This is now the largest evacuation in the U.S. since Katrina: 250,000 513,000.
Source: Google Maps San Diego County Fires
Charities:
Donations to help fire victims can be made at SD Foundation or by calling 619-235-2300
American Red Cross
http://www.sdarc.org/site/pp.asp?c=erKQL4NQE&b=3510321
Volunteer San Diego: Make a donation to Volunteer San Diego’s Disaster Program is made possible by donations of time and money.
Local residents who wish to donate emergency supplies and personal necessities are advised to contact:
St. Vincent De Paul – 619-446-2100
Goodwill – 886-446-6394
Salvation Army – 619-231-6000
Money collected will first go towards supporting the disaster volunteer
recruitment efforts for the wildfires. Additional funds will support
year-round disaster preparedness and volunteer programs. You can donate
online here or mail your donation to:
Volunteer San Diego
4699 Murphy Canyon Road
San Diego, CA 92123
Local Emergency Information:
County Emergency Page:
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dmpr/emer/index.html
Emergency Hotel Lodging Assistance
800-918-4182
www.arestravel.com
Updates via Sign On San Diego’s news blog:
http://fireblog.signonsandiego.com
Additional Resources:
Fire Information – National Fire News
Google Maps San Diego County Fires
you are a gentleman and a scholar Barry….thanks for putting that up!!!
My house is still there…….I am lucky (so far)…
MS
Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone out there. Stay safe, people!
Thoughts and prayers from South Florida as well. As a sometime fellow evacuee, I don’t know what’s less comfortable; the evacuation shelter, or the suspense waiting to see how your house, neighborhood and life will be affected. Hang in there.
Thoughts and prayers from South Florida as well. As a sometime fellow evacuee, I don’t know what’s less comfortable; the evacuation shelter, or the suspense waiting to see how your house, neighborhood and life will be affected. Hang in there.
My parents are in the evacuation area. They’re ok but the none of the phones work and the fire line is creeping closer.
I gathered a bunch of stories from local journalists and bloggers here . Click the new tab for the latest stuff. The Union Tribune website had so much traffic that they switched to the blogger platform for updates last night. It’s too bad that in a time of crisis they couldn’t even keep their web server up and running consistently.
SOSD’s servers got hammered yesterday, so the ‘latest updates’ blog has been moved to:
http://sosdfireblog.blogspot.com/
I’m at my wife’s office…..camped out. We were fortunate to have this to go to. Others not so.
Kirk H-
If I can help with info I will…where are your parents located?
Joel-
That has been the best info, even over the “news”….
Here’s another:
http://and-still-i-persist.com/?cat=50
The media, quite bluntly, SUCK. Apparently we are still waiting for that paperwork for the planes…….
MS
Southern CA wildfires: good Lord they are huge.
I’ve been following the wildfires here in Southern California on TV and online since early Sunday morning. Many friends and colleagues displaced, or about to be. Many fires in many different parts of the state, I can’t recall this many separate blazes …
I got the personal grand tour yesterday; drove from the Mexican border to central California along I-5.
The traffic through San Diego and Orange Counties was incredible (San Diego alone evacuated over 250,000 people, and I-15 was closed, so I-5 was it.
Got to put in a plug:
KNX radio (AM 1070) had fabulous wall-to-wall coverage of both the fires and the road situation. They went 100% commercial free to keep the info moving along.
I’ve lived in SoCal all my life, and I have never seen anything like this. So much of the southland is burning that I have at least two dozen family/friends with residences near almost every fire.
btw Barry, you looked great on CNBC yesterday morning.
p.s., I can attest to the fact that your west coast headquarters is still there Barry; had dinner in La Jolla Sunday night.
Going to be hotter here today……
A few more fires popping up.
this guy deserves a medal:
http://and-still-i-persist.com/?cat=50
Great Maps and specific information.
Most likely if you were evacuated yesterday you will remain so. I am planning to be in my wife’s office for at least another night.
Can someone do a rain dance???
MS
Time to buy HOMEBUILDERS if all the homes burn down!!
Thoughts and prayers for sure. Nice work posting it, Barry. I used to live in Ramona, by Archie Moore and hwy. 67 which fortunately seems untouched now. Folks should definitely help out if they can. A lot of people will have literally lost everything but their lives. Shame.
Rumors going around that President Bush has ordered FEMA to consider helping California sometime after the Christmas holidays.
Hang on, guys!
tom-
I’m sure the brokers and Cramer were saddened to hear that it was not the inland empire on fire.
MS
MS,
I think Cramer was suggesting that the Inland Empire be bulldozed not burned.
Still not sure if Cramer was referring to the area east of L.A. or David Lynch’s film…
I’m sure FEMA is…. errrr, never mind.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you. Richard Maize and Rochelle Maize
Thanks MS. Parents are OK but this just in:
“An estimated 513,000 San Diego County residents are under mandatory evacuation orders as of 11 a.m. today, according to county officials.”
my guess is that it is going to go much higher. Fairbanks Ranch, Rancho Sante Fe, Del Mar are all under evac. orders.
The Fire is getting bigger around Lake Hodges and has nothing to stop it should it jump the Del Dios Highway.
It’s not over by a long shot……..
but FEMA will “evaluate” it later tonight……
“yep….that’s a fire”
It’s not funny any longer as this is just yet another dropped ball…from the plane fiasco-retardent drops (still not fixed as of this writing). It was said we would have them yesterday then last night and now not until later this afternoon.
An utter cluster-fuck from an organizational perspective on that issue but there are several other success stories. That one issue is a LARGE reason why the fires are still getting bigger. Let’s hope someone fixes that..
MS
I also live in San Diego, and I don’t think there is much the authorities could do to stop these fires. The Witch fire started on Sunday after 1 PM and had already burned over 50,000 acres by Monday at 1 PM. The winds are consistently gusting up to 60 MPH and the city has had a drought for the last year. In addition, the firefighters were busy evacuating folks rather than fighting the fires.
Currently there is one firefighter for every 300 acres burning in San Diego County. The city doesn’t have the resources to stop these fires and crews from outside the state haven’t arrived fast enough to help them.
I’m speaking to the airplanes that have been talked about for two days……and have yet to arrive and contribute
The fire fighters (god bless them) are and continue to be overwhelmed. I’m thinking that some aerial support could make some sort of difference instead of being talked about for the last 24 hours…but I guess I’m funny that way….
That was my point….
MS
MS,
I heard a radio report that the winds were too strong for aircraft to fly safely to make fire-retardent drops. (I have no clue whether this is true or not, just telling you what I heard.)
MS,
What John said.
All throughout Sunday evening and Monday morning, the emergency responders were lamenting the fact that the winds were far too strong to put fixed-wing aircraft up to fight the fires. Speaking as a pilot, there is no way in hell you could get me to fly in the winds that I experienced Sunday evening in San Diego. Heck, I was nearly blown off the road driving a sedan along I-5, and there were quite a few overturned big rigs too.
I understand your frustration, but the governmental response to these fires is certainly no “cluster-fuck.”
Quite to the contrary, the emergency response has been outstanding. The evacuations have been orderly, peaceful and extremely civil. The local TV stations covered the event extensively, and were constantly passing along communications from law enforcement, fire personnel, and political figures. Notices of evacuations, school and governmental closures, and available evacuation centers (including those for people with pets and livestock) were reported early and updated regularly.
In fact, at Qualcom stadium, there were as many volunteers as evacuees!
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071023/D8SETS4G0.html
Though there was a ton of traffic going north yesterday along I-5 (the only remaining major route out of the county), it was still moving amazingly well for an evacuation involving 250,000 people along a single highway.
In fact, this has been the most orderly disaster I can recall in California history.
I understand your frustration with the fires, and your need to criticize somebody, but you’re way off target in blaming the emergency crews.
The authorities got this one right.
DID YOU EVEN READ WHAT I POSTED????
I am talking about the planes and the problems surrounding the usage of them. This happened four years ago and the response was the same. The planes were waiting for clearance that NEVER came.
That is ALL I am speaking to.
Please FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE READING BEFORE YOU RESPOND.
I am completely satisfied with the emergency response to the fire.
THE ONLY ISSUE I HAVE IS THE PLANES THAT COULD HAVE BEEN USED…..STILL HAVE NOT BEEN USED.
TRY A READING COMPREHENSION COURSE BEFORE YOU TAKE ME TO TASK OVER SOMETHING YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND
MS
Four years ago the same excuses regarding why the military could not be used by CAL-FIRE are being used again……..something along the lines of not being experienced enough…which is laughable at best.
My criticism is that CAL-FIRE, for some reason, refused to call in the planes when the were available and ABLE TO FLY.
This is a pissing contest between State and Gov’t resources that is wholly not needed and completely bullshit.
If you have a resource that can be used….use it and deal with the paperwork later. They, CAL-FIRE, seem unable to do this as they were approximately four years ago.
MS
How about those Repos today ?
The issue with CAL-FIRE (formerly CDF) is all about the upper management at cal fire trying not to upset the “cozy” relationships that they have with their set of contractors.
Show me a military pilot who could’nt or would’nt fly in these conditions. They routinely fly in MUCH worse conditions all over the world.
The next issue will be that the military will be ready to fly-as they have been for over 36 hours- but CAL-FIRE will insist that an observer fly with them but will suddenly have none available.
They did the EXACT same thing four years ago and we were assured that it would not happen again.
It has…..
THAT IS AND CONTINUES TO BE MY ONLY ISSUE WITH THE ENTIRE EFFORT.
MS
We were evacuated yesterday afternoon and back home tonight, thank goodness. Spent the night at Sony Playstation in Sorrento Valley where hubby works and were well cared for and fed, along with the three golden retrievers, two cats, and our sons. We had about 30 people camping out there.
Big thanks to the Poway firefighters who held the line on the fire and kept our area safe. We are grateful tonight!
Espola road was the major defense line, it’s sad that the homes east of espola were largely burned as the effort to contain it at that location was about the last major defense. Had it hopped Espola we would be looking at thousands of homes instead of hundreds.
I echo Donna’s thoughts and have made arrangements to properly compensate the firefighters with copious amounts of libations….THEY CERTAINLY EARNED IT even if you had a loss or not…if you are safe it’s largely due to those efforts.
MS
It also speaks volumes that quite a few of the CAL-FIRE personnel (the actual workers) still use the moniker of CDF and continue to identify it as CDF and not the organization that is hindering the C-130 efforts.
MS
Thank you for this info Barry – I passed the URL to this post onto members of a Finance group I belong to . Hopefully, we will see mainstream America rise to the occasion and help in any way we can . Good work Barry !!
Bill
displaced peoples total over a million at present. I’m heading up to my house to see if it is reasonably safe to return. We are getting spotty info.
Interstate 5 at Camp Pendleton is closed in both directions as the fires have almost reached the coast.
I-15 remains the only large artery out of SD at present. Do not know how long that will last as fires in fallbrook (extreme north SD county) are threatening it.
Will post more info. when I can
MS