SoCal Fires
Prayers for our family members in SoCal (Stevenson Ranch and San Diego) and the firefighters.
Helpful links:
San Diego Union-Tribune Fire Blog
Kithbridge has a useful set of links as well.
UPDATE:
Comments from locals, and those who have been around wildfires.
Prayers for ALL of you in this. It's a sick feeling to have to leave what you love and know - I'm from hurricane country, but fires are much, much worse because they consume and leave nothing.On warning systems:
Latest report from San Diego - the fires keep raging & the winds are still up. One of the bigger ones is going through Rancho Santa Fe, and is headed due west to Del Mar (where the famous race track is). Beyond that is the Pacific Ocean. A good site with maps of the San Diego fires is at: http://sdcountyemergency.com/ One good thing came out of our last big fire - & that is that the city/county guys came up with a 'reverse 911' system. This sytem activates an automated phone call from the emergency services to every home/phone number in any designated area where the fire is headed. Over 250,000 phone calls have gone out with a voluntary or mandatory evacuation notice. One KOGO sportscaster got the call at about 3am last night. he looked out the window and saw flames. He got his 93-year-old mom & dog into the car, and within 15 minutes his house was on fire. The call saved their lives.Asking for prayers:
PRAY FOR US............. I am in San Diego, and this is FAR WORSE than the fire in 2003....It seems as if everything is on fire....this morning, people were just letting their horses go, and the poor things were running around loose on one of the local highways....The firefighters are doing all that they can, and it isn't enough.... Please, God, just let the winds die down, and let the humidity levels rise somewhat! By 9 am this morning, most of the local freeways had been completely shut down, and they are the only way to get in and out of some areas here....I am safe now, but have friends, relatives, and co-workers who have been forced to evacuate today, and some who are now evacuating....This is a nightmare..... Please, WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS!And:
Update: Another place you can get San Diego streaming audio for the fires is at http://www.kogo.com/pages/streaming.html KOGO AM-600 is Roger Hedgecock's home station and they have been doing round-the-clock coverage of this fire since Sunday. I live out by the ocean, and occasionally we can smell the smoke, and get ash, but the whole back-county is covered by smoke. One great thing is that the US Military is helping out with their water-cropping helicopters. Biggest prayer request (besides everything you can think of) is for God to move the Low Pressure system -- up over NW Nevada area -- further east. The low's clockwise rotation brings us winds from over the hot desert, up over the mountains, blasting down into our valleys, creating gusts up to 80 mph. It can - and does - jump a 10-lane concrete highway. Please pray for the winds to drop.On Who is setting these fires:
There is absolutely no doubt that at least some of these fires were deliberately set. I've noticed in the last few years that whenever the Santa Ana winds start blowing, a flurry of fires break out in areas that are widely separated. The only question is WHO is setting these fires. The idea that random pyromaniacs in 10-12 communities across a radius of 120 miles all coincidentally decide to start fires is a bit much of a stretch. Homeland Security needs to start keeping a closer watch on this, perhaps with drones when weather conditions suggest the next potential swarm.On the fuel for the fire:
I watched the Tecate Peak fire of '64(?) from our mountain ranch on the other side of the canyon from it, a distance of at least a mile. It burned so hot we could feel it on our faces as we watched flames that were probably 200 feet high. Chaparral is a combination of scrub hardwoods including manzanita, oaks, sumacs, that grow slow, dense and thick. We used to burn Live Oak wood so tough that trunks sometimes had to be split with dropped bulldozer blades. That was hot firewood we thought... until we were given the tip about manzanita root. After a fire has burned through a manzanita forest, all that's left are the roots. Nothing I've ever been around burns as hot or long.On leadership:
250,000 people have been evacuated, and many, many people have lost all of their belongings and homes. In some places the fire is racing toward the ocean and is approaching highway 5. Many of the freeways have been jumped and traffic has been halted. People and their animals are housed at Del Mar Racetrack, Qualcom stadium, schools. colleges and private residences. By the way, when people here leave those places, there won't be the mess people left in New Orleans. The fire has gotten as far as 10 miles east of us, but the winds have died down and some areas may be somewhat contained. Duncan Hunter, not our esteemed liberal Governor, has contacted the national head of the National Guard, and secured the use of C47 fire bombers by skipping procedures and putting them immediately in California while awaiting the governors request for them. It looks like its snowing outside.