I don't know where I'm going to be at this time tomorrow. We have huge fires burning east of town and strong winds sweeping them our way. We're standing by for evacuation orders right now and praying that we won't get them. This happened four years ago when we were surrounded by fire, but this is worse. I'm scared to death that everything we own is going to go up in flames.

Nan

You are in our prayers.

James and Elisabeth.

I so hope that everything will turn out all right. Please keep us posted on what happens, if you can.

Ann

Take Care, Nan and keep safe. I was out in Burbank earlier today and a trace of fire was in the air. You will be in my thoughts.

Mona

Take care. I understand completely being from the LA area. Right now I'm watching the fires over in Malibu from my house. We have had strong winds as well.

It just always makes it worse when you have those strong winds and there always seem to be one or two that start when that happen. I hope that everything goes well for you and that they keep it under control.

Nan - I hope you're alright! The Cedar Fire in 2003 nearly made it to my mom's house so I know how you must be feeling. I'll be keeping an eye on the news and hoping for weaker winds.

Keeping you in my thoughts - stay safe!

Take care,
Vanda

Nan, how terrible! Please stay safe, and that goes for all the other Californian FoLC in that area. This is very scary. I hope your houses will be spared.

I hope those brave firemen will soon be able to control the fires.

Ursie

Be safe. I'll be thinking about you and praying today.

The scroll on the news just said Ramona has been evacuated. You're in our prayers.
Carol

I was glad to see Nan posted. We just got back from Ireland and had to drive up through Canyon Country right after lunch Sunday and could see the smoke from the Agua Dulce fire. The wind, dust and rocks blowiing was just amazing. I've lived here all my life and and have never seen Santa Ana winds this strong. Fortunately for us, we live up where the winds are coming from and are in no danger. I just saw on the news that all of Ramona where Nan lives was evacuated. I suspect she will not have internet access for some time. Our prayers and hopes are with you Nan. Keep safe Chris; one could pop up soon near you too.
From what I can tell, many fires were started by downed electric transformers, so that can happen anywhere. Continuing winds are predicted so strong that the air tankers can't work. We just have to hope the winds will abate.
If you saw the news on Malibu, the Ralphs market they show is right by the park we have the LAFF picnic at.
Everyone out there keep safe.
Hopes and prayers
Artemis

They're predicting that this fire is already going to be worse than the Cedar Fire in 2003. We were living in San Diego at the time and I remember the smoke and ash falling for days. It sounds like they're calling for evacuation in the area where I used to live - which was never on evacuation alert during the Cedar Fire. I'm almost as scared right now as if I were still living there, thinking of our friends in the area. I hope to god they can bring this under control soon.

Kathy

OMG. This is so scary. You and your family are in my prayers, Nan.

My prayers and thoughts are with you, Nan. I'll also pray for everyone else who lives in the area. Be safe.

Guys, if you haven't been paying attention it is really getting bad in the area. They have shut down all the schools and university's and a lot of the free ways are also being shut down.

At this point parts of the fire they are contemplating just letting it burn itself out and trying to focus more on the residential areas. They don't have a lot of man power and the governor has just ordered 800 National Guard into the area to try to help contain it.

Relief isn't going to be coming from the LA area either since all our firefighters are busy taking out the Malibu fire.

It is a bad situation so please keep praying to Nan and all the SD folcs because they are going to need it.

EDIT: TO give you an idea of the current situtation here:

Current Wildland Fires

CaliforniaFires: 11 Acres: 90,679 New fires: 11 Fires contained: 0

NEW Roca (Riverside County, California Department of Forestry): 269 acres at 20 percent contained. This fire is near Aguanga, east of Temecula.The Jojoba Hills Resort and Rancho California RV Park are threatened with the mandatory evacuation of 700 residences.

NEW Sedgewick (Los Padres National Forest): 710 acres at 50 percent contained. This fire is eight miles northeast of Los Olivos. Two hundred residents in the Woodstock area are under an evacuation warning, and 250 homes in the Brinkerhoff Road area are threatened.

NEW Ranch (Angeles National Forest): 29,000 acres at 10 percent contained. This fire is seven miles north of Castaic. Currently evacuations are in effect in the Hasley Canyon, Oak Springs, Val Verde and Piru area. State Highway 126, petroleum fields, a condor sanctuary and the Sespe Wilderness are threatened.

NEW Canyon (Los Angeles County): 2,400 acres at 10 percent contained. This fire is two miles north of Milibu. Mandatory evacuations were implemented in Monte Nido, Malibu Colony, Malibu Road, Sweetwater Canyon, Puerco Canyon, Carbon Canyon, Carbon Mesa, Rambla Pacifica, Big Rock and Topanga Canyon tactical zone 8. Several roads in the area are closed.

NEW Buckweed (Los Angeles County): 20,000 acres at zero percent contained. This fire is 14 miles west of Palmdale. Communities of Santa Clarita, Castaic, Leona Valley, Green Valley, Acton, Agua Dulce, Mint Canyon are threatened.

NEW Coronado Hills (San Diego County): 300 acres at zero percent contained. This fire is two miles south of San Marcos. The communities of Discovery Hills, Coronado Hills and San Elijo Hills are threatened.

NEW Witch (San Diego County): 10,000 acres at zero percent contained. This fire is one mile east of Ramona. The community of Ramona under evacuation. Hwy 78 is closed from Ramona to Santa Ysabel, Wildcat Canyon is closed, and Hwy 67 is closed from Poway Rd to Ramona.

NEW Harris (San Diego County): 20,000 acres at zero percent contained. This fire is two miles southeast of Potrero. Strong winds are hampering suppression efforts. Fire is burning around the Potrero CalFire station and structure protection is in place.

NEW Santiago (Orange County): 7,500 acres at 30 percent contained. This fire is 12 miles east of Santa Ana. Several communities along the Santa Ana Canyon corridor are threatened. Strong winds with gusts of up to 73 miles per hour were reported. Hwy 241 is closed from Santiago Canyon to Hwy 133.

NEW Grass Valley (San Bernardino National Forest): 100 acres at an unknown percent contained. This fire is north of Lake Arrowhead. Mandatory evacuations are in effect for the entire Deer Lodge Park area, and all streets north of Brentwood in the Trinity Area.

NEW McCoy (Cleveland National Forest): 400 acres at five percent contained. This fire is four miles southwest of Julian.

I hope it all goes all right for you and your family, Nan. We were in a bad situation with fires recently and I understand how horrible it is.

Take care,
AnnaBtG.

I have been watching the news coverage of the fires.

My thoughts are with you, Nan.

The Santiago fire is about 5-6 miles from my house, so I've kinda been freaking out about this, but everyone says that's far enough for us not to worry about it. We can smell the smoke in the air though.

My roommate and I were up in Santiago Canyon taking pictures yesterday, and we left the area at about 5:15. Somebody told me today that the fire started sometime between 5 and 5:30. I don't know exactly how close it is to where we were, but the whole thing is just freaky.

To add insult to injury, the wind knocked the power out for an hour while I was at work today. Is it weird that my biggest concern is for the power not to go out during prime time tv tonight?

~Anna

My thoughts are with you all!


CNN.com
I do hope those creatures will stay stafe.

Nan - I know Ramona has been evacuated...the images are frightening! I hope you're okay! My husband's uncle and family have been evacuated from Poway. My mom's in Mira Mesa...safe for now, but she went to stay with a friend in Point Loma just to be sure. All of Southern California is in my heart right now.

I lived in San Diego for fifteen years up until almost ten years ago, so fortunately I missed both of the last two huge fires. Unfortunately, I have a lot of friends and family who still live there. Only half an hour ago, I got a call from my sister who lives in Sorrento Valley (just south of Del Mar and west of Mira Mesa). Her family is being evacuated after being called through a reverse-911. She's escaping to Los Angeles instead of heading for QUALCOMM Stadium where she was told to go. My father-in-law lives in La Jolla and shouldn't be affected.

Several of my other friends have also been evacuated. Just from the tenor of things they are telling me, this one could easily be far worse than the 2003 fires. As of now, they've just announced mandatory evacuations for areas on the west coast, previously untouched in the last fires. If the fires head south, they could go through some of the densest populated areas in North County. While lives are fortunately being saved by the extra-cautious evacuations, property damage may end up being enormous.

Fortunately I heard that the winds from the Santa Anas are finally dying down, though humidity is still at an appalling 7%.

It looks like people in Nan's area have not been allowed to return yet. Just a FYI most of the news stations out there are pretty much worthless for news on this fire. It is still really bad there. Here is some news about Nan's area:

Three local assistance offices to open
Posted @ 12:43 PM

San Diego County officials are preparing to open three local assistance centers in areas affected by the fires. They will be in the communities of Fallbrook, Ramona, and Rancho San Diego.

Opening dates, locations and hours of operation will be announced once areas are deemed safe for reentry, officials said.

-- Jen Steele, staff writer

Thanks, JoJo. I've been looking for info but not being familiar with the area...

Carol

If you are interested and don't mind wading through a bit of snark I can show you where I have been getting mine. www.fark.com is keeping current threads open about the situation. Most of the comments are from people who live in the area or are in touch with others. They are constantly posting up new information all day long. The threads are usually titled: California Fires discussion thread.

Once it gets to about 1000 posts they start a new one. They are on #10 I think now so you can see how much this is effecting people.

Link: http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3158041

Hi, everyone! We just managed to get to the Poway Library and thought we should let you know our status. We (Tara(me!), my husband and kids, my parents, brother and uncle) were evacuated on Sunday. Initially we went up to Valley Center with my Husband's grandmother, but then yesterday we were evacuated from there to the local high school.

The air quality there was horrible, so we left as soon as we could and headed to Poway, which we had been told had pretty good air quality. We are currently staying at the Poway Community Park, where they have a shelter set up. We have all of my parents cats, dogs and parakeet, plus my cat, which are all very unhappy, but healthy.

We currently have no idea when we'll be able to get back to Ramona, but have been in contact with my mother-in-law who managed somehow to get back there that my parents house is fine and central Ramona wasn't hit too badly. There are sporadic fires cropping up there, but they're being put out almost as fast as they show up.

The kids are going nuts, of course (they're 1 1/2 and 3 1/2) but are doing better now that we're at the community center.

The people at the evacuation center are the best, and we've been provided with food, showers, shelter and clean clothes. We didn't manage to take much with us, as you might imagine, but anything we forgot has been provided. One of the things I managed to pack was my notebook computer which I'm using right now. Hey, I packed the things I really wanted to keep safe! I can't live without my computer!

Anyway, thanks for all the positive thoughts!

Tara

Tara - that's good news! We'll continue to keep your family [as well as the rest] in our prayers.

Let your Mom know would ya?

Glad you got the computer out !
Carol

We logged in a few days ago just to check on y'all. When we didn't hear from you, we assumed you'd been evacuated and started praying for you. God can care for you regardless of your address--or lack thereof. You're in our thoughts, hearts and prayers.

James and Elisabeth and Family

That's good news, Tara! I hope you can get back soon to your homes.

Take care!

Does anyone in the San Diego area know what might have happened to the Wild Animal Park? Last I heard, which was about two days ago, the fires were almost certain to burn out the entire park but that the animals were being evacuated. Does anyone know if the area is okay and whether the animals were safely evacuated?

My sister's family made it up to their other house in Whittier so they're safe. I understand that the winds have died down somewhat and have shifted to the southeast so the coastal areas are now deemed safe to return. That means Carlsbad, Solana Beach, Del Mar, and other areas are now safe from the fires. That's a relief.

From the park's website:

Due to the fire conditions in the Inland areas of San Diego, the Wild Animal Park is closed today (Wednesday, October 24). The current plan is to re-open on Thursday, October 25.

I'm guessing that means that all is, or will be, well .
Carol

Roger, although I don't live in San Diego anymore , I was there for several years and have friends in the area, so I've been glued to various internet sites and the KUSI live feed over the past few days. My understanding is that only the birds and maybe some small animals were evacuated to the zoo. There was never talk about evacuating any of the large animals - officials said that they all had ponds in their enclosures and that there were firebreaks around the enclosures to prevent fire from entering. I believe that the only damage to the park was an empty condor breeding building.

We used to live in Carmel Valley (just inland from Del Mar) and I totally freaked out on Monday when I learned they were evacuating the area. That never even was a remote possibility during the Cedar Fire in 2003. So I went totally crazy Monday and Tuesday looking for news. I'm thrilled all is well there, although many homes remain in danger. The Witch fire is still totally out of control, the Harris only slightly more so. And the fire at Lake Arrowhead is also running rampant - it's so incredibly scary.

Kathy

Thanks for the update, Tara! I'm glad that so far everything is safe, and I hope it stays that way!

I sure hope that the fires end soon...

because not only the state of California is at stake you know.....


every year for a number of years now the NSW fire brigade (and other state-based fire services across Australia) have borrowed both man-power and equipment (especially Elvis the helicopter) to put out fires here...
Granted that we have had a relatively quiet first month, but fire season lasts till the end of February, and peaks in December... so I guess if you guys are still burning then where will we get our help from....


sorry, this post was not intended to belittle anyone in either country, neither fire services nor the men in charge... forgive me?

Here are the google maps of SD and what is currently going on with each fire:

See the google map.

If you click on each fire it tells you how contained it is as well as shelters and such. It also shows the burn paths on the map.

For those wanting to contribute in helping those who have lost their homes or are still evacuated, the American Red Cross has set up a fund for the California Wildfires.

Here is the link: American Red Cross - California Wildfires

Thanks, everyone, for keeping us updated. This is so incredibly scary and sad. I'm glad to hear that the shelters are being managed competently, but I hope everyone can soon return to (mostly) undamaged homes. We get hurricanes here (inland) and it's not good to have a tree crash through your roof, but that's a lot more fixable than fire.

I'll keep praying for y'all.

PJ

According to Google Maps

Evacuation Partial Lifted
Last Updated by KPBS Online 9 hours ago

Ramona: returning residents may enter only under the premise that will not run any municipal water, nor drink any water

Corridor from Ramona to Lakeside open for repopulation.

Ramona residents will be allowed to return to their homes as of 7:15 p.m. today, via the following routes of reentry only:

That's wonderful news!

Thanks, James!
Carol