Wildfires 10/25/2007

We liked it better when Escondido was in the news for being in the title of that Eric Clapton & J.J.Cale CD a few months ago. Being a plume of smoke, staging area, CNN hot spot, and Presidential photo opp is much less fun. I kept hoping our Governator really did have giant robot friends he could call on, or that there were enough National Guard to um ... guard the nation.

But for 2 days it was essentially a hurricane that was on fire. Nobody could stand in front of the thing and slow it down, and it was too hazardous for choppers to lift off. The few water drops did nothing, since the water never reached the ground. By the time there was a break in the wind, it was 100,000 acres -- more like a few hundred spot fires than one big thing -- but still growing.

Anyway ...

We had an evacuated mom & baby stay with us on Monday, but Tuesday morning the smoke was too much, so we packed up the cats & papers & food stash and got out. By late Tuesday the wind stopped, the smoke columns stood up and we went home ... but there were still fires burning 7 to 20 miles away in every direction.

There were enough mapping tools online that I could keep an eye on the fires and winds, and get a good night's sleep. It calmed down after a few days, but you can tell that everyone around here has a story and a burden, and we try to go through a normal day even though people are conspicuously missing and we're avoiding some areas because they're supposed to be in ruin.

Right now we have a creepy red Halloween moon. I guess kids will be asking for candy in a few days. Never play trick or treat with mother nature.

Nov 1 update: More than a week later we still get a lungful of smoke or ash when we least expect it. And we're expecting another red-flag dry and windy weekend ... (11/1/07)

2024 note: this was the Intro to my newsletter Dark Windows #6, but since that site has been defunct for years, I am folding those into this blog.