Monday, October 22, 2007

My City is on Fire...(updated continually today)

Again.










Officials are suggesting that this might be worse than the Cedar Fire from 2003. Ugh:

The fires ravaging San Diego County are expected to get much worse before they get better.


Over the next two days, city and county officials expect the fires will eclipse the damage caused by the 2003 Cedar fire, the worst wildfire on record in California.

“This fire will probably be the worst this county has ever seen – worse than the Cedar fire,” Sheriff Bill Kolender said.


I have at least a half dozen friends who have had to evacuate their homes. My 84-year old grandmother is about to evacuate her home as well.

As happened with the Cedar fire, there isn't any rhyme or reason to which homes get burned down and which stay up. Fires are "hopscotching" neighborhoods...one house burns down, the house next door remains untouched.

Once again, Qualcomm Stadium has gone from a football venue to an evacuation facility.

Michelle Malkin has more, Scott Gulbranson is live blogging the fires as best he can as the fire approaches his home.

I live in Pacific Beach, completely out of the way of any danger. My car is covered in ash and the smoke outside is thick. The sky is orange.

Channel 10 is streaming their fire coverage here. Aircraft support is limited (tanker planes and water-dropping helicopters) because of the smoke (affecting visibility) and high winds.

Isn't it nice that liberals aren't above exploiting the Malibu fires for political gain?:

ABC News' Eloise Harper reports: Rob Reiner sang a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday, Mrs. President" in honor of Senator Hillary Clinton at his Brentwood, California, home on Sunday evening.

Despite the massive fires miles away in Malibu, guests were greeted by men dressed in head to toe white, with lavender bow ties saying with "Welcome to the Reiner's," as they shuffled up and down the street parking Bentleys, Porsches, and BMWs.

"This is a tough time right now and we need the best woman qualified," Reiner said.



If you live in San Diego and get told to evacuate...do us all a favor and STOP READING THIS BLOG AND GET THE HELL OUT! Police and Fire Departments are reporting that people who are resisting evacuation orders are tying up resources that could keep houses from burning. Don't be selfish...

Yiddish has checked in (see comments)and he is OK so far...packed and ready to evacuate if told to.

San Diego's Channel 8 reports that looters are combing evacuated neighborhoods to...well...loot. Scumbags. There is a special place in hell for cretins like you...

Channel 8 has a list of homes that have been confirmed as destroyed and an evacuation map here.

Sadly, long-time San Diego icon and Channel 8 reporter Larry Himmel was on the scene reporting as he watched his own Rancho Bernardo home burn to the ground.

Last update for a while...I am part of a disaster-relief team affiliated with my church and I just got called in. I'll update when I return...

4 comments:

Yiddish Steel said...

UPDATE from Encinitas... So far, just 75mph wind gusts, dark, ominous skies, ash falling like rain, but no one has evacuated... yet... I have a couple of boxes of important, personal items ready to take with me, should I need to evacuate. There are 7 fires in the county, 2 which are in my wind direction-path. It stinks like the Devil's ashtray, but, for the time being, i'm staying put.

NOTE TO THE STUPID HERE IN SAN DIEGO: When the news called to go to Qualcomm Stadium for your evacuation center, they didn't say go to QUALCOMM HEADQUARTERS!! Too funny!! People are actually showing up to Qualcomm World HQ for their evacuation site.

Michele said...

What do you say to someone whose city is burning before their eyes. I couldn't imagine. I'll be praying for you.

Anonymous said...

Hang in there.

Yiddish Steel said...

Da Po-Lice came by yesterday around 4pm and said we all had to GTFO. I ended up at my parents' house in Lake San Marcos. I drove back by my house around 6am this morning , and it was still standing (last I heard). I'm here at work and the winds are calm, but the air still smells like a chimney's armpit. I feel absolutely noxious from breathing this crap the last 48+ hours. The skyline is still ominous. There's no doubt that this was worse than the Cedar Fire from '03. There are at least 8 seperate fires from Fallbrook to the border that are still burning. The winds are calm up here in the North County right now, and that's all we can hope for. Just the numbers that have been evacuated throughout the county would make this every bit as bad as the Cedar Fire from 4 years ago.