[kj] OT : Wildfires force California exodus

[T.B.]

"pssyche23" wrote:

* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7058809.stm *

Any of our Gatherers out near San Diego ? If so, how bad is it out there?

+++++++

I'm in Huntington Beach which is about 90 miles north up the coast from San 
Diego.  No real chance of getting fire in my area but the wind is so strong, 
it's carrying a lot of soot, dust and ash 10 - 30 miles away from the 
various fires burning inland in the hills especially from the nearby Irvine 
area fire. I have a half sister who lives in Ramona about a half hour drive 
inland from San Diego and she had to evacuate on Tuesday and is currently 
"living" in the football stadium in San Diego with thousands of other 
refugees. My wife's boss who lives in nearby Irvine had to evacuate 
yesterday as well.

Up until this morning, here we've had hot winds gusting up to 50mph with 95 
degree heat. My pool looks like shit, we've lost power a couple times in the 
past couple days and it is miserably hot with no air conditioning and the 
air just tears up your eyes and throat.  I've found myself taking almost 
meaningless short drives just to stay cool and breathe semi-clean air as I 
can't work in the home office due to the heat.  My next door neighbor had 
one of those big expensive pro basketball hoop setups in his driveway which 
blew over Monday night and smashed right through his car windshield.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing was not only a certaintly considering the 
extremeley dry conditions we've had the past few years, but it's almost 
become a seasonal fact of life like living on the Gulf or east Coasts of the 
US where they deal with hurricanes every Summer/Fall.

T.B.