Wife called and said there is a fire now at Magic Mtn. Parkway and The Old Road. Yikes, that's about a mile from me. I'm heading home.

Fingers crossed for you guys.

I lived in Irvine for the big Laguna fire down there - wife had the car packed with pictures and ready to go as I was flying home - horrifying.

Up to 2000 homes in so Cal threatened, hundreds of homes already burned, 35,000 evacuated, There are 20 civilian injuries, casualties are probable.

250k estimated evacuated here in SD.

Stay safe out there!

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. We're back in our home safe and sound. For now the fires have moved South of our location. Kurt - sounds like it's just entering your territory so I hope you all get through this w/o harm. No property damage for us to speak of other than a few broken tree limbs and lots of debris. Santa Ana winds are crazy, they can blow 50 mph on one street and it will be calm on the next street over. Our home is on a hill and is getting the lions share of wind. Incredible stuff. Humidity levels are down to 4% so watering stuff (roofs/fences/vegitation) is nearly useless as it dries so fast.

Rancho Bernardo neighborhood not faring too well

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1193091451.jpg

The problem now is there just aren't any resources. Everyone's tapped out. This is the worst fire disaster I think I've ever seen. :(

Only going to get worse every year as more and more development occurs in substandard/vulnerable areas and there continues to be more desertification of this area.

No kidding. I'm in Kearney Mesa and you can see the flag on the Jack in the Box headquarters building next door is calm. Meanwhile it's blowing like snot a few miles away.
BTW, the Jack in The Box HQ lot would normally be packed with employee vehicles but it's deserted today.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...i/P1010026.jpg

Did Jack get out okay?

The Police arrive with news to pack and get out.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1193092345.jpg

Daughter is not happy but son is good to go with baseball gloves...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1193092356.jpg

The winds blew the fire away so we ended up staying for the night. This morning however the winds shifted again and the fire was moving toward us again - time to go (read that as hit Starbucks then camp at a friends house to watch the news)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1193092503.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1193092513.jpg

Now here at the home at 3:30 pm. With the smoke it feels like 6:00 pm. The wind is still kicking up
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1193092530.jpg

First let me say I hope everyone stays safe. Next, I saw a guy on the news that says he moved there in '93 just in time to get burned down. Now he's getting burned down again. I had heated discussions with some Californians who raged against the rebuilding of New Orleans, which has only been destroyed once in 300 years.

How heartless would it sound to demand no federal money, 'cause these people should have known better?

Good God, I hope 3,000 people don't die in these fires. Your logic is a bit skewed.

Edit: 1,900 people.

Well, it'd make for a hell of a debate. I say this much - one of our state politicos, Mike Antonivich (sp?), stated that because of the fires, Cali is shutting down as a state. Our state has the 5th largest economy in the world.

Think that through as you debate New Orleans vs. Southern California as toward who deserves federal assistance for whatever span of time - 300 yrs vs. every three years or so.

Most people in SoCal have fire insurance that they themselves paid for. That's the difference. We also aren't sitting with our thumbs up our asses screaming for the Federal government to fix our problem. That's another difference. I haven't heard of FEMA coming in to fix our problem, that's another difference. :cool:

There's a big difference between the people living in mansions in the SoCal hills and people living in $30,000 shacks in the slums of the Lower 9th of New Orleans. If someone can afford to live in the places of CA affected by this, they sure as hell can afford disaster insurance. Doubtful many of those hard-workin', high-dollar folks from the Lower 9th could. . .

As much as I despise insurance companies, I don't think I'd be stupid enough to go without earthquake, fire and mudslide insurance in those parts of CA. Same with flood insurance in LA.

Prolly a bad idea to bring that up but if you must, here's some real numbers for you:
California gets back 71 cents from every dollar we pay to the feds. We give $1.00, we get back .71 The other 29 cents goes to other states (like louisiana)
Louisiana on the other hand, takes in almost twice what they pay. Still wanna play this sick game? I didn't think so.
How about we hold off the rest of this conversation until well after everyone is safe and out of danger?

Are any of you San Diego area guys near Del Mar?

My wife's brother and family about a mile S. of the racetrack and we have not been able to get in touch...we saw earlier that Solana Beach was on standby for evac and that is only a few miles N. of them

thanks for any info

Let's stay focused. Anyone need any assistance?