Oh, my goodness! You can't imagine how bad this fire is! Towns are being evacuated, blackening smoke is everwhere, all of the schools are closed, probably all of the meetings are cancelled, my daughter and her family in Valley Center just received the order to evacuate their home, this is a terrible fire.
The wind just "howled" all night, the humidity continues to be in the single digits, please add us to your prayers. The Wild Animal Park is in the line of the fire, "they" are trying to do what they can to protect all of the thousands of animals/birds.
The southern part of Escondido is being evacuated, and we live in the northern part.
I'm noticing that a good portion of the National News is covering the Malibu fire, so just thought I'd let you know that literally thousands of acres have burned here in San Diego County, the fire is 0 % contained, and so many homes have burned that they don't have a count, due to the black smoke and strong winds.
Cathy, Harvey and Michael will be here soon, we need to get some breakfast ready for them. The Highways are jammed, of course.
Floods, fires, neither are what we wish for!
Bonnie,
I am so sorry you must go through this again. I just know I would rather duck tornado's than California wild fires and earthquakes.
I will keep you all in my prayers and hope you all will be safe.
Isn't Michael a senior this year? Will he still be able to get to school?
Hang in there, Hugs and God Bless and keep you.
Judy
Hold on, Bonnie, and if you need a place to evacuate to, remember that Elk County is far away from the fires. I hope things stay OK for you.
So sorry you are in the line of fire. I talked to our daughter last night. She lives in Long Beach (Signal Hill). Said no orders to evacuate yet, but the smoke and haze was terrible. We will keep all of you in our prayers.
Myrna
Thanks for your prayers and concern.
Myrna, I hope your daughter stays safe.
We have 8 or 9 separate fires burning in different areas of San Diego County. The wind is just "blowing a gale!" The fire fighting capability is greatly dimished due to the high winds. The usual bomber and helicopter support used to fight the fires can't be utilized, because of the high winds.
Our daughter, Cathy, works in a Community Health Clinic as a Nurse Practitioner, here in Escondido, and she did go on to work. The places designated as shelters are pretty full, and they keep moving them further west! (I'm wondering if they have a lot of boats/ships on standby, as the Ocean is 20 miles west of us!)
It's "eerie" to see pictures of Highway 15 being closed! And Highway 78 is closed. Both highways are usually packed, with the normal traffic.
Three points they're stressing, stay off the roads unless it's an emergency, don't use your cell phones only for emergencies, and when given the order to evacuate immediately, GET OUT!
The three responsibilities I had today are all cancelled, so I may as well get busy cleaning house, or something!
We've been watching it too. Please stay safe! Prayers for all in harms way. You just can't believe how fast those fires can move. Keep in touch if you can.
It's 1:00 p.m. out this way. The winds are still howling, and the fires are still burning. About the time they think the fires have "blown through" an area, they turn around and there's another home burning. There's 100,000 acres in San Diego County that have either burned or are now burning, and there's been 250,000 people evacuated from their homes.
It's kind of interesting, we're still not seeing much of anything about the fire in San Diego County, the national news coverage is primarily about Malibu!
There hasn't been any assessment yet of how many homes have burned, as the smoke is still so bad, and people, for the most part, haven't been able to return to their areas where the fire has gone through, since there's still so many fires burning.
In my opinion, looters should be shot, but they're not announcing that's their method, yet! However, we are hearing about some people who obviously have looting on their minds.
The home of at least one our newscasters burned, a big house, of course. He watched it burn from a distance, and the homes of most of his neighbors also burned. Those homes were over in the Rancho Santa Fe area. Another of the newscasters is saying, "now the fire is getting close to my house."
We're staying in the house, as "instructed." The air quality is bad, bad! ALL of the schools in San Diego County are scheduled to be closed tomorrow.
Bonnie, How is Bob doing with his breathing problems?
I remember how smokey it got when the whole area of the Flint Hills were on fire and Longton and each town was just as smokey as it could be and that is too bad for people with breathing problems..
Did Cathy and Harvey get to you?
Keep us informed.
Hugs and God bless and keep you safe.
Judy
Judy, Bob is just staying in the house, and avoiding the smoke in the outside air.
Cathy and Harvey were able to get back to their place, and at this point, anyway, they don't have a fire heading their way. However, we had the call from the Police Department to "be prepared to evacuate," I guess there's some fires east of us, and with the winds the way they are, no one can tell which way the fires will burn. Homes just keep catching on fire! The winds haven't died down. We have some things ready to go, if need be. Our evacuation center would be at the Escondido High School, which, fortunately for us, is maybe a couple of miles west of us, it's almost a "straight shot" from here. Cathy said we could go out there, but I thought that would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire! A friend called who lives at Vista and said we should come to her house. Most of our friends live in the fire area, and many have already been evacuated. But, until we are "requested" to leave, we will just stay here at home. I have the "Heirloom Quilt" ready to go that Karen made and gave to me, and I have income tax papers and Insurance papers, a listing of financial accounts, our check book, (I need to get out some of the cash that we "keep on hand" for emergencies!) and some pictures and if we had to leave, I'll take some of the family dishes that had been Mother's. You're right about the smoke, it pretty much blocks out everything. I'm thinking that we surely won't have to leave, but, I'll let you know!
I've been able to keep up with San Diego county on our fire service web site. The sheriff has declared it the worst San Diego Co. has ever seen. The firefighting strike forces have been increased. 750 more engine companies have been called for. Any news on the animals? I have friends who live on Canyon Country Rd near Brea, and I have no idea where they are in relation to the fires. I haven't seen much on the Escondido area today. If the air is sooty don't hesitate to wear a mask. Prayers to all.
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?? )
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.
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.
Judy, I posted a response on "How was your day."
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!"
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.
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.
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!
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.
I found my answer. MSN headlines say that Malibu is burning. Haven't seen the cause yet.
I was away for a little while, and I'm just now seeing your inquiry, Wilma. The fires today are in the Malibu area. I did hear something about a fire in the area of Ramona, which is in San Diego County, but I think that one has been taken care of. We're having "mild" Santa Ana winds, nothing like the ones a month ago when it seemed like the whole county was on fire! However, there are all kinds of precautions being taken this week-end, having fire fighting equipment and firefighters in positon, ready to do, "just in case."
Thanks for thinking about us!
I see your temperature has warmed up to 42º. Are you getting any moisture?
My sister in the Dallas area said they're having a "cold, misty day" down that way.
I've baked a batch of good cookies today, and made some "no bake" cookies, to take for refreshments for our Sunday School class in the morning, so we've "pigged out" on "cookies! Life is good!
Quote from: Bonnie M. on November 24, 2007, 03:34:59 PM
I was away for a little while, and I'm just now seeing your inquiry, Wilma. The fires today are in the Malibu area. I did hear something about a fire in the area of Ramona, which is in San Diego County, but I think that one has been taken care of. We're having "mild" Santa Ana winds, nothing like the ones a month ago when it seemed like the whole county was on fire! However, there are all kinds of precautions being taken this week-end, having fire fighting equipment and firefighters in positon, ready to do, "just in case."
Thanks for thinking about us!
I see your temperature has warmed up to 42º. Are you getting any moisture?
My sister in the Dallas area said they're having a "cold, misty day" down that way.
I've baked a batch of good cookies today, and made some "no bake" cookies, to take for refreshments for our Sunday School class in the morning, so we've "pigged out" on "cookies! Life is good!
Bonnie, we had about an inch of snow this morning. Not sure how much moisture was in it, but it is gone now and
it was a pretty snow............LOL>..........water was dripping off the roof this afternoon and I just hope this isn't a forecast of the amount of snow we are going to have this winter.
My cabin-fever is already hitting.....and it really isn't winter yet..
Sorry about the fires out your way.Hopefully they will have them put out soon.
Irene Treadway's funeral was this morning. I didn't attend, but when I was walking the dog they passed me heading out to cemetary....looked like a fair turnout for this kind of weather.
I didn't realize that Irene has passed away. It always seems more difficult to have a family member die "during the Holidays."
The snow sounded great!