Southern California Wild-fires

[Cory]

As some of you may know, Southern California is currently being afflicted with massive out of control wildfires. They have currently consumed over 120,000 sq. miles, and over 150 homes have been lost, as well as over a dozen lives. Airports are being closed down, as well as highways. Officials say that until the winds die down, the fires will continue to burn, and there is nothing that can be done.

I didnt really realize how bad these fires were until today when a fellow CD'er, Kristina, told me that homes in her family's community are being evacuated and the fire is within a few miles of their house.

Everyone, please keep all the people who have been affected by these horrible fires in your thoughts and prayers.

Cory

[sanddrag]

It seems like where I live is the only area that hasn't burned, and it hasn't burned in like 28 years, and that makes me a little nervous. There is only one small block that separates my house from the brush-covered land.

On the figures, I know that now 15 lives have been lost, and over 600 homes have been lost as well.

Also, many schools and colleges are being shut down because they are being used as evacuation centers.

No air anywhere in the southland is smoke-free the slightest bit. Quality is bad and visibility is poor.

Every morning I come outside all the vehicles have many particles of ash all over them although I am at least 30 miles from any of the fires.

I woke up at 4 in the morning, in my filtered air conditioned house, unable to breath, literally. It is that bad.

I saw a satellite photo on the news and the smoke has blown half way to Hawaii almost. And the weatherman says the air currents will shift and it will all blow back into the mainland.

[Kristina]

I just wanted to say thank you to all those people who contacted me to see how I was doing and kept the communities of those afflicted by the fire in their prayers.

The reports say that the fire is rapidly approaching my community in Santa Clarita but hopefully if the winds keep south like they were last night, it will keep it away and help the containment effort. I'm at UCLA right now which is an hour from any fire but the air is still horrible. Plans as of the moment are to go home this weekend so hopefully all will be good by then and hopefully they won't have to evacuate.

I don't know if this was the picture that Sanddrag was talking about but it's another eerie picture nonetheless.

edit: I inserted the picture but it turned out being huge and I didn't know how to make it smaller but here's the link: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Nat...003299_lrg.jpg

[sanddrag]

20 dead

Over:
2600 homes destroyed
720,000 acres burned
12,000 firefighters working
2 billion in damages
Even more money in costs of fighting the fire.

Anyway, there is a lot fo cloud cover, a lot of humidity, and some much lower temperatures so things are looking better.

[Kristina]

Things are indeed looking a lot better and fortunately my house is now safe. There were times when the flames were less than 1/4 mile from my house and they were doing evacuations so that was really scary but they said my neighborhood is in the clear and even better, they don't have to worry about fires for the next 10-15 years.

Here are some pictures from my house

Small battle won (to which I thank thank thank the wonderful firefighters) but it's not over everywhere else yet so my prayers are still with the rest of California.

[Ryan Albright]

wow kristina, the fires were really. I am happy that they will not effect you, For the rest of you my prayers are with you stay safe.