Here is a photo I took early this evening. Sunset's about 6:35 -- This is taken from my front sidewalk, looking WEST, towards the ocean, about 8 miles away. This is NOT a Marine layer tinged with red from the sunset. It is, however, the smoke from the fires backlit by rays from the sun.
I had to get out to the store to grab some more drinks, etc. I got a scratchy throat just in the half hour I was out and about. "They" were estimating earlier today that some of these fires won't be entirely out until Nov. 1.
Some good news: So far - Eastlake, Spring Valley, Bonita, and Jamul - no homes lost today. (One of my friends and her family live in Eastlake area.)
And "only" some 2000 acres burned in the Harris fire today in the south end of the county. [It was hellish on Sunday and Monday.] The fires up in North County are still bad.
One out of three homes in the county have been evacuated overall. (Some have been let back to their homes/area.)
CBS News 8 has some Excellent Resources/Maps here.
9 comments:
This is so scary--praying for your safety!
I'll be fine (unless some idiot decides to BBQ and sparks some brush in the canyon not too far from my house. Right now for most of us inside City limits, we're okay -- however, the northern reaches likes Rancho Santa Fe and Rancho Bernardo were heavily hit - ditto parts of Poway got nailed. Pray for the firefighters and the folks that lost everything.
Poor Julian tonight has the potential for being hit hard - the first few days they were fine, but the winds have picked up that way - they are frequent targets for big fires over the years.
San Diego really got it the worst this time. Karen, do you give a smile when a tourist asks, "Don't those earthquakes make you guys nervous?" Oh no, the fire season is always nerve-racking to Southern Californians.
Poor Julian - what a pretty little town. I hope it gets spared. Karen, if it does, whaddaya say we meet up there for a piece of apple pie? A la mode, and a slice of cheddar, for sure.
I remember the terrible fires we had here in South Australia. The moon turned blood red and I could see the flames on the 7th floor where I worked in the city.
It was terrible and that fire was deliberately lit. People lost their lives..a terrible thing.
I will keep you all in my prayers.
Peace:)
Marie
Digi - I know re: the earthquakes. It's hard for them to grasp that I don't bother to get up from bed (if that's where I was) if it feels like a 5.0 or less - if it feels larger, I wait a good 10 minutes before turning on the news, because I figure it will take at least that long for CalTech to get it's act together and the TV/Radio people to hook up with them.
The day after the Northridge quake my mom and I went up to Disneyland - while we were waiting in line for the show, we ran into a woman from the "hit" area - her hubby was a civil engineer, who had been away on a business trip - she described the crack in one of their walls at home, and he said "don't go in the house - but camp out in the camper til I get home in a few days." [His services now being commandeered by the state.] -- the woman said rather than sit around in the camper at home, they just drove over to Anaheim to get away from it for a day. Typical soCal Attitude. I am SO proud of those folks at Qualcomm and elsewhere calmly riding this out and pulling together. Do we LOOK like the kind of people who are going to panic and start breaking into stores 2 seconds into a crisis?
Marie: Thanks for your kind wishes. I know Australia is often subjected to the same sorts of wildfires we have here in soCal. Here if someone deliberately sets a fire that results in loss of life, they may well find themselves facing a death penalty. I'm not talking about boobs who do stupid thing, like the idiot who lit a signal fire when he was lost [which sparked the horrendous Cedar fire that resulted in 17 deaths 3 years ago] but about sociopaths with no regard for human life who set these things. AFAIK none of the ones in SD was deliberately set, but one of the ones up north apparently was.
My best friend Jim, and his daughter and her family are all right - for now anyway - they live in Escondido. Other friends in the southbay also have had a scare from the Harris fire - and may have had to evacuate - but I learned that no homes in east lake were burned. There's one person from work I know live(s) in or near the affected areas - haven't heard from her yet, though I did etext her. Hope she's okay. We've been off work for 3 days now and I'm getting cabin fever.
Karen,
Do you know if the Oak Hill cemetery in Escondido got hit? My husband's family is buried there and we may need to head down to clean their gravestones.
Steph
While in Lourdes have seen tv reports of the fires. Seems quite disastrous. Prayers for an end and for safety for all.
Digi - don't know about Oak Park -
my best friend's wife is buried there - I can probably check - Monday especially the Witch Creek Fire was in that general area - I don't think it quite hit that sector - but things hopscotched so much in and out -- I can check my Thomas Bros guide against the Firemap(s) and let you know - BTW, unless something happened in the last 5 hours I slept so Far the Wild Animal park faired well two animals died but that was it (respirator issues I think) I was and am rather worried about St. Timorthy's as far as I know it's okay (else I think we'd have heard) but the fire played damn near there on Sund. and Mond. -- Sadly there was a Catholic church/Chapel on the Rincon Indian Reservation that is apparently now gone - I heard two reports of that -- Naturally, our stupid diocesan website has ZIP, NADA, ZILCH, BUPKIS about it. Keep St. Elizabeth in Julian in your thoughts, ditto the Santa Ysabel mission... and many others I'm sure
Fr; John - Many thanks for your prayers.
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