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Author Topic: California Wildfires  (Read 2583 times)
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MuffyBee
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« on: October 23, 2007, 08:25:10 AM »

CA Wildfires Force Mass Evacuation

Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2007 By AP/ALLISON HOFFMAN AND GILLIAN FLACCUS
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1674595,00.html
(SAN DIEGO) — Wildfires blown by fierce desert winds Monday reduced hundreds of Southern California homes to ashes, forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee and laid a hellish, spidery pattern of luminous orange over the drought-stricken region.
Firefighters described desperate conditions that were sure to get worse in the days ahead, with hotter temperatures and high winds forecast for Tuesday. At least 16 firefighters and 25 others were reported injured since the blazes began Sunday, and one person was killed.

At least 655 homes burned — about 130 in one mountain area alone — and 168 businesses and other structures were destroyed. Thousands of other buildings were threatened by more than a dozen blazes covering at least 240,000 acres, the equivalent of 374 square miles.
"The sky was just red. Everywhere I looked was red, glowing. Law enforcement came barreling in with police cars with loudspeakers telling everyone to get out now," said Ronnie Leigh, 55, who fled her mobile home in northern Los Angeles County as smoke darkened the sky over the nearby ridge line.

Early Tuesday, President Bush declared an emergency for the seven-county region, speeding federal disaster relief.

Soon after nightfall Monday, fire officials announced that 500 homes and 100 commercial properties had been destroyed by a fire in northern San Diego County that exploded to 145,000 acres, said Roxanne Provaznik, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry. The fire injured seven firefighters and one civilian, and was spreading unchecked.

A pair of wildfires consumed 133 homes in the Lake Arrowhead mountain resort area in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles, authorities said. Hundreds of homes were lost in the same community four years ago.

Firefighters — who lost valuable time trying to persuade stubborn homeowners to leave — had their work cut out for them as winds gusting to 70 mph scattered embers onto dry brush, spawning spot fires. California officials pleaded for help from fire departments in other states.

"A lot of people are going to lose their homes today," San Diego Fire Capt. Lisa Blake predicted earlier.

At least 14 fires were burning in Southern California, said Patti Roberts, a spokeswoman for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

From San Diego to Malibu, more than 150 miles up the coast, at least 265,000 people were warned to leave their homes. More than 250,000 were told to flee in San Diego County alone.

"It's probably closer to 300,000," said County Supervisor Ron Roberts.

Hundreds of patients were moved by school bus and ambulance from a hospital and nursing homes, some in hospital gowns and wheelchairs. Some carried their medical records in clear plastic bags.

A 1,049-inmate jail in Orange County was evacuated because of heavy smoke. The prisoners were bused to other lockups.

In San Diego County, where at least four fires burned, more than 200,000 reverse 911 calls — calls from county officials to residents — alerted residents to evacuations, said County Supervisor Roberts.

About 10,000 of them ended up at Qualcomm Stadium, home to the NFL's Chargers, where thousands of people huddled in eerie silence during the day Monday, staring at muted TV news reports of the wildfires. A lone concession stand served coffee and doughnuts.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived later Monday to a more festive evening atmosphere, with live music and mountains of catered food. The crowd hooted and hollered as he passed through, and Schwarzenegger later declared that the people of this makeshift city "are very happy."

The governor said the federal government had pledged "everything we need."

"They have responded much more quickly than what we've heard in the past," he said.

Asked how the disaster would unfold in coming days, the governor said, "No one knows. We are relying very much on the weather."
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MuffyBee
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« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2007, 05:48:14 PM »

Calif. fires force more than 500,000 from homes
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wildfires/2007-10-23-wildfires_N.htm
By William M. Welch, USA TODAY
SAN DIEGO — As a dozen fires raged along the coast of Southern California Tuesday for a third day, San Diego County took the brunt of the wind-whipped fury that is driving more than a half million people into makeshift shelters, including 10,000 evacuees huddled in QualComm stadium.

The wildfires, driven by fierce Santa Ana winds at gusts up to 70 mph, have burned more than 1,300 homes and businesses and 373,000 acres, or 583 square miles.

By midday, half of the fires — stretching from Los Angeles to the Mexican border — were deemed out of control, according to data from the governor's office. Only one was listed as at least 50% contained, and that was only a 300-acre fire in San Diego county.
(snipped)
Forecasts, which called for hotter temperatures and strong wind gusts, left little hope for a break from the walls of flame on Wednesday.

More than 500,000 people were issued mandatory evacuation orders in San Diego County alone, according to the county emergency office. But the total number could be much higher, and state officials were still struggling to estimate how many people had fled
(snipped)
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MuffyBee
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« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2007, 10:20:11 PM »

Five dead in California fires and mass evacuation
Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:19pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN23230512
By Dana Ford

SAN DIEGO, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Towering wildfires burned out of control across Southern California for a third day on Tuesday as 500,000 people fled the San Diego area, and firefighters made a desperate stand to save a mountain town ringed by flames.

More than a dozen fires blazed from the horse country north of Los Angeles to the Mexican border 150 miles (240 km) to the south, torching 1,500 houses and other buildings, blotting out the sun with smoke and raining ash on the streets.

Most of the destroyed homes were in the San Diego area, where three major wildfires burned unchecked and half a million people were ordered to leave in what may be the largest U.S. evacuation since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005.

At least five deaths were reported, three of them elderly evacuees from the San Diego area, and more than three dozen others had been injured, including 18 firefighters.

As the firestorms raged into the evening, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President George W. Bush to upgrade California's wildfires to a "major disaster," which would trigger federal help.
(snipped)
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LouiseVargas
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« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2007, 12:06:51 AM »

I was a little girl living in a small town called Sierra Madre (east of Pasadena) in the foothills. One year the hills caught fire and altho we were safe, it was right up the street going north. Big flames at the ridge. I was scared to death. My mother took me to downtown Los Angeles and the street was covered with ash. It was unbelievable. 

I think Arnold is doing a spectacular job. And thanks MuffyBee for doing a great job of posting the latest news.

From my own perspective here in Hollywood ...

I felt the winds some days ago but they did not feel like typical Santa Ana's. They were heavy breezes, not forceful winds. Next morning, I turned on the TV and saw the Malibu fires rage from the hill tops, down the canyons, jump the highway, burn another house and then turn around and go back the other way.

I've been feeling depressed and downbeat lately. I stayed inside for a few days. I went outside and tried to smell and sniff the air but I didn't detect anything. (I'm no dog.) I was watching the sky and looking for smoke, etc. My previous hairdresser told me about the positive and negative aspects of the winds.

Today I got into my car and drove to my AA meeting. It was sunny one minute and not so sunny the next minute. It was hot - 90 something but dry. I felt ok physically but not so good mentally. The Santa Ana's do affect my mind, everyone's. It has to do with electrostatic fields and negatively charged particles and positively charged particles. Santa Ana winds in popular culture:
“ Those hot dry winds that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. ”
—Raymond Chandler, "Red Wind"
 
I have to say this is the first time in my life that the winds got me. I can't think straight. I can't sleep. The real name of the winds are Devil Winds ... Ill Winds.

Anyway, after the meeting I walked to my car. My eyes were tearing up. When I got to the grocery store, I had to put on my glasses (can't see what anything costs without 'em) and my nose clogged up. I was coughing. This was inside the grocery store.

The winds blow in every year. It is a California cycle. If there is rain in winter or springtime, lush foliage grows up and down the canyons. Then the summer kicks in and the hillsides and canyons dry up. Then come the fires. Then comes the autumn which burns over the areas where the rains which create flooding and mudslides. It happens over and over. That is the weather condition here.

The people who build dream houses on a ridge with an ocean view, they must have insurance. Anyone who is in danger of fire, flood, rain, mudslides ... they MUST have insurance. Always watching FOX for the news, I see horrible things. Many people who have insurance do not seem particularly disturbed. They can rebuild.

I just feel horrible about all the people who lost everything. Nature is bigger than we are. And I wish to hell that nature would have been kinder.
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« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2007, 02:06:51 AM »

Louise, Joan Didion also wrote about the malevolent quality of the Santa Ana winds in her Slouching Toward Bethlehem essay called Los Angeles Notebook.
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