San Diego County is on fire

[Teresa]

I just called Kjell and ask him why I hadn't received our itinerary for this weekend yet..and he told me that the office's had to be evacuated ! So nothing is going in or going out.
I guess the fires are about 35 miles form where the Jersey Lilly championship shoot will be held. They are expecting about 600-800 shooters... plus all the other people who will be there. I wonder by this weekend if they will be able to have the highways open enough for everyone to be able to get to the range. or even if they will have the shoot.
So far everything is as planned..but maybe I better take some air masks along with my peiriod correct cloting.. 
Seriously.. It looks horrible from what we are seeing on the TV..( how grateful I am that Derek and Danny are in Elk County and not there fighting that kind of fire.) Bonnie.. stay as safe as you can and I will bring you an extra gun if you need to scope for looters.
( Maybe they need a good marks-woman?? )

[Bonnie M.]

We have some guns, Teresa, just not sure where the shells are!  The day they take our guns away from us will be the day we're "dead!"  So, now you know which side of that issue I'm aligned with! 

I'm not certain where the area is that you're talking about for the Jersey Lilly championship shoot.  But, face masks will be required anywhere here in Southern California.  There are still many highways closed, but when conditions allow, they will be opened up.  It's just not to the point yet where anyone can tell when the fires will be contained, as the winds are still blowing so hard.  There's still new fires springing up, and more evacuations are being ordered.   There are some helicopters able to fly, dumping water on the fires, but I haven't seen that any of the bombers with the retardants they dump are able to fly.  The winds and smoke causes all kinds of problems.  I heard that 500 homes have been destroyed in Fallbrook.  that's in addition to the 1,000 homes  that  have burned in other areas.

We're "glued" to the T.V., we have 6 local (San Diego) stations, each with a somewhat different area of coverage.

[Judy Harder]

Bonnie, I spread the news here in Longton and you and Bob and all of California are on the prayer chains.

Also our friend in North Carolina, Mike was asking about you and I copied and clipped a couple of articles that you posted to us.....and if you have time, drop him a note and let him know how you are doing.

Stay safe and know that God will take care of you.

Hugs and God bless.

[Bonnie M.]

Judy, I posted a response on "How was your day."

[Bonnie M.]

Just a quick note.  We still haven't be able to find out the status of Cathy and Harvey's house in Valley Center.  We just have to hope for the best.  The fires in that area were "too close for comfort," the last we heard.  It's really hard to get information on any one particular area.  The fire that's threatening their home is the "Poomacha" fire, and I'm not sure that's spelled correctly!  We have had so many telephone calls from all over inquiring about our well being, that's nice.  As is always the case, there's already questions on "why weren't the helicopters flying with the water buckets, why weren't the bombers flying with the flame retardant, etc., etc."  The "buck is being passed."  There is one big plane that's "due" to arrive from Canada, that is said to be capable of dumping so much more water than any of our planes can, however it was delayed today by "customs" at the Canadian Border.  If it isn't one derned thing, it's another!  Cathy and Harvey took us out to Applebee's for supper this evening, the first time I'd been "out and about" this week.  There are hundreds of R. V.'s and campers on the larger parking lots all over town.  Those people are probably mostly from Valley Center.  Owning an R. V. would be a good thing, in this type of situation.  Everyone is being very kind to everyone, so, that's a good thing!    We are very thankful that we can all "hunker down" in our home.  Bob's the cook, I am in charge of "communication center," and Cathy and Harvey are on the phones trying to get information!  Sometimes there are 3 or 4 telephones all being answered at once, with at least one T. V. on, and maybe a radio station.  "This, too, shall pass!"

[Diane Amberg]

Bonnie, thank you so much for keeping us informed.  As far as the planes go, it's up to the pilot as to whether it is safe to go up.  Whipping winds can be deadly, especially for the helicopters.  It must be terribly frustrating to all concerned.  We have back up wildfire teams here that may be called up soon.
I'm so glad the wedding is still on. The wild life park would be a wonderful place to have a wedding.

[Bonnie M.]

Good morning!

It's Thursday morning.  We haven't had any "direct word" from the area of Cathy and Harvey's home, but we're assuming that their home is still there.  The guy who is going to be tiling the backsplash in our kitchen lives out on "Paradise Mountain Road," which is east of where C & H live.  He'd gotten back into his home, (not legally, I'm sure) and he gave Cathy the most direct report that we'd had.  He said that the fire wasn't right there, and he could pretty well see Ridge Ranch, where Cathy and Harvey live, and there wasn't any fire there.  He saw some smoke behind Bates Nut Farm, and that's right down the hill, north of Ridge Ranch, but, "it didn't look bad."  And, of course, the good news for most of "us" is that the winds have now started blowing from the Ocean, which would be in an eastward direction.  Good for us, not good for the communities east of the fire line, of course.  They are still evacuating some of those communities "in the line of the fire."

We haven't had any mail delivery all week.  We're supposed to start getting mail again today.  Of course, that's the least of the problems!

Cathy has left for work, and Harvey's getting ready to go to work.  Their dog, Daisy, has been a guest in our garage, and she's not real happy about those living quarters!  Harvey has a nice fenced in grassy area at the Chamber of Commerce office, so Daisy is going to get to enjoy that today, hopefully.  As soon as the road is open and they can get home, Harvey will be going back up there.  Of course, they are concerned about someone sneaking in and stealing things, as they live in an area where the "pickings" would be pretty good, for looters.  So far, those people caught looting are going to be enjoying a considerable amount of time in jail!  It can't be long enough, to suit us!

All of the officials are patting themselves on the back for the tremendous job they've done, of course, in managing the situation!  And, no doubt about it, everyone jumped in early, locally, to do what they could do.  There seems to be so much of a political/power tug between the Calif. Dept. of Forestery and local fire departments, so the CDF doesn't reqlinquish authority to get things done the way they should.  (In my humble opinion!)  It's such a huge effort, though.  There's thousands of firemen out there putting their lives on the line, pilots flying in the smoke and wind, putting their lives on the line, etc., etc.  They are doing such a tremendous job!  One of the problems was that the CDF, I think they're in charge of the planes and helicopters, wouldn't let the military, which we have a lot of, help with using their helicopters, etc., without having a CDF person with them.  The Senators, Congressmen, etc., all had a big meeting and thought they had that resolved, but the situation was still going in circlies.  As I said, the giving up of power seems to be a big thing.  There's always "finger pointing" going on, of course.  the first day of two of the fires, there was just too much smoke and wind, and it was too dangerous for flying.  But that's not the care, now, and there are LOTS of planes and helicopters flying.  I haven't seen the "big plane," though, that was to come in from Canada.

Donations have been so huge.  Many centers are offering to share with other centers the donations they have received, regarding water, food, and material goods.  The Red Cross and Salvation Army have fed thousands of people, as well as restaurants donating food, etc.

Maybe the worst is behind us, we hope so.

[Bonnie M.]

Last fire report, I hope!
4:30 p.m., Thursday - 10-25-07

Harvey just called, and he was able to get back to their home, just now.  He was thankful to report that "all was well,"  It was becoming very frustrating, as almost everybody else in the whole  area had been cleared to go back to their homes, except those living up the road to Valley Center!  The "clearance" was slow getting to "the barricades," I guess.

It's uncanny that it was four years ago today that the "last" fire hit San Diego County.  At that time, no one thought it could possibly have been any worse.  But, this one was.

Did you see the President in Escondido today?  That was exciting, for those people who were at Kit Carson Park, where he was.  He was touring in the area of the North County Mall, where so many homes were burned.

Duncan Hunter was on a local T. V. show today, and he said he was "going to push for legislation" that in a disaster like this one, that various responders be given a one hour notice, and if they weren't able to respond to the emergency fires within that first hour, then the responsibility would go on down to the next group of responders, and there wouldn't be any of this "having to have the proper people and paper work in place," etc.,   before bombers can go in the air, or especially, before any help from the Military will be accepted. 

However, the firefighters are all heros, in a situation such as this one.

Thanks for all of your prayers, they worked!

[Wilma]

Bonnie, are the fires burning again out there?  I didn't see anything about it on this morning's news, but the weather channel is showing some pictures that looks like they might be.

[Wilma]

I found my answer.  MSN headlines say that Malibu is burning.  Haven't seen the cause yet.