San Diego wild fires

[Johnn]

I know we have some members who live in California: Santa Anna, LA, San Diego....

Hope you guys are ok.....


John

 

[JuniperPark]

Looks like we're doing well here, even though my router died in the middle of the fiasco, and I had to configure a new one on the spot. Some people thought we had been hit, but it was just a router failure.

I live on the coast, so I had several people evacuate to my place. I am also between the smoke plumes of the 2 major fires, on the coastline and surrounded by Mission Bay.

All told, 500,000 people were evacuated in San Diego County by Tuesday and about 200,000 acres burned from 14 separate fires. That's a bigger evacuation than Katrina, by comparison. Winds were predicted at 100 mph at 5% humidity for 4 days, but winds are settling down now (Wednesday) so things are getting better. There is soot and cinders falling from the sky right now, and nobody is supposed to go outside due to air quality, but things aren't as bad as we thought. The governer is here, and George Bush is on the way.

There are 3 freeways in/out of San Diego (5 to Los Angeles, 15 to San Bernardino, 8 to Phoenix) and only the 8 was open at one point, and it was in danger from one of the files. Apparently the city attorney was insisting the entire county be evacuated at one point, but the mayor refused that idea. Nobody knows how to move 4 million people within a few hours.

There are still some big fires, but winds have reversed so it's moving to the west to mostly unpopulated areas and desert. A big part of the electrical supply grid has burned, so we may lose power, but most all businsess are closed for the week.