10/24/2007

All's well here...

What a stressful few days here in San Diego.

Instead of sending out multiple e-mails to family and friends I decided to just post here.

First off, we are fine. We were "thisclose" to being evacuated though, just a few miles south (as the crow flies). We did pack the cars - just in case. We went thru this exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) four years ago.

We experienced lots and lots of falling ash and debris. The fires here were huge. About one million people were displaced but San Diego is an awesome city and they all pulled together to get thru this. I can't think of another city as well prepared as we are. We've (and I mean the collective "we" the county "we") have been preparing for situations just like this since the Cedar Fires 4 years ago. We get regular "Disaster Training" at work.

Foster is off school this entire week due to the fires. This means I get to play "stay at home mom" tomorrow. If we get all our home chores done, I have an outing planned. The outside air quality is really unhealthy though.

So, for now, things look good for us. But, in reality, the county suffered greatly. The fire that affected us mostly where Laura and I live (the Witch fire) is still only 20% contained. For those of you who slept thru math, that means a considerable amount, 80% of it, is still NOT contained and remains burning. They don't expect full containment of all the fires (there are multiple ones still burning in the county) for another few weeks. Then, all the rebuilding takes place.

I work for the county and therefore I am a "public servant" (that really is what we are called) and can therefore be called out to help out at any shelter or at any office in the future. But, since the courts are closed this week, my jury duty was postponed 'til next week. I plan to return to jury duty on Monday if all is still well.

Thanks to all who took the time to send a quick e-mail to check on us (and those who kept us in their thoughts - you know who you are) - we really appreciated it.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad everything is ok with you all. You were in our prayers. Sorry I did not check in on you, but as you know we were going through the same thing.

You are right, S.D. is an amazing city! Thank God for our firefighters and all the visiting ones here risking their lives for our benefit.

Sonya said...

I'm really glad to hear that you all are okay. I can't begin to imagine what you are going through. I'm glad you have confidence in the system, the training, and those around you. That must make a huge difference. I'm glad you were packed and ready to go, but didn't need to.

Thanks for the update!

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you guys are ok. We are getting ash and smoke up here in Moreno valley too. But i dont knwo which fire its from.

Laura said...

I am so glad that you and Laura and the boys are safe. I can't imagine going through that.