California's OnFIRE
Today they said that over 300,000 acres have burned and will continue probably throughout the week. These fires totaling more than 15 separate blazes have been burning in Santa Barbra all the way to Mexico. Santa Barbra, Malibu, Valencia, Orange County and San Diego have all been directly affected. To make matters worse today is going to be one hell of a dry hot day, which they say will fuel and strengthen current fires. Over 1,000 structures have been destroyed in San Diego and mandatory evacuations have been implemented to over 300,000 people in surrounding areas. An amazing effort is being taken to relocate people and their animals. I heard one such story in which a ranch’s horses where let loose because fires had spread to fast. This will definitely be compared and argued as one of California’s worst fires in history.
Mom's place is about 4-5 miles from the fire today, but things look like they will have that particular fire under control in the upcoming days. The church that she attends has burned down completely. Also a very prominent and famous Malibu Castle, which many of you may remember, has been destroyed completely as well. The PCH, which I normally use to get to her house, has been closed all day even though I just heard right now that they will be reopening it again later tonight. Of course one of the major problems is the need for resources. When the first fire began all of the states resources were used to combat it, where now other areas are at a deficiency because of the fires quick spreading nature.
I have tried calling Matt whom I know has just returned from his amazing race. CONGRATS. I know his area has been very close to danger with some evacuations and more road closers. So hopefully Matt you will reply updating us with your areas situation. I'm sure if you need help with anything you'll let us know.
This will be probably the closest thing to snow some of California will see. Ash has been raining down all over the Southern Cali areas. It is a very surreal scene; the sky has an “end of days” orange-red glow to it, with nice ash commenting it.
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Thanks for your graphic description of the california inferno. It is hard to understand your Terminator Governor on T.V., but I think he says he will be on the front lines fighting. This could be your chance to produce a fire based movie for Sony Pictures. The world's weather is weird now. . . we just finished our wettest October in a decade. The farmers are moaning (more than usual). It won't be long now and Hillary will make it all better.
i know when the media decides to cover something it becomes almost like coverage of a world war, but the images we are seeing on cnn (and online) are pretty crazy.
This is a screen grab I took from flashearth.com (in NASA terra mode):
Click to view Califonia from space
Happy to hear the West coast McKinney chapter is out of harms way. There are definitely a lot of people were not as lucky.
I happened to be flying over LA/San Diego on Sunday night .. you could actually see the flames.
The Santa Anna Winds (also known as the devil's breath) were clocked at over 80mph at times (towards the sea). The effect was amazing .. a wall of bright orange/red flames with pink to black smoke blowing out over the ocean. So tragic, but - the effect/image from a safe distance was stunning.