other jurisdictions and states, but we were not able to communicate adequately with them," says Kim Zagaris, chief of the state's Office of Emergency Services, fire and rescue branch. After a 2004 blue-ribbon commission examined and revamped those procedures, the statewide response "has become far more professional and responsive," he says.

Besides ordering the California National Guard on Monday to make 1,500 guardsmen available for firefighting efforts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the Pentagon to send all available Modular Airborne Fighting Systems to the area. The military Lockheed C-130 cargo/utility aircraft carry a pressurized 3,000-gallon tank that can eject fire retardant or water in fewer than five seconds through two tubes at the rear of the plane. This load can cover an area 1/4-mile long and 60 feet wide to create a fire barrier.

Governor Schwarzenegger also directed 2,300 inmate firefighters and 170 custody staff from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to work hand in hand with state and local firefighters.

Residents and government officials alike are noting the improvements with gratitude, even amid the loss of homes, churches, businesses, and farms. By Tuesday morning, the fires had burned 1,200 homes and businesses and set 245,957 acres - 384 square miles - ablaze,

Despite such losses, there is a sense that the speed, dedication, and coordination of firefighters from several states and jurisdictions are resulting in greater efficiency than in past "siege fire" situations.

"I am extraordinarily impressed by the improvements we have witnessed between the last big fire and this," says Ross Simmons, a San Diego-based lawyer who had to evacuate both his home and business on Monday, taking up residence at a Hampton Inn 30 miles south of his home in Rancho Bernardo. After fires consumed 172,000 acres there in 2003, the San Diego region turned communitywide soul-searching into improved building codes, evacuation procedures, and procurement of new technology. Mr. Simmons and neighbors began receiving automated phone calls at 3:30 a.m. Monday morning telling them to evacuate.

"Nothwithstanding all the damage that will be caused by this, we will not come close to the loss of life because of what we have ... put in place since then," he says.
0 Replies
 
Joe Nation
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Oct, 2007 08:11 pm
The number of evacuees now exceeds 900,000.

NYT 10:10PM EST
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Butrflynet
 
  1  
Reply Wed 24 Oct, 2007 11:43 am
Update from my friend's blog for those wanting to know more detail about specific areas. There's a link to a list of destroyed homes:

Quote:
(Oceanside)
Melissa and Matt are fine, they're out of harm's way. The Fallbrook fire is still going but hasn't rampaged west the way the Witch Fire did…good thing the Santa Ana's have died down! Keith and Robbie Haas are also doing fine, too, Robbie just dropped a line.

(Ramona)
Chad Haley just checked in through the office mail, he and his family are at his uncle's place and won't be going home this week, it seems. He's not sure what they'll find there =/

(Scripps Ranch)
Rich & Jodie Waters are in L.A., Jodie got to a computer and replied that they're doing fine and hoping to come home soon.

(Rancho Bernardo)
The Chursinovs are in Mission Valley, their apartment complex apparently narrowly missed the fire path. They aren't allowed to go home yet, but I'm sure they're anxious to do so. This city is pretty much decimated over a large area; very sad to see what the fire did to it.

(Hillcrest)
Tracy is still packing and still angsting.

(Escondido)
No word from Broos but he's with the Donhams at Disneyland so yay! Bring back a mouse hat!

(Poway)
The Donhams…in Disneyland…breathing deeply.

Deaths are now being reported by newscasters, mostly elderly folk being evacuated who did not make it =(

I'm impressed with how the county has handled this disaster. It may not have been perfect but clear inter-agency coordination, phat media cooperation, and the reverse 911 system have kept loss of life to the absolute minimum. Now to watch how FEMA handles things.

....

Paul (aka Frizznik) popped online for a little bit last night; he's staying at a friend's house. We looked his place up on the destroyed homes list, and so far his place seems to be okay.

The Carsons are still at a hotel. Their place isn't listed, but there are quite a number of homes all around theirs that are listed as destroyed.

The local CBS affiliate has a great website for news updates. There is also some good information at the local NBC affiliate. I've been bouncing between the two stations and websites, as the information seems to be out of sync and I'm trying to get a balanced view. Hence, no Fox news here!

The air is much smokier today, due to the winds finally changing direction down here and blowing back all the smoke that had wafted offshore.



0 Replies
 
Linkat
 
  1  
Reply Wed 24 Oct, 2007 11:48 am
I, too, have a very good friend in the area. Fortunately I heard from her yesterday. They are fine - one of the few areas that is - she has good friends staying with her that were evacuted and they don't know if their home has been destroyed or not.

Any one living in the area - my thoughts are with you all.
0 Replies
 
Sglass
 
  1  
Reply Wed 24 Oct, 2007 12:49 pm
I have a niece in Carlsbad, which is in the affected area.

I called her last night on her land phone and got voice mail, which of course is located in the local mainframe of the telephone company.

Any news of that area?
0 Replies
 
Butrflynet
 
  1  
Reply Wed 24 Oct, 2007 01:43 pm
Sglass,

Check out the link to a Google map of the affected areas in the post I made here:

http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2911546#2911546


You can zoom in over the Carlsbad area and pinpoint to the street level where your relative's house is located.


Here's a link to evacuation sites including those in Carlsbad, if you feel the need to start a search for her.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/fires/evacuation_sites
0 Replies
 
Sglass
 
  1  
Reply Wed 24 Oct, 2007 01:46 pm
Thank you butterfllynet will do.
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CalamityJane
 
  1  
Reply Wed 24 Oct, 2007 02:23 pm
Carlsbad residents were allowed back into their homes, seaglass.

North of Carlsbad, around Camp Pendleton, was evacuated and highway 5
northbound was closed up to San Clemente. Actually, I just read that they just opened the freeway about an hour ago. Your niece should be safe,
seaglass.

Everything looks a lot better today. The air quality is still very poor and
will continue to be that way for quite some time. Nonetheless, there is
an onshore flow from the ocean that brings in clear air and some humidity.
There aren't any homes in immediate danger, but the back county is still
burning strong.
0 Replies
 
Sglass
 
  1  
Reply Wed 24 Oct, 2007 02:30 pm
Good news CJ,

Thank you for letting me know. And it's good to know that you are okay.

I think this has been a real horror show for all of you in that area and hope that it lets up soon.

seaglass
0 Replies
 
CalamityJane
 
  1  
Reply Wed 24 Oct, 2007 02:36 pm
Yes it has been, seaglass, thank you! Our nerves are quite frazzled over this.
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mysteryman
 
  1  
Reply Wed 24 Oct, 2007 03:51 pm
My sister has lost her house, but her and the kids are ok.
I grew up in Ramona, and have been paying close attention to that area.

Having served on the fire lines in the past, I can feel for the firefighters and the civilians that are helping out.

So far, the fire seems to be following the path of the Cedar fire, but there are many more homes there now then there were.

My brother in law is a San Diego firefighter,and he has told me that at one point there was only one firetruck to cover the whole city of SD, everyone else was out on the fire line.

Fortunately, the people of southern Ca are a tough bunch, and will get thru this without much trouble.
0 Replies
 
 

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