San Diego Fires

[Shi no Tenshi]

Any of you having to deal with all this madness? My little sister goes to Pepperdine University, so we've been trying to get as much info as we can. That seems to be one of the safer places, despite the crappy air quality.

Anyone with news or personal involvement from the current situation?

[pokey]

My brother tells me that his workplace at the UCSD supercomputer center is closed. Actually, looks like the whole campus is closed according to the website.

He was telling me that one of his coworkers went in anyway and found their computers were dusted with a good layer of ash because someone left the window open.

[Phaeton]

It's absolutely hellish around here. For the majority of the day the sky was orange and then blood red. I'm right by the ocean and have been out of the evacuation orders and advisories until now, where at the moment evacuating is only suggested. Because of this I've had a lot of friends from all over the county. The vast majority of people seem to have been evacuated. No one actually tried to fight the fire until half way through the day: the wind conditions made it impossible. The air quality was terrible, but variable. I ended up heading south to help someone clear stuff out and north just for the sake of meeting up with an evacuated friend of mine and the air up in Carlsbad was clear and blue as could be. Things seem to be clearing up.

The San Diego Fencing Center is in Escondido, although I believe well out of danger. I know several fencers that have homes in areas that are supposed to be on fire, and have a few friends who have already lost homes.

There are places I frequent that are disappearing. It's a nasty proposition. Training is off for me all week, or at least until the ash gets out of the air.

It's been windy. It hasn't been fun, but thankfully I'm removed from it all and no one I know is hurt. It's going to be a hard next few weeks, and probably months, but the amount of community help and outpouring here has been astounding. We San Diego fencers, and San Diegans as a whole, are good at taking care of each other.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate tonight and the wind won't pick up. Things are starting to get under control. People around here are just shocked that so much burned and so much can burn. There are lots of people that were shocked to be evacuated and have never been evacuated before. This thing is unprecedented.

What worries me most is the hospital evacuations and the fact they are at maximum capacity and patients are being removed.

I'll keep people posted as things occur. I'm probably going to be up during the night. I'm doing sleeping shifts with my neighbors in case we get evacuated. The fire has moved so quickly.

[Phaeton]

My "shift" just ended. I still can't fall asleep though. Things seem really eerily quiet. The air is going to get worse before it gets better. I stepped outside and there's a lot of particulate matter coming down. That can't be good for my lungs.

The reports of things keep on getting grimmer and grimmer bit by bit. The fire's getting really close to a development where a number of my friends live. Hopefully it'll not be an issue.

It's a bit daunting even being issued an "advisory evacuation warning" where I'm at. I have been before, indeed a part of town I was in was issued a mandatory evacuation order, uniformed cop and all, but I've never thought of where I live as a place where fires were a possibility. I'm still quite sure things are fine though.

It's a bit funny to think 36 hours ago I was jumping rope outside thinking about how beautiful the day was and planning out my week. Essentially everything is the same-old, same-old in the end though.

San Diego is beautiful. SoCal as a whole is beautiful. This is the price that people pay sometimes. It is a steep one.

We'll be fine. Until FEMA shows up. Then, I fear, San Diego is screwed.

Either way I'm packed and ready to go, although the way it looks if the fire gets to me, it'll have surrounded the exit ways to to the north, east, and south.

Thank G-d I can swim.

[Shi no Tenshi]

I know my sister is packed and ready to go, and she would like to go north to San Francisco where my elder sister is, but I honestly wonder if she will be able to evac that direction if she has to leave Pepperdine. We've been informed the campus was built to deter fire and everything is well watered and what not, but still....it seems as if the place will be boxed in. And of course, the air quality issue.

[Phaeton]

It's incorrect to think of the fires as a giant line of flame. They are more like a patchwork of small seperate fires that come together form a firey mesh, and as the area burns it fills out and then dies in places where there isn't enough fuel. It may be more than possible to drive out north. Either way..I doubt driving out south or east will help very much.

[Shi no Tenshi]

Just seeing where the fires have been spreading though, it seems as if the main access to go north would be made more difficult. I think she could make it, but it will be a bit more roundabout than usual.

[Phaeton]

Things are alright. I decided to head back home from practice in Orange County rather than stay up there the night. You could see the hills of Camp Pendleton blazing though. People were all pulled over by the side of the road. It was pretty eery. Everything was consumed in flame.

But down in San Diego...things seem to have turned a bit for the better. Wind is dying down...things are getting more and more contained...