It keeps changing. Received this email from my envelope vendor earlier today:

"As you know, the southbound I15 is closed to all traffic just past the Temecula area. We have not been able to make deliveries to the San Diego area both yesterday and today. We are keeping a close eye on the situation and are hopeful for the freeway to open up as early as tomorrow making it safe for our driver to make his deliveries."

I talked with my daughter-in-law last night in El Cajon and they are safe for the time being but as the winds shift, they may have to move also. Nothing going on in LGB except soot and brown smoky skies.

skye1, thanks for the news about Captain Mike & family. I was worried about them.

I'm still in LEX (LexPax is on his way home from LGW tonight and is stuck in MSP with a mechanical right now - feh!). My aunt in Escondido was reverse-911'd about the same time Captain Mike was (4am Monday) and, being unable to get through to my son downtown, made her way to the evacuation center at Escondido High School, and then as soon as it got light, down to the Marriott in Coronado where I'd booked a room for her. I was worried to pieces about her -she's 81 and not in great health - but she rose to the crisis really well.

As far as we can tell, her house is ok, but the area - north of Lake Hodges along Via Rancho Parkway - has been hit, and a number of homes have been lost, some within 1/4 mile of her house. There are still active fires, so we're not able entirely to relax yet.

The air quality is my first concern for her. She's ok in Coronado, although going outside bothers her even there, but obviously can't stay there indefinitely. Son is now on the job checking on her and doing stuff she needs. I'm flying out Thursday to either help her get settled back in her house or help her travel somewhere else.

Glad to hear good news from most of the rest of the area FTers.

I've just returned from the most wonderful week in SAN so am really really pleased to hear the relatively good news from folk.

UC Beau what side of 5 are you?

Glad to hear Captain Mike and family are OK - pass along our prayers

It's now relatively nice in Carmel Valley (what a change!) so if anyone including House of Captain Mike needs a local place, I have an empty bedroom/bath and misc couches.

i'm east of the i-5

currently it's not that bad outside as far as air quality, and the coverage on the local news seems to be more positive than lately. we're hearing that the wind has died down and that let the air tankers in to drop their loads.

Thank goodness for that. Nice of you to offer LLM!

Off to London today, will be interesting to see what the coverage will be in the UK.

I hope lili saved me a few chocolate bars in Paris.

Back home now
 

Hi all, thanks for all the messages. I've been offline since early Monday. Here in NE Poway we were able to get back home last night after getting the evac order Monday morning. Very scary to see the flames so close, to feel its heat and to have difficulty breathing from the smoke with your eyes stinging trying to stave off panic while being in a 4 mile long parking lot of evacuees. That's nothing compared to losing your home though so I feel very lucky. Just got my internet back up and running.

I realized how much I take for granted on most days. (Kinda like all the routine flights I take for granted until I experience the travel day from Hell.) You just never know when your life can radically change in an INSTANT. Several friends lost their home again after going thru this 4 years ago to the day.

My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Still alive.

My dwelling is OK, but here in Irvine, the smoke smell is in the office and the ash from the Santiago fire has covered everything outside. I suppose we are getting it from San Diego too.

Thanks for the post and just wanted to add that we're ok in Orange County. We can actually see the Santiago Canyon fires from our house, and it looks much scarier at night. Helicopters finally showed up today to help contain it to 50%. The smoke makes everything smell like a camp fire and keep reminding me of summer camp. All the air filters are sold out in the region.

Our San Diego office has been closed for 3 days, with many colleagues evaculated and some lost their homes. The Irvine office is open but attendance is voluntary. The whole office smells of smoke.

I was around in '93 for that one and this seems much bigger and worse.

The worst part is that some jerk actually set the Santiago Canyon fire!

My sister, the park ranger, sent me the following:

Want official fire info? Go to this website: http://www.nifc.gov/index.html
Once there click "fire information"
and then click "incident management situation report"

Sharon's note: takes you to this...

http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf

Pretty interesting - lot of details re: SoCal fires (think pages 1-3 have most of the info), but includes the rest of the US as well.

Cheers.

I've been following this thread and the Omni thread with sheer disbelief. We are very lucky that no FTers (that we know of) have been injured. I pray it continues that way.