city on fire, 9:30 am update

Still safe, still at home. Situation (for us) is about the same as last night. Right now, everything depends on the wind. If the strong Santa Anas continue, the firefighters will just have a terrible time trying to stop the progress of the flames. The winds are incredibly unpredictable-- they will seem to calm down, then flare back up.

They have still not evacuated my area (and fingers crossed that it won't happen)-- depends on whether the Witch Fire to the northeast of us turns more south. Currently, the fire seems to be headed straight west, which is good news for us, but less so for the city of Encinitas. Even so, if it was just me and Rogue, we would already be gone and up in C'bad with Debby and Dan. But with the Ginny-cat, the poor thing is so neurotic that we don't want to traumatize her any more than necessary, so we'll wait for official word.

They are asking everyone to stay home from work, stay off the highways, stay off cell phones, and conserve power as much as possible. sirrogue's workplace is officially closed; I've had no word from mine, but when I dial in it goes straight to the recorded message, so I'm just staying home. I slept from about midnight to 5 am while Rogue monitored the news, and now he's getting some sleep.

Air-quality-wise, we're actually doing pretty well, apparently much better than blusurfer and Dan (oddly, the reverse of the 2003 fires). There's a faint haze, stronger to the north, but the sky is mostly still blue-ish. If you go outside, you get the fire smell, but we've battened down the hatches and it's still fine in here, if a bit stuffy.

city on fire, 9:30 am update

Still safe, still at home. Situation (for us) is about the same as last night. Right now, everything depends on the wind. If the strong Santa Anas continue, the firefighters will just have a terrible time trying to stop the progress of the flames. The winds are incredibly unpredictable-- they will seem to calm down, then flare back up.

They have still not evacuated my area (and fingers crossed that it won't happen)-- depends on whether the Witch Fire to the northeast of us turns more south. Currently, the fire seems to be headed straight west, which is good news for us, but less so for the city of Encinitas. Even so, if it was just me and Rogue, we would already be gone and up in C'bad with Debby and Dan. But with the Ginny-cat, the poor thing is so neurotic that we don't want to traumatize her any more than necessary, so we'll wait for official word.

They are asking everyone to stay home from work, stay off the highways, stay off cell phones, and conserve power as much as possible. sirrogue's workplace is officially closed; I've had no word from mine, but when I dial in it goes straight to the recorded message, so I'm just staying home. I slept from about midnight to 5 am while Rogue monitored the news, and now he's getting some sleep.

Air-quality-wise, we're actually doing pretty well, apparently much better than blusurfer and Dan (oddly, the reverse of the 2003 fires). There's a faint haze, stronger to the north, but the sky is mostly still blue-ish. If you go outside, you get the fire smell, but we've battened down the hatches and it's still fine in here, if a bit stuffy.

city on fire, 7:30 pm update-- All is well.

While the fires are still burninating the county-side, we have basically been declared safe. They have lifted the evacuations that were closest to us, along with most of the coastal evacuations, so it looks like they'e no longer concerned that the Witch fire will burn much more to the south and west (ie, toward us). Chris and Rachel are still fine (Sony has been letting employees bring their pets to the office! How cool is that?) and Alex and Tree are returning home, since their evac has been lifted as well.

Air quality in our area is great; we no longer even smell any smoke. To celebrate, we opened a window, because it was getting almost unbearably stuffy. We also took a short walk outside to combat stir-craziness. Not sure whether either of us will go to work tomorrow; basically it depends on what they say on the news in the morning, whether they still want everyone to stay home and off the roads or not. (And whether my office is even open; I've had no communication from anyone since I left on Monday morning.)

So that's good news for us. However, there are still 500,000 people evacuated in the county, and the fires are still burning bright in the north and south, so prayers and good thoughts for all of them would surely still be appreciated. I still don't know about the houses of my four evacuated coworkers who were all in the Rancho Bernardo and Poway areas. :(

city on fire, 7:30 pm update-- All is well.

While the fires are still burninating the county-side, we have basically been declared safe. They have lifted the evacuations that were closest to us, along with most of the coastal evacuations, so it looks like they'e no longer concerned that the Witch fire will burn much more to the south and west (ie, toward us). Chris and Rachel are still fine (Sony has been letting employees bring their pets to the office! How cool is that?) and Alex and Tree are returning home, since their evac has been lifted as well.

Air quality in our area is great; we no longer even smell any smoke. To celebrate, we opened a window, because it was getting almost unbearably stuffy. We also took a short walk outside to combat stir-craziness. Not sure whether either of us will go to work tomorrow; basically it depends on what they say on the news in the morning, whether they still want everyone to stay home and off the roads or not. (And whether my office is even open; I've had no communication from anyone since I left on Monday morning.)

So that's good news for us. However, there are still 500,000 people evacuated in the county, and the fires are still burning bright in the north and south, so prayers and good thoughts for all of them would surely still be appreciated. I still don't know about the houses of my four evacuated coworkers who were all in the Rancho Bernardo and Poway areas. :(